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NICE, Calif.--The ads promise high-speed satellite Internet with "speeds that leave dial-up in the dust." What they don't tell you is that if you want a truly 2011 Internet experience--including a steady diet of cat videos and movies streamed from Netflix--you're almost certainly out of luck.

Having spent some time recently at my mother-in-law's mountaintop property in a very remote part of Northern California, I found myself snowed in and unable to return home. And that forced me to confront the reality of what Internet is like for those who live off the grid. … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--From Dave Lieb's desk, he can see a wall-mounted monitor about 75 feet away with nothing on it but black digits on a white background. Right now, it reads "59,957,611."

"It's going up one a second," says Lieb, the CEO of Bump Technologies, watching the number steadily climb. "I think we'll hit [60 million] just after lunch."

By 60 million, he means the total number of "Bumpers," people who have downloaded Bump's iPhone and Android apps, which allow two users to instantly share … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Can toys be part of a computing movement?

At Sifteo, a start-up here launched by two MIT Media Lab graduates, the answer is an emphatic yes. And while the world may be focused on the innovative play offered by the young company's motion-aware Cubes, the founders have higher aspirations than just being a toy company.

This evening, at a party in San Francisco, Sifteo is publicly launching its first product--a set of small electronic cubes (see video below) that communicate with each other wirelessly and enable a wide variety of casual digital games. The cubes come in sets … Read more

If you're a commuter stuck in traffic, it doesn't help you all that much to know what road conditions are like right now. You already know you're being delayed. But what if there was a way to alert you to problems before you even get in your car?

That's the premise behind a new project being announced tonight by IBM Research, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and the University of California at Berkeley's California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT).

The idea behind the project is simple: as a commuter, you're better off if … Read more

PALM SPRINGS, Calif.--If I've learned one thing during my first, long, day on the Startup Bus yesterday, it's that in a rapid prototyping environment, it's all about "MVP."

For those who think that's a sports term, it isn't. At least not in this context. Here, riding through dry California lowlands at 60 miles per hour on a bus packed with a couple dozen hard-core tech entrepreneurs, it means just one thing: minimum viable product.

I'm on one of two Startup Bus coaches that left San Francisco early yesterday bound for the … Read more

FIREBAUGH, Calif.--It's standing room only, 25 or so entrepreneurs jammed into the aisles brainstorming ideas, and maybe, just maybe, building the next multimillion dollar business.

This is the San Francisco Startup Bus, one of six coaches ferrying "buspreneurs" to Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest interactive (SXSWi) festival. Across the country, 150 people from all over the world have packed up their laptops and iPhones and agreed to spend two days aboard a bus with (near) total strangers. The mission? Build the best business you can before Austin city limits.

My job here is to … Read more

ARLINGTON, Texas--In my role as a reporter, I've had the good fortune to visit a number of control and/or command centers, such as those running a massive radio telescope, a nuclear submarine, a national laser fusion facility, and several others.

For anyone who remembers the Matthew Broderick vehicle "War Games," the bar for what a control room looks like is high: massive screens, dozens of workstations, long tables, and people moving around everywhere. But in the commodity PC era, that kind of room is mostly long gone. While I've seen NASA control centers that approach … Read more

If you're wondering what route Santa Claus will be taking as he soars through skies this Christmas Eve, don't worry: NORAD has got you covered.

For the 55th straight year, the North American Aerospace Defense Command will be providing its Santa tracking service, offering in seven languages up-to-the moment updates on St. Nick's progress around the world.

Last year, I got a chance to look behind-the-scenes at NORAD's Santa initiative, which involves countless military volunteers, as well as donated corporate help, all in the guise of giving the curious the best information about where the jolly … Read more

The funniest thing to me about all the hoopla this summer over the iPhone 4's antenna problems is that everyone kicking and screaming about the situation seemed to overlook one small thing: pop a bumper on the device and it works absolutely fine.

Sure, when a company advertises the benefits of an all-new antenna design and the sleek metallic lines of a device like the iPhone 4--and charges $30 for a little plastic bumper--people develop expectations.

But throw in the bumper for free, which Apple was forced to do after Consumer Reports' damning review, and suddenly you've got … Read more