iPHONE IS 50% MORE NETWORK EFFICIENT THAN ANDROID SAYS SPRINT

During the company’s earnings call on Wednesday, Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse said the iPhone is more than 50% more efficient on Sprint’s network than Android devices. “iPhone users are expected to use significantly less 3G data than the typical user of a dual-mode 3G/4G device,” Hesse added, noting that his company has found that iPhone applications take better advantage of offloading data onto Wi-Fi networks and that Android apps are “more chatty” with its network. “If Sprint’s claims are true, this could become a new key differentiator in Apple’s relationship with the operators that subsidize its phones versus Apple’s competitors HTC, Samsung [and] Motorola,” BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk explained, noting that Sprint’s report is “short on evidence” and that his firm will continue to test those claims.

GOOGLE REMOVES DRIVING WITH TRAFFIC TIME ESTIMATES FROM NAVIGATION

Google Maps has removed the feature which calculated driving time with traffic, either live or predictive, from its product. This feature allowed users to see how long it would take to drive to their destination with current traffic conditions. According to Google sources "We have decided that our information systems behind this feature were not as good as they could be. Therefore, we have taken this offline and are currently working to come up with a better, more accurate solution. We are always working to bring you the best Google Maps experience with updates like these!"

Basically, the feature didn't work as expected. Hopefully, they will continue to work on the algorithms and launch the traffic estimates again.

APPLE'S iPAD ACCOUNTS FOR 97% OF US TABLET TRAFFIC ONLINE

It's no secret that the iPad commands a serious lead in the battle for tablet mindshare, but comScore's new Device Essentials traffic-tracking service shows just how much that translates into market dominance. According to the web monitoring company, the iPad and its successor account for 89 percent of tablet internet use globally, and 97 percent here in the US. Of course, the slate segment is still young and accounts for only a tiny percentage of total traffic. And, it's worth noting, the iPad has a significant advantage in being the first to hit shelves.

FACEBOOK SEES BIG TRAFFIC DROPS IN US AND CANADA

Facebook is still growing towards 700 million users, having reached 687 million monthly actives by the start of June. Most of the new users continue to come from countries that are relatively late in adopting Facebook, as has been the trend for the past year.

But overall growth has been lower than normal for the second month straight, which is unusual.

The company gained 11.8 million more people over May, following 13.9 million over April. In contrast, it grew by at least 20 million new users over the typical month in the past 12; while there have been a few months that have registered lower growth numbers, they have not been back to back.

Why the drop? Most prominently, the United States lost nearly 6 million users, falling from 155.2 million at the start of May to 149.4 million at the end of it. This is the first time the country has lost users in the past year. Canada also fell significantly, by 1.52 million down to 16.6 million, although it has been fluctuating around that number for the past year. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom, Norway and Russia all posted losses of more than 100,000. If these countries — most of whom had adopted Facebook many years ago — had not lost users, and instead posted even small gains, Facebook would have had a much more typical month.

NETFLIX THE LARGEST SOURCE OF INTERNET TRAFFIC IN US

Netflix video streaming is now the single largest source of peak downstream Internet traffic in the U.S., according to a new report by Sandvine. The streaming video service now accounts for 29.7 percent of peak downstream traffic, up from 21 percent last fall.

That puts Netflix above HTTP websites (18 percent), BitTorrent (11 percent), and YouTube (10 percent) as a source of downstream traffic during peak times in North America. (BitTorrent still accounts for half of all upstream traffic). As whole, “real-time entertainment” (which is mostly video streaming, but also includes streaming music) accounted for 49 percent of downstream traffic in March, 2011, versus 19 percent for P2P file sharing, and 17 percent for Web browsing.

Video files are so big that it does not take much usage for it to take over in terms of bandwidth consumed. But these numbers definitely point to a future where video accounts for more and more of the traffic on the Internet. As recently as last November, Web video alone accounted for an estimated 37 percent of Internet traffic.

But as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings points out, bandwidth to the home keeps increasing along with demand—he expects a gigabit to the home to be commonplace within ten years. As he told me earlier this month, “streaming is the core of our business,” but he also points out in the video below that most of the video to the home is cached on the edge of the network rather than going through the backbone.

GOOGLE ADDS REAL-TIME TRAFFIC ROUTING TO MAPS FOR ANDROID

Google announced today an incremental update to its Maps application for Android. The update, which is still technically in beta, brings real-time traffic routing right to your smartphone. “You don’t have to do anything to be routed around traffic; just start Navigation like you normally would, either from the Navigation app or from within Google Maps,” reads the announcement. “Before today, Navigation would choose whichever route was fastest, without taking current traffic conditions into account.”

The software will work in both North America and Europe, and is waiting for you in the Android Market.

EGYPT PULLS PLUG ON INTERNET AND OTHER COMMUNICATIONS DURING UNREST

In a stunning development unprecedented in the modern history of the Internet, a country of more than 80 million people has found itself almost entirely disconnected from the rest of the world.
The near-disconnection--at least one Internet provider is still online--comes after days of street protests demanding an end to nearly three decades of autocratic rule by President Hosni Mubarak. Those followed this month's revolution in Tunisia, another country with little political freedom and high levels of corruption, and reports of overnight arrests and clashes with security forces.

Jim Cowie, chief technology officer at Internet-monitoring firm Renesys, said that at approximately 2:34 p.m. PT, his company "observed the virtually simultaneous withdrawal of all routes to Egyptian networks in the Internet's global routing table." (See CNET's earlier coverage of network disruptions.)

"Virtually all of Egypt's Internet addresses are now unreachable, worldwide," Cowie wrote in a blog post this evening.

A major service provider for Egypt, Italy-based Seabone, reported that there was no Internet traffic going into or out of the country after around 2:30 p.m. PT (12:30 a.m. local time), according to an Associated Press dispatch.

Al Jazeera English reported that the Mubarak government "denied disrupting communications networks" in advance of widespread protests planned at more than 30 mosques and churches on Friday, which is a day off in Egypt with banks and many businesses closed. (A spokesman for the Egyptian embassy in Washington, D.C. also denied earlier reports that Facebook and Twitter were selectively blocked.)

While the cause of the disruption remains unknown, it seems clear that yanking Egypt's Internet addresses was a conscious decision, not the result of a fiber cut or a natural disaster. That means Egypt will be conducting a high-profile experiment in what happens when a country with a $500 billion GDP, one that's home to the pyramids and the Suez Canal, decides that Internet access should be restricted to a trickle.

That trickle can be found at the Noor Group, which appears to be the only Internet provider in Egypt that's fully functioning. (Cairo-based bloggers are speculating that its unique status grows out of its client list, which includes western firms including ExxonMobil, Toyota, Hyatt, Nestle, Fedex, Coca-Cola, and Pfizer, plus the Egyptian stock exchange.)
An analysis posted by network analyst Andree Toonk, who runs a Web site devoted to monitoring networks, shows that yesterday there were 2,903 Egyptian networks publicly accessible via the Internet. Today, there are only 327 networks.

Noor is "the only provider that doesn't seem to be impacted by this," Toonk wrote.
That's led Egyptian Internet users, at least the ones still connected, to go on Twitter to urge others to use Noor's dial-up numbers if their own network was down.

Unconfirmed reports from Egypt suggested widespread telephone outages as well. Early in the morning in Cairo, a series of complaints of mobile phone outages said Mobinil, the country's largest mobile provider, was no longer providing service. Other reports said only land lines were working. Complaints about SMS outages have become common.

There are some parallels. Wired magazine's HotWired, succeeded by Wired.com, reported in 1996 that "the U.S. government has quietly pulled the plug on Iran's Internet connection." During a state of emergency in Bangladesh in 2007, satellite providers were ordered to cease airing any news shows. And in Burma later that year, the country's ruling military junta pulled the plug on the nation's limited Internet access.

Twitter and Facebook have become effective communications tools during social unrest and protests--in Iran and Moldova, along with Tunisia and Egypt, more recently. YouTube videos, too, have documented the massive street protests in Cairo.

Egypt's Internet disruptions coincided with activist action. Anonymous, the group that launched distributed denial-of-service attacks on Web sites of financial institutions and others opposing WikiLeaks last year, released a video in which it threatened to launch DoS attacks on Egyptian government Web sites if the authorities did not curtail censorship efforts. Earlier today, five people were arrested in the U.K. in connection with those attacks.

The threats weren't necessary. Egypt's new firewall has brought down almost every entry on a list of the 25 most popular Web sites in the country, including egypt.gov.eg, presidency.gov,eg, and cabinet.gov.eg. The exceptions are ones like jeep.com.eg, which are hosted in the United States. The Web site for the U.S. Embassy in Egypt was unreachable.

In a YouTube interview today, President Obama stressed that Mubarak has "been an ally of ours on a lot of critical issues" and has "been very helpful on a range of tough issues in the Middle East." Obama added, however, that political reform "is absolutely critical to the long-term well-being of Egypt."

Egypt receives over $1.3 billion annually from U.S. taxpayers in the form of military aid, according to the U.S. State Department. [CNet]

GM BRINGING LTE TO VEHICLES VIA ONSTAR

OnStar has outfitted a Buick LaCrosse with a 4G LTE modem for the purpose of experimenting with what can be done in a car with that kind of bandwidth. It wouldn't have been our choice of cars for such application, Buick not exactly screaming "hot new thing" at this point, but of course it's not really about the car, it's about the bandwidth.

What are they going to do with it? High-def streaming both ways, for one thing, including the ability to watch home security cameras from within the car or, alternatively, to look at cameras within the car when it's parked in the night, in an alley, somewhere you're having second thoughts about. OnStar wants real-time streaming of traffic cameras and even Skype video chat, which sounds like overkill to us, but don't let us rain on your crazy mobile video chat parade. [Engadget]

NEW SANDGLASS TRAFFIC SIGNAL LETS DRIVERS KNOW HOW LONG THEY HAVE TO WAIT

A new concept traffic light is called “Sand Glass” and was developed by designer Thanva Tivawong as a more informative traffic signal than your standard traffic light. A constantly displayed hour glass image lets drivers know how long it will take between light changes. The animated digital sand left in the hour glass serves as a change indicator along with a 3-2-1 countdown in yellow when the light changes from red to green and green to red. [Geek]

FACEBOOK PASSES GOOGLE IN WEB TRAFFIC

For the first time Facebook has passed Google in web traffic according to Hitwise, an internet analysis and intelligence company. Hitwise says that last week, Facebook saw 3% more web visits and nearly five times as many pageviews as Google.com.

Facebook has been on track to outgrow Google for awhile now. The young social network has seen a 55% year-over-year increase in its traffic numbers. The only metric in which Google is now beating Facebook is in monthly uniques: Google counted 173.3 monthly uniques in October, compared to Facebook’s 151.13 million.

What these numbers make clear is that, for most people, Facebook now is the Internet… and that’s got Google, as well as privacy advocates, scared. Google understandably doesn’t want most of the Internet traffic locked behind Facebook’s login, unavailable for them to index and spit out ads upon, which is why they’ve started going to war with Facebook, denying users of the social network the ability to import their GMail contact data into the social network. [Geek]