Hasta La Gadget!

If Google Fiber is the company’s attempt at bringing superb Internet connections to developed areas, Project Loon is Google’s plan to connect areas that may otherwise have no access to the Internet at all. These can be rural areas, urban areas with coverage gaps, areas struck by disaster and areas where nerds are having birthday parties.

Google says it will launch balloons to an altitude of about 20km (appx. 12 mi.). Each balloon can supposedly cover a ground area about 40km (about 25 mi) in diameter and provide “speeds comparable to 3G.” Each balloon is made of plastic that’s about 49 ft. wide and 39 ft. tall when fully inflated.

A solar panel will power the electronics onboard each balloon. The panel will also charge a battery on each balloon so that it can still work at night. On the ground, users will connect to the balloons using antennas with – guess what – balloon-shaped covers. Here’s a slightly more technical explanation of Project Loon:

Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots? Come on. How can you argue against a guy with a name and title like that? The first Project Loon balloons will be launched in South Island in New Zealand this month. Check out the Project Loon website if you want to learn more. Also, alert the Resistance.

[via Electronista]

On May 24, we reported on a tip that Google plans to launch wireless Internet service in emerging markets that have little or no access to the Internet. While the leaked details were extensive, one bit stuck out among the rest: the use of balloons to transmit signals over long distances. At least that aspect

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No, we’re not joking. Google is seriously proposing hot air ballon-powered internet access, and has already launched a pilot project in New Zealand with 50 testers trying to connect via a helium-filled, solar powered balloon. One of the Google[x] moonshot projects, there are a couple of videos embedded after the break explaining the issue, and the technology Google wants to use to address it. Project Loon’s playful logo reflects the custom designed antennas users will use to receive their signal from balloons floating twice as high as commercial airplanes fly. The signal goes from ground based antennas, up to the balloon, which use their high-altitude placement to broadcast much further than other methods. In the future, the company envisions cell phone users connecting to the balloons to extend service where none exists today.

According to Google, in “more than half” of the countries in the southern hemisphere and for two out of three people on earth, internet access is far too expensive. It’s trying to set up pilot projects in other countries on the same latitude as New Zealand, so interested 40th parallel south residents should forward this info to the appropriate officials immediately. Meanwhile, curious Kiwis can sign up to take part in the project on its website, or attend the Festival of Flight in Christchurch on Sunday to meet the team and learn more about it.

Update: Check out another video of the launch of the first balloons embedded after the break, shot via Google Glass by Trey Ratcliff and see even more photos on his site Stuck in Customs.

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Source: Google Blog, Project Loon (Google+), Project Loon

Facebook lawyer Ted Ullyot revealed in a post tonight precisely how many user-data requests it receives from government entities, and that it’s negotiated the ability to include national security-related (FISA and National Security Letters) inquiries in the report. Until now, the companies that receive such requests, whether through the recently uncovered PRISM program or not, have not been able to say anything about them, or report how many there are. Still, the stats it’s able to release aren’t specific, and include all requests from the last six months in a range, said to be between 9,000 and 10,000, covering between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts. We still have no official reports on what those inquiries cover, how wide reaching a single one can be or what information has been passed along. Facebook however, is quick to point out that these cover “only a tiny fraction of one percent” of its 1.1 billion active user accounts.

Along with Microsoft and Google, Facebook has publicly petitioned the government to let it be more transparent about the size and scope of the requests it receives, and Reuters reports tonight that “several” internet companies have struck an agreement to do so. Expect more reports to arrive soon in similar formats, however Ullyot states Facebook will continue to push the government to be “as transparent as possible.”

For the six months ending December 31, 2012, the total number of user-data requests Facebook received from any and all government entities in the U.S. (including local, state, and federal, and including criminal and national security-related requests) – was between 9,000 and 10,000. These requests run the gamut – from things like a local sheriff trying to find a missing child, to a federal marshal tracking a fugitive, to a police department investigating an assault, to a national security official investigating a terrorist threat. The total number of Facebook user accounts for which data was requested pursuant to the entirety of those 9-10 thousand requests was between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts.

Filed under: Microsoft, Google, Facebook

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Source: Facebook

This week’s slew of Android apps comes with a wonderful balance of work, play, and information you’ll actually need. There’s a little something for everybody.

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