software news

Google versus the telecoms

Google said on Friday it would apply to bid in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's auction of 700 megahertz band wireless spectrum.

If it wins, it could build a wireless network for that spectrum on its own, or partner with others to build and operate such a network. Either way, Google could put its brand on millions of mobile devices that use the network. It would also be able to control the Internet experience on the devices and how much people would pay--or not pay--for the services.

In essence, Google could control the direction of the next-generation wireless network.

"Imagine an iPhone where the whole thing is a screen and the bottom eighth is banner ads running across," said Iain Gillott, a wireless analyst at IGR. "Spectrum is king; you own everything."

The 700MHz spectrum, which has been used to provide analog TV service, travels far and penetrates walls. As a result, it's considered the last remaining chunk of attractive wireless airwaves and is viewed as an opportunity to expand the Internet to a new frontier. The spectrum auction is scheduled to begin on January 24, and the deadline to apply to participate is Monday.

Google and other Internet companies have been hampered in their ability to expand their markets into the wireless space because carriers have had such a tight hold on the cellular industry. Right now, U.S. consumers are locked into the handset they use, the network it operates on, and the software it runs.

This situation has crippled consumers' ability to use the Internet on their mobile devices, compared to how they use it on their PCs. Google executives say their aim is to bring the PC-style of Internet openness to the mobile world so that users have more choice in mobile services and applications, as well as price.

Google was instrumental in getting the FCC to adopt so-called "open access rules" that would ensure consumers could use any mobile device they choose on a large chunk of the 700MHz spectrum.

Profit motivates

While Google's entrance is likely to turn the wireless world upside-down, market disruption is not its motivation. Google's priority as a public company is to make a profit; having a Google-branded wireless service would attract a good deal more eyeballs to its ad-based services.

And mobile, in some ways, will be particularly fruitful for advertising. Owning the spectrum would give Google an advantage in local advertising, which is tailor-made for mobile use as people look for nearby restaurants, gas stations, or copy shops.

Conquering the mobile world would also give Google a boost in international markets, where people tend to be even more dependent on their mobile phones than they are in the U.S.

Google has managed to turn Web search into an $11 billion business on PCs by selling simple text ads that appear with search results. Imagine how lucrative that market will be when the ads, including local advertising, can get to the far reaches of the world where there aren't any PCs.

Right now the global PC search market generates about $20 billion in revenue, assuming each PC owner conducts an estimated 35 searches a month, according to Citigroup research. If they do just one search per month on the four billion mobile phones expected to be in use in 2010, they could generate $2.3 billion in revenue, assuming PC search advertising economics migrate as-is to the wireless world, Citigroup said in a report this week.

For Google, that could translate into $700 million in incremental revenue in 2010, according to Citigroup. A new network on the spectrum isn't expected until 2010 at the earliest, analysts say.

"If you can get the most attractive demographic, the 18- to 30-year-olds (who have grown up on Google), then advertisers will be lining up at the door," Gillott said.

The wireless spectrum bid dovetails nicely with Google's moves to unify handset makers, software developers, and carriers on Android, an open mobile platform.

Mobile isn't the only place Google is eyeing the wireless access business. The company is dabbling in Wi-Fi-based services for PCs, building its own free wireless network in its hometown of Mountain View, Calif. It had also partnered with network provider EarthLink on a proposal for San Francisco. Despite initial support from city officials, the approval process stalled and EarthLink backed out in August amid a company restructuring and significant layoffs.

"Google is spending time and money paving this new superhighway," said Jeff Kagan, a wireless and telecommunications analyst. "Google is creating the world they want to compete in because it doesn't exist for them right now."

A Google representative said no executives were available to comment on their spectrum plans or motivation.

Even if Google doesn't win, its actions have already shaken up the stagnant mobile industry, said Derek Brown, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald.

For Google, "there is a risk that they get in way over their heads in a field in which they are late to the party and in which they have no expertise," he said. "But history suggests Google has made some very good strategic, operational, and financial decisions and seems to have done as good or better a job at investing toward the future than many other similar companies."

Cracking open the iPod Touch

In case you hadn't noticed, the Apple iPod Touch is one of the company's latest portable multimedia devices. The iPod Touch includes the usual music-playing features, but adds video playback and Wi-Fi connectivity. In this "Cracking Open" photo gallery, we take a look inside the Touch to see how it's put together.

Testers say XP could get faster than Vista
But Microsoft says its too early to evaluate two forthcoming service packs

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP operating system is about to get faster and Windows Vista isn't, according to a report that caused a stir online this week as industry watchers speculated that a zippier XP could keep customers from upgrading to Vista.

Microsoft, however, said it's too early to evaluate the two service packs it plans to release next year.

Early versions are already in the hands of testers like Devil Mountain Software Inc., which helps big financial services companies track trading-floor computer performance.

Wellington, Fla.-based Devil Mountain Software ran several versions of XP and Vista through a test simulating common desktop computing tasks. It found the original Vista performed 50 percent to 100 percent slower than the prevalent XP Service Pack 2, or SP2.

Vista SP1, due out in the first quarter of 2008, barely improved the operating system's performance.

But XP SP3, scheduled for the first half of 2008, did improve on XP's earlier performance, running 10 percent faster than SP2.

That's a strike against Vista for IT professionals on the fence about switching, according to Craig Barth, the company's chief technology officer.

Kevin Kutz, director of Microsoft's Windows Client group, said the company is working on speeding up tasks like moving files between PCs, but it's a work in progress.

Michael Cherry, an analyst for research group Directions on Microsoft, said it's impossible to say if Microsoft has started tuning Vista SP1 for speed. Even if XP gets faster, consumers and businesses may still switch to Vista

Dell to offer Google search devices
Tools for businesses help companies find information on their networks

SAN FRANCISCO - Dell Inc said on Tuesday it will sell Google search devices to help companies find information on their networks.

Dell said it would sell Google Search Appliance starting at $30,000 and the Google Mini starting at $1,995 to U.S. corporate customers and small businesses. Dell already offers personal computers with Google's desktop search software.

The Google-made machines, which scour corporate networks and Web sites for documents and other data, will help Dell, the world's second-largest personal computer maker, expand its main business of selling computers to businesses, which account for about 85 percent of the Round Rock, Texas-based company's revenue.

Dell said it has been working with Google since 2006 to make some Dell server computers compatible with Google Search Appliance, a high-end box-like device that uses Google technology to search corporate intranets, applications, databases and files.

The Google Mini is targeted at small and medium-sized businesses while the Google Search Appliance is aimed at larger corporations.

GPS helps cities catch goof-offs
But employees, unions complain the devices are intrusive

ISLIP, N.Y. - GPS tracking devices installed on government-issue vehicles are helping communities around the country reduce waste and abuse, in part by catching employees shopping, working out at the gym or otherwise loafing while on the clock.

The use of GPS has led to firings, stoking complaints from employees and unions that the devices are intrusive, Big Brother technology. But city officials say that monitoring employees' movements has deterred abuses, saving the taxpayers money in gasoline and lost productivity.

"We can't have public resources being used on private activities. That's Management 101," Phil Nolan, supervisor of the Long Island town of Islip.

Islip saved nearly 14,000 gallons of gas over a three-month period from the previous year after GPS devices were installed. Nolan said that shows that employees know they are being watched and are no longer using Islip's 614 official vehicles for personal business.

Some administrators around the country emphasized that the primary purpose of the GPS devices is not to catch people goofing off but to improve the maintenance and operation of the vehicles and to design more efficient bus, snowplow and trash-pickup routes. Among other things, the devices can be used to alert mechanics that a car's engine is operating inefficiently.

Still, in Indiana, six employees of the Fort Wayne-Allen County Health Department lost their jobs last year after an administrator bought three Global Positioning Satellite devices out of her own pocket and switched them in and out of 12 department vehicles to nail health inspectors running personal errands on the job.

Employees were caught going to stores, gyms, restaurants, churches and their homes. (And the administrator was reimbursed the $750 she spent.)

One of those who got in trouble, 27-year employee Elaine Pruitt, decried what she called "sneaky" methods. She said she had fallen ill and stopped at her home for a long lunch break, returning to work just 38 minutes late.

Previously, "as long as we got our work done, there was never any problem. All of a sudden, it became wrong if you stopped at a grocery store for some gum," she said.

In Boston two years ago, a snowplow driver was accused of hiding his GPS device in a snowbank and then going off to do some private plowing. The driver pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor larceny charge and was fined $300.

In Denver, 76 vehicles equipped with GPS this year were driven 5,000 fewer miles than the unequipped fleet had during the same period the year before. Denver plans to outfit police cars, snowplows and trash trucks with GPS soon.

"It's growing by leaps and bounds," said Chris Ransom of Networkcar, one of the country's leading providers of GPS systems. "I'd say we're seeing double-digit growth among the municipalities, whether it's statewide or down to the local county."

In Delaware, GPS was used to confirm two employees using state vehicles were going home early, said Terry Barton Jr., fleet administrator for the state. He would not say what action, if any, was taken against the employees.

"If they're in charge of the car and they decide to go visit their Aunt Mary, we'll know that they went someplace they weren't supposed to. It has a chilling effect," he said.

Barton said Delaware paid $425 per unit for the GPS devices, as well as $24.99 a month per vehicle for tracking services. Information from each car is sent back to a central location, where things like fuel consumption and speed are recorded. He estimated the investment will be recouped in 3 1/2 years.

"If we're getting fuel reduction, less accidents and have our people slowing down, it more than pays for itself," Barton said.

The Teamsters are negotiating more contracts that protect workers from being spied on or punished as a result of the devices, union spokeswoman Leslie Miller said. She said the union's tentative contract with United Parcel Service prevents the company from firing any employee for a first offense uncovered by GPS unless there is proof of intent to defraud.

Sean Thomas, chief of staff for the Manchester, N.H., mayor's office, said a plan to use GPS units on garbage trucks was scrapped after "some union push-back. "They said, `You are watching us like Big Brother,'" Thomas said.

GPS is helping improve efficiency in other ways.

Houston officials say they have used GPS on garbage trucks to design more efficient trash-collection routes, reducing fuel costs and other expenses.

This winter, the New Hampshire Transportation Department will begin testing GPS devices in some sand spreaders.