Verizon has reported the results of a fiber-optic network trial they held in June for one lucky customer in Massachusetts, and it appears the customer received almost 1Gbit/sec speeds.

CW says "the customer received 925Mbit/sec. throughput to a server at its business location from a Verizon central office less than two miles away."

Speeds as high as 800Mbit/sec were achieved for servers 400 miles away.

Earlier in the year, Google said it wanted to experiment with a 1Gbit fiber connection trial for up to 500,000 lucky customers in a community. 1,100 communities submitted bids, with one city even temporarily changing its name to "Google." Google says it will pick a location by the end of the year.

When asked about the Google network, Verizon said: "We are not competing with things [Google is] planning. They may be thinking about competing with things we already have. We have the network in place today."

Verizon's GPON platform can hit downstream speeds of 2.4Gbit/sec and upstream speeds of 1.2Gbit/sec.

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Earlier in the month, the popular Taiwanese daily Digitimes reported that Apple was creating a 7-inch iPad, almost three inches smaller than the current tablet.

Today, a second paper, Economic Daily News (EDN) is reporting the same thing, although with some details different from the first report.

EDN says the new device will weigh 500 grams, compared to the 700 grams of the current model. The paper says the device will use the same IPS display as the current model, while Digi's article said the device would get revamped with an OLED display.

The second report says Apple could release the new device as early as the end of 2010, although that seems unlikely.

Apple, of course, did not comment on the speculation.

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The RIAA and NAB have proposed a new bill that would force all smartphones, MP3 players and tablets to include an FM radio in the future.

Gary Shapiro, the president of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), had some harsh words for the proposal, as it would affect a large number of devices built by CEA members.

"Rather than adapt to the digital marketplace, NAB and RIAA act like buggy-whip industries that refuse to innovate and seek to impose penalties on those that do," Shapiro added, via Ars.

For example, a product like the iPod Shuffle would be impossible to create, as the body would need to be made larger, and more controls would be needed to be able to tune stations.

The NAB is willing to cave into paying $100 million a year to the RIAA in royalties (under the Performance Rights Act), if the FM radios are implemented.

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Last week, former Apple employee Paul Devine was arrested and charged with selling secrets to Asian suppliers in exchange for over $2 million in kickbacks.

Devine, one of Apple's global supply managers, was charged "with offenses that include wire fraud, money laundering and unlawful monetary transactions," which began in 2006.

This week, Devine has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Prosecutors say Devine's email accounts clearly show him "orchestrating" deposits from the Asian suppliers.

Furthermore, Apple has filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against Devine.

Devine worked for Apple from 2005 until this year. Apple, in their suit, allege that Devine "colllected commissions" for years from at least six Asian supplier in exchange for confidential information that helped them to secure deals.

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It looks like Hulu, the streaming video service owned by NBC Universal, News Corp & Disney is preparing to become a publicly traded company. The New York Times is reporting unnamed sources indicated an IPO (Initial Public Offering) could happen as early as this fall.

Assuming they can convince potential investors their new subscription service, Hulu Plus, can be profitable, there's still another hurdle to overcome. Hulu's management, led by ex-Amazon.com executive Jason Kilar, have been proponents of getting Hulu playing on every screen possible. But some of Kilar's better decisions have been undermined by Hulu's owners.

It's quite possible the insider information given to Times reporters was intended to see how potential investors respond. An IPO may wait if their reaction isn't positive.

But assuming they do go public eventually, Kilar and his team will need less oversight from Hulu's content providers. Those providers have been resistant to the idea of Hulu's free (ad supported) content making its way to TV screens through devices like media center PCs and game consoles.

Looking at it strictly from Hulu's point of view, this seems like a big barrier to attracting subscribers for Hulu Plus. The problem is Hulu's content owners are trying to solve the wrong problem.

The question isn't whether some type of free internet distribution will compete with traditional television services. The competition, both licensed and unauthorized, is already there and the market isn't going away just because they don't cater to it.

Instead they need to be focusing on how to take advantage of that market to sell pay services. Looking at the success of Netflix with their Watch Instantly service, it becomes obvious that connecting your content to TVs is essential.

Making an arbitrary distinction between completely ad supported and subscription content takes away an obvious marketing opportunity for no obvious gain.

Unlike Netflix, Hulu isn't starting with a built in customer base from another pay offering. What have instead is some desirable free content to attract viewers who may be interested in paying for Hulu Plus.

That's not something alternate sources for the same video are likely to be promoting.

As long as Hulu is a second class citizen in the eyes of content gatekeepers, the value of any pay offering remains doubtful, as does its value to anyone but the companies those gatekeepers represent.

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Sony has announced two new updated models of their PlayStation 3 gaming console, each of which has a larger hard drive (HDD) than current models.

The 120GB model will be replaced by a 160GB model, and the 250GB model will be replaced by a 320GB model, each selling for the same price that the current models do.

Sony's new 160GB model will sell for $300.

The 320GB model will be bundled with PS3 Sports Champions Move, with a price tag of $400. Sony's bundle comes with a PS Eye, a Move controller, Sports Champions and a bonus BD demo disc.

Both will become available on September 19th.

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