Bigger is not Better
Is there a limit to urban sprawl? Apparently not. Nate Berg of Atlantic Cities offers some startling—if not truly sobering—images from NASA. Satellite images taken between the 1970s and today, the animated GIFs show just how much cites have grown over the last two generations. (Images courtesy NASA and USGS)
Dubai from 2000 to 2010
Pearl River Delta, China from 1973 to 2003
Internet of Things Built on Big M2M Standards
Tech World offers a brief overview of how standards organizations are coming together to establish the protocols IoT technologies will use to talk to one another.
With the number of M@M connections expected to reach 50 billion in ten years across every market category, standards will be essential. On the other hand, will these standards be open enough to allow for entrepreneurial innovation? And where does that put initiatives like Living-Planit’s “Urban Operating System?”
Google Announces Big Connectivity
Marc Canter at Digital City Mechanics is going, well, apeshit over Google’s new initiative in Kansas City.
Its been 20+ years since I first tasted the vision of what Interactive TV would be. AT&T, Sony, John Malone and Liberty – all lead us down the primrose path. But now Google is delivering it. In Kansas City.
OMFG! This is far more and better than I had expected!
- By throwing back to the community the decision as to WHERE they should offer the service – and in what order – Google has completely disrupted traditional cable services and the notion of offering a service – everywhere – in exchange for a legal monopoly.
- FREE Internet to anyone who’s willing to pay $25 a month – for 12 months. That’ll cover the install of the fiber into your home or apartment and get you 5Mbps down, 1Mbps up – for free. For ever.
- 2T local storage, 1T/Google Drive account, Local Wifi notes at each TV Set Top Box – this is what I used to call the ‘server-in-the-closet’ scenario.
- Did I tell yah about the Fiber TV app and free Nexus 7 remote controls? Did I tell yah that the Fiber app will run on Android OR iOS and that multiple remotes can all work off of one TV? Did I mention the story of the big brother who comes in and wants to take over the TV set.
- Did I also tell you about a seamless interface to all sorts of stored and live content – and then syncing that up “socially?” This is the next generation of Content + Service + Education.
- Then there’s the ‘Always-on’, ‘always growing’, always getting better aspect of Google Fiber TV.
- And finally – I gotta say that persistent media storage and a Cloud based database of EVERY movie, EVERY song, EVERY photo and piece of art – is finally appearing. Google astutely has prepped us with Google Music and has Google Talk working already. And they’re working HARD on G+ – right now.
Follow the link above for Marc’s full take on Google’s big news.
Small is Big Too
The MIT influenced Hiriko EV is making waves globally. Take a look at the video to see why.
