Tag Archive for: balloons

More of Google’s Project Loon internet balloons will crash into U.S. backyards soon

The Washington Post pointed out this week that the head of Google’s Project Loon, the initiative that sends large balloons flying around the world to beam internet signals to people on the ground, admitted in an MIT Review interview published earlier this week that the company is planning to launch the project in the U.S.

From the MIT Review article:

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Network World Colin Neagle

Google launching 20 Internet balloons per day

Yesterday we wrote about a South African farmer finding one of Google’s Project Loon Internet balloons crashed on his property. Coincidentally – or at least I assume it was a coincidence – the Project Loon team yesterday issued a progress report in a blog post.

Seems Google is now launching 20 of these balloons every day and, according to the company, they’re remaining aloft 10 times longer than they were last year, with 100 days now normal and 130 days being the record.

From that blog post:

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Network World Paul McNamara

HGST balloons disk capacity with helium-filled 6TB drive

This should be a gas for the storage-hungry: Western Digital’s HGST unit, which makes disk storage for the enterprise market, has begun shipping helium-filled 3.5-inch hard drives with a massive storage boost. The new drives have six terabytes of storage capacity—50 percent more than that of conventional drives of the same size.

The technology required to keep the helium reliably sealed within the drives, called Helioseal, has been in development by HGST for over 10 years. The company initially announced this commercial development in September of 2012. The use of helium rather than air allows additional storage platters to be squeezed into the design, nearly doubling their capacity with existing storage media technology while reducing power consumption and weight.

The new six terabyte Ultrastar He6 fits seven disk platters into the same form factor as HGST’s previous five-platter/four terabyte drive. In addition to half again as much capacity, the drives run considerably cooler than conventional drives—as much as four to five degrees Celsius cooler, greatly reducing heat output. These drives even consume 23 percent less power at idle, drawing just 5.3 watts

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Ars Technica » Technology Lab

Google flies Internet balloons in stratosphere for a “network in the sky”

Googlers prepare to launch an Internet balloon.
Google

Google this week launched 30 balloons into the stratosphere in the first step toward creating what it calls a “network in the sky” that could eventually bring “balloon-powered Internet [to] everyone.”

Dubbed “Project Loon,” Google’s balloon-based wireless networks aim to bring 3G-like speed to what Google says are the “2 out of every 3 people on Earth” who lack a fast, affordable Internet connection. Google’s plan has been rumored for weeks. As we wrote earlier this month, balloon-based communications are well established for military communications and have been proposed for public safety use in disaster areas. Google could be the first to make balloon-based networks widely used for commercial Internet access.

Google is starting small and admits its system is just in the experimental stages. Google said the 30 balloons launched this week were sent into the air “from the Tekapo area of New Zealand’s South Island” and that a group of 50 pilot testers have been equipped with “special Internet antennas” to try to connect to the network. Google made the announcement late Friday night in the US, Saturday in New Zealand time.

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Ars Technica » Technology Lab