This week, Comcast can’t keep itself out of the news. First, Comcast announces that it is bringing the fastest Interwebs in the country to Jacksonville (WOOT!) and other cities in Florida. Then, the FCC and the Justice Department rain on Comcast’s parade and lets it know they are not going to let it merge with Time Warner Cable. In other news, a paranoid dad flew a drone to school with his daughter, and two guys took the iPhone/Android fight way too far.

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THIS WEEK’S RUN DOWN

Comcast Gigabit Pro

People in Jacksonville and some other towns in Florida are going to be pretty excited next month. In a story Jessica Palombo contributed to Deemable.com, Comcast is bringing the fastest fiber optic Internet service in the country to a few cities in Florida, including our own fair town. The service, which is called Gigabit Pro, will actually have 2 Gbps download and upload speeds ? more than twice the speed of Google Fiber.

However, Comcast would not give a price for the new service. The next fastest service from Comcast is Extreme 505, which runs up to 505 Mbps up and down, and costs over $400 a month with taxes and fees.

Comcast Drops Its Bid to Merge With Time Warner Cable

Speaking of Comcast, earlier this week it was looking pretty  looked bad for its merger with Time Warner Cable. According to Bloomberg, the Justice Department’s antitrust department was going to recommend blocking the merger. And, the FCC was not negotiating the terms of the deal with Comcast, which made it look even less likely that it was going to go through.

But now, ?people with knowledge of the matter? have told Bloomberg that Comcast is backing out of the merger. There was supposed to be a board meeting Thursday. And an official  announcement will probably come Friday.

As the Verge pointed out in an editorial, throughout this whole process, Comcast has never answered this simple question: Why not compete?

Verizon to offer custom pay TV packages, let customers choose monthly programming bundles

And while we?re on the subject of Internet and TV providers, in move that is one small step closer to a la carte cable TV, Verizon recently announced that they are rolling out a new pay TV service that will let customers choose from channel bundles that they change monthly.

These Verizon FiOS ?Custom TV? packages will start at 65 dollars a month for broadband service, 36 fixed basic cable channels, and two genre-based channel packs that customers can swap or unsubscribe from after a month. You can also add packs for an extra 10 dollars. Verizon has seven of these packs to choose from, including sports and children?s programming.

Verizon says they are going after customers who want something in between giant, fully loaded cable packages and cheaper basic packages offered by their competitors.

After “Drone Dad” follows his daughter to school, DJI Phantom 2 grounded

Tennessee father Chris Early?s daughter decided she wanted to walk to the school bus by herself so he did what any tech-inclined father would do: he followed her with a drone.

The drone was a model known as a DJI Phantom 2 which has a high def video camera mounted on it. Early followed his daughter with the drone. A local news station caught wind of this and the story went nationwide. Chris Early has been called ?overprotective?, ?the world?s most embarrassing father? and ‘drone dad’. As a result of all the attention he says he has grounded the drone for now.

One World Trade Center Elevator Shows 515 Years Of New York City

One World Trade Center has added an elevator that displays 515 years of New York City history in 50 seconds.

The New York Times covered this story, but I wrote an article about it for Deemable.com.

While they haven?t developed time travel, the engineers and designers behind the elevators that takes guests to the observatory at the very top of One World Trade Center in New York City have come pretty close. When you board the elevators, you will see a panoramic view of New York City rising out of the underground in the 1500s all the way up through time to the 102nd floor today.

The elevator uses nine 75-inch screens to create the illusion that it is a glass-walled elevator traveling through time.

Along the way, you’ll see the arrival of the Europeans, the Revolution and the rise of the skyscrapers. Inevitably, as time travels through the late-1900s, one of the Twin Towers enters your sight and just as quickly fades away as the 2000s begin. It is a touching, beautiful memorial to the history of the site. You can see The New York Times video of the elevator on our website at Deemable.com

YouTube celebrates 10 year anniversary

This week marks the 10 year anniversary of the first video being uploaded to YouTube.

On April 23 2005, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim posted a 19 second clip of elephants at the zoo titled “Me at the zoo.”  In it, Karim discusses the elephants’ “really, really, really long trunks” and, well, that’s all. Pretty tame compared to what you can find on YouTube today.

About a year after this video was posted, Google acquired YouTube for $1.6 billion.

According to reports, YouTube will mark the anniversary with a month-long celebration starting next week.

Skycure Hack Can Use Wifi To Disable iOS Devices

A research firm called Skycure reported that it has developed a hack based around a bug in iOS that could allow it to disable all nearby iOS devices using a wifi router. The wifi router has to be configured in a specific way. It will then cause any device connected to it to keep crashing and rebooting in an endless loop. It can be combined with another hack that forces iOS devices to connect to that network. Essentially the only way to escape the endless cycle of rebooting would be to get out of range of the router.

Skycure has not publicly released technical specifications for the bug it used to create the hack to give Apple time to patch it.

Argument Over Which Smartphone Is Better Turns Deadly

Police in Tulsa, OK apprehended a man staggering around a parking lot late at night cut up and covered in blood. The man reported to them that he had been in a fight with his roommate over which smartphone was better – the iPhone or the new Samsung Galaxy. iPhone versus Android fights can get heated, but most stop short of physical conflict. The man reported that he and his roommate had been drinking and wound up stabbing each other with broken beer bottles. Both were admitted to the hospital and are expected to make a full recovery. No word on whether either man was arrested or whether either had his mind changed about his preferred choice of phone.

How many tabs does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?

Redditor Peanut Butter Shudder suggested an answer to Ray’s question. Last week during Shower Thoughts, Ray said he didn’t know how many tabs he had ever opened in his life. Peanut Butter Shudder mentioned Tab for a Cause on our reddit page (reddit.com/r/deemable) Tab for a Cause apparently tracks how many tabs you open and it has a bit of slacktivism built into it. If you install the browser extension, you’ll raise money for charities simply by browsing the internet. Heck, why not?

Who had the best segue?

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Photo credit: iPhone vs Android by nrkbeta.no is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.

Q: Can you explain Twitter for me? I understand that you can only “tweet” short messages, but I don’t know what the point of it is or if its worth signing up for an account.

image credit: Twitter

A: Twitter is a social network where you can post updates made up of no more than 140 characters, as well as pictures and videos. For a site where you can post such short messages, it’s gotten pretty big around the world. It’s used by everyone from movie stars to political activists.

Similar to Facebook, you can post tweets and read your friends’ tweets. To us, though, the number one use for Twitter is networking. If you own a small business or work in a profession that requires you to know a lot of people in your field, Angie, you should really consider it. It’s a great way to connect with other people in your business, as well as connect with your customers.

Speaking of customers, having a Twitter account may help you get better customer service. Big companies that are on Twitter are constantly scanning it for tweets that mention them. So, for example, imagine you tweet about your frustration with poor service on an airline. If you mention that airline in your tweet by including their Twitter handle (AKA their username on Twitter), that airline may actually see your tweet and contact you to try to make things right. It has happened before!

Now let’s go over some of the basics of using Twitter. When you sign up for an account, you’ll create a Twitter handle that begins with the “at” sign (such as @deemable). Other people will be able to mention you in tweets by including that handle in their message, and you’ll be able to do the same by including their Twitter handles.

You may have heard the term “hashtag” when talking about Twitter. This refers to the Twitter custom of typing the “pound” symbol followed by a word or phrase without any spaces. A hashtag is a way to categorize a tweet, so if you click on one Twitter will show you a list of all the most recent public tweets containing that hashtag. For example, if we ended a tweet with #pancakes, you could click on it and see tweets about pancakes from all over the world.

We should mention that, by default, all of your tweets will be public. You can contact other Twitter users privately by using what they call direct messages.

The main thing people do on Twitter besides tweet is follow other people. When you follow someone, you’re telling Twitter that you want to see their tweets on your Twitter homepage. You can follow anyone, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will follow you back. If you follow your favorite celebrity, chances are they’re not going to follow you back because of the large number of followers they have. You can still tweet at them, though, and they might tweet you back if you’re lucky.

If someone you know follows you, it’s polite to follow them back. If you’re not sure who your new follower is, it’s okay to not do so.

Twitter also lets you “favorite” someone?s tweet, which is pretty similar to “liking” something on Facebook. You can also share someone else’s tweet with your followers by retweeting it.

Just like any social media, Angie, Twitter can either be an entertaining distraction or a valuable tool. Be sure to tweet us when you join!

Could MMORPG players save the world through social networking? Check out this story by Cat Miller from Dice TV.

Practice Gaming, Help Civilization (via Dice News in Tech)

In times of crisis, social media usage skyrockets. And while many of the posts are merely complaints about being inconvenienced, some contain information that could be useful to first responders. Unfortunately, due to the massive volume of posts, much…

“Fish and visitors smell after three days.” – Benjamin Franklin

You’ve survived and (dare I say, enjoyed) the 2012 Holidays with your distant relatives. It’s nice getting the family together for a few days. The hustle and bustle of the holidays can be overwhelming and the sudden silence after guests leave can be gloomy.  Technology can make the transition back to everyday life a lot easier.

If your brother and his family live in Seattle, Washington and you live in Jacksonville, Florida, chances are you won’t be able to afford to see him or your cute nieces and nephews more than a few times a year. You don’t have to rack up thousands of frequent flier miles to be a good aunt or uncle; use these five ways to keep in touch:

1. Skype
   If everyone has a webcam and fast enough wifi, Skype provides an inexpensive way to sing “Happy Birthday” to any friend or family member anywhere on the globe. It works on Android and iOS, allowing it to work on most smartphones and computers. The video quality isn’t always the best but the price is free if both people have Skype. If you want to do a group video call, there is a premium option explained here.
2. FaceTime
   iMac, iPhone, iPod, iPad. These will all come pre-installed with FaceTime. This application uses the built-in webcam  to connect people across the city and around the world. The video quality tends to be a little better than Skype but it only works if everyone owns an Apple product.
3. Google Chat
   With a free Google or Gmail account, you can instant message or video chat with friends around the globe. The account is free and with Google+ you can create a Hangout that allows group video chat.
4. Facebook
   Privacy concerns may be an issue for some people but if enough of your friends and family are on Facebook, it can be worthwhile for you to be as well. Facebook events and private group messages can make Grandma’s Surprise Birthday Party the event of the year. Remember to make the event Private and Invite Only otherwise it won’t be a surprise from Grandma.
5. Cellphone or Landline
   If you can’t touch or see someone, sometime’s voice is the next best thing. Check your cellphone plan to see when it’s the cheapest to call. Free nights and weekends, mobile-to-mobile, and unlimited texting are possible perks of a contract cellphone.

Did I miss your favorite way to contact your family long distance? Tell me in the comments!

Facebook has caused a worldwide revolution in social media, and Google may have finally developed a similar product that can rival their nemesis. Google’s response to Facebook, Google+, was launched on Tuesday to a select number of people as a “social field test” – meaning Google+ is not in the public beta release stage yet. Plus is the first major launch by Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and new Chief Executive Officer since April.

Google has had prior hiccups entering the social media game with failed products like Google Buzz, Google Orkut, and Google Wave, so it’s no surprise that the search giant’s latest attempt at a social media avenue has generated mixed feelings from its users. Some are receptive of the features offered in the Facebook alternative, most notably the ability to create “Circles” – an easier way to maintain and group contacts. Other features are described by Reuters below:

Google+ will have some obviously-essential features for a social network ? a news component called the Stream, a search/alert component called Sparks which will serve up different results on your interests than a plain vanilla Google search. There is also the ability to share with people who aren’t signed up for the service ? which addresses the problem of opt-in-itis.

But at first blush the most intriguing aspect of Google+ seems to be the granularity with which you can pigeonhole your friends, acquaintances, family, contacts and whomever into the exact right slot in your social web. It’s a seemingly obvious problem to solve and one which Facebook hasn’t, perhaps, because it hasn’t seen the need to ? ?groups? notwithstanding.

Critics, however, are saying that Plus is not differentiated enough from its competition and is basically a replica of Facebook, and not many people are interested in maintaining multiple social media outlets.

One thing is clear though, Google+ is generating a lot of buzz. The VP of Social at Google, Vic Gundotra,  posted on Plus, “We’ve shut down invite mechanism for the night. Insane demand. We need to do this carefully, and in a controlled way. Thank you all for your interest!” While the platform has a loooooooong way to go before it can compete with Facebook, the company claims that Plus is not a Facebook Killer but an overall improvement of the Google experience. Fast Company writes, “Google+ is one element in a much larger strategy the company launched last year to gradually shift all of Google–Search, YouTube, Places, etc—from standalone tools to a set of services that operate much more socially.”

So for now, users who weren’t granted an invite (like myself) can browse Business Insider’s top-to-bottom tour of Google+ and can play around on the Google+ demo site to take a look at the social media site while its still in its infancy.

Photo by Google

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know by now that the world’s most wanted international terrorist, Osama bin Laden, was killed in his million-dollar compound in Pakistan on the 1st of May. Suspected as the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, news of bin Laden’s death signaled a time for Americans to rejoice and to celebrate what we have been longing for – justice.

The military’s elite special forces group who killed bin Laden, unofficially called SEAL Team 6, deserves all the credit that they have received for executing their mission to perfection. Upon confirming bin Laden’s death, the black ops kill team even grabbed all the electronic material they could find as they hurriedly exited the Abbottabad compound, including dozens of computers, flash drives, and disks. This electronic material was given to a special team of military intelligence operatives and members of the CIA to be analyzed as quickly as possible so that any information can be used while it remains pertinent. SEAL Team 6 and all of the troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq must be praised, whether you agree or disagree with our country’s military actions, but none of this would have been remotely possible without the use of technology.

From the tapped phone call of Osama’s courier that led the US military directly to the front steps of his compound, to the use of satellites in order to map the operation, to the live video feed of the mission sent over 7,000 miles to the President and his advisors, and from the use of sophisticated biometric tools used to identify the body, there have been remarkable advancements in technology since the tragedy that occurred nearly 10 years ago.

Not only has technology helped locate and identify America’s (former) Most Wanted, it helped spread the news of Osama bin Laden’s death like wildfire. Many of you found out through popular social media outlets or by mobile device long before President Obama delivered his address to the nation. News of bin Laden’s death even set a Twitter record for the highest sustained rate of tweets ever, with an average of 3,440 Tweets per second from 10:45PM-12:30AM. As for myself, I found out through a friend harmlessly checking his cell phone during a break in a late night session of doubles tennis. The Internet, however, has its downsides as well: It seems like every mistake you make could be put out there for the world to see… just ask Fox40 News.

Photo by landerinn via deviantART

Facebook has taken the world by storm. As we all know by now, Facebook was started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and several of his Harvard peers and roommates. While membership was initially restricted to students attending Harvard University, the social networking site became an immediate success and quickly expanded to other colleges, universities, high schools, and eventually, membership became available to anyone over the age of 13 with a valid e-mail address. And, as they say, the rest is history.

With over 500 million users visiting Facebook on a monthly basis, Mark Zuckerberg has built an empire that has a tremendous global reach, as can be seen in the picture above. At first glance, the photo may seem like a standard outline of the world, but take a closer look and you will begin to see the huge impact that Facebook has had on our generation.

Paul Butler, the creator of the above image which is based on visualized data, was “interested in seeing how geography and political borders affected where people lived relative to their friends. [He] wanted a visualization that would show which cities had a lot of friendships between them.” Each link represents a connection, a connection that goes beyond continents, countries, and cities. Each connection goes beyond governments and municipalities. In the end, the plots of data are people, like you and I, and the lines represent real human relationships.

While people and companies may complain that Facebook has become a giant distraction or waste of time, there is an inherent social value that is not easily seen: The connections that are made can change lives. Earlier this month, a plea was made on Facebook by a woman watching the man she loved suffering through the pain of kidney failure. Out of desperation, she posted – and prayed – for a type O Kidney donor to “fall from the sky.” Almost instantly, a Facebook friend responded to her post and answered her prayer.

Although there are many stories like this that are often left untold, it must be stated that social media has become quite an extraordinary force. A force that is strong enough to power revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, a force that can connect people thousands of miles away, and even more touching – a force that can save a life.

Photo by Paul Butler via Facebook