Internet access

Alabama officials have selected a Cincinnati company for a $1.7 million two-year contract to make Internet broadband service available in all areas of the southern state.

Currently, dial-up Internet access is available using telephone lines in most parts of the state, but the service is slow and sometimes unreliable.

Gov. Bob Riley said Monday his broadband project will make high-speed Internet access with cables or wireless connections available even in rural areas. He said customers will still have to buy Internet access from providers like cable television or phone companies.

A new study shows that more than half of teenagers mention drugs, alcohol, sex or violence on their MySpace pages. Yet getting teens to clean up their pages is easier than many might assume, researchers say.

More than 90 percent of adolescents have Internet access, and about half of these use social networking sites, such as MySpace or Facebook, according to the study of 500 18-year-olds in Monday's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

It's the year 2020. Most people use mobile devices to connect to the Internet; voice-recognition and touch-based user interfaces are in greater use; and notions of privacy will have changed as the differences between personal and work time or physical and virtual reality become fewer.

Those are some of the findings from a new report, The Future of the Internet III, from the Pew Internet and American Life Project with Elon University in North Carolina.

'Universal Standards'

How important is the Internet to you every day in uncertain economic times? If you're like most U.S. adults, it ranks higher than many other activities, according to a report from Harris Interactive and Intel.

Indeed, most U.S. adults find Internet access essential to daily life in today's economic climate. Some are choosing the Internet as a "must-have" over watching TV and having sex.

Delta Air Lines is taking Internet access to the skies this week with the launch of Gogo Inflight Internet service on board six of its planes. Delta is introducing the service with a free trial that lets consumers experience the technology.

Monday's announcement highlights the first of more than 300 Delta domestic planes that will soon feature in-flight Internet, according to the company.

Free video to mobile phones became reality on Wednesday in cell phone-crazy Italy, where Vodafone users with certain late-generation smart phones can now watch video content from Internet TV operator Babelgum, free of data charges.

The twinning of Babelgum's content with Vodafone's service is a next step toward realizing the full promise of smart phones, which integrate the Internet with the mobile phone.

The Italian launch will be followed by the rollout in Britain on Thursday, with other countries, including the United States, to follow, Babelgum said.

License plates may be coming to cyberspace.

A U.S. government and technology industry panel on cybersecurity has recommended that the government end its reliance on passwords and enforce what the industry describes as "strong authentication."

Such an approach would probably mean that all government computer users would have to hold a device to gain access to a network computer or online service. The commission is also encouraging that all nongovernmental commercial services use such a device.

Novatel Wireless on Tuesday unveiled a line of what it calls Intelligent Mobile Hotspots, or MiFi, modems. With the MiFi line, Novatel hopes to drive a new ecosystem of broadband connectivity.

Novatel's solution works differently than existing router solutions that require an external broadband modem and serve only to provide connectivity. The MiFi line creates a personal cloud of high-speed Internet connectivity that can be shared between multiple users and Wi-Fi devices such as laptops, cameras, gaming devices, and multimedia players.

Today, Virgin America plans to become the latest airline to offer in-flight Wi-Fi Internet, a service with a problematic past that still promises far-ranging flexibility in entertainment.

The San Francisco-based carrier has scheduled the service for one Airbus A320 aircraft, joining American Airlines as the only carriers in the world to offer full Internet access.

Meraki, a WiFi company that sells its mesh WiFi networks all over the globe, has just made wireless that much more wireless – starting in December they will be offering solar powered router to their customers. The units will be pricey - $1,500 for a model that comes with its own solar panels – although there is a cheaper version for half the price that comes without the solar panels (you attach them yourself).