May 2013

It only took about six weeks for developers to take all of the theoretically creepy things the Internet dreamt up about the face computer of the future and turn those into real-life Google Glass nightmares.

In addition to that creepy walking-and-stalking app Wink, Glassholes can look forward to a porn app, plus apps that that take advantage of an upcoming facial recognition API. Yes, the reality of Glass wearers surreptitiously watching sex videos is upon us. For most people, however, Google's new facial recognition API presents a more terrifying scenario in terms of creepiness — you know, because of the privacy implications.

Is Clearwire a diamond in the rough, making it the real prize? Or is Dish just trying to mess with Sprint?

Perhaps if Dish’s offer gains strong interest from Clearwire, Dish can use it as a bargaining chip in its efforts to obtain Sprint. Dish’s motivation could be a combination of those two factors. Dish knew when it made its initial offers for Clearwire and Sprint that it faced a huge struggle to obtain either company, as Sprint has many contractual locks on Clearwire — just as Softbank has on Sprint. So it’s not surprising that Dish is trying a wide range of tactics to gain the additional spectrum and expertise it needs — and perhaps those tactics include upping its Clearwire bid as a negotiation ploy with Sprint. But although Clearwire initially may not seem like much of a prize, it has huge spectrum holdings. And even though that spectrum in some markets currently supports WiMax, a technology that didn’t gain much traction in the U.S., concerns such as those are becoming less and less important nowadays. As bandwidth demand continues to climb and with few new sources of spectrum likely to become available any time soon, it’s important not to underestimate the value of Clearwire’s spectrum holdings – even if some of that spectrum would have to be repurposed.

King Street Wireless, which is U.S. Cellular's spectrum partner, reiterated calls for the Federal Communications Commission to mandate interoperability in the 700 MHz band, noting that without such a directive the companies won't be able to offer an iPhone that works over the companies' 700 MHz spectrum.

"Both KSW and USCC want to offer the iPhone; Apple will not offer any Band 12 products, so KSW cannot offer the iPhone over its 700 MHz spectrum; and the only way that USCC can access the iPhone is over 850 MHz spectrum, for which it is independently licensed," King Street wrote in a recent FCC filing. "When all of these factors are put together, it is absolutely clear that due to a lack of interoperability, KSW has no opportunity to provide service to customers who want the iPhone. The only positive aspect of this situation is that it clearly demonstrates the need for interoperability relief." King Street and other Lower 700 MHz A Block spectrum license holders have been urging the FCC for the past three and a half years to require LTE interoperability in the Lower 700 MHz band.

It's often argued that the most important era in U.S. history was the Industrial Revolution, that period from roughly 1760 to 1840 when almost every aspect of business and daily life changed. The shift from manual labor to machines, from wood to coal, from farms to cities -- those are just a few of the ways our world changed dramatically when a new era of U.S. economic power was born.

We are now at the beginning of the next great economic era, which is being ushered in by the Industrial Internet Revolution. Today's world has approximately 6.8 billion people and 12.5 billion connected devices. At the rate things are going, by 2020 we'll have about 7.6 billion people and 50 billion connected devices. What happens when we can merge the power of intelligent devices, intelligent systems, and intelligent automation with physical machines, facilities and networks? One answer is that an estimated $10 trillion to $15 trillion -- an amount nearly equal to the current U.S. economy -- will be added to the global GDP, according to Peter Evans, GE's director of global strategy and analytics, and Marco Annunziata, GE's chief economist.