by Alex Goldman
More economic gloom. Several buildings in Silicon Valley are virtually empty.
Some say the unemployment rate is at 10 percent, but several publications, including the Wall Street Journal and InvestorCentric say it’s closer to 17.6 percent.
Broadband is expected to grow more slowly in the U.S. in 2010.
From the WISPA list
Rick Harnish noted that Google wants to build a white spaces database. Google has the resources to do pretty much anything, and many have been hoping that they would get serious about promoting ISP competition — without becoming an ISP themselves. Here’s what Google said on its own blog (Google’s blog reads more like press releases than blog posts).
Mike Hammett provided the article Want Wireless Broadband Today? Try a WISP.
The consumer web
EA is closing some of its online game servers early — including the one for Madden NFL 2009. If your customers complain, tell them to talk to EA.
A new survey says that internet users are printing more online coupons than ever. This makes sense, given the economy. The survey expects coupon usage to double by 2014 (but does not break out coupon use per user).
In the latest instance of irrational Wi-Fi fear, someone claiming to be allergic to Wi-Fi sued their neighbor for refusing to turn it off.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) concluded over the weekend. While it mostly focused on cellular stuff, there were a few items of interest. One, the Airnergy, charges gadgets over Wi-Fi.
MagicJack introduced a cheap, small home femtocell (but my MagicJack stopped working this weekend and tech support was no help).
There’s a lot of hype about augmented reality (see How Augmented Reality Works) but so far it’s a bunch of cell phone apps and the yellow 10 yard line in football games. It needs to move beyond the hype.
In-flight Wi-Fi service GoGo has backhaul issues.
Government and law
The FTC says it wants to help website operators comply with the landlords break that rule.
Nicholas Sarkozy, president of France, is the latest person who wants to tax Google in order to avoid making tough financial decisions. The first person I know of who wanted to do this was Ed Whitacre in 2006, when he was president of SBC.
The DC Circuit Court told the FCC that the FCC cannot enforce net neutrality. That means that Congress is more likely to act on the issue. Update: here’s Howard Feld’s take on all of it, including Comcast’s odd blog post.
A secret anti-counterfeiting trade agreement is under fire worldwide.
Here are 10 items of advice from analyst Craig Settles on how to get a stimulus application done.
A ban on the sale of some versions of Microsoft Office, the result of a patent lawsuit by Canadian firm i4i, has gone into effect. Microsoft is appealing the ban.
Here are some notes on how big players are building green data centers.
As always, suggestions concerning News of Note are welcome.
Tags: consumer, government
