Google developing 10Gb broadband

A Google executive announced that the company is working on broadband technology that is ten times faster than its current fibre offering.

The search giant is developing a 10Gb broadband offering, according to Patrick Pichette, CFO of Google, who revealed the plans at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference this week.

He said the speed boost is "going to happen" anyway, but that it may take over a decade for that to "naturally" occur. When asked why Google wouldn't make it available in just three years, he said, "That's what we're working on. There's no need to wait."

Google Fiber

The planned internet boost is substantially faster than the already impressive 1Gb Google Fiber service it offers to the lucky people in Kansas City.

To put this speed into perspective, a high-definition video would take roughly 22 minutes to download at 5Mbps speeds, which unfortunately is the maximum some people in the UK have access to. With 1Gb connections, it would take just seven seconds to download the same file. Now imagine speeds ten times that.

Google is currently rolling out its fibre network to Provo, Utah, and is looking to expand to Austin, Texas. Eventually, it will attempt even wider coverage, and the 1Gbps speeds are just the start. It has yet to disclose any plans to expand overseas.

Three Stories of Funding at Mobile Startups

In 2013, private companies in mobile raised almost $8 billion in venture capital in over 1,000 deals, according to Light Reading.

Maybe it’s your turn now.

But before you start refining your pitch, take a few pointers from three entrepreneurs, from different regions, who have recently been successful in raising venture capital. Sachin Deshpande, Senior Director, Product Management, at Qualcomm Ventures moderated a recent panel discussion with these entrepreneurs called Tips on Raising Funds in Today’s Financial Environment. In this post I’ll share some of the advice the panelists gave during their session.

Andreas Ehn, Co-Founder & CTO, Wrapp (Sweden)

Originally from Stockholm, Sweden, Ehn has worked in startups since 2005; first as part of Startle, Sequoia’s first investment in Northern Europe. Then, he helped grow Spotify to 150 employees and 1 million users as its first CTO during first and second rounds of funding. Now he is with Wrapp, a social gifting and promotion sharing app that has been through Series A and B funding rounds.

“At Wrapp, we raised seed money and Series A on the strength of our team and on simple arguments about the business opportunity,” says Ehn. “But we had to raise Series B sooner than we had planned and not for the reasons we’d planned, so it was tougher going.”

Shortly after Wrapp launched, a powerful German company cloned the app and rolled it out worldwide, effectively beating Wrapp to market. To fight back, Wrapp had to accelerate their own global rollout by putting feet on the street in 18 countries over three months to build relationships with retailers. Once they had overcome that threat, they turned to their original objective – the U.S. market – but they were running low on money and had to embark on their Series-B round sooner than anticipated.

Ehn’s learned that “With startups, it’s always a roller coaster ride and there are always going to be unexpected events. That’s why business plans in startups are science fiction.”

Derek Fears, Co-Founder and President of Product & Marketing, Emprego Ligado (Brazil)

Fears started Emprego Ligado, a mobile-based job marketplace for operational (telemarketing, construction, hospitality) workers in Brazil. After raising an initial seed round, he raised a second round with Qualcomm Ventures and institutional investors in Brazil.

“Mobile is growing about 10 times faster than broadband and personal computing in Latin America,” says Fears, “but the investment community there is not keeping up. Back in 2011, you saw euphoric investing and ecommerce copycats in Brazil, and startups were raising $4-5 million Series A rounds off a 6-slide presentation. By the time we started raising money, it had gotten more difficult: VCs were over-extended in ecommerce, growth in China was slowing, and there was social unrest in Brazil. There’s also the fact that our unproven business model relies on the peculiarities of Brazil’s job market, so investors looked at us and saw both country risk and business model risk.”

Emprego Ligado ended up bootstrapping in early 2012. Then the company built a prototype and approached investors a second time, for a small seed round of $250,000. In 2013, they obtained their first round with two local investors and Qualcomm Ventures.

Fears’ lesson: “When you approach investors with a new product, it helps immensely to have something to put in their hands and show them. Also, traction – even a little bit – matters a lot.”

Vamshi Reddy, CEO & Co-Founder, Apalya Technologies (India)

Apalya Technologies’ platform delivers live streaming for mobile TV. Founded in 2005, the company has raised A, B and C rounds and angel investment from companies like Qualcomm Ventures and Cisco, and from investors like IDG and Indo-U.S. Venture Partners.

“India’s environment is similar to Brazil’s,” Reddy notes. “We bootstrapped with $100,000 in 2006 and got the product to a certain level. Slide decks don’t cut it in the Indian venture community, so we needed to showcase our product and show numbers, particularly our user growth. We raised $500,000 from the nascent angel community in India, giving us about a one-year runway.”

Later, Apalya raised $3 million of Series C capital based on 200% year over year growth.

Reddy’s lesson: “Our first and second rounds took us about two months each for term sheet and closure. After that, growth expectations and the business environment became very different – after all, how do you sustain 200% growth? – and everything took longer. Consequently, our latest round took us about 18 months. Meanwhile, we ran mostly on revenue, with a bridge loan.”

Next Steps

I’ll have more insights on specific funding topics from these entrepreneurs in my next post, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, is funding on your mind these days?

• Watch the video of this panel session, Tips on Raising Funds in Today’s Financial Environment.
• The Qualcomm Ventures QPrize™ competition is accepting business plans through April 18, 2014. Find out more about the international seed investment competition featuring seven regional prizes totaling $100,000 and a $150,000 grand prize.

Biogasoline could be joining biodiesel at the pumps

By now, most people have at least a passing knowledge of biodiesel – it's diesel fuel made from plant or animal oils, as opposed to the more traditional and less eco-friendly petroleum. While it's a good choice for people with diesel-powered vehicles, those of us with gas-burning cars haven't been able to get in on the action ... although that may be about to change.

Diesel fuel, of both the traditional and bio varieties, is made up of linear hydrocarbons. These are long straight chains of carbon atoms, and they differ from the shorter, branched chains – known as branched hydrocarbons – that make up gasoline. It's possible to create linear hydrocarbons from things like plant waste, but it hasn't been possible to use that same source to produce branched hydrocarbons that have the volatility of gasoline.

At least, not until now.

Led by Prof. Mark Mascal, a team at the University of California, Davis has used a feedstock of levulinic acid to create biogasoline. Levulinic acid is itself derived from pretty much any cellulosic material, such as corn stalks, straw or other plant waste.

That waste does not have to be fermented, plus the fuel-making process is reportedly inexpensive and offers waste-to-gas yields of over 60 percent. The university has filed a patent on the technology

A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Are You Making These 10 Dangerous Smartphone Mistakes?

Are You Making These 10 Dangerous Smartphone Mistakes? is a post by Josh Smith from Gotta Be Mobile.If you own an iPhone or Android smartphone odds are you are making at least one of these dangerous mistakes that can put your personal information or details at risk.

There are two types of dangerous smartphone behavior that stand out, carrying an iPhone into a hot tub with a beer in your hand is one type, while the other is leaving a smartphone and the data on it unprotected from loss or theft.

Despite advances in software and hardware many iPhone and Android owners don’t take the simplest steps to protect the data on their smartphone from theft.

Read on to find out if you are guilty of these 10 dangerous smartphone mistakes and how you can fix them.

Protect Your Bubble is one of the top smartphone insurance options we found last year and they’ve rounded up data on dangerous smartphone behavior. The list below and the infographic shows the Top 10 dangerous smartphone mistakes users make.

1. No password
2. Saving banking login information
3. Taking, sending and saving nude photos
4. Clicking on risky links
5. Posting photos while on vacation
6. Posting photos with location settings turned on.
7. Giving out personal information to random callers
8. Using it without a case
9. Connecting to unsecure WiFi networks
10. No smartphone insurance or warranty

It’s not surprising that a smartphone insurance company lists this as one of the options, but these are all valid items that users should be aware of and take steps to be safe. Check out the infographic to see more about the behaviors and read on to learn how to use your smartphone safer.

Secure Your Smartphone

iPhone and Android smartphones make it easy to secure your information with a passcode, pattern, facial unlock or fingerprint. Yes, it adds an extra step to login, but it also is one big roadblock in someone taking your personal information.

A quick trip to settings will let you lock your iPhone, Android or Windows Phone with a passcode of some kind. It’s an important first step.

Saving Financial Logins

It’s annoying to type in a complex banking password on a smartphone, but if you aren’t using passcodes you’re leaving yourself open to trouble and identity theft if someone steals your phone.

A better option is to use a tool like LastPass to keep your passwords secure but easy for you to access on your iPhone or Android.

Taking Nude Photos

The easiest solution is to not take them in the first place as it is all too easy to send one to your mom by accident, let them slip into the hands of a thief or accidentally show up in a slideshow. If you must take them, secure your phone, exclude the folder from gallery and be very careful who you send them too.

Clicking on Risky Links

We often see risky links come from text message and email alerts claiming to offer important information about our bank account and we aren’t alone. Keep in mind that most banks won’t send you a text asking you to login or call them at a number provided. If you get an alert call your bank at a number you trust. If you need to verify something don’t click the link in an email. Instead go to the address and login like you would normally. It is too easy for a scammer to trick you with a long url that is hidden after the page loads.

Photos on Vacation and with Location Data

While on vacation it’s natural to want to share photos, but some experts suggest doing this invites burglars to target your house. The safest bet is to post the photos when you get back, but many users will have trouble waiting.

When you snap a photo on the iPhone or Android the camera can embed the location into the photo. This is handy for looking at photos grouped by location on the iPhone, Android or on a computer, but when you send a photo by email or message it can pass on your location to the recipient. This could unwittingly reveal your home or work location to someone.

Thankfully Twitter and Facebook appear to strip this location data out of photos share don the services.

Answering Fishy Calls

The safest strategy when it comes to answering an unknown caller is to simply avoid talking to the person. If you get an unknown call don’t answer it. If they leave a message and claim you are in financial or legal trouble, find the right number for your bank or city instead of calling them back. Scammers will often use a phone call to get users to reveal the information needed to get into accounts.

Using a Smartphone Without a Case

Using a smartphone without a case is most dangerous if you can’t afford to replace the phone or don’t have insurance or accidental damage protection. A case is an easy way to prevent cracked screens that can kill a smartphone and to help keep resale value high by preventing scratches.

If you need a start, here are a few case roundups to look at.

• Best iPhone 5s Cases
• Best Galaxy S4 Cases
• Amazing iPhone 5 Cases
• Best Nexus 5 Cases

Not everyone needs a case, but if you don’t have the cash to replace a damaged phone a case is a good investment.

Connecting to an Unsecured WiFi Network

When on the go many users connect to a WiFi network at a coffee shop or other public place which can open you up to unwittingly sharing personal information or login details. Granted a nefarious individual may not be sniffing around your coffee shop, but it is a good idea to make sure you connect to any websites on these accounts using a https web address, or simply use your mobile connection instead of risking it. PCWorld shares the risks and how to stay secure.

Using a Smartphone Without Insurance or a Warranty

The final dangerous smartphone behavior is debatable as not everyone needs insurance or a warranty on a smartphone, but for many users it is a good idea.

If you have kids, pets that like to chew things, party too hard or work in a hazardous setting you definitely need to consider insurance or a warranty. Other users who need to be concerned about loss or theft should also consider insurance, but the choice isn’t as easy compared to high-risk users.

Insurance protects against loss and theft, while warranties will cover defects and some will cover accidental damage like drops or water damage.

Check out Gotta Be Mobile’s top iPhone 5s insurance and warranty options to see how the options compare. Other than the AppleCare+ option most of these are available on any smartphone. Readers rank Protect Your Bubble as the top option with AppleCare+ and Squaretrade in second place.

In Depth: Bluetooth: What does it really do and will it be replaced?

Bluetooth is old and it might be on the way out. It's been around since 1994 and these days it seems to be in just about anything that's even looked at a circuit board, but now there are new kids on the block.

NFC, Wi-Fi Direct and more are encroaching on Bluetooth's turf, which got us wondering, is Bluetooth here to stay or are its days numbered?

Before we can answer that though it's important to understand exactly what Bluetooth does.

What does Bluetooth really do?

In the words of Suke Jawanda, Chief Marketing Officer of Bluetooth SIG, "Bluetooth is a wireless communication technology that allows people to conveniently connect their devices with other devices" and "the role of the technology is evolving to not only allow devices to talk with one another, but actually allow the seamless communication between devices, local applications and the cloud."

At its most basic, Bluetooth could be used for transferring files or contact details between two phones for example, or for an ongoing transfer of data, such as in a hands free kit, where the earpiece would use Bluetooth to wirelessly send and receive sound to and from a phone.

Bluetooth can also be used to wirelessly control devices. For example by using Bluetooth to pair a smartphone to some speakers not only can you send music from the phone to be played out of the speakers, but you can also then use the phone to adjust the volume, pause the music or skip track.

Similarly the wireless controllers used by the PlayStation 4 and some other consoles use Bluetooth to pair with the console and wireless keyboards and mice generally rely on Bluetooth.

Its ability to pair devices has made Bluetooth a key part of the growing Internet of Things (IoT) - smart, connected devices covering everything from phones and watches to cars, washing machines and lights, which can all communicate with one another, or at least with any other devices that it could conceivably be useful to communicate with.

The Internet of Things is likely to be a big part of Bluetooth's future too, as according to Jawanda "We have an exciting road map. Being the largest wireless technology in the world, we're clear on our responsibility and role as the stewards of the technology ­to be the trusted and low power link of the internet of things. We're just truly at the beginning of fulfilling against this mandate."

Bluetooth's capabilities have also been put to some more inventive uses, such as preventing the theft or loss of an item by pairing it to a mobile phone and then having an alert go off on the phone when the handset and its paired item become separated and the connection is lost. The same concept has also been applied to man overboard alarms on boats.

Developments

Since its creation 20 years ago Bluetooth has seen a number of improvements. Over the years the speed of connection and discovery of Bluetooth devices has been increased, the data transfer rate has got faster and support for low energy use (known as Bluetooth Smart or BLE) has been added.

The latest version of Bluetooth currently available is 4.1, which according to Jawanda "enhanced usability and increased developer flexibility." One of those enhancements took the form of removing the need for a host when transferring information or data.

With earlier versions of Bluetooth everything would need to communicate directly with a host device, but now devices can communicate independently and then feed that data back to the host all at once.

For example if you pair both a pedometer and a heart rate monitor to a phone then with Bluetooth 4.0 and below they both have to separately send their data to the handset, but with Bluetooth 4.1 they'd be able to combine their data and send it together, which is a far more efficient way of doing things and makes other devices less dependent on phones.

This upgrade will also likely be of enormous benefit to the Internet of Things, as that has designs on fully connecting houses and even cities. However Bluetooth 4.1 was only released in December 2013, so it's not in widespread use just yet.

The contenders

Bluetooth has had a good run and as it's continually improving it's managed to stay relevant. But it's got some competition now, most notably from NFC and Wi-Fi Direct.

According to Paula Hunter, NFC Forum Executive Director, NFC (or Near Field Communication) is useful for "everything from access control to device pairing to mobile payments to smart posters. It is particularly well-suited to use cases where the user wants to initiate an action quickly and easily over a short range."

It "harmonises today's diverse contactless technologies, enabling solutions in areas such as information collection and exchange, access control, healthcare, loyalty and coupons, transportation, payments, and consumer electronics."

In a lot of ways then it's like Bluetooth, as it allows two devices to communicate and transfer data. It also consumes less power than standard Bluetooth and according to Hunter it "sets up faster than Bluetooth and is better at point-to-point communications."

However it is much shorter range than Bluetooth, requiring devices to either be touching or within around 4 centimetres of one another, while Bluetooth has a range of up to 100 metres.

It can play a role in longer range communication, for example Google's Android Beam makes use of it, but it simply uses NFC as a quick and easy way to activate Bluetooth and pair two devices, as by touching the two devices together Bluetooth will be enabled and the two devices will automatically be paired. After which Bluetooth handles the heavy lifting.

Samsung's S-Beam uses NFC in a similar way, but it activates Wi-Fi Direct rather than Bluetooth.

Hunter explains that "NFC's bi-directional communication ability is ideal for establishing connections with other technologies with the simplicity of touch. For example, if a user wants to connect a mobile device to a stereo system to play music, he can simply touch the device to the stereo's NFC touchpoint and the devices will negotiate the best wireless technology to use."

NFC in itself more complements Bluetooth than replaces it. As while there is some shared functionality and even some things that NFC is better at, such as contactless payments, ultimately the incredibly short range of NFC means that it will never be in a position to truly replace Bluetooth.

According to Hunter "the two technologies are complementary. NFC is great at showing intent, pairing devices and completing simple transactions with a touch. Bluetooth LE is great for micro-location, push-marketing and having a persistent connection with smart wearables."

Going direct

Wi-Fi Direct could be a bigger threat to Bluetooth as it doesn't have the same range restrictions as NFC.

According to Tina Hanzlik, Wi-Fi Alliance's Senior Marketing Manager, with Wi-Fi Direct "two or more devices can connect directly by Peer-to-Peer in the absence of a traditional Wi-Fi hotspot or network.

"Wi-Fi Direct-certified devices can also connect directly with nearly all of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED devices a user already owns, allowing users, their co-workers, friends and family to connect anywhere, anytime."

As Wi-Fi Direct can be used to connect devices and transfer data between them it can carry out many of the same functions as Bluetooth, and in some ways it's even better as it can transfer data at much higher speeds than Bluetooth.

That's a big advantage as while Bluetooth tops out at around 24 Mbps, Wi-Fi Direct is more than ten times faster, with speeds of up to around 250 Mbps.

It's versatile too. Hanzlik states that "Wi-Fi Direct devices can perform any function or application that you do today over standard Wi-Fi connections. Devices can connect for file sharing and syncing, sending messages, printing, gaming, displaying video, or playing audio."

So could Wi-Fi Direct replace Bluetooth? Perhaps. Bluetooth still has the low energy market cornered as the power consumption of Wi-Fi Direct is much higher than BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). Meaning fitness devices such as heart rate monitors and other small, low power devices will continue to favour Bluetooth.

But for many other things and particularly for anything that involves large amounts of data being transferred, Wi-Fi Direct could become a more desirable option as it can transfer data at much higher speeds.

Take off

It's taking off fast too, according to Hanzlik "to date over 4200 products have been certified for Wi-Fi Direct. From smartphones to printers, Blu-ray players to fitness devices, all types of products are implementing Wi-Fi Direct to allow users to seamlessly connect devices wherever and whenever they wish."

There are other threats on the horizon too. For example a research team at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University has created a chipset called 'VIRTUS', which they claim can wirelessly transfer data at 2 gigabits per second.

That equates to 80 MP3 songs every second, making it around 1,000 times faster than Bluetooth. Whether the chipset will ever make it into consumer products remains to be seen, but if it does it could be a real threat to Bluetooth, though like Wi-Fi Direct it lacks Bluetooth's low energy support.

Hazy future

Bluetooth isn't going away any time soon. In fact the recent update to version 4.1 has prepared it for a whole new generation of smart devices and could lead to it becoming a vital piece of infrastructure for the Internet of Things, but it's not the only wireless technology around.

Any technology which can both provide higher data transfer speeds than Bluetooth and use as little power as Bluetooth low energy could render Bluetooth obsolete.

It's still going strong after 20 years and right now there's nothing that quite ticks all the boxes Bluetooth does.

Jawanda is certainly optimistic about its prospects, arguing that if anything, Bluetooth is actually replacing other wireless technologies, saying that "given the advent of Bluetooth Smart – it's performance, low cost, simplicity and ubiquity – it's become the preferred wireless technology for OEMs to replace niche or proprietary technologies that prevented them from hitting scale and working with the phones/tablets/PCs their customers already owned."

"If you want to connect your device to a few things, you can use Bluetooth or other proprietary or niche technologies to do so. If you want to connect to a few billion devices your customer probably already has in the palm of their hand, then Bluetooth and Bluetooth Smart is the technology.

The fact is, Bluetooth Smart is the fastest adopted wireless technology in the history of wireless and the native OS support and massive and growing network effect is what's behind this." But with the likes of Wi-Fi Direct encroaching on it Bluetooth may still need to be wary.

On the other hand, there's little reason for any other wireless technology to try and overthrow Bluetooth, when it could just as well be complementing it.

Hunter explains that "it is best to think of wireless technologies as tools in a solution developer's toolbox. Everyone benefits when developers have a rich and robust set of tools to choose from. The application or use case dictates which tool or combination of tools to use.

"No one tool is inherently better than or can replace another, any more than the hex screw is better than or will replace the Phillips screw. Developers will choose to use NFC, Bluetooth, a combination, or a completely different wireless technology depending on the requirements of the application and the desired user experience."