NetFlipper.com

A counter on Apple’s Web site is quietly ticking off the number of apps downloaded from the App Store. Late Tuesday afternoon, the number was approaching 990 million. Watching the digital numbers spin along is mesmerizing, and if you sit quietly enough you can almost feel the breeze.

According to calculations by U.K. research firm Mobile Squared, at the current rate of downloads, the one billionth app will be sent over the Web sometime on Thursday.

“It took Apple almost six months to reach its first 500 million app downloads and the following 500 million downloads in just 94 days,” said Nick Lane, Mobile Squared’s chief researcher. “That equates to an improved average daily download figure of 2.98 million for the first 500 million to 5.32 million per day for the second 500 million downloads.”

Inflated Significance?

The rapidity with which Apple has approached the one billion mark is receiving a great deal of media attention, but some question whether the significance is overblown. Lane, for instance, notes that worldwide the iPhone accounts for just 0.4 percent of the mobile market.

Moreover, a significant number of the apps that are being so rapidly downloaded — as many as 75 percent — are free, which means Apple is essentially underwriting their distribution. The amount spent by consumers on the remaining quarter of apps, however, has added handsomely to Apple’s bottom line.

Greg Sterling, founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, agreed that Apple has puffed up the billion-download phenomenon, but said there is a real accomplishment underlying the milestone.

“Although the idea of apps predated Apple and the iPhone,” Sterling said, “they’ve created essentially a new marketplace that others are emulating — that’s significant. And while Apple’s handset market share may be small, its role in the mobile Internet is much bigger. The iPhone drives an enormous amount of…

AT&T, the exclusive wireless carrier for Apple’s iPhone in the U.S., is working to double its 3G speeds. AT&T officially completed the build-out of its 3G network in June and is aiming for speeds of 3.6 megabits per second, Scott McElroy, AT&T vice president of technology realization, told Telephony Online.

Currently, AT&T offers 3G speeds of 700 Kbps to 1.7 Mbps for a typical download and 500 Kbps to 1.2 Mbps for an upload using High-Speed Downlink Packet Access/Universal Mobile Telephone System (HSDPA/UMTS) technology.

McElroy said AT&T is conducting trials of the upgraded 3G network in two markets and plans to expand the changes across the entire network once the tests are completed. The move is expected to be AT&T’s last change to the existing HSPA network. AT&T plans to switch to HSPA+ later this year, which could triple peak speeds on the network.

Not only is AT&T adding capacity through upgrades, it’s also including HSPA carriers at various cell-phone sites. McElroy said it’s being done on a market-by-market basis and second and third carriers will be added based on demand.

In order to deal with the increased data traffic from its network upgrades, AT&T is upgrading its backhaul network wherever possible, according to McElroy.

Increase Necessary

The carrier first launched its 3G network in 2005, supporting 1.8 Mbps. Over the past few years, AT&T has upgraded to support 3.6 Mbps. Most mobile devices, including smartphones, laptops and Apple’s iPhone, have the ability to use more capacity.

AT&T is now in the midst of certifying 7.2-Mbps devices on its two test networks, McElroy said.

AT&T’s upgrade is necessary as both the carrier and Apple have been under fire for misleading consumers on the power of the network. Both have been sued for delivering data to the iPhone at slower speeds than…

Teotihuacan is an enormous archaeological site in the Basin of Mexico, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Apart from the pyramidal structures, the archaeological site of Teotihuacan is also known for its large residential complexes, the so-called “street of the dead”, and its colorful well-preserved murals.

Teotihuacan was, at its apogee in the first half of the 1st millennium CE, the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas. During its zenith it may have had more than 100,000 inhabitants placing it among the largest cities of the world in this period. The civilization and cultural complex associated with the site is also referred to as Teotihuacan or Teotihuacano. Although it is a subject of debate whether Teotihuacan was the center of an empire, its influence throughout Mesoamerica is well documented; evidence of Teotihuacano presence, if not outright political and economic control, can be seen at numerous sites in Veracruz and the Maya region. The ethnicity of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan is also a subject of debate and possible candidates are the Nahua, Otomi or Totonac ethnic groups. Often it has been suggested that Teotihuacan was in fact a multiethnic state.

The city and the archaeological site was located in what is now the San Juan Teotihuacán municipality in the State of México, Mexico, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) northeast of Mexico City. The site covers a total surface area of 83 km² and was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, and is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico.

SANTA CLARA, CA–(April 20, 2009) – Infoblox Inc. today announced availability of the new Infoblox PortIQ appliance, which provides visibility into switch port usage — essential for network capacity planning, security investigations, and ease of troubleshooting.

Many enterprises today lack visibility into the utilization of their switch ports, including which are in use, which are available, which devices are connected (or were connected) to each port, and more. This lack of real-time and historical visibility results in unnecessary capital purchases, troubleshooting difficulties, and challenges dealing with security incidents — such as finding and eliminating infected devices on the network.

With the Infoblox PortIQ appliance, network administrators can easily identify the physical port associated with every connected device and get reports on network port utilization. This enables IT departments to get more from their existing assets and make more intelligent switch purchase decisions, saving capital expenses. Additionally, the ability to quickly locate where devices are connected increases security and eases troubleshooting efforts, saving operational costs.

New Infoblox PortIQ Appliance Provides Fast and Accurate Intelligence

The Infoblox PortIQ appliance replaces time consuming and unreliable manual procedures by automatically tracking where devices connect to your network. The Infoblox PortIQ appliance quickly collates and displays information to provide comprehensive insight into what is connected to your network and where. This insight enables network managers to make informed business decisions and reduce operational overhead and port wastage, while enhancing network security.

The Infoblox PortIQ appliance can be operated as a standalone system used to inventory routers and switches, gather port utilization data and provide detailed, easily customized reports on ports in use, activity level and other data. The PortIQ appliance makes it easy to find unused capacity, spot trends, reserve ports for specific projects, detect unauthorized network use, and determine which devices will be impacted by a planned switch upgrade…

www.iamthe-walrus.com So are you in the “Joaquin is on drugs and deeply disturbed camp?” or the “He’s having a laugh camp”. Either way, I can’t wait for that debut hip-hop album.

Ashton Kutcher is the Twitter king.

The actor triumphed over CNN in their much ballyhooed race to be the first to reach a million followers on the microblogging Web site. Kutcher surpassed that benchmark in the early morning hours Friday, narrowly edging out the Time Warner Inc.-owned network.

The actor had long trailed CNN, but he staged a rally in recent days that captured the attention of the Web.

After his come-from-behind win, Kutcher celebrated by tweeting “Victory is ours!” and webcasting a video live on ustream.tv.

At the same time, Oprah Winfrey made her entry to Twitter, joining the site and holding a Twitter special on her show Friday with Kutcher as a guest. She gained 100,000 followers in less than a day.

Kutcher, CNN and Winfrey pledged to mark the occasion by purchasing mosquito bed nets to combat malaria. Kutcher donated $100,000 to the Malaria No More Fund, the charity said Friday.

Though celebrities have become commonplace on Twitter — where people “follow” each other’s updates of 140-characters or less — Winfrey’s entry was sure to cause ripples.

The talk show host was welcomed onto the site with messages from George Stephanopoulos, Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Fallon and Shaquille O’Neal.