Editor’s Note: Related tickers: Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX), AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) on Wednesday said it will partner with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) starting next month to provide free wireless in-store Internet service that the coffee-giant says will be 10 times faster. Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) currently offers free Wi-Fi through AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T). Beginning in August, new U.S. company-operated Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) stores will begin to receive the faster network and Wi-Fi speeds. Over the next 18 months, Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) will convert more than 7,000 U.S. stores to the upgraded store network and Wi-Fi experience. A company representative said Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) will continue to work with AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) during the transition period.
Google Inc. ‘Cracked the Code’ Before Apple Inc. Could (Minyanville)
“‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.'” This is an excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) co-founder Steve Jobs. In it, Jobs makes the briefest of mentions to the mythical television set that has been rumored to be on the precipice of release for years now. And giving it the stratospheric hype that only the CEO of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) could give, Jobs claims he’s “cracked” the code to an unbelievably simple way in which users can operate an integrated TV.
Google can disrupt telecoms’ internet service provider business model (IVCPost)
Earnings report from various telecommunications companies showed a climb in their revenues. Due to their recent growth, the telecoms planned to increase the speed of their broadbands. However, analysts believed that corporations with massive amount of cash such as Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) could disrupt the internet service provider business model of telecoms. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) made its bread and butter through smartphones that could access the internet and utilize the search engine. Recently, the tech titan announced that Austin, Texas would be its next target location to roll out Google Fiber. Google Fiber was Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s project that would use fiber-optic communication by building a broadband internet network infrastructure.
Google’s Data-Trove Dance (WSJ)
In 2011, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) +0.04% Chief Executive and co-founder Larry Page asked executives to develop a new, simplified privacy tool that would act as a kind of sliding scale, allowing users to designate whether they wanted minimal, medium or maximum collection of information about them in all of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s services, and how much the information would be shielded from being viewed by other users. After much wrangling and many attempts to build the “slider” tool, whose three main settings were nicknamed “kitten,” “cat” and “tiger,” the idea was abandoned last year, according to people familiar with the matter. Because Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has so many Web services that operate differently, executives found it impossible to reduce privacy controls to so few categories, these people said. Also, allowing people to select the maximum-protection setting, known as the “tin-foil-hat option,” went against Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s newer efforts to get more people to share information about themselves on the Google+ social-networking service, they said.
