Google and Verizon have hammered out a joint proposal for the FCC and internet industry in the hopes of ending the roiling network neutrality debate.

For our sake I hope it fails.

“We both recognize that wireless broadband is different from the traditional wire-line world, in part because the mobile marketplace is more competitive and changing rapidly,” the joint statement said. “In recognition of the still-nascent nature of the wireless-broadband marketplace, under this proposal we would not now apply most of the [Net Neutrality] wire-line principles to wireless, except for the transparency requirement.”

That’s fancy language for: Verizon and the nation’s telecoms have yet again won, Google officially became a net neutrality surrender, and we have lost. If what Google/Verizon propose goes through there are two massive problems facing us as Americans.

1.) Wireless (a.k.a. cell phone providers) will not be regulated at all. The fact of the matter is that the internet, especially Wireless is evolving to the point that cell phone companies are no longer needed. We do not need calling plan’s or texting plans, you know the part of the plan that Phone Carriers make the most money on. Anyone will see that Google Voice works just fine on android handsets. But VoIp companies like Vonage are bullied out of market by the phone companies in hopes to save there huge profit margins. This anticompetitve behavior should not be allowed to last, And Google of all companies should not be chearleading for it.

2.) It leads to the Corporatization of the internet. It will allow, for all practical purposes 2 different internet’s. There will be one for the giant corporations that can pay huge fee’s (this tier is obviously including Google) this will be basically a superhighway with a huge backbone and nearly unlimited throughput. The other version would be basically what we have now. The obvious problem is that these major companies will have a vastly unfair advantage.

How will the next Google currently being ran in someone’s basement ever get discovered when it is throttled by the data speed and unfair advantage that the current Google has. I personally would not be so upset with Google if it were not so amazingly hypocritical. Aside from the “Don’t Be Evil” mantra, Google has been a huge advocate of real net neutrality for years now. It even attempted to outbid Verizon years ago for the privileged of freeing up the wireless spectrum. A privileged they would have had to pay over 5 billion dollars for!

But now through the success of the Android operating system, and the cash they have on hand to pay major fee’s to have a better faster internet, Google has abandoned principle for cash. This is something I would have expected from any other company out there, but somehow not Google.

If net neutrality were a game of chess, though, the industry players may have outwitted the FCC and dodged increased regulatory oversight of wired and wireless broadband simply by dragging things out. If the Republicans win back seats during the mid-term election–as is widely expected–corporations with deep pockets will have more friends in Congress and the FCC will have a more difficult time making the case for doing the job it was chartered to do.

I just incorporated Facebooks new like button onto CoplanCommunity.  I struggled with the decision, I was torn because I know that this is yet another step towards people giving up what little privacy they already have.  But on the other hand, its just so darn cool.

Like buttons: The like button, that you are used to seeing all over facebook(on posts, pages, comments…) is used to let everyone else know that you agree with something or apreciate it.  It also works as a means to rebroadcast it to your entire social network.

Facebook has taken a very audacious step this morning in allowing for the use of the “like” button outside of facebook.  What this means is that now you can (as long as your logged in to facebook) like a news article you are reading from CNN, or Coplancommunity, or any other site that has the feature enabled.  This allows you to rebroadcast articles or almost anything for that matter, back to your facebook profile page for all to see.

What does facebook get out of this?  Knowledge! As i’m sure you have already noticed as your clicking through pictures on facebook there are targeted adds that seem to know you plastered all over.  Have you ever asked yourself, how does facebook know I like that? how could they possibly know I need one of those?  Its because facebook stores data and information from your profile.  Your interests, your likes, your favorite bands, businesses you follow.  This allows marketers to target specific audiences that are more inclined to buy their add.  The more specific and the more infomation facebook can give these marketing companies, the more ad revenue facebook will recive for their adds.

I myself am not a huge fan of targeted marketing,  I refuse to sign up for Albertsons/safeway/frys cards. The reason I choose not to sign up for them isn’t because I don’t like saving a buck, I do, trust me I do.  But because I believe the reason they do that is so they can learn your buying habits in order to offer you low prices on a few things they think you will want, while jacking up the prices on the things you will need once you get there.  I would prefer to go to a store that tries to compete fairly on all the prices, instead of artificially inflating or deflating prices in an attempt to fool the consumer… but i digress.

The reason I decided to incorporate the “like” button, is not because I am O.K. with online targeted marketing, but not O.K. with the real world application of it.  Instead its because yes we are paying the price of privacy, and yes the real reason behind this is solely monetary, but at least with the “like” feature there are benefits to the end user.  This allows people to get information out to the masses cheaply.  It also furthers the way we can interact with our current friends and find new friends with similar interests.

Facebook is clearly growing, for 1 solid week of March, facebook topped Google’s as the most visited site in the world.  A feet that hasn’t been done in over 8 years.  They are innovative, and refuse to remain stagnant, in just three years they have went from being rivals with Myspace, to now rivaling Google.  Not bad company if you ask me.  I will continue to support Facebook until they give me a reason to do otherwise.  But that does not mean they have a free pass.

Zac Coplan

Steve Jobs announced on Thursday the specifications of the new Iphone 4.0 software. The new features make it obvious that the reigning champion in smart phones is beginning to feel the pressure from its competitors.

When Apple released the iPhone in 2007, there was nothing like it. Windows mobile had been around for years but had never managed to grab much market share. Since 2007 however smartphones now account for over 50 percent of cell phone sales.

Before we begin comparing the three different phones lets go over the different ways in which the products are brought to market. Apple, in much the same way it has handled its computers over the last few decades, makes the hardware in house, designs the software in house and sells the product at its own retail stores. In short Apple controls the process from start to finish. Apple has also signed an exclusivity deal with AT&T and only allows one wireless company to sell the product. Android is a new comer to the wireless world. Made by Google, Android has taken an entirely different approach to their wireless product. Google makes the software and allows hardware companies to design and build whatever they see best, the company then installs the Android operating system and selects a carrier to sell the phone.

Not only does Google allow multiple hardware companies and multiple wireless carriers to use their products. The software itself is also open source. This means developers can tweak existing code, and write their own applications for their devices. Windows Mobile has also taken a similar approach to the Android software, they allow multiple carriers and multiple companies to use their product.

So far it has been a 2 horse race between Apple and Google. But with the announcement earlier this year that Microsoft will be releasing a new version Windows Mobile 7, it is worth taking a look at all three different technologies and the benefits and drawbacks of all three.

The two biggest improvements to the Iphone 4.0 will be the inclusion of multitasking and a front facing camera. Multitasking means that you can run more than one app at a time, and when you stop using an application it the OS will not automatically close the app. The biggest use I see from this is the ability to have a program like skype running in the background, this would allow for unlimited international calling with just a data plan.

Unfortunately, not all prayers were answered in this latest update. The iPhone still wont go into mass storage mode, it wont tether to a computer, there will be no Flash support or FM radio, and of course, the biggest issue is that it’s still exclusively on the unreliable AT&T network. Also there will still be no Wi-Fi syncing.

Android is focusing on hardware variety. There are already phones that have HDMI outputs, front facing camera’s, and 4.3 inch screens. They have also already added in support for multitasking. The one thing that holds back android is its market share. Android arrived to the market late, and because it doesn’t have as much market share there are not being as many apps written for it. Because there are not as many apps its harder to gain market share, as you can see its a vicious cycle.

Windows Mobile is still trying to play catchup. That said, there are a few areas where the Windows Phone should still stand out when the first models hit the market this holiday season, even assuming Apple has released both OS 4.0 and, presumably, new iPhone models as well. One of the areas is bringing together photos and contacts from a variety of sources. Like Palm’s Pre, Microsoft is taking the approach that people have their media in lots of places and they want to access all their media in a category, regardless of where it came from. Along with that, I’d expect tight integration with social networks like Facebook, whereas Apple tends to view that as a separate “app.”

I currently use an Android based phone, I feel android offers the most versatility and is constantly upgrading and advancing. Though Android does not have as much market share as Apple it is the fastest growing. No matter what phone/OS you go with one thing is for sure. The competition is great for all of us.

Zac Coplan

Up until this point it has all been speculation, but the speculation was that the Nexus One (a.k.a. The Google Phone) could turn the wireless industry on its head. How could it do this you ask?

Google was rumored to be producing a phone that would run exclusively on VOIP or voice over internet protocol. To put it more simply the phone would make calls exclusively over then internet, negating the need for a wireless carrier almost entirely. This would allow for worldwide unlimited calling (such as Vonage) from a mobile phone at a very cheap price. Think of the price you pay for a data plan on most cell phones, normally about 30$ a month. That 30$ would allow you to access the internet and in partnership with The Google Phone would give you all you needed to make unlimited calling to anywhere in the world.

Now that a few people have seen the phone first hand we know that it will not bring the wireless industry to its knees, at least not yet. The phone has been sent out to a few bloggers for review and they have confirmed that it will have a VOIP option but it will not be exclusive. The phone however will be sold Completely Unlocked. As google loves “open source” it will not have contracts with any specific carrier, and will completely eliminate the need to “hack” your phone in order to use it on another wireless carrier, or in another country for that matter.

So what are the Specifications of this groundbreaking phone?

The Google Phone (Nexus One) has Bluetooth, Wi-FI, and expandable memory through a microSD memory card. It will support both AT&T, and T-mobile 3G data in the U.S. It had earlier been declared that Google plans to sell it online, and that the phone is unlocked.

The handset will have a Snapdragon processor, a platform developed by “Qualcomm” for use in smartphones and mobile computing devices. It is known for its low power consumption leading to a longer battery life. But the most important feature that Snapdragon brings to the table is that it has a clock speed of 1GHz, twice the processor speed of Motorola DROID.

Apart from that, the experts have revealed after much exploration that the phone is optimum for listening to music, as it has a noise-cancellation chipset, and a stereo FM speaker.

The camera has auto-focus with LED flash, white balance, and anti-banding. The phone also has Open GLES 2.0 capability for graphics. This is significant news for gamers, as it puts the graphic capability of Nexus One at par with the iPhone.

There is also a magnetic compass (AK8973,3-axis Magnetic field sensor/AK8973 Orientation), an accelerometer (BMA150, 3-axis Accelerometer), and a proximity and ambient light sensor (Capella CM3602)

The phone supports quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, and comes with UMTS/HSUPA, the frequencies used for this is 850/1700/1900. This puts the download speed of the phone at 7.2Mbps, and the upload speed at 2MBps.

The phone should be available in January of 2010.

Zac Coplan