Google Fiber continues to march forward, launching in four new cities

Google has been attempting to disrupt the U.S. internet provider market for a few years now. They've successfully rolled out their new Google Fiber internet services to a few major centers have a bunch of others on stand-by and have just announced they'll be launching in four new cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham.

Google Fiber is a fiber optic based internet service, capable of bringing speeds of up to 1Gbps up and down for about $75 / month. In contrast, one of my coworkers at Android Authority just received an advertisement in the mail from AT&T, offering up their 'High Speed' internet services with speeds up to 3Mbps. For serious AT&T?!?! 3Mbps?

Private government network has speeds up to 100x faster than Google Fiber

A U.S. based shadow network called the ESnet, used by scientists at NASA and the like, is pushing real world, cross-country data speeds up to 91Gbps. That is about 100X faster that Google Fiber, which itself is about 100X faster than typical 'Broadband' speeds to most homes.

Over on Android Authority, I explain a bit about how this network operates, who gets to use it, how it compares to other high-speed networks and more. There is also some great ideas in the comments on what one could use these speeds for. Some intelligent stuff in there, some junk too.

Chromecast, or Not to Chromecast?

That is the... er, let's call it... a question.

For a very affordable $35, you can get your hands on Google's entry into the 'tiny-pc-for-your-tv' market, the Google Chromecast. You may be asking yourself where this stands versus GoogleTV, this is smaller. For those that have not heard of it yet, it is a USB stick sized unit that plugs into the HDMI input on your tv, is powered by usb (from your tv, or the supplied power unit) and let's you play online, and some offline, content on your television.

The primary use-case would be to fire a YouTube video from your Android Tablet up to your TV so you can continue to surf on your tablet. Sounds magical so far, but is it? Depending on your needs and expectations, yes, it is magic. If, however, you just wanted to play content you already own, maybe not so much.

Let me explain. Right on the box it advertises that it can handle YouTube, Netflix, Google Play content (video and music) and pass a tab from your Chrome browser. The first thing you'll notice is that the first three items are streaming services, if your home internet regularly leaves you buffering, don't expect the Chromecast to speed things up. If you are lucky enough to live in a Gigabit world, where buffering is not an issue, you will love the Chromecast for these services. Luckily, audio is a little easier to tackle, so popping your music to the tv, via Google Play Music, is a snap.

ISP

Is anyone upset about their Internet Service Provider (ISP)?

OK, OK, slow down... I can't keep up... Too Many Complaints...

Alright, the votes are in; nearly all of us have a complaint or two about our ISP's. Is this really a big surprise? It is a delicate balance between us using the internet and our ISP's not actually wanting us to use it, after all, if we pay for unlimited service and only use a small portion, our ISP comes out ahead.