The next generation of the Internet will rely on revolutionary new tech. It will make unhackable networks real — and transmit information faster than the speed of light.
Category: internet – Page 204
Microsoft Teams Confirms Superb New Updates And Features To Beat Zoom
Microsoft’s Teams had a very busy September adding a host of new features. Now, the firm is looking to improve the performance of its Teams service as it continues in the battle to beat Zoom in the video conferencing space.
In an update detailing the features added in September, Microsoft explained how it was trying to improve Teams’ performance as a large proportion of the workforce continue to work from home.
Microsoft says it’s working to ensure businesses and schools “have a high-performance experience that scales across their devices and levels of internet connectivity.”
SpaceX’s Starlink Public Beta Testing Will Begin ‘Very Soon’
Starlink Render Created By: ErcX @ErcXspace
SpaceX is looking forward to providing Starlink satellite broadband internet service globally. The company aims to initially offer connection in rural areas of the northern United States and Canada before this year ends. A total of 4,409 internet-beaming satellites will initially make up the Starlink constellation; t here are around 708 satellites already in low Earth orbit. SpaceX is Private Beta Testing the network among employees. Starlink users receive broadband service from the satellites in space via a user dish terminal that is easy to install. “The instructions are super-easy. You plug it in, and you point it at the sky, and a few seconds later you have internet. It’s truly remarkable,” Jonathan Hofeller SpaceX Vice-President of Starlink and Commercial Sales said in July.
SpaceX’s Starlink network is also undergoing real world use with Washington state’s unit of first responders, who are helping rebuild after wildfires destroyed the small town of Malden early September. The emergency telecommunications leader of the Washington State Military Department’s IT division, Richard Hall, told reporters he set up Starlink user terminals in locations that are severely devastated by the fires, to provide families broadband access that enables them to perform wireless calls and connect online. In his job profession Hall has set up a variety of satellite services, he stated that “there’s really no comparison” between Starlink and other networks. “Starlink easily doubles the bandwidth” in comparison, “I’ve seen lower than 30 millisecond latency consistently,” he told CNBC news last week. — “Starlink will be a revolution in connectivity, especially for remote regions or for emergency services when landlines are damaged,” the founder of SpaceX Elon Musk said.
New design principles for spin-based quantum materials
As our lives become increasingly intertwined with technology—whether supporting communication while working remotely or streaming our favorite show—so too does our reliance on the data these devices create. Data centers supporting these technology ecosystems produce a significant carbon footprint—and consume 200 terawatt hours of energy each year, greater than the annual energy consumption of Iran. To balance ecological concerns yet meet growing demand, advances in microelectronic processors—the backbone of many Internet of Things (IoT) devices and data hubs—must be efficient and environmentally friendly.
Northwestern University materials scientists have developed new design principles that could help spur development of future quantum materials used to advance (IoT) devices and other resource-intensive technologies while limiting ecological damage.
“New path-breaking materials and computing paradigms are required to make data centers more energy-lean in the future,” said James Rondinelli, professor of materials science and engineering and the Morris E. Fine Professor in Materials and Manufacturing at the McCormick School of Engineering, who led the research.
Starlink puts towns devastated by wildfires online for disaster relief workers
SpaceX’s Starlink has showed its utility in connecting far-flung locations to the internet quickly and relatively simply in Washington, where like much of the west coast wildfires have caused enormous damage to rural areas. A couple small towns in the state have received Starlink connections to help locals and emergency workers.
The town of Malden was almost completely destroyed, but restoration efforts are underway, and of course it helps to be able to access the internet for communicating with residents and authorities. With power and cellular service unreliable, satellite internet is a good temporary option, and Starlink stepped up.
As SpaceX founder Elon Musk said on Twitter, the company is prioritizing emergency responders and areas without internet:
‘Schrödinger’s Web’ offers a sneak peek at the quantum internet
Quantum computers, which harness the strange probabilities of quantum mechanics, may prove revolutionary. They have the potential to achieve an exponential speedup over their classical counterparts, at least when it comes to solving some problems. But for now, these computers are still in their infancy, useful for only a few applications, just as the first digital computers were in the 1940s. So isn’t a book about the communications network that will link quantum computers — the quantum internet — more than a little ahead of itself?
Surprisingly, no. As theoretical physicist Jonathan Dowling makes clear in Schrödinger’s Web, early versions of the quantum internet are here already — for example, quantum communication has been taking place between Beijing and Shanghai via fiber-optic cables since 2016 — and more are coming fast. So now is the perfect time to read up.
Dowling, who helped found the U.S. government’s quantum computing program in the 1990s, is the perfect guide. Armed with a seemingly endless supply of outrageous anecdotes, memorable analogies, puns and quips, he makes the thorny theoretical details of the quantum internet both entertaining and accessible.
Readers wanting to dive right in to details of the quantum internet will have to be patient. “Photons are the particles that will power the quantum internet, so we had better be sure we know what the heck they are,” Dowling writes. Accordingly, the first third of the book is a historical overview of light, from Newton’s 17th century idea of light as “corpuscles” to experiments probing the quantum reality of photons, or particles of light, in the late 20th century. There are some small historical inaccuracies — the section on the Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted repeats an apocryphal tale about his “serendipitous” discovery of the link between electricity and magnetism — and the footnotes rely too much on Wikipedia. But Dowling accomplishes what he sets out to do: Help readers develop an understanding of the quantum nature of light.
For an entertaining overview of the physics and technological advances paving the way for the quantum internet, read ‘Schrödinger’s Web.’
Elon Musk says he likely will take Starlink satellite internet service public in ‘several years’
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Monday reiterated the likelihood that his private space company will likely take its Starlink satellite internet service public in the coming years.
“We will probably IPO Starlink, but only several years in the future when revenue growth is smooth & predictable,” Musk said in a tweet. “Public market does not like erratic cash flow haha.”
SpaceX leadership has previously discussed the idea, with company President Gwynne Shotwell in February telling a group of investors in February that “Starlink is the right kind of business that we can go ahead and take public,” adding that the company could spin it off.
U.S. judge sends OneWeb’s rescue plan to vote and okays financing
Berlin, 27 September 2020. – A New York bankruptcy judge has sent OneWeb’s Chapter 11 plan for creditor vote and approved OneWeb’s financing plan, Law360 reported.
“A New York bankruptcy judge on Wednesday sent OneWeb Global’s $181 million equity-swap Chapter 11 plan to a creditor vote while approving $235 million in new financing that the satellite internet startup said will go toward restarting its launch program,” Law 360 reported.
According to the report, OneWeb’s counsel told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain that it had secured full creditor consent for the plan.