By Jordan Valinsky 8:53am

Linkages

Googlers? (Photo: ConferenceBike)

Booting Up: PayPal is ‘Kinda Thinking About’ Using Bitcoin

The bizarre tale of Google’s takeover of Provo’s fiber network is getting even weirder. The search giant billed the Utah city $500,000 to locate where the wires are hidden since the company that installed them didn’t keep proper records of where they were buried. [Ars Technica]

Matthew Keys, the beleaguered former Reuters deputy social media editor, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he conspired with Anonymous to break-in and attack websites of his former employer, Tribune. His next court date is June 12. [Huffington Post]

“Anytime I’m at a dinner or an event, social or business, people are buzzing about Tinder.” And with those words spoken, a Times profile of the dating app was born. [New York Times]

Google houses more than 1,300 colorful bikes in a warehouse near its Mountain View headquarters for employees to use because there’s no perk not offered there. Were you expecting anything less? [Wired]

PayPal said that it’s “kinda thinking about” introducing Bitcoin as a form of payment in its system. [Silicon Angle]

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is officially on Twitter. No word if he’s #TeamFollowback. [TNW]

By Jordan Valinsky 4/19 9:04am

Linkages

Look at all that spring-fed fiber in Provo. (Source: Flickr)

Booting Up: Google Only Paid $1 for Fiber in Provo, Utah

All it took for Google to buy Provo, Utah’s fiber-optic network was a dollar. If only you had four quarters! [AP]

Yesterday, a federal judge ruled that YouTube did not violate Viacom’s copyright–despite the fact that several of the company’s shows were being illicitly uploaded onto the site. That’s because the Google-owned service is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s “safe-harbor provision.” [Los Angeles Times]

Time‘s very important “100 Most Influential People List” is packed with techies with fake-sounding titles, like “Internet talent discoverer” Scooter Braun. [AllThingsD]

Twitter announced it has teamed up with BBC America to offer “in-tweet branded video synced to entertainment TV series.” What does that mean? Your guess is as good as ours. [CNet]

Amazon, looking to expand its international operations, has opened an office in Russia. [TechCrunch]

By Patrick Clark 1/23 8:15am

Linkages

(Photo: Rex Sorgatz)

Booting up: It’s a Cold, Cold World (for Those of Us Without Google Fiber)

Social media is making Google search less useful. Facebook isn’t ready to compete, at least not yet. Welcome to the search desert. [BuzzFeed]

If you’re a PC maker who wasn’t so thrilled when Microsoft launched the Surface, how exactly do you feel about news that the software maker might invest $2 billion in the deal to take Dell private? [Bloomberg]

Apple releases its quarterly earnings report today, and your guess is as good as ours. As far as what earnings mean for the company’s stock, which has plummeted nearly 30 percent since September? How about something in the $1 to infinity range?[@ReformedBroker]

Two Bitcoin casinos say their businesses are minting profit. [Ars Technica]

Larry Page said that Google Fiber was not a “hobby” for his company, during a conference call to discuss quarterly earnings. Cruelly, he didn’t say anything about when the company might expand the product beyond Kansas City. [Los Angeles Times]

By Kelly Faircloth 1/08 7:58am

Linkages

(Photo: flickr.com/leweb3)

Booting Up: Sean Parker Is Now a Daddy

Congrats to Napster cofounder and former Facebook president Sean Parker, who is now a proud papa. Earlier this week he and his fiancee welcomed a little girl named Winter Victoria Parker into the world. [US Weekly]

Google’s having a press conference with Mayor Bloomberg today–so of course everyone wants to know whether we’ll be getting Google Fiber. (Pretty please!) And the company is hiring a New York sales rep. [Business Insider]

Eric Schmidt isn’t the only Silicon Valley denizen venturing abroad this week. Apple CEO Tim Cook is currently ambling across China, meeting with the U.S. ambassador and other high-and-mighties. [TNW]

Several companies, including Logitech, have teamed up to create an “Internet of Things Consortium.” Righto. [TechCrunch]

Do you share a Netflix account with five other family members? Soon you’ll all be able to have your very own personalized profile–and here’s what it might look like. [GigaOm]

Myspace Tom went to Hawaii; ain’t you jealous? [Daily Dot]

By Kelly Faircloth 9/21/12 7:49am

Linkages

On set. (Photo: Collider)

Booting Up: Google Goes to the Movies Edition

It appears Google is playing nice with The Internship, a.k.a the movie where Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson dick around at Google. [AllThingsD]

Apple swears iOS 6 maps–which are so bad there’s a Tumblr to chronicle the most astounding mistakes–will improve. [BBC News]

Always be targeting: Salesforce and Facebook are teaming up. Users of the cloud-for-the-enterprise company can now take their own customer contact data and instruct Facebook to send just those people tailored ads. [Business Insider]

From the CFO of Verizon: “Unlimited is just a word, it doesn’t really mean anything.” We’re pretty sure it means without limits? [Gizmodo]

A BlackBerry outage hits Europe. The last 15 people with BlackBerries must be very inconvenienced.  [The Guardian]

By Kelly Faircloth 9/10/12 8:11am

Linkages

What, like we're going to Google a picture of her? (Photo: Wikipedia)

Booting Up: The Beautiful But Deadly Emma Watson Edition

Warby Parker just raised [adjusts glasses] a $37 million round, reportedly led by General Catalyst Partners. [Fortune]

Toys “R” Us plans to sell its own tablet for the kiddies. [Wall Street Journal]

If you search “Emma Watson” online, there’s a good chance you’ll land on malware. Also, you may very well be kind of a creep. [Boston Globe]

Turns out even Google Fiber can’t magic away racial and economic fault lines. [New York Times]

Shit, remember the movie Sneakers? Oh, for the days when hackers had to leave their lairs! [Slate]

By Nitasha Tiku 7/26/12 1:23pm

Planet GOOG

Google Fiber

Google Fiber Makes the Internet Go Down Easier

For weeks, Google has been teasing us with a landing page for “Google Fiber.” With a name like that, one might picture a roughage-based breakfast (Googl-Os!) or something better left to the laxative aisle in your friendly, neighborhood Duane Reade.

But the moniker actually refers to the company’s plans to offer Kansas City residents its own experimental brand of ultra high-speed Internet access. And it’s finally here! Read More