The closing of the Internet*

Imagine you are trying to start a news site in your community. Your competitor, part of a national chain, offers instant-on, full-screen HD video and a host of other data-intensive features that load the moment you hit “click.” But though you have a broadband connection, even simple videos that you’ve posted load slowly and play in fits and starts.
So you call your Internet provider — most likely Verizon and Comcast — and ask what’s going on. A sales person explains to you that if you want your readers to enjoy the same rich multimedia content as you competitor, then all you have to do is pay another $1,000 a month.
You can’t. You struggle on. And, within six months, you shut down.

That is a likely scenario if we move away from net neutrality — a vitally important principle that all Internet traffic should be treated the same. The FCC has been trying to mandate net neutrality, only to be shot down in the federal courts. And today the New York Times reports that Google and Verizon have been involved in negotiations to come up with a multi-tiered Internet with different levels of service and different levels of pricing. [Update: Or perhaps not. See below.]
“It’s like the end of ‘Animal Farm’ where pigs and humans sit down at the dinner table,” tweeted new-media strategist Steve Yelvington. In fact, Google at one time had been a leader in pushing for net neturality.
Please understand what net neutrality is not. There is nothing wrong with charging consumers more for better Internet service. Broadband costs more than dial-up, and fast broadband costs more than slow broadband. That’s life.

Apple Tried To Buy Palm Before HP Won The Bidding War -- And RIM Completely Blew The Deal

The race to buy Palm earlier this year was fast and hot, with the company's bankers contacting 16 companies about the deal, including five serious potential suitors.
HP won the bake-off, acquiring Palm for $1.2 billion in late April.
But other companies involved in the talks included Silicon Valley's increasingly competitive rivals, Apple and Google, as well as BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, we have learned from a source familiar with the negotiations.
According to our discussions with this person:

• Apple was mostly interested in Palm's huge library of intellectual property and patents (450+ patents on file, another 400+ applications on file). And unlike some other bidders, Apple even seemed committed to funding Palm's operations, perhaps to challenge RIM's dominance in the keyboarded segment of the smartphone industry, our source says. (There's a bunch of problems with this idea, such as the idea of Apple supporting two rival app platforms, but that's what this person says.) Ultimately, Apple didn't bid high enough, while HP offered an amount the board couldn't say no to. (Recall that Steve Jobs tried to buy Palm years ago in its first life, too, when it was owned by 3Com.)

• RIM basically had the deal in its hands and "had to work incredibly hard to blow it," our source recalls. RIM initially came in higher than HP, but HP upped its bid, our source says.

• Google, likely interested in Palm's intellectual property, supposedly only wanted it because Google thought Apple might want it. But Google supposedly didn't know Apple was actually bidding for Palm, so it didn't proceed.

• Nokia, bizarrely, wasn't anywhere near the deal. That may prove to be a stupid move, which we'll expand on later.

Don’t Hack or Mod the Droid X, Unless You Want a Useless Paperweight

Droid X owners, beware: If you mod or tinker too much with your shiny new phone it could suddenly turn into a useless brick, according to reports surfacing from people who have attempted to hack, root, mod or tinker with the massive smartphone.
In the first place, the device is difficult to hack due to an encrypted bootloader. If you then change or compromise the bootloader, kernels or ROM of the device, it will become completely unusable. The only solution is to take it in to a Verizon store, where you will likely be charged for a fix since you voided the warranty.
The security features focus around a technology called “eFuse,” which is designed to verify you are using the versions of your bootloader, kernels and ROM. If this check fails, the bootloader is permanently corrupted, making your Droid X useless.
You can find a more detailed explanation of how this technology works on the My Droid World forums, but it boils down to this: Motorola doesn’t want you hacking your phone, even though you purchased the device and it’s legally yours.
If you buy a new Droid X phone and intend to hack it, tread lightly. Otherwise, your expensive smartphone might become about as useful as a paperweight.

Send Destinations via Google Maps to Ford and GM Vehicles

Google’s “Send-To-Car” feature lets users send destinations from Google Maps directly to their vehicles. This feature previously worked with BMW and Audi vehicles, and now Google has extended its partner base for the program to Ford and GM.
Owners of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles enabled with Ford’s SYNC system, as well as Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC (), Hummer, Pontiac, Saab or Saturn vehicles via GM’s OnStar navigation, can now take advantage of the “Send-to-Car” function.
To try it out, type in a destination into Google Maps () search, click “Send,” choose “Car” and then type in your car’s details. You can then access the destination through your car’s navigation system. It may sound like extra work to seasoned in-car navigators, but once you get used to it, it probably beats fiddling with the navigation system in the car.
Check out a video preview of the feature coupled with GM’s OnStar below.

Google Fiber Is One Step Closer to Reality

Google has launched a new website to centralize its efforts to build an ultra high-speed fiber optic Internet network, better known as Google Fiber.
Earlier this year, Google () announced its plan to build a high-speed network, delivering connection speeds 100 times faster than typical U.S. connections. The announcement produced a frenzy of interest: 600+ communities applied to become ground zero for Google’s experimental high-speed network. Topeka, Kansas even changed its name to Google, Kansas in order to win the contract.
The search giant is once again moving forward with its fiber network plans. It announced the launch of Google Fiber for Communities, a simple and straightforward homepage for the project, complete with videos, an FAQ, suggestions for how to take action, and a full list of the communities that have requested more information on Google Fiber.
It’s another step towards the eventual announcement of the first community to gain Google’s high-speed network, expected later this year.

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Google Doesn’t Want to Be an ISP

Online Photo Storage Competition Heats Up

 

Google

The competition for free online photo storage got a little hotter Tuesday.
Google said it has started integrating Picnik, an online photo editing tool that the company purchased in early March, into the Google photo storage Web site, Picasa.
Picasa users will now see a small edit button in the top left corner of their images. When clicked, a version of the photo will pop up into a new window that shows a number of simple and advanced photo editing options.
The simple options allow people to change the shape of an image by rotating, cropping and resizing it. The site also offers tools to change a photos exposure and color.
Another layer of editing features can be found through a tab called “Create,” which offers a number of advanced edit options similar to those found in desktop photo editing applications, including Adobe Photoshop.

Google to Launch Google Games with “FarmVille”-Maker Zynga [RUMOR]

Google is reportedly partnering with FarmVille and Mafia Wars game-maker Zynga to launch a hub where you’ll be able to play social online games.

The source of the rumor is the tech blog TechCrunch, which claims to have confirmed the story with multiple sources. The search giant has allegedly invested between 100 and 200 million dollars in the massive game company, which already sits with Google () in the small club of web companies that are valued at much more than $1 billion.
Details on the new portal (which TechCrunch calls “Google Games”) are few and far between. The best hints you’ll find are in a job posting for position at the top of Google’s Games division. The “Project Management Leader, Games” would develop a “games commerce product strategy” through both partnerships and in-house projects of one kind or another. The job posting also specifies that both web-based and mobile games are part of the plan.
We’ve contacted both Google and Zynga seeking more details about the deal and what to expect from both companies in the future.

YouTube’s ‘Leanback’ Wants to Friend Your Television Remote

• By Eliot Van Buskirk

YouTube Leanback already knows I love the YouTube video of Stereolab playing 'French Disko' on live TV, so it serves it up -- no searching or keyboard required (link below).

Google didn’t mention set-top boxes in Wednesday night’s announcement of YouTube Leanback, a beta version of the site designed to be viewed passively — as in couch potato — rather than actively — as in computer nerd. But clearly, YouTube has your TV set in mind with this high-definition version of the service, designed for use with any remote control.
The YouTube Leanback beta works with a regular QWERTY computer keyboard, but other than the search function, the interface uses only five buttons: the arrow keys and the enter key. You may not even find yourself wanting to search the service at all, because it links up with your YouTube subscriptions and videos your friends have recently shared on Facebook, in addition to a wide selection of categories, in which case those five buttons are all you need to use it.
The television remote, that quintessential component of the lean-back viewing experience, includes the same five buttons, of course. This YouTube Leanback Beta works with your computer now, but when it emerges from beta it could provide the backbone of a Google TV version for couch potatoes who want to keep their cable or satellite provider and use the same remote. YouTube and Dish Networks were reportedly testing an Android-based satellite television set-top box earlier this year.

Google TV Explained In 141 Seconds

Google published a video explaining its forthcoming Google TV product earlier today.
The video doesn't tell us much we didn't know already: Google TV, available both from a set-top box and built-in to select televisions from Sony, will provide new ways to search for and record existing television content, as well as allowing people to display online content on their televisions.
The product looks fine, as far as we can tell, but the video itself is pretty underwhelming. It is narrated in a PSA-like monotone, and is thin on detail. As ever with Google, it's difficult to tell whether the company thinks this is an important new business or just another side project.
At least some people think Google is on to something big here. If so, it needs to do a lot more to sell the idea:

Google Revamps Google News

Today Google is releasing a redesigned version of their Google News site to English-language users in the U.S. The update focuses on presenting news stories happening around the world and locally in a way that is more customizable and user-centric.
The purpose of the new look is all about surfacing news items tailored to individual users. The “News () for you” section is the biggest addition in this area and displays stories in a section or list view based on users’ specified interests in topics like Business, Sports () or their own preferred subject matters.
Also, Google News () now includes a feature that enables users to select which news sources they would like to see more or less often. Settings can be tweaked in the News Settings section with Google () reconfiguring the rankings for sources on stories based on users’ personal tastes.
The big news stories of the day, however, are now displayed underneath the aptly named Top Stories section in the left-hand column. Here Google News will provide links to the coverage happening around the major news items for the day.