Kara Swisher

Recent Posts by Kara Swisher

What Is Cisco Announcing This Morning to "Forever Change the Internet"? A Foursquare-Enabled Jet Pack?

Bright and early this morning at 8 am PT, BoomTown will be jacked into the matrix for an invitation-only media and analyst briefing to hear exactly what the heck Cisco (CSCO) has been yammering on about of late.

Last month, the networking giant said in a mysterioso email that it would be making “a significant announcement that will forever change the Internet and its impact on consumers, businesses and governments.”

Significant? Forever? It had better be good.

Like a jet pack from which you can communicate your Foursquare location (“I’m Mayor of the Clouds!”).

Or perhaps a chip you can implant in your head that will give you live updates of every single Apple (AAPL) iPad rumor.

Or a cogent explanation of how to extricate yourself from Google Buzz.

Or, at long last, maybe Cisco has figured out a way to fix the dropped calls crisis on the AT&T (T) mobile network–a tech solution I would nominate for a Nobel Prize if it ever came to pass.

In all seriousness, due to the speculation around what Cisco will unveil, its stock hit a 52-week high yesterday–up 92 cents, or 3.7 percent, to $26.13–and analysts were speculating on what the company will say.

The consensus: A new router to improve–please, oh Lord, please–wireless transmission of Web video and heavy data that often slow mobile and ISP networks.

It’s part of a new focus on the ever-growing but ever-slowing wireless data networks.

Google (GOOG) said recently that it was planning to build a superspeedy broadband service. In addition, the Federal Communications Commission is set to unveil its own ambitious plan to improve high-speed Internet access across the United States.

Well, it’ll be good, since the consumption of video online is growing like crazy and a constant bottleneck is likely without some relief.

Cisco has gotten deep into video of late, both in pushing networking gear and in acquiring video device maker like Pure Digital, the company behind my beloved Flip digital camera.

It is also working on innovative holographic and television-based home telepresence technologies.

So, is it too much to ask Cisco for a simple jet pack that works? I think not!


comments so far. Add yours.

  • http://www.beanieville.blogspot.com beanieville

    That's too easy, lady.

    We need human teleportation thru the routers.

  • brookscampbell

    Maybe they will announce a a new pricing model that will mean we do not pay more then what we get. Or not gouging you for two licenses to have one sit unused on the fail over device. Or maybe a support network where they actually send field engineers to the site who know what the device is they are suppose to fix.

    No I have not been badly burned by them recently.

  • http://sambeal.com/ Sam Beal

    I would guess router. Buying Pure Digital (a wimpy substitute for a video ipodnano) still doesn't make any sense.

  • http://twitter.com/ciscosystems/ johnearnhardt

    I want to be mayor of the clouds!

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