Verizon winds down expensive FiOS expansion

"NEW YORK — If Verizon Communications Inc. hasn't already started wiring your city or town with its FiOS fiber-optic TV and broadband service, chances are you won't get it.

Where it's available, FiOS usually provides the only competition for cable TV apart from satellite service. Studies have shown that its entry into an area leads to lower cable prices, though FiOS itself has not been undercutting cable TV prices substantially.

But Verizon is nearing the end of its program to replace copper phone lines with optical fibers that provide much higher Internet speeds and TV service. Its focus is now on completing the network in the communities where it's already secured "franchises," the rights to sell TV service that rivals cable, said spokeswoman Heather Wilner.

Verizon is the only major U.S. phone company to draw fiber all the way to homes and the only one to offer broadband speeds approaching those available in Japan and South Korea. The halt to further expansion comes as the Federal Communications Commission has sent Congress the country's first "national broadband plan," aimed at making Internet access faster, more affordable and more widely available."

Read the full story by PETER SVENSSON

TechTV Geeks make good: Leo Laporte Makes $1.5 Million Per Year from Podcasting

Leo Laporte shares his views on podcasting, the Internet and how the little guy is beating up big mainstream TV media. The talk was given at the Online News Association Conference in San Francisco and it's forty minutes long.

Snopes.com gets an "A" from fellow fact checkers

FactCheck.org gives Snopes.com a dose of its own medicine and the Internet's best-known BS-detector comes through the exam the picture of good health. As for the charge -- widely circulated in a chain e-mail -- that Snopes lied about an Obama opponent? That one's DOA

But who's checking the fact checkers? The FactCheck.org found that the bottom line is You can go on trusting Snopes.com as much as you'd trust any other source of information on the Internet (and, no, that's not meant to be back-handed).

read more | digg story

Moms At Risk For Internet Addiction

"I was scrolling through family photos on my computer, admiring my two beautiful babies, when I spotted a disturbing trend: My laptop was open in almost all of the pictures. There's my daughter, at 8 months, playing at my feet while I typed away on the couch. There's me and my son, a year later, with the laptop at my side as I held him in my arms.

I'd heard about Internet addiction before, but always assumed it was something limited to socially challenged guys who played too much World of Warcraft. Now it seemed my Internet "habit" was slowly but surely crossing the line. Sometimes I found myself up into the wee hours of the morning, surfing the Web while my family slept. I read the news, kept up with friends, and looked up answers to endless questions. I wrote my personal blog and read dozens of others, just for something to do."

read more | digg story

Inside China's Fight Against Internet Addiction

© Floresco Productions/Corbis

Even though it was only a week before the Spring Festival — the most important family holiday on the Chinese calendar — Wang Hongxia was forcing her son out of the house. She took her 12-year-old from their home in northwestern city of Xian to a secluded Beijing military compound over 700 miles away. Like many other parents across China today, Wang felt like she had no choice. "Things have absolutely gone out of control," said Wang, 45, almost in tears. "My son just beat and bit me again this morning after I wouldn't let him touch the computer."

read more | digg story

BBC: UK housewives rule in online time

A survey of more than 27,000 web users in 16 countries has shown that the Chinese spend the largest fraction of their leisure time online.

However, UK housewives spend even more than China's average - 47%. The study was conducted by global market information group TNS, which asked 27,522 people aged between 18 and 55 to answer questions about their web use and compared respondents' faith in traditional versus online media.

Read the full story BBC story

Apple's Secret "Back to My Mac" Push behind IPv6

The Internet is running out of addresses. To get around this problem and a host of others not addressed in the existing Internet Protocol (IPv4), a new revision has been in development for years, called IPv6. Uptake has been slow; it requires upgrading all the routers and devices that make up the Internet. Apple has a few tricks up its sleeve for pushing IPv6 adoption, and many Mac users are already chin deep in the technology without even knowing it.

read more | digg story

What Actually Happens When You Hit Those StumbleUpon Buttons

Have you ever wondered what is going on in the backend when you click on that tempting little blue and green StumbleUpon button in your toolbar? Chief architect and co-founder Garrett Camp lets on to the SU algorithm and hints at a couple of upcoming changes. StumbleUpon is all about site discovery. I used to click on the “Stumble!” button and figured it would return me some random site based on the categories I said I was interested in. But then I noticed that the more I used it, better sites were being sent my way. This is because it’s not actually random, but rather sites are served up based on a series of processes that go on within the StumbleUpon Recommendation Engine.

read more | digg story