Feb 10 2010 10:59AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (10) |
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“Think big with a gig” is the catchy start to a Google blog post this morning introducing company plans to experiment with a fiber network.

After urging of the FCC on its National Broadband Plan and the need for faster, more reliable Internet access in the United States,  Google is taking a DIY approach and announced that it is planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States.

“We'll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We...Read More

Feb 8 2010 11:47AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (2) |
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Football is not my thing, neither is it my husband’s. But we are both in media, he working in advertising. So instead of watching yesterday’s big game, we Tivoed it and, instead of forwarded passed the commercials, we forwarded through the game to watch the commercials.

Although it was at a very high cost, I was glad to see Intel’s return to the game’s advertising after a 12-year hiatus with commercial and post-game sponsorship. Seeing companies like Intel push toward mainstream audience appeal sits well with me, as it, in a roundabout way, encourages better awareness of what it is engineers do and why it’s important. It’s doubtful that the average viewer will get what an Intel Core processor does anymore than my husband gets why I laugh to the point of tears at Intel’s “Sponsors of Tomorrow/Rock Star” ads (view the A...Read More

Feb 5 2010 12:38PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (3) |
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Did anyone catch Avnet CEO Roy Vallee’s appearance on Mad Money with Jim Cramer last week? I’m not regular viewer of the show. Cramer’s style is a little over the top for my taste. But after seeing a tweet from an Avnet rep on Twitter about the segment and receiving the link from the rep’s partner, I’ve since reviewed the show several times, sending the link off to some naysayers in our industry.

Cramer, known for telling it how it is without so much as the slightest sugar coating, likes to tear into souring companies and stocks. Not so when he featured a nine-minute segment on January 28 on distributor Avnet after the company’s earnings report.

He calls Avnet “a company you’ve probably never heard of but that I am determined t...Read More

Jan 27 2010 4:24PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (13) |
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The iPad is finally here and, in classic Apple fashion, the company announced the flashy details on the tablet device – the cool, sleek design, etc – but didn’t offer many details on the inner workings of the technology.

My specific interest is in the Apple-built “A4” chip, which the company pretty much glances over in its Web site statements on the iPad, except to boast that the A4 is so powerful and efficient that it allows for a 10 hour battery life.

Based here in NY and not graced with an invite to Apple’s San Francisco iPad event, I was not in the room when Steve Jobs revealed Apple’s “latest creation,”  but from what I ...Read More

Jan 26 2010 3:41PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (3) |
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Around this time in 2008, I posted to this blog an entry that questioned why Wall Street hadn’t taken off its rose-colored glasses and reacted more appropriately to Q4 2007 results, instead driving some tech stocks up and down like yo-yos. While the three comments posted to that blog entry are in line with the thoughts presented, I’ll never forget a call I received from an active EDN reader at the time of post. This reader objected to the post, accusing me of having an overly pessimistic view of the industry and saying that there would be no major economic fallout from a US recession that would impact the global tech market.

I say that I’ll never forget that call not because of the reader’s disagreement with the post (nor the very colorful language he used to comment on ...Read More