Google wants ubiquitous internet out of unused airwaves

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Google has launched another round in the PR battle over American white space, with a new website asking visitors to sign a petition to convince the FCC to allow unlicensed use of the spaces between TV channels.
This isn't the first website Google has set up to fight its corner. The Wireless Innovation Alliance was set up to present evidence that making use of the empty spectrum would not interfere with TV broadcasting, but this one looks much more like a grassroots protest than a slick media machine.

The ‘white spaces’ between unused broadcast airwaves could be valuable in providing affordable, high-speed wireless internet connectivity, Google has suggested.
Google said it is anticipating the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will make a ruling in the coming months about using these white spaces after conducting a number of field tests.
“If you care about the future of the internet, now is the time to take action,” warned Minnie Ingersoll of Google’s alternative access team on the official Google blog yesterday.
Google has launched a new Free the Airwaves campaign to drive home this message in a move that could see cheaper bandwidth made available in the US, but which could also have implications for countries around the world with an abundance of unused broadcast spectrum.
In particular, Google believes using this kind of spectrum will have an important impact in rural communities not served with the latest broadband or telecoms services.
Describing the effort as a “call to action for everyday users”, Google is calling on users to sign a petition to the FCC and, if they want, film a video response explaining what increased internet access could mean to them.
“When it comes to opening these airwaves, we believe the public interest is clear,” Ingersoll said. “But we also want to be transparent about our involvement: Google has a clear business interest in expanding access to the web.
“There’s no doubt that if these airwaves are opened up to unlicensed use, more people will be using the internet. That’s certainly good for Google (not to mention many of our industry peers) but we also think that it’s good for consumers,” Ingersoll said.

Google Wireless Plan Angers Audio-Equipment Makers

Cross one off the list of Google's friends.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Google is appealing to its users for help lobbying the FCC for approval to use the spaces between television channels as a way to provide wide-reaching wireless Internet service. While the plan could lead to Net access for people who didn't have it before, it also could mean interference with signals.
Wireless audio-equipment manufacturers and producers of live events are up in arms against Google's efforts to open up a little-used patch of radio spectrum.
What's being contested is the so-called "white space" spectrum, the vacant bands between ultra-high frequency television channels. As U.S. broadcasters transition from analog to digital transmission in time to meet the February 2009 deadline imposed by the Federal Communications Commission, the unused spectrum has become a battleground, pitting not just audio professionals but organizations such as the National Football League, movie studios and Broadway producers against Google.
Google turned up the heat Monday by launching a "Free the Airwaves" campaign with a website and a petition lobbying the FCC to open up the spectrum.
"Remember that fuzzy static between channels on the old TVs?" says the site. "Today more than three-quarters of those radio airwaves, or 'white space' spectrum, are completely unused. This vast public resource could offer a revolution in wireless services of all kinds, including universal wireless Internet."
But for audio-equipment manufacturers and live sound producers, the fuzzy static is their meal ticket.
"We are worried the FCC will buckle and allow white space to be used by personal portable devices seeking wireless services," says Karl Winkler, director of business development for Lectrosonics, a manufacturer of wireless professional audio systems.
The result, say audio industry professionals, could be disastrous. Wireless audio equipment could face significant interference from personal devices searching for wireless connectivity on the spectrum already being used by high-end audio equipment.
"The radio frequency environment is going to become more crowded and more difficult to use," says Mike Torlone, director of marketing services at AKG Acoustics, a division of audio-equipment manufacturer Harman International.
That could potentially lead to loss of signal and interruptions in transmissions, and could force audio producers and production managers to change the way they do business, say experts.
"In that case the number of wireless microphones used will be reduced significantly and it cost big productions millions of dollars to redesign what they do," says Winkler.
The kinds of performances affected aren't limited to the next Justin Timberlake concert or a video shoot for American Idol. While Broadway productions and live shows at Las Vegas are expected to bear the brunt of the decision to open up white space, even local bands, fast-food restaurants, political rallies and church pastors delivering their Sunday sermons could find themselves facing more than a few glitches.
The efforts to unlock the white space has been one of the biggest issues facing the audio-equipment industry and the professionals involved in it, says Bill Evans, editor of trade publication Front of House.
"Everybody is not only angry and upset, they are very, very worried," he says. "We are talking about the livelihood of people here."
The move from analog to digital TV transmission allowed the Federal Communications Commission to reclaim a part of the spectrum, between 698 MHz to 806 MHz. Recently the FCC successfully auctioned the 700 MHz spectrum, a large chunk of which was won by Verizon Wireless.
While a portion of the remaining spectrum has been reserved for future public-safety networks, white space between TV channels remains, and that has caught the attention of companies such as Google, Motorola, Microsoft and Philips.
The tech giants are lobbying to use the white space to deploy new wireless technologies to deliver broadband internet services to portable devices.
That's where the hitch lies, says Chris Lyons, manager of technical and educational communications at Shure, a professional audio-equipment manufacturer.
Lyons says it's not the broadband access per se that will cause problems, but the way devices would have to search through the spectrum for free bands.
Audio professionals claim that prototypes of devices capable of spectrum-sensing have failed some key tests. The FCC is expected to release a final report about the results next month.
For its part, Google says it doesn't want devices that could interfere with wireless audio equipment in the market either.
"From the beginning we have said that no white space device should come to market unless the FCC signs off on it," says Dan Martin, a Google spokesman.
Industry professionals hope there will be a technological fix for the problem soon, one that could allow wireless audio equipment to co-exist with devices using wireless broadband on the same spectrum.
But till then, the FCC needs to stay strong, says FOH magazine's Evans. "We are not ready yet," he says. "We need more time."
Google says it has suggested the use of a geolocation database that would ensure no white space device could transmit without first getting the all-clear from the database. That would allow manufacturers to prevent the use of white space bands in the vicinity of a Vegas show, for instance.
Meanwhile, companies are preparing for the worst. For instance, Lectrosonics is now offering a wider range of frequencies for its wireless microphones.
Until last year, the company's wireless microphones spanned a range of 537 MHz to 768 MHz. Now that a part of that band has been auctioned off, the company has reworked its devices to operate in the 470 MHz to 691 MHz spectrum. It has also added another band, the 944 MHz to 952 MHz spectrum, to the mix.
Those changes haven’t been easy. Over the course of a year, Lectrosonics reallocated engineering resources and spent "several thousand dollars" getting each new product certified by the FCC.
"We have a limited amount of engineering resources and there are hard costs such as FCC licenses that we have had to get," says Winkler.
Smaller wireless audio-equipment manufacturers may not have a choice, says Winkler. "We think a number of manufacturers will be shaken out. Lower quality, lower power systems will have a difficult time."
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Google wants ubiquitous internet out of unused airwaves

Smoke Changes Cloud Cover, Climate : Nasa

During the dry season, smoke covers wide swaths of the Amazon. Isolated towers of cumulus clouds poke through the dense layer of smoke in this photograph taken from an airplane in 2005.

Using a novel theoretical approach, researchers from NASA and other institutions have identified the common thread that determines how aerosols from human activity, like the particles from burning of vegetation and forests, influence cloud cover and ultimately affect climate. The study improves researchers’ ability to predict whether aerosols will increase or decrease cloud cover.“We connected the dots to draw a critical conclusion, and found evidence over the Amazon that traces the direct path of the effect of human activity on climate change by way of human-caused aerosols,” said study co-author Lorraine Remer, a physical scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “During the dry season in the Amazon, the only aerosols of any magnitude are from smoke emerging from human-initiated fires.” It is well documented from previous studies that aerosols play an essential role in how clouds develop. With this knowledge, a team comprised of Remer, Ilan Koren of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel and J. Vanderlei Martins of the University of Maryland Baltimore County set out to explore one of the least understood but most significant aspects of climate change caused by human activity: the connection between a change in the amount of human-caused aerosols and change in the structure of clouds.
“Scientists have observed instances where increases or decreases in the amount of these tiny particles have increased and decreased cloud cover in different places and times,” said Remer. “We saw an example of this ourselves: increased aerosols over the Amazon produced less cloud cover. Over the Atlantic Ocean, however, increased aerosols actually produced more cloud cover. We wanted to know what the link was between these different outcomes from varying amounts and types of aerosols. This paper gives us a clear picture of what is occurring.”The team developed an analytical model, or line of thinking that combined knowledge of cloud development, satellite observations and mathematical calculations of aerosol concentration and cloud properties in an effort to explain how the two opposing effects of aerosols on clouds can influence cloud coverage and life cycle.“This result helps us understand aerosols’ effect on a cloud’s mass and lifetime – how long it will provide cloud cover, how deep the clouds will be, and when and where it will rain,” said Remer. “This improved understanding leads to prediction and prediction can help us plan and perhaps prevent some of the potential consequences of putting aerosols from human activity into the atmosphere.”
. To test their model, Remer’s team used aerosol and cloud observations from NASA’s Terra satellite of the Amazon during the 2005 dry season The season offers stable weather conditions and an abundance of human-caused aerosols from fires, set to clear new land and burn through old pastures to prepare the land for the next crop season.Aerosols are the tiny particles that make up smoke, dust, and ocean spray. Traveling on wind currents, aerosols move from their source and into the atmosphere, where they become individually encased by water and turn into the droplets that combine to create clouds.Cloud microphysics makes clear that the larger the number of aerosol particles suspended in air the less water in the atmosphere is available for condensation on each individual particle. Under these conditions, a cloud will have a much larger number of small droplets. The smaller the droplets, the longer it will take for a cloud to rain. Aerosol-rich clouds like this spread out by winds, produce less rainfall, and last longer, creating more cloud cover.However, aerosols also influence clouds through their ability to absorb heat from the sun. The trapped heat causes the atmospheric layer to warm up, and changes the environment in which the cloud develops. The overall result is to make the environment less hospitable for cloud growth. Even the smallest resulting changes in cloud cover can significantly warm or cool the atmosphere and change when and where fresh water will be available in the region.“As we’d expected in applying our model, increased smoke from the fires created clouds rife with a more pronounced radiative effect – rich with human-caused aerosols that absorbed sunlight, warmed the local atmosphere, and blocked evaporation. This led to reduced cloud cover over the Amazon,” said co-author Martins. “And it’s encouraging to know the science behind our model should stand no matter the region.”

Google lines up the telecom : Mobile me

WoW :U.S. Approves the First Google Phone
Google’s initiatives these days don’t come in the grandiose package of its 700Mhz spectrum bids earlier this year. Rather its efforts are rolling out in bits and pieces from a variety of products groups. But the ultimate prize hasn’t changed: “We can make more in mobile than desktop [advertisting] eventually,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt told TV’s Mad Money Host Jim Cramer last week.
And don’t be distracted. Moving its money-minting ad engine from the desktop to new venues – most notably, the cell phone -- is what is driving the bulk of Google’s telecom efforts, a handful of which took major steps forward in the past few days.
On Monday, Google released the first formal beta of its Android mobile operating system on Monday, version 0.9 SDK r1. The release features a major upgrade to the Android user interface, including an icon-pretty, widget-driven home screen; a new tab-based interface to access specific applications; and new camera and media player apps.
Analysts aren't sold that Android can be the game-changer it purports to be.
"Theoretically, where Google could be most disruptive is by using mobile ad revenue to subsidize the phone or subsidize service and fundamentally altering the industry’s economics," said Avi Greengart, analyst with Current Analysis. "Google has a significant consumer brand, but that, by itself, is not enough to sell phones – an Android phone will still have to compete in the real world against other devices. Consumers don’t buy operating systems, they buy devices."
The Android release seems well timed to make an appearance in what appears to be the first FCC-approved Android-based device, the so-called HTC dream, which T-Mobile confirmed it will debut this fall. The phone features a touch-screen like Apple’s iPhone but slide-out keyboards as well. The final, 1.0 version of the Android SDK is expected as early as next month. Reports also emerged last week that T-Mobile was preparing an “open application” store that would compete with Apple’s iPhone App Store. Such a store would at least be partially driven by Android-based applications.

Also this week, Google launched a test version of localized ads on its YouTube video mobile site in the U.S. and Japan. The test “will [users] a new way to interact with content on the go, while allowing us to learn how video viewers engage with mobile advertising,” Christine Tsai, Google’s product marketing manager for YouTube said in a blog post announcing the test.
Finally, Google Monday launched a new web site called Free the Airwaves, to publicly encourage the Federal Communications Commission to deregulate “white space,” or portions of available spectrum between existing broadcast TV channels. Tests of white spaces data transmission have been decidedly mixed.Google filed remarks with the FCC last March to support the development of white space data.
In announcing its new site, Google stated the obvious: While its “do no evil” corporate mantra at times finds it supporting new initiatives for the sake of customers, in the end, Google’s bottom line drives its interest in telecom and wireless. Said Google’s Minnie Ingersoll, product manager, Alternative Access Team: “When it comes to opening these airwaves, we believe the public interest is clear. But we also want to be transparent about our involvement: Google has a clear business interest in expanding access to the web.”

Mobile me

It seems Apple is quite concerned with the stress MobileMe's problems have caused users since its release and has decided to extend the free account period by another 60 days. These two months add up to the 30 day extension users received last month.
On Monday, MobileMe subscribers received an e-mail from the company, in which they were informed about Apple’s plans. In the same message, the company said although MobileMe has received many improvements, a lot more work is still required in order to eventually have a "great service".
The MobileMe Team acknowledged the fact that MobileMe's July launch hasn’t been as successful as everyone had hoped and said the subscribers’ patience until everything is taken care of is greatly appreciated.
Immediatly after MobileMe’s launch, the company received numerous complaints from users who could not login ot get their gadgets to sync properly. That very week, the company sent an e-mail to all its subscribers announcing them that the team was well aware of the problems and that everything was being sorted out. Subscribers were also informed about the 30 day free extension.
MobileMe grants users access to several applications such as addressbook, calendar, web-based email, photo gallery and storage capabilities. The service is expected to expand Apple’s audience as it also brings new features (Push syncing, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 support) which should be found quite useful by many.
Those who had previously subscribed to .Mac had their accounts automatically upgraded to MobileMe; the new subscriber fee is of $99 for a twelve-month plan.