New Internet Speed Is10X Faster Than Google Fiber

Internet speed is becoming increasingly important to everyone who records. Being able to collaborate in real time, whether it be creatively during tracking or listening to a mix as it's going down, is becoming more the norm every day, so any increase in Internet speed is always most welcome.

Until now Google Fiber was thought to be the Internet speed record holder at around 1 gigabit per second, which is way faster than the average 10 megabit broadband speed that most of America uses right now. The problem with Google Fiber is that it's currently only been installed in Kansas City, Austin and Provo, and will take a lot of time and trillions of dollars to roll out across the US.

Now comes a brand new technology from the famous Bell Labs that raises speeds to a ridiculous 10 gigabits per second (10 times more than Google Fiber) called "XG-FAST." The speed is fantastic, but the real breakthrough is that these speeds can be had over the existing copper landline structure already in place instead of layer new fiber, something that scientists had thought to be theoretically impossible.

But there is a catch - XG-FAST is only working in the lab so far, so it's not anywhere near to coming to a computer near you, but then again, neither is Google Fiber. That said, I'd put my money on Bell Labs getting this in the hands of consumers like you and me way before the Google boys do. And it can't get here fast enough!

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How Ma Bell Killed Audio Recording

I just read a great article about how the famous Bell Labs, the R&D arm of the original phone company, actually came up with multiple innovations way back in the 30's that could've started the information age some 50 years earlier than it actually did.

The story goes that in 1934, Bell Labs engineer Clarence Hickman  created a phone answering machine that used magnetic tape. Now keep in mind that the first known development of magnetic tape recording was 1935 by BASF, which was kept secret so it could be used by the German war machine. German tape recorders were only discovered by the Allies at the end of World War II. It wasn't until the late 40's that magnetic tape recorders became a commercial product (thanks to, of all people, Bing Crosby and his considerable financial resources) and it wasn't used for computer storage until the early 50's. The first viable tape answering machine came on the market in 1971.

So if Hickman invented a magnetic tape recorder before anyone else, why haven't we heard about it until now. Because Ma Bell, the phone company monopoly, killed it, afraid that such an innovation would hurt their business instead of help it. The execs at the company did such a good job of suppressing Hickman's creation that it wasn't found for 60 years, and only then by a Bell Labs historian.

Imagine what could've been if only the company had been less paranoid. Modern recording technology could've had a head start by at least a decade, if not more.

Read the entire article here.

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