Speed

We have become so accustomed to speed for our internet play time that we get upset when things slow down. All Internet Service Providers (ISP) do not measure their speed equally.

ISPs are the big name companies, like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc., that offer you service and provide an on-ramp to the internet and email from your phone or wireless access for your laptop, or iPad. They tout claims of 3G (3rd generation cellular wireless), 4G (4th generation), etc., but the claims are not truly living up to the legal descriptions of those services. For instance, the original ITU-R requirements of data rates approximately up to 1 Gbits ( 1 gigabit = a billion bits per second) for 4G systems. Average phone users get speeds of about 1Mbps (1 thousandth of a Gbits) and the minimum is 400Mbps.

Bottom line, don't believe any of the hype. All providers these days are good enough, unless your are a power user and download large amounts of data or play games with users around the world. Be happy that, for the most part, we no longer have to rely on dial-up service for our home PCs.

Here is a site where you can test your speed. LINK  It takes about 30 seconds and you can see how your home system compares to others. Below are my results with Verizon FIOS.

Google's internal studies show that introducing a delay of 100 to 400 milliseconds (thousandth of a second) when displaying search results led users to conduct up to 0.6 percent fewer searches.

Land Line Telephones

According to the latest survey from the National Center for Health Statistics, nearly 25 percent of Americans have given up their landlines for a cell phone. Another 22 million Americans pay for a VoIP service like Vonage for calls. That leaves over 100 million households still plugged in.

Only 5 percent of adults age 65 or older live in wireless-only households. Last year AT&T petitioned the government to set a date for the removal of all land lines in the US.

Email Photo Frame

Pandigital came out with a $149 Photo Mail Frame in February that gives you a dedicated e-mail address to send images to. They go from your e-mail account to the Pandigital server, which then routes them to the frame via AT&T's cellular network and onto the picture frame.

There is room for 300 images. When the frame gets full, you can delete images.

Telephone

OK, it's time to think about that home phone you are paying for.  The number of people in the US who have eliminated their home landline phones in favor of cell phones doubled between 2006 and 2009, according to a government report. Twenty five percent of US households have no landline.

In December 2009, AT&T proposed that the government develop a plan and set a date to eliminate all telephone line service for the country. Interesting to see something that was once so vital to our comfort and convenience be made redundant.

Some may remember the beginning of phones in the home and 'party' lines. Amazing that in one generation an amazing technology can come and go. I have a feeling many things we have seen the birth of will die before we do. Technology is advancing at such a rapid pace, it is difficult to keep up. Of course it helps if you love technology, like I do. . . almost as much as potato chips and bacon.