Three (smudge-proof) versions of the iPad 2 rumored to be released in spring

In the latest iPad 2 rumor, we're hearing that Apple could release multiple versions of the tablet and that users will see an improved screen.

How well the iPad compares to the Kindle as an e-reader has already been assessed, and from most sources, traditionally in the Kindle’s favor. The screen doesn’t get as streaky, it’s much better in outdoor light, and of course, it resists fingerprints much better than the iPad. But word is Apple has taken note and the forthcoming iPad 2 will have feature a smudge-proof screen that also holds up against outdoor glare.

Inside sources revealed to Digitimes that Apple is working on the improvements for the tablet upgrade. The site also claims that three different versions of the new iPad are in development and that Apple plans to release all three when the device hits the market this spring. Digitimes sources claims that one will be Wi-FI only, another will feature both Wi-Fi and UTMS capability (the 3G technology that AT&T and T-Mobile carry), and a third will includeCDMA (the 3G technology Verizon and Sprint use) access in addition to Wi-Fi.

If this is true, it could confirm earlier rumors about the iPad 2 being available on various networks. The report also pinned a launch sometime in March or April 2011, a push back from original speculation that said the device would be introduced as early as February.

McAfee: Apple, social media, and mobile devices to be targeted in 2011

McAfee has released its forecast of emerging tech security threats for 2011. Top of the list: social media, mobile devices, and all things Apple.

Security firm McAfeee—now being acquired by chipmaking giant Intel— has released its forecast for technologies and platform it believes will get special attention from cybercriminals in 2011. At the top of the list: mobile platforms like Android, social media services like foursquare and URL shorteners, and—wait for it—all things Apple, including Apple’s iOS and Mac OS X operating systems.

“We’ve seen significant advancements in device and social network adoption, placing a bulls-eye on the platforms and services users are embracing the most,” said McAfee Labs senior VP Vincent Weafer, in a statement. “These platforms and services have become very popular in a short amount of time, and we’re already seeing a significant increase in vulnerabilities, attacks and data loss.”

McAfee forecasts that online scammers and cybercriminals will target social media in earnest, starting with URL-shortening services used by social media services like Facebook and Twitter to abbreviate URLs down to smaller forms that take up less space in infamously-terse 140-character missives. Unfortunately, shortened URLs enable cybercriminals to obscure the ultimate destination of a link, drawing users into malicious Web sites and pages that attempt to leverage browser exploits and other vulnerabilities. McAfee also expects scammers will increasingly exploit geolocation services like Gowalla, Facebook Places, and foursquare to gather information for “targeted attacks.” These might be technological—such as identifying nearby mobile users vulnerable to a particular application or operating system exploit—or more old school, such as using geolocation services to determine when somebody is out of the house, potentially leaving their home unprotected.

McAfee also sees growing threats to consumer privacy from devices like Internet TV platforms—which the company forecasts will be targeted by malicious applications—and potentially latching the devices into botnets. And speaking of botnets, McAfee expects they will become more sophisticated and resilient in 2011 in response to recent high-profile takedowns…and bots will increasingly get into the business of holding users’ data hostage, rather than merely acting as spam-sending zombies.

McAfee also forecasts attacks against mobile devices—including iPhones, Android devices, and more—will escalate in 2011 as criminals seek to tap into “fragile cellular infrastructure” to access often unencrypted business and corporate communications. As mobile devices are increasingly commonplace in corporate and enterprise environments, there are more ways for trade secrets and other critical information to escape into the wild—and McAfee believes cybercriminals will increasingly be looking for it.

Finally, McAfee believes Apple will no longer be able to “fly under the radar” in the security world, forecasting that as the Apple’s Macintosh platform gains popularity and market share it will be the focus of sophisticated attacks in 2011. There’s never been anything about the Macintosh that’s made it immune to malware—in fact, technologically, the Mac often lags other platforms in terms of security—but it’s relatively small market share has meant sophisticated cybercriminals haven’t been particularly motivated to target the platform. McAfee says suspicious and malicious apps will increasingly target the Mac in 2011, potentially wreaking havoc on a group of computer users who have historically turned a blind eye to security. Further McAfee believes Apple botnets and trojans will become a “common occurrence” as cybercriminals work to exploit iPhones and iPads, particularly in business environments.

Living Earth Simulator will analyze the entire planet, everything

Some scientists woke up with ambitions goals today. A group hopes to build a simulator capable of replicating everything relevant that happens on Earth.

Will Wright would be proud. The BBC reports that an international group of scientists are working on a simulator with the goal of replicating everything that happens on Earth. It will track everything from weather patterns to disease spreading to traffic congestion to financial transactions all over the globe. The Living Earth Simulator (LES), as it is nicknamed, is being created to advance scientific understanding about everything that is happening on the planet to attempt to figure out what “human actions shape society” and how everything changes the world.

“Many problems we have today – including social and economic instabilities, wars, disease spreading – are related to human behaviour, but there is apparently a serious lack of understanding regarding how society and the economy work,” explains Dr. Helbing, of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. “Revealing the hidden laws and processes underlying societies constitutes the most pressing scientific grand challenge of our century.”

Hebling chairs the FuturICT project, the group that plans to create the simulator. And how exactly will they have the processing power to analyze everything? Well, for starters, the scientists plan to build a number of supercomputersto crunch the numbers. They will likely also use processing power from all across the net, asking mobile and computer users to donate a small portion of their processing to the project. IBM predicted this in its “five innovations by 2015” video a couple weeks back.

The data will be easier to come by. Websites and services like Wikipedia, Google Maps, and Gov’t data banks make up a few of more than 70 already existing sources of moving data. In addition, they hope to integrate real-time feeds from social networks like Facebook, stock markets, medical records, mobile devices, and more. NASA has a large climate project called Planetary Skin that will feed data into the LES as well. The real trick, Dr. Hebling argues, is creating a system powerful enough to take in all this data and simultaneously process and understand it. It will take a few decades to get the system running.

Skeptics

Still, some are concerned that even if we have the data, we may not use it properly, as research has shown many problems that are largely ignored. ”Economics and sociology have consistently failed to produce theories with strong predictive powers over the last century, despite lots of data gathering. I’m skeptical that larger data sets will mark a big change,” says Pete Warden, founder of the OpenHeatMap project and a specialist on data analysis. ”It’s not that we don’t know enough about a lot of the problems the world faces, from climate change to extreme poverty, it’s that we don’t take any action on the information we do have.”

He has a point. Though it will eventually be possible to put all of the Earth’s data into a computer and analyze it, much of the conclusions it will make have been staring us in the face for decades, perhaps centuries. If we do not act on what we do know, why keep going? However, such an attitude is no fun. The leaves may keep falling in Autumn, but who says we can’t stare out the window before we rake them up? Sure they’ll be more plentiful tomorrow, but it’s warm inside.

Dell’s Looking Glass tablet revealed by FCC

The FCC has revealed some details of Dell's forthcoming "Looking Glass" 7-inch Android tablet.

The Federal Communications Commission has posted public documents covering the testing of Dell’s forthcoming “Looking Glass” Android tablet, conducted to make sure the device complies with regulations regarding accepting (and not generating) radio and other interference. Although the documents don’t include every detail, they do offer some insights about what potential customers can expect from Dell when it decided to go up against the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

The “Looking Glass” tablet will feature a 7-inch widescreen display and support 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 wireless networking in addition to GSM 3G mobile data services, meaning the device is ripe for deployment on the likes at AT&T and T-Mobile as well as in international markets. (Dell partnered with AT&T for its Android-based 5-inch Streak tablet/smartphone.) The tablet will also sport an Nvidia Tegra processor—which ought to make it a media powerhouse—and previous leaked details have indicated the device will feature 4 GB of RAM, SDHC removable media, and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera. The device was originally slated to run Android 2.1; if it ships with Android 2.1, it’s a safe bet that upgrades to Android 2.2 and beyond are in the works.

The “Looking Glass” tablet was first leaked in sprint 2011 as one of a selection of Android-based phones and devices Dell had up its sleeve. In September, the tablet appeared with CEO Michael Dell at the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco, although Dell did not release any other details about the device.

Given that Dell has submitted the “Looking Glass” tablet to the FCC for approval, the device looks to be Dell’s first serious attempt to take on the iPad…and compete against other Android tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Google sees future in educational apps

With sales of educational apps and software on the rise, Google is working towards developing a marketplace that caters to schools and colleges.

Google is working with educational software companies to develop a marketplace for educational apps, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

The new venture would provide third-party developers with a way to connect with tech-friendly schools and univesities. “If we can provide access to education apps to our 10 million users in thousands of schools, then that would be a win all around,” Obadiah Greenberg, Google’s business development manager for education apps, tellsBloomberg.

It’s not solely an investment in the minds of future heads of state and would-be Mars explorers. Spearheading an educational app marketplace is also a potentially lucrative business move on Google’s part. Educational software sales in U.S. alone are expected to surpass $4.6 billion this year with potential to climb above $5 billion well before the launch of the first manned mission to the red planet.

Google already offers schools and colleges its own cloud-based free software programs that include Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Sites. There’s also several third-party educational apps currently available through the Google Apps Marketplace, which launched in March of 2010.

Currently, most of the revenue generated in the Google Apps Marketplace ends up in the pockets of developers. That is soon to change: Google plans to begin taking a 20 percent share from sales starting sometime in 2011. However, it’s not clear if the educational app marketplace will be subject to the same fee structure.

Apple, app developers facing a lawsuit over iPhone privacy breach

Apple is accused of "aiding and abetting" app developers in gathering and transmitting user data including location, gender, political views, and income.

Apple and several app makers are named as defendants in a class action lawsuitalleging that certain iPhone and iPad apps unlawfully collected and transmitted user data.

The suit, filed on December 23 in a federal court in California, targets several apps including the popular music streaming app Pandora along with Paper Toss, Dictionary.com, the Weather Channel, Talking Tom Cat, Toss It, and Text4Plus. The apps are said to have gathered personal information about users and then to have transmitted that information to advertisers without consent from users — a violation of federal privacy laws.

“Some apps are also selling additional information to ad networks, including users’ location, age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation and political views,” alleges the suit.

The data collection was made possible through a unique device identifier (UDID) found on iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches. The UDID makes it possible to track individual device activity and is not able to be turned off by users. The suit contends that certain app makers and advertisers have exploited UDID to gather personal data and use it to tailor ads to the very users whose data was compromised. Because Apple takes it upon itself to approve every app in its App Store, the suit alleges that the company “aided and abetted” app makers in the privacy breach.

“Apple knew this was an issue,” said Majed Nachawati, a lawyer involved in filing the suit, in a Wired article. “They had a duty to warn consumers and at a minimum, if they intend to profit from this, they need to let people know and get their consent.”

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal published an investigative report that found that dozens of apps transmitted data from the iOS devices of unsuspecting users. Several of the apps cited for privacy breaches in the report now appear as defendants in the lawsuit filed last week.

AT&T adds Wi-Fi hotspots in NYC and San Francisco

To relieve network pressure, AT&T is launching Wi-Fi hotspots in New York City and San Francisco, including one in Time's Square, just in time for New Year's Eve.

Today, AT&T will announce new Wi-Fi hotspots in New York City and San Francisco, reports the AP. Wi-Fi access in Time’s Square, NYC will be beefed up before New Year’s and the carrier will also open its first hotspot inthe Embarcadero waterfront district of San Francisco. Wi-Fi access is designed to help manage ever-growing iPhone and smartphone data use in heavily populated areas.

AT&T is not new to Wi-Fi. The company powers hotspots in Starbucks coffee shops across the country as well as many hotels, airports, and other locations. In May, AT&T opened its first hotspot in Time’s Square, NYC. It also operates hotspots in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood and Charlotte, NC, and plans to continue rolling out new hotspots, including some in sports arenas and stadiums. When iPhones and other devices are near AT&T hotspots, they automatically connect, saving the company precious bandwidth on its cellular network. The spots are relatively cheap to implement and improve user experience significantly in areas where many people are gathered.

The best part: using Wi-Fi hotspots is free for subscribers (and presumably others), regardless of whether you have a data plan on your phone or not. The hotspots also work for laptops, netbooks, tablets, and any other devices that connect through a Wi-Fi connection, like the Nintendo DSi.

Chinese will take over the Internet in 5 years

According to the stats and this pretty infographic, Chinese will become the dominant Internet language in just a few years.

Or maybe sooner. The Next Web published a neat infographic that breaks down the world’s 1.97 billion Internet users by language and found that while English is still the dominant language of the Internet at 27.3 percent (536.6 million), Chinese is catching up fast. It is already number two with 22.6 percent (444.9 million) and is growing at a pace much faster than English (what you’re reading now!). In the last 10 years, Chinese grew by 1,277.4 percent while English grew at only 281.2 percent, or about 4.5 times slower. Other fast growing languages include Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, and Spanish.

Those of you who live in fear of the East have a few years to escape the Net. TNW estimates that it will probably take 3-5 years for China to finally overtake us. On a side note, our scientific research expects views of Panda sneezing YouTube videos will increase by roughly 1,277.4 percent in the next 10 years.

To view a larger version of this map, click here. If you like pretty pictures, check out this graph comparing Facebook to Twitter and this cool map of the world created solely by mapping Facebook users.

Samsung Galaxy Player expected to debut at CES

It looks like Samsung will release the Galaxy Player, Android's answer to the iPod touch.

Samsung plans to introduce an iPod touch rival at CES next week, Samsung Hub claims. Insiders are saying that the meadia player will be modeled after the Galaxy S smartphone, without the phone function of course, and runAndroid OS 2.2 Froyo. Like the later-generation iPod touch, the device will feature front- and rear-facing cameras and come in 8, 16, and 32 GB options.

Samsung is wise to manufacture a player that is almost identical to its Galaxy S phones. The iPod touch is aniPhone replica sans cellular connection which has easily bested competitors like the Zune. Samsung is taking a note out of Apple’s playbook and will use a similar formula.

Here’s a look at the Galaxy Player’s reported specs:

• 9.9 mm wide
• 1 GHz Hummingbird processor
• 4-inch LCD screen with up to WVGA resolution (800 x 400)
• SoundAlive audio enchancing technology
• Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth 3.0 enabled
• 3.2 MP rear-camera
• HD vedio playback
• microSD card slot
• Android Market and Samsung Apps access

In addition to using Apple’s iPod touch strategy, Samsung also appears to be tapping into continuing its Galaxy line. The Galaxy Tab has been an able iPad opponent (although unable to keep pace with the Apple tablet), and there were rumors earlier this year that a 10-inch version was on its way. And the Galaxy S, released in June, is swiftly approaching 10 million in global sales.  Together, the two devices have been an impressive boon for Samsung, and a PMP seems like a natural and profitable next step for the brand. Aside to developing the line, it will also give Android an in with consumers who like the platform but aren’t ready to commit to a two-year contract.

But how will it actually compare to the ipod touch? Well it won’t be able to offer quite as sharp of a retina display, but it should be able to compete relatively well and should take a piece out of Apple’s touch sales. There’s no word on pricing or availability at this stage of the game, but CES begins next week and Phandroid reports that it will be on display January 6 at the show.

Apple bans WikiLeaks app

Apple has removed an unofficial app that allowed people to access WIkiLeaks, claiming that it violated developer guidelines.

Joining the growing list of corporations that have decided to stand against WikiLeaks, Apple has announced that it has banned a third-party iPhone/iPad WikiLeaks app from iTunes. Created by Russian developer Igor Barinov, the app allowed access to both the WikiLeaks documents available on the official website, as well as the WikiLeaks Twitter feed.  It had been downloaded over 4,000 times before Apple removed it.

After removing the app, Barinov was contacted by Apple, who told him that his program violated two of its developers guidelines. The first was based on Apple’s stance on personal attacks, and read “any app that is defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited, or likely to place the targeted individual or group in harms way will be rejected.”

The second violation regarded the legality of the WikiLeaks documents, something that legal experts will likely be debating for years to come. But whatever the courts decide regarding the status of the WikiLeaks documents, Apple seems to be playing it safe and assuming that the documents are illegal.

“Apps must comply with all legal requirements in any location where they are made available to users”.

To say that WikiLeaks has become a hot topic for corporations is a massive understatement. Earlier this month Amazon banned WikiLeaks from using its services. Financial institutions PayPal, MasterCard and Visa all followed suit and broke contact with the company, which then lead to a coordinated series of attacks from several groups operating under the rallying crys “Avenge Assange”, “Operation Payback” and several others.

Facebook and Twitter have condemned the cyber attacks and removed any pages in support of them, but both social networks have stated their intention to continue to host WikiLeaks.

The app, which launched on December 17, lasted just three days before Apple removed it.  According to the BBC, Barinov originally designed the app because of his interest in UFO information that he hoped would become available through leaked documents. The app, which cost $1.99 channeled $1 to WikiLeaks with each sale.

The app is still available on other platforms including Android, but Apple will most likely not allow any further WikiLeaks apps in the future. The website can still be accessed via the iPhone and iPad’s browsers though.

Onkyo announces Tegra-powered Android tablets

Onkyo has announced two Android-powered tablets that will be powered by Nvidia's 1 GHz Tegra 2450 processor...but no news on dates or prices.

Japan’s Onkyo is getting an early jump on the flurry of tablet announcements expected to lead up to January’s CES show in Las Vegas, announcing today it’ll be offering two tablets with 10.1-inch touchscreen displays powered by a 1 GHz Nvidia Tegra 250 processor. And there Onkyo’s previously announced Windows 7 “SlatePad” tablets were aimed at corporations, these new Android devices seem targeted at individual consumers.

According to announcement (Japanese PDF) Onkyo is preparing two versions of an Android tablet under the model numbers TA117C3 and TA117C1: both devices will feature a 10.1-inch 1024 by 600-pixel widescreen touch display, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR wireless networking, a microSD expansion slot, a front-facing 1.3 megapixel webcam, USB 2.0 connectivity, microSD removable storage and HDMI output for pushing video and photos to a convenient HDTV. Both tablets will be powered by a 1 GHz Nvidia Tegra 250 processor—which ought to give them more graphical oomph than their competition. The main distinctions between the two models will be storage and RAM: the TA11C1 will sport 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of flash storage, while the TA11C3 doubles those numbers to 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of flash storage.

Unfortunately, Onkyo has not revealed any pricing or availability information for the new tablets—we’ll just have to see if they emerge from the Japanese market in due course—but the announcement does indicate Onkyo’s willingness to play on both sides of the fence in the upcoming not-an-iPad tablet wars between Windows-based devices and Google’s Android juggernaut.

Socializing can be tied to brain structure, doctors unsure whether Facebook friends count

Social butterflies may be onto something. Researchers have found the the brain develops along with our social lives, and some are quick to allude this applies to our online friends as well.

Science journal Nature Neuroscience recently found that the size of the brain’s center is related to your social life, leading many to believe that online platforms like Facebook andTwitter are partially responsible. Medical professionals from both Boston University and Harvard University surveyed the sacial networks of nearly 60 adults, measuring the amount of people they were in regular contact with as well as the complexity of these relationships, or how many groups those contacts fit into.

The study determined that the amygdala, the core deep inside the brain, is bigger for those with large social circles, but it’s still unknown whether a sizable group of friends increases the amygdala’s size, or if a person with a larger amygdala naturally attracts more peers. Lisa Feldman Barrett, part of the research team, says it could be both, but further research is necessary. Still, the study suggests that the human brain size could be expanding as our social lives continue to develop, which only seems natural. As our social networks grow, it appears that the amygdala must also evolve in order to meet the demands of the extremely multifaceted nature of human relationships. Question is, does this apply to our online lives as well?

Researchers surmised that “a larger amygdala might enable us to more effectively identify, learn about and recognize socioemotional cues in conspecifics, allowing us to develop complex strategies to cooperate and compete.” It could easily be argued that the increasing intricacies of relationships is due in part to social networking sites. Still, the study does not directly identify the possible role social networking websites play, and its unknown the degree of cognitive effort these types of relationships require. So don’t get too excited about your thousands of Facebook friends quite yet – for now, real life connections are the kind that will give you a bigger brain.

Man in legal trouble for reading wife’s email

In the first case of its kind, a man is being charged with reading his ex-wife's e-mail.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that a Michigan resident could face five years in prison for reading his wife’s e-mail. 33 year old computer technician Leon Walker had been snooping through wife Clara Walker’s Gmail account after finding her password written in a book next to their shared laptop, and by doing so discovered that she had been having an affair with an ex-husband. In response, Clara filed for divorce and had her now ex-husband arrested.

Leon Walker argues that he was concerned for the safety of Clara Walker’s son from her previous marriage, as his father was allegedly arrested for abusing Clara in front of their son. But his claims seem to be falling on deaf ears: prosecutor Jessica Cooper states that, “The guy is a hacker. It was password protected, he had wonderful skills and was highly trained. Then he downloaded them [the e-mails] and used them in a very contentious way.”

Leon is being charged with a felony under Michigan statute 755.795. The law is most often used in cases concerning identify theft, but will be applied to Leon when he goes to court February 7 – the first time it’s ever been used in a domestic case. And experts are saying that the “gray area” surrounding the circumstances of the situation could make it difficult for the prosecution. At the time, Leon and Clara were living together and sharing the computer in question. The defense attorney, Leon Weiss, argues that the statute is being used incorrectly. “This is a hacking statute, the kind of statute they use if you try to break into a government system or private business for some nerfarious purpose. It’s to protect against identity fraud, to keep somebody from taking somebody’s intellectual property.”

Many legal professionals are shocked by the lawsuit, but a jury will ultimately decide whether or not Leon Walker does time.

Facebook more valuable than Yahoo, eBay

Social networking sites are on the rise and investors are taking notes. And this year, some of the Internet's good old boys were outdone by Facebook.

Facebook is set to end its year on a high note. A recent study from securitiesfirm Nyppex found that the social networking site’s value jumped 56 percent in the last six months or so, and is now worth more than giants like eBay andYahoo. Social startups in general have been experiencing success this year, and the likes of Twitter and Groupon (which we found out was worth $2 billion) have all seen climbing numbers.

Still, none of these sites can compete with the enterprise Facebook is becoming. It is now estimated to be worth approximately $41.2 billion and its continuing to grow at rates that put its competitors to shame. The study also shows that Facebook is easily besting original internet titans like Viacom and Time Warner; and all while altering its demographic – a recent infographic revealed that only 28 percent of current Facebook users are in college, as opposed to its beginnings as an exclusively student social hub.

“We try to be students of venture history, and we think this is a milestone event that’s taken place in the last six months,” says Nyppex managing member Laurence Allen. Allen also notes that Zynga and LinkedIn were two social sites that did not experience this growth trend. He suggested that Zynga may have lost some investors due to its reputation for curbing share transfers.

While its staggering value caps off an impressive year for Facebook, these new numbers add to the disappointing one Yahoo has had. The once-might company has laid off hundreds of employees, will be downsizing its web properties, and has struggled to remain a top search engine. And word that Facebook is officially worth more than Yahoo can’t help its investment prospects.

Google buys enormous Manhattan office building for $1.77 billion

The deal will give Google one of Manhattan's largest buildings as well as easy access to the fiber optic cables that run below the nearby city streets.

Google has purchased a piece of Manhattan real estate that might just be large enough to contain the company’s ever expanding ambitions. The sale of the office building, residing at 111 Eighth Avenue in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, was reportedly completed for the palatial sum of $1.77 billion — a figure that could rise to $1.9 billion after fees and taxes are tacked on to the bill. The deal is thought to be the largest single single asset sale in the U.S. during 2010 and the largest acquisition ever by a tenant (Google previously rented space in the building starting in 2006).

“Google New York started in a Starbucks on 86th Street with one person in 2000 — a scrappy, highly caffeinated sales ‘team,’” said David Radcliffe, Google’s vice president for real estate and workplace services, in a blog post. “Now we have more than 2,000 Googlers working on a variety of projects in both sales and engineering — and we’re hiring across the board.”

The building, formerly occupied by the city’s Port Authority, is 18 stories tall and occupies nearly 3 million square feet — an entire city block. The space will certainly give Google opportunities to impress potential employees as it fights to attract talent in New York City’s booming tech scene.

The building’s Manhattan location also puts the Internet giant in close proximity to some of the world’s most influential advertising firms — important for a company that still relies heavily on generating ad revenue to support itself. Google also had another big reason to invest in the space: the building sits above large bundles of fiber optic cables that run beneath New York City’s streets.

For the moment, Google doesn’t plan to run wild over all 3 million square feet: as per terms of the sale, the current property managers will continue running the building’s leasing services to current tenants including Nike, Verizon, Sprint, WebMD and Level 3.