The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday launched a broadband test service to help consumers clock the speed of their Internet.

Located at the site www.broadband.gov</a>, the test is aimed at allowing consumers to compare their actual speeds with the speeds advertised by their providers.

The FCC release follows an FCC meeting in September where officials said that actual speeds were estimated to lag by as much as 50 percent during busy hours.

The FCC’s new digital tools will arm users with real-time information about their broadband connection and the agency with useful data about service across the country,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.

The FCC is also collecting information about where broadband is not available. Consumers can email the FCC at fccinfo@fcc.gov or call the FCC.

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• FCC launches broadband test site for consumers (computerworld.com)

Motorola is the leading handset manufacturer in the United States, while BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion leads the smartphone space, according to market research firm comScore.

Google also is gaining share in the smartphone space, though Microsoft is slipping a bit, comScore said March 10 in a report detailing trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during a three-month timeframe from October 2009 to January.
 
comScore found that 234 million Americans 13 years and older are mobile subscribers, and among them, Motorola was a top mobile phone choice, commanding 22.9 percent of the market share, followed by LG, with 21.7 percent, Samsung, with 21.1 percent, Nokia with 9.1 percent and RIM with 7.8 percent.
 
The ranking order was consistent with an earlier report, with a three-month time frame ending in October 2009, though between the two reports, Motorola, LG and Nokia each dropped small amounts of percentage points, while Samsung and RIM rose slightly.

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• Where Mobile Phone Prices Are Heading (seekingalpha.com)
• Android, RIM Gain Market Share, Apple Stable, Motorola Drops [Mobile Market Share] (techie-buzz.com)
• Motorola, RIM leading, with Apple on the rise (news.cnet.com)

High Risk Credit Card Processing

eComTechnology is a eCommerce company with a diverse range of products and services, including a very secure and reliable multi-currency platform for credit card processing, market leading fraud minimization systems and premium support services for the sustainable future.
Herbal Supplements, Financial Consulting, Calling Cards, Phone Cards, VOIP, Telecommunications, High Volume, Telemarketing, Escort Merchants, Dating, eBook & Software, Event Tickets,Prepaid Debit Cards, Offshore.
Asia,United States, Canada or based in Europe inquire or apply onsite today at eComTechnology and in most cases you can be processing in less than 5 days through your own virtual terminal or gateway.

Merchant Accounts for Credit Card Processing 

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• Virtual Terminals – Credit Card Processing at Ecomtechnology (robbiz1978.blogspot.com)
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Google Maps Gets Bike Lanes/Directions Just In Time for Spring

Google added bike lanes and bicycle directions to Google Maps today, allowing you to find routes that aren’t too hilly or congested. It’s pretty awesome!

Bike functionality is available for over 150 American cities at the moment, but it’s safe to assume that, like everything Google does, it will eventually expand to cover most of the planet

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• Google Maps now includes bike lanes and directions (dvice.com)

smartphone

According to a new Pew Research Center report, 26 percent of American adults now get some form of news from their cell phones, FierceMobileContent reports–a pretty hefty number when you consider the high cost of data plans. The study said 72 percent of those folks check weather reports, 68 percent browse headlines, 44 percent go after sports scores, 35 percent look for traffic updates, and 32 percent check stock quotes and other financial news. Interestingly, just under half (49 percent) of those adults have downloaded a mobile app to do these things, while 31 percent receive news alerts via SMS or e-mail, according to the report. Lots of good stuff in this one, so hit up the link for more numbers.

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• Survey: 26 pct of Americans get news via phone (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

All U.S. Android Phones Reportedly Getting the Bump to 2.1

We recently heard that Android 2.1 was on its way to the Droid, but now sources tell AndroidandMe that all U.S. Android phones will be receiving Android 2.1 firmware in coming months, though some will require a wipe to upgrade.

As we’ve heard is the case with the Droid, some niceties like animated wallpapers probably won’t make the jump, but if the updates come to fruition, increased text-to-speech support and enhanced widgets will likely come along with them. The price of getting up to date, Androidandme explains, might be wiping your phone clean. A bummer, but that’s life.

Google has shown its awareness that fragmentation is a serious issue for Android, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try to make things a little more even across the board. The G1 and MyTouch are supposedly candidates for the first wave of updates, so keep an eye for confirmation in coming weeks.

Nortel Networks, just over a year into its bankruptcy, is selling off its last significant business by accepting Genband’s $182 million offer for its VOIP business. Nortel over the past few months already had sold off the bulk of its units, including its wireless and enterprise businesses. The deal leaves Nortel with only a handful of assets, such as its multiservice switch business.

Nortel Networks, which has sold off significant parts of its business since filing for bankruptcy protection in January 2009, is now selling its voice-over-IP unit.

Genband, a small company based in Plano, Texas, has agreed to buy Nortel’s VOIP business for $182 million, Nortel announced Feb. 24. Nortel officials said they expect to close the deal in the second quarter after gaining regulatory approval in the United States, Canada and Israel. The two companies have scheduled a joint hearing March 3 before U.S. and Canadian regulators.

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Software giant Microsoft Corp has won a U.S. court approval to deactivate a global network of computers that the company accused of spreading spam and harmful computer codes, the Wall Street Journal said.

Technology

A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, granted a request by Microsoft to deactivate 277 Internet domains, which the software maker said is linked to a “botnet,” the paper said.

A botnet is an army of infected computers that hackers can control from a central machine.

The company aims to secretly sever communications channels to the botnet before its operators can re-establish links to the network, the paper said.

Microsoft on Monday filed a suit that targets a botnet identified as Waledac, the paper said.

Judge Brinkema’s order required VeriSign Inc, an Internet security and naming services provider, to temporarily turn off the suspect Internet addresses, the paper said.

Microsoft could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

On February 18, Internet security firm NetWitness said in a report that a new type of computer virus is known to have breached almost 75,000 computers in 2,500 organizations around the world, including user accounts of popular social network websites.

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Intel is leading a group of capital venture firms and technology businesses—including Dell, Cisco, HP, Google and Microsoft—in investing up to $3.5 billion over the next two years in U.S. tech companies, and in increasing the hiring of recently U.S. college graduates. The goal is to help the U.S. economic and improve its competitiveness in the world.

Intel is leading a large group of venture capital firms and IT vendors in creating an investment vehicle to pump $3.5 billion into U.S.-based technology companies over the next two years.

At a speech Feb. 23 at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., Intel CEO Paul Otellini the Invest in America Alliance, in which some two dozen venture capital firms will participate, as will 17 technology vendors.

The economic goals of the effort are two-fold, according to Intel: to help companies in growth areas of the industry and to help recent college graduates find work in what promises to continue to be a difficult job market.

Both of these goals will help boost the United States’ competitiveness around the world.

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Wall Street bonuses were up 17 per cent to over $20-billion (U.S.) in 2009, the year taxpayers bailed out the financial sector after its meltdown, New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Tuesday.

Total compensation at the largest securities firms grew beyond that figure and profits could surpass what he calls an unprecedented $55-billion last year, Mr. DiNapoli said. That’s nearly three times Wall Street’s record increase, a rate of growth that is boosted in part by the record losses in 2008 of nearly $43-billion, the Democrat said.

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• DiNapoli: Wall Street bonuses up 17 percent (seattletimes.nwsource.com)