CNET’s Maggie Reardon answers the question:
“Can I really live without unlimited data?”

When I was a kid, you had to be at home or at work to make or receive a call and if you wanted to watch a movie on a TV screen, you had to wait until one of your few local stations put it on the air.

The “good old days” weren’t all that good

The closest thing we had to texting was telegrams. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the average person in 1960 had to work for 84 minutes to earn enough to send a 10 word international message.

Long distance calls were so expensive that my family, which lived in Los Angeles, only called our New York relatives on special occasions. In 1964, the Associated Press ran a story about AT&T “slashing” long distance rates to $1 per three-minute call after 8 p.m. and all day Sundays. People who traveled overseas had to wait in line at railway stations to pay $10 a minute to call back to the United States.

I remember how excited I was in the late ’70s when it finally became possible to dial into MCI’s network and then punch in a code and a phone number to get the cost of a domestic long distance call down to only 16 cents a minute. For many of us, domestic long distance and even some international calls to land lines are now free.

But my mom and dad’s recurring monthly bills were relatively low. In the ’60s, the average family paid about $10 a month for phone service and maybe a few dollars to subscribe to a newspaper. Adjusting for inflation, $10 in 1965 would be $72 today, but it’s still cheap compared to the more than $200 a family of four might spend for unlimited cellphone service in addition to $100 or more for cable or satellite TV, plus $20 to $50 a month for Internet service.

Still, most of us pay these costs because we’re enjoying not only unlimited communications via voice, text and email but also access to vast amounts of data, entertainment and information.

Metered Data

But there is a wrinkle. Cellphone companies and some home Internet service providers are starting to measure how much data we use and charge us accordingly. Last week, Verizon Wireless announced that it will join AT&T in eliminating unlimited data plans. Pricing hasn’t been announced but “most of the rumors,” according to the Los Angeles Times, “predict that Verizon will charge $30 a month for 2 gigabytes of data.” AT&T currently charges $15 for 200 megabytes, $25 for 2 gigabytes and $45 for 4 gigabytes.

To put those numbers into context, AT&T’s website has a chart that claims that 2GB is sufficient for 10,000 emails, 4,000 pages of Web browsing, 500 photo uploads and 200 minutes of standard quality YouTube videos.

While that sounds like a lot of data, you could easily exceed it if you use your device to stream movies or TV shows from Netflix, HBO GO or any of the other streaming services offered for home and mobile use. Netflix already has iPhone and Android apps. You might think you’ll never watch a full length movie on a phone, but lots of people watch movies on iPads and other tablets and, increasingly, use phone “tethering” plans to connect their laptops to the Internet. So a lot of people may wind up bumping against these data caps.

Of course, it’s always possible competition will drive prices back down. After all, Sprint and T-Mobile still have unlimited plans, and Sprint is aggressively advertising its “Simply Everything” data plan, which it says “allows customers to use their mobile phones as much as they want without unexpected surprises on their monthly bills due to data overage charges or throttling.” Sprint recently increased its data charges by $10 a month, but even more worrisome is the fact that the competitive landscape is shifting.

Shifting landscape

Unless federal regulators stop it, AT&T will soon acquire T-Mobile, which makes me worry that Verizon might try to buy Sprint. If that happens, competition in most markets will be reduced to two major companies plus some smaller players that have to buy network capacity from one of those two.

Of course, there are always land-based services like cable modems and DSL. But even those services may soon be capped. Time Warner and AT&T already have “usage” or “overage” fees in some markets. At 250GB a month, Comcast’s data is relatively generous but even that may not be enough for everyone. Comcast says that’s enough to watch 125 standard definition movies, but high-definition movies take up even more bandwidth. So it’s not out of the question for a family of movie buffs to exceed that limit, especially if you consider that most households have multiple screens sucking up bandwidth at the same time.

I’m not sure how this will all shake out, though I doubt that data charges will force us back to the days when families all sat together watching Ed Sullivan or Walter Cronkite on the household’s one TV set. But in some respects, it might not be such a bad thing if that were to happen.

Search giant Google has tried its hand at social networking before but has never hit a home run. Its Orkut social networking service is popular in Brazil but not in many other places. Its Twitter-like Buzz didn’t get much positive buzz and its Wave service waved goodbye before it was even officially launched.

With Google+ project, the company hopes that people will interact with their friends a la Facebook but there are some differences.

Circles

Your friendships on Google+ will be centered around “Circles.” The idea is that there is some information you might want to share with one circle of friends and an entirely different set of things you might want to share with another group. You can have a circle of work mates, another circle of drinking buddies and another made up of family members.

Although this is different than Facebook’s default settings, it’s actually possible to do exactly the same thing in Facebook by setting up groups.

Huddle and Hangouts

Google+ will encourage you to hangout with your friends via group chat (they’re calling it Huddle) and via video “hangouts,” which Google describes as “Let buddies know you’re hanging out and see who drops by for a face-to-face-to-face chat. Until we perfect teleportation, it’s the next best thing.”

Sparks you might like & pictures you can auto-share

Although this doesn’t seem all that revolutionary, Google also plans to offer  you videos and articles it thinks you’ll like, “so when you’re free, there’s always something to watch, read, and share.”

And if you want to share pictures of yourself and your friends, you can take advantage of the service’s Instant Upload feature so that “your photos and videos upload themselves automatically, to a private album on Google+.”

By invite only (for now)

The company says that it’s “still ironing out a few kinks in Google+” so it’s not ready for everyone. You can click here to receive an email when “the doors are open for real.”

Other stories about  Google+

CNET

Huffington Post

Associated Press

Google+ promotional video

In its latest Transparency Report, Google has disclosed that it recieved 4,601 requests for user data from government agencies in the United States and either “fully or partially” complied with 94% of those requests.  These requests include those from law enforcement as part of criminal investigations.

The company also disclosed that it received 54 government requests to remove content and that it complied with 87% of those, resulting in the removal of 1,421 items.   Most of the items removed were based on “defamation,” but there were 3 items removed because of “privacy and security,” 1 because of “violence” and 1 because of “national security.”  36 removed items were classified as “other.”

Google also disclosed requests and compliance rates with other countries. For example, it complied with 79% of the 1,699 requests from India but only 12% of Poland’s 272 requests and none of Turkey’s 45 requests.

“Our goal is to provide our users access to information and to protect the privacy of our users,” according to Google’s official blog. “Whenever we receive a request, we first check to make sure it meets both the letter and spirit of the law before complying. When possible, we notify affected users about requests for user data that may affect them. And, if we believe a request is overly broad, we will seek to narrow it. ”

Click here for details on each country

I have an Android phone and it’s not uncommon for my battery to be dead by the end of the day.  A few things I’ve learned include:

• Only run apps if you really need them and kill apps that you’re not using (for Android I recommend Advanced Task Killer). Limit your use of email, text messaging and web surfing. I know these are great features and I use them all the time, but not when my battery is low.

• Make sure all unneeded “radios” are turned off. This includes Bluetooth, WiFi and GPS.  Some phones can create their own WiFi hotspot, but that’s a battery killer so try not to use it unless you’re plugged in. Also 4G burns up batteries very quickly so turn it off unless you’re plugged in.

• Some phones support an extra capacity battery. They typically cost about $50 and they make the phone thicker and heavier but — for me — it’s worth it.

• Consider carrying an external battery such as the $50 Enercell that keep your phone running.

charge For more tips, check out 10 Ways to Boot Your Smartphone’s Battery over at PCWorld and Battery Life Tips at Huffington Post.

*Thanks to Bob Frankston for the tip on an external battery

by Larry Magid

The Financial Times is reporting that Twitter will include advertisements in users’ message streams “according to people with direct knowledge of its plans.”

The newspaper’s site also said that Twitter is likely to launch a Groupon-like service to provide discount offers to Twitter users.

Twitter already offers “promoted Tweets” which are placed “at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages,” according to a Twitter help page. The Tweets are labeled as “promoted” but “in every other respect they exist initially as regular Tweets and are organically sent to the timelines of their followers.”

The difference between what the company now offers and what it is reportedly considering is that the new ads would be part of the user’s regular Twitter stream among the Tweets of the people or organizations users follow.

In March Twitter introduced and a “QuickBar” in its iPhone app which displayed ads, but withdrew it a few weeks later after user complaints.

Likely to generate complaints

I certainly respect Twitter’s need to sell advertising. Without ads, the company couldn’t stay in business — unless it started charging people to send and read Tweets which isn’t going to happen. But the question is whether they can come up with an advertising strategy that isn’t intrusive.

Google, for example, has proven that it’s possible to put clearly labeled ads on the side or above search results and on the side of a user’s Gmail page without actually interrupting what the user is doing. That type of creative placement of ads has earned Google plenty of money without alienating its user-base. If Twitter winds up interrupting users with ads, the reaction will be loud, swift and not pretty.

I don’t see any downside to a Groupon-like discount program as long as it’s something people subscribe to or see outside of their regular Twitter stream.

Percent of people’s overall social network that they have ‘friended’ on Facebook (Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project)

Contrary to what some people might think, using social media like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn actually correlates with being more social in the real world.

A just released report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that people who use use Facebook are more trusting than those who don’t and have closer personal relationships.

When asked whether they  felt “that most people can be trusted,” Facebook users who use the site multiple times per day are “43% more likely than other internet users and more than three times as likely as non-internet users to feel that most people can be trusted.”

Perhaps more important, Facebook users have slightly more close confidents (2.16) than non-users (1.93).  Confidents are defined as “people with whom they discuss important matters.”

The study also found that Facebook users are more likely to get emotional support from others and more likely to be politically engaged.

And, not surprisingly, Facebook users report that the service has helped them resurrect”dormant relationships.”  The average user in the survey has 229 Facebook friends, broken down as follows:

• 22% people from high school
• 12% extended family
• 10% coworkers
• 9% college friends
• 8% immediate family
• 7% people from voluntary groups
• 2% neighbor

The report also found that, on an average day:

• 15% of Facebook users update their own status.
• 22% comment on another’s post or status
• 20% comment on another user’s photos.
• 26% “Like” another user’s content.
• 10% send another user a private message

Why?

The report didn’t indicate why Facebook and other social media users are slightly more social than non-users, but the results didn’t surprise me. We are long past the point where people who use online services are using them in lieu of personal relationships. Facebook, for both adults and kids, is increasingly becoming an extension or amplifier of real-world relationship While there are cases of people who use social media to reach out to strangers, most people use it to keep up with people they know in person or friends of friends. To the extent that people make new online friends they are often people with similar interests.
Methodology

Pew conducted telephone interviews with 2,255 American adults between October 20-November 28, 2010.  That included 1,787 internet users and 975 users of social networking services such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  Surveyors say they have “95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.”

Disclosure: Larry Magid is co-director of ConnectSafely.org, a non-profit Internet safety organization that receives financial support from Facebook and other companies.

Even though it’s the undisputed leader in search, Google isn’t sitting still. It can’t. Unlike email services or social networking sites, users don’t have a great deal invested in which search engine they use so – as former search leader Alta Vista found out when Google hit the scene more than a decade ago — users can and will switch search engines if a better one comes along.

So, with some fanfare, Google summoned journalists to the Yerbe Buena Center in San Francisco on Tuesday to attend “Inside Search,” to learn about how the company is innovating to keep up or ahead of the competition.

Mobile search

New mobile search has icons for commonly accessed places

One of the first areas they talked about was mobile search which has seen a “5X” growth over the past two years and has different patterns than desktop search. For example, there is a bit of a dip in desktop search around noon but a small bump in mobile search, perhaps because people are away from the office, using their phones instead of their PCs.  And while desktop search tends to peak in the afternoon, mobile search peaks at night.  Another difference is that mobile actually increases during the summer and Christmas periods when desktop search tends to decline.

But despite the growth of mobile search, there remain some obstacles, not least of which is the fact that few of us are as comfortable typing on our mobiles as we are on our PC keyboards. To improve that experience, Google announced improvements to its speech recognition engine as well as changes to its mobile search to enable users to find what they are looking for with fewer keystrokes or “taps.”  The beta version of mobile search that Google released today adds a plus icon next to results that allow people to get more granular information on their query by taping on a suggested result rather than having to type in an additional search query.  There is also now a preview option which helps eliminate clicking on the wrong link by giving you a preview of what to expect before you click.

Also, mobile search now has icons for restaurants, coffee shops, bars and other nearby points of interest.

Google has long had voice search on iPhones and Android phones and is now adding voice to desktop search. One reason for this is to get users used to the idea of having voice available everywhere in the hope that people will get used to it and use it more on mobile devices where it makes the most sense. The new feature will initially be available in Google Chrome browser where users will see a microphone icon that they can use to activate voice recognition.

Microphone in Google search will let users use voice instead of fingers

Also new to Chrome will be the ability to search via images. Users will be able to drag an image from their desktop to have Google try to recognize it and search accordingly. An example given at the press conference was a blurry picture taken on a Greek island. Few people would recognize the island from the picture, but Google was able to compare with all the images of that island that its image search has already indexed and recognize where the picture was taken.   Image recognition is not being configured to recognize faces or pictures of the exterior of private homes however, in response to reporters’ questions, Google executives pointed out that its pattern recognition algorithms might be able to pinpoint images of famous people or well-known buildings because even though its pattern recognition is content agnostic, it can identify any image if there are enough examples of it on the web.

For desktop users, the most interesting announcement is what Google is calling Instant Pages that, literally, bring up search results instantaneously.  The way it works is that as you search, Google starts to figure out what you’re looking for based on the characters you’ve entered and once it’s pretty sure it knows what you want, it starts to download or “cache” that page. Once it’s sure it presents the page which can be even before you’ve finished typing the query. In an example at the press conference, the Washington Post page loaded immediately (as in zero seconds) compared to 3.2 seconds without the Instant Pages turned on.

Click here for archive of my live blog of the Google Inside Search event

Strum the strings and click on icon (inside red border) to record your music

On Thursday June 9th, Google posted a “doodle” to commemorate what would have been the 96th birtday of guitarist and guitar designer Les Paul who died in 2009.

What’s unique about this doodle is that you can actually strum it or, according to PC World, play it with your PC keyboard. You can also record your strumming by clicking on the record icon near the lower right. Your composition will be saved to the web and you’ll get a URL to listen and send to your friends. Here’s an example.

The good news is that Google recently tweeted that the doodle now has a permanent home.  The Huffington Post and  Washington Post have lessons on how to play the guitar. An easy way to start is to use the number keys (1-0) to go up and down the scale.

Listen to Larry’s 1-minute CBS News Tech Talk segment about the Les Paul Doodle

CNET news is reporting that regulators are investigating whether Facebook’s photo-tagging service violates European law.  The “tag suggestion” service that Facebook introduced in the United States in December is now being introduced “in most countries,” according to a post on Facebook’s official blog.

The blog post said that “When you or a friend upload new photos, we use face recognition software—similar to that found in many photo editing tools—to match your new photos to other photos you’re tagged in. We group similar photos together and, whenever possible, suggest the name of the friend in the photos.”

But Bloomberg reports that the service could violate European rules, according to Gerard Lommel, a member of the ”Article 29 Data Protection Working Party.”  Lommel told Bloomberg, “Tags of people on pictures should only happen based on people’s prior consent and it can’t be activated by default.”

Facebook’s help center features a section on Photo tagging including advice on how to opt out of being suggested for tagging from Fadebook’s Privacy Settings page.

Listen to Larry’s 1-minute CBS News Tech Talk segment on this subject.

Disclosure: Larry Magid is co-director of ConnectSafely.org which receives financial support from Facebook.