Bad news for those of us who would love to see Google (GOOG) expand its fiber network out to the entire country: Doing so may be prohibitively expensive. Business Insider points us to a new research note from Goldman Sachs estimating that it would cost Google an estimated $140 billion or more to make Google Fiber available to the rest of the United States. Since Google has “only” $45 billion on hand and since its annual CAPEX budget is $4.5 billion, it’s highly unlikely that Google Fiber will be rolling into most peoples’ neighborhoods in the near future. And that’s not the worst part — according to Goldman, “even a 50 million household build out, which would represent less than half of all US homes, could cost as much as $70 billion,” meaning Google would likely have to take out a major loan just to get Fiber to most major markets.
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Sprint reportedly looking to team up with Dish on its proposed national wireless network
Labels: TechThe intrigue surrounding the Dish Network’s (DISH) plans to build out its own nationwide mobile data network just got even more interesting. Unnamed sources have told Bloomberg that Sprint (S) has been trying to hash out a deal with Dish that would let the satellite television provider “offer mobile-phone service over the carrier’s network” in exchange for giving Sprint “access to Dish’s mobile airwaves, which aren’t currently being used.” From there, the companies would either “share revenue from customers who sign up for a Dish wireless service, or Dish may pay Sprint a fee to use the network.” Dish, which wants to use a 40MHz chunk of satellite spectrum on the 2GHz band for terrestrial LTE-Advanced services, has also reportedly held talks with Google (GOOG) to jointly operate a nationwide LTE network that would officially set up the companies as direct competitors with wireless giants Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T).
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NASA: Apocalypse, No!
Labels: TechWith the Mayan apocalypse fast approaching (two weeks!), a NASA senior scientist has reassured the world that the space agency isn't hiding any intel on the order of the universe and its impending implosion December 21. "There’s no cosmic catastrophe coming," David Morrison said definitively to Current TV's Cenk Uygur. (Watch the full video below.)
RELATED: There's No Excuse for Missing Tomorrow's Total Lunar Eclipse
See, one of the prevailing theories for how the world will come to an end this month is that the planets will all align in some way to trigger hugegantic natural disasters and other chaos on that day. Actually, a lot of the theories about the world ending involve space, a frontier the Mayans probably knew little about. There's the one about Nibiru, the sun's dark star counterpart that is coming our way as we speak. Or, the idea that the sun has reached a solar maximum that will lead to our death and destruction. To all of that, NASA just says no — just as it has insisted for months now, official agency explainers and all.
RELATED: Forget Mars: There's Water on Mercury!
But why should we believe this man now? Couldn't his statement be a part of some NASA cover-up conspiracy to keep humanity calm before the big death-storm? Sure. But he is the agency's senior scientist for the search for life elsewhere, and NASA has a pretty good track record for predicting when objects will come into earth's orbit. And if there were a giant projectile headed our way, we'd have seen it by now, as Space's Stephanie Pappas points out.
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‘Six strikes’ ISP policy could be a disaster in the making
Labels: TechISPs have delayed implementing their “six strikes” anti-piracy program so many times now that we’re beginning to wonder if the whole thing isn’t just a giant bluff. All the same, TIME’s Matt Peckham has written an interesting piece about how the long-threatened policy could be a nightmare for apartment building owners and small businesses that rely upon shared connections. Basically, Peckham says that the new policy could amount to a form of collective punishment for users on such connections, who may have to implement measures such as deploying tracking software to discover where copyright violations are happening.
“Who’s responsible for each infraction?” he asks rhetorically. “Who should be punished? The entire complex, by throttling or at some point terminating our Internet service? Each unit in the complex pays for shared Internet equally as part of our monthly association fees. We’re not a business — there’s no CEO. The few of us who manage the Internet on behalf of the rest can’t act unilaterally to preempt potential infractions by blocking aspects of the service by introducing content filters the way a private company might.”
Ars Technica earlier this month reported some details on exactly how the oft-delayed six strikes policy will work in practice. Basically, there are three “stages” ISPs will go through before taking action: a “notice” phase that “involves letting users know they’ve been tracked on copyright-infringing sites”; an “acknowledgement” phase in which “the customer will have to actually acknowledge having received those notices”; and finally, the “mitigation” phase where “users who have traded copyrighted files are actually punished” through either having their speeds throttled or having access to certain sites blocked.
Peckham admits that he doesn’t know for sure how this policy will impact shared connections such as the one in his apartment complex, but he’s worried because ISPs haven’t yet outlined any of the specifics yet and is worried that this could be one of the major reasons why they keep delaying implementing it: Because they have no idea how to make it work practically.
“I’d like to see the CCI and participating ISPs lay all the details about ‘six strikes’ on the table, proactively, instead of letting them trickle out in leaked documents and casual interviews,” he writes. “Don’t just backdoor the policy and expect users, especially where Internet’s shared, to somehow reverse-engineer what they’re responsible for, what happens if they fail to meet some new policy threshold and so forth. Be upfront with customers.”
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How Apple may have turned Samsung into its very own ‘Frankenstein’s monster’
Labels: TechWere Nietzsche alive today and covering the tech industry, he might say something along the lines of, “And what you outsource to the abyss, the abyss outsources also onto you.” Over at Asymco’s blog, James Allworth has written a very interesting piece arguing that Apple (AAPL) really has itself to blame for the rise of smartphone rival Samsung (005930). In fact, Allworth contends that Apple’s reliance on Samsung as a component supplier may have taught the South Korean manufacturer everything it needed to know about effective smartphone design and supply chain management.
Allworth’s argument can be summarized thusly: Apple spent a good part of the last decade thumping its competition because it had gone through “a long gestation period” where it perfected both its products and its business practices in ways that couldn’t have been easily copied by competitors unless they were privy to Apple’s trade secrets. To replicate Apple’s success in this area, it would likely take competitors years of going through similar gestation periods just to catch up.
But Allworth then throws something else into the mix: What if the biggest threat to Apple didn’t come from well-known electronics manufacturers such as Nokia (NOK) and RIM (RIMM), but from the companies it had long relied upon to supply it with components?
“When Apple went through this transformative process, where the design whittled down the broad range of offerings to just a few, and they generated the scale on the business side that accompanied that — they weren’t actually the only one to go through that process,” Allworth contends. “Apple’s partners — their suppliers — went through it with them. And they’ve got very big, and very good at what they do. Samsung, obviously, is among those partners.”
The irony, of course, is that Apple’s mastery of its supply chain and its approach to outsourcing have been two of the reasons why the company has turned into one of the most profitable the world has ever seen. And if Allworth’s theory is correct, then it’s no wonder that Apple is in such a rush to ditch Samsung as a component supplier, because otherwise any further refinement of its design and management practices would only stand to benefit the company that has become its fiercest rival.
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T-Mobile to Offer Cheapest iPhone 5 in 2013
Labels: Tech T-Mobile, the smallest of the "big four" wireless carries in the United States, already offers the country's cheapest iPhone service -- if you have an unlocked iPhone. And according to Engadget's Brad Molen, more than a million unlocked iPhones are on T-Mobile's network already.
Now, T-Mobile has announced that it will "add Apple products to its portfolio in the coming year," according to parent company Deutsche Telekom AG. And while that could mean anything from the new iPad Mini to an as-yet-unreleased Apple product of some kind, many expect T-Mobile to finally get the iPhone, making it the last major carrier in the United States to get it.
If T-Mobile does, and it continues to offer its $30 "Unlimited Web & Text with 100 Minutes" plan, that may make T-Mobile's iPhone the cheapest one out there -- even if it costs hundreds of dollars more up front than on AT&T.
Subsidies aren't just for big corporations
Most of the big-name wireless carriers in the United States offer what are called "subsidized" smartphones, meaning you don't pay their whole cost up front. Instead, you pay a discounted price (which can be as little as $0.01), but are locked into a wireless contract for up to 2 years. Wireless customers who switch before their contract is up have to pay an "early termination fee," which can go over and above the actual cost of the smartphone.
Buy now, save later
With prepaid smartphone plans, on the other hand, you pay the whole cost of the phone up front and afterward it's yours to keep (whether its SIM card is locked into one network or not). And with the announcement that T-Mobile is going prepaid-only starting next year, that means any iPhone the company carries will be of the unsubsidized variety.
Apple currently sells the 16 GB iPhone 5 for $649, contract-free, on its website. It also sells the 16 GB iPhone 4S for $549, however, while contract-free carrier Virgin Mobile sells the same phone unsubsidized for $449 with a $35 per month data plan -- not too much more expensive than T-Mobile's.
Lessons of the past
It's hard to say how much T-Mobile would offer an iPhone 5 for if the device landed on its network. Virgin Mobile started out charging more up front and offering a $30 plan, while Cricket currently sells the contract-free iPhone 5 for $499 but its service starts at $55.
Assuming T-Mobile continues to offer its current "web exclusive" $30 unlimited plan for a hypothetical iPhone 5 on its network, it's not likely to be discounted much if at all from Apple's asking price. Just paying for 5 GBs of data per month from AT&T would cost $1,200 over 2 years, however, plus the $199 cost of a subsidized iPhone (and you have to pay for voice minutes and texting on top of that). Meanwhile, it's possible right now to buy an unlocked iPhone 5 from Apple and get 2 years of T-Mobile's $30 service for $1,369. That includes 5 GBs of data before connection speed throttling, plus unlimited texting and 100 voice minutes per month.
Looking to the future
T-Mobile offers the cheapest iPhone 5 service right now. And if the "Apple products" T-Mobile is getting next year include the iPhone 5, T-Mobile customers may see even better offerings coming their way in the near future.
Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.
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Nokia Siemens to close German services unit: sources
Labels: Technology
FRANKFURT/HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia Siemens Networks' (NSN) German services unit faces closure and 1,000 jobs are at risk as Nokia and Siemens shake up the joint venture, two sources said.
One of the people
familiar with the situation said the closure would be effective by the
end of 2013 and will be announced on Wednesday during a meeting at which
workers will be told a crucial contract with Deutsche Telekom will not be extended.
The Mobile telecoms equipment joint venture
is cutting costs and plans to shed a quarter of its staff and sell
product lines to focus on mobile broadband. The program is expected to
yield about 1 billion euros ($1.31 billion) in cost savings by the end
of next year.
The telecoms equipment
market is going through tough times with stiff competition from Chinese
peers Huawei and ZTE as the major telecoms operators postpone
investments, faced with shrinking markets due to the weak economy.
France's Alcatel-Lucent has also said it will cut costs and jobs to survive stiff competition and weak demand.
NSN Services Gmbh,
which generates under 100 million euros in annual sales and employs
about 1,000 people, provides network operations and management services
and also includes Vodafone among its customers.
Deutsche Telekom
sold the unit to NSN five years ago, when the two companies also agreed
on a 300 million euro services contract that now will not be renewed,
according to the sources.
NSN, which declined
to comment, has said such services, often provided on older overhead
cable networks, are not considered core operations, and it exited a
similar business in Brazil earlier this year.
Verdi union representative Mike Doeding
said that a meeting to update workers about next year's plans was
scheduled for Wednesday, adding he had no idea about what message to
expect from management.
"If they are to close the unit it would be an outrage," Doeding said.
Deutsche Telekom referred requests for comment to NSN.
On Monday, NSN said
it was selling its optical fiber unit to Marlin Equity Partners,
resulting in the transfer of up to 1,900 employees, mainly in Germany
and Portugal.
NSN had 60,600 employees at the end of the third quarter.
($1 = 0.7650 euros)
(Reporting by Harro ten Wolde and Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt, Tarmo Virki and Terhi Kinnunen in
U.S. fails to win early limit on Net controls at global gathering
Labels: TechnologyUBAI/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. and Canadian proposal to protect the Internet from new international regulation has failed to win prompt backing from other countries, setting up potentially tough negotiations to rewrite a telecom treaty.
The idea, also supported by Europe, would limit the International Telecommunication Union's rules to only telecom operators and not Internet-based companies such as Google Inc and Facebook Inc.
That could reduce the prospective impact of efforts by other countries including Russia and some in the Middle East and Africa to obtain more powers to govern the Internet through the ITU, an arm of the United Nations. Those efforts, slated for discussion next week, could make Net anonymity - or the ability to remain anonymous online - more difficult to maintain and could bolster censorship, critics say.
"We want to make sure (the rewritten ITU treaty) stays focused squarely on the telecom sector," said U.S. Ambassador Terry Kramer. "We thought we should deal with that up-front."
Kramer had been hoping that a committee comprising representatives from six regional bodies would give quick approval to the American request on Tuesday. But that failed to happen.
An ITU spokesman said late on Tuesday that the talks were continuing and that the issue would only return to the main policy-making body on Friday.
About 150 nations are gathered in Dubai to renegotiate the ITU rules, which were last updated in 1988, before the Internet and mobile phones transformed communications.
The 12-day ITU conference, which began on Monday, largely pits revenue-seeking developing countries and authoritarian regimes that want more control over Internet content against U.S. policymakers and private Net companies that prefer the status quo.
The Internet has no central regulatory body, but various groups provide some oversight, such as ICANN, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that coordinates domain names and numeric Internet protocol addresses.
U.S. companies have led innovation on the Internet, and this stateside dominance is a worry for countries unaligned with the world's most powerful country.
The United States has also led in the development and use of destructive software in military operations that take advantage of anonymous Internet routing and security flaws.
Some of the proposals now being contested by the American and Canadian delegations are aimed at increasing security and reducing the effectiveness of such attacks, though the West and several rights groups argue that is a pretext for greater repression.
ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré told Reuters last week that any major changes to the 1988 treaty would be adopted only with "consensus" approaching unanimity, but leaked documents show that managers at the 147-year-old body view a bad split as a strong possibility.
If that happens, debates over ratification could erupt in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.
Read More..
The idea, also supported by Europe, would limit the International Telecommunication Union's rules to only telecom operators and not Internet-based companies such as Google Inc and Facebook Inc.
That could reduce the prospective impact of efforts by other countries including Russia and some in the Middle East and Africa to obtain more powers to govern the Internet through the ITU, an arm of the United Nations. Those efforts, slated for discussion next week, could make Net anonymity - or the ability to remain anonymous online - more difficult to maintain and could bolster censorship, critics say.
"We want to make sure (the rewritten ITU treaty) stays focused squarely on the telecom sector," said U.S. Ambassador Terry Kramer. "We thought we should deal with that up-front."
Kramer had been hoping that a committee comprising representatives from six regional bodies would give quick approval to the American request on Tuesday. But that failed to happen.
An ITU spokesman said late on Tuesday that the talks were continuing and that the issue would only return to the main policy-making body on Friday.
About 150 nations are gathered in Dubai to renegotiate the ITU rules, which were last updated in 1988, before the Internet and mobile phones transformed communications.
The 12-day ITU conference, which began on Monday, largely pits revenue-seeking developing countries and authoritarian regimes that want more control over Internet content against U.S. policymakers and private Net companies that prefer the status quo.
The Internet has no central regulatory body, but various groups provide some oversight, such as ICANN, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that coordinates domain names and numeric Internet protocol addresses.
U.S. companies have led innovation on the Internet, and this stateside dominance is a worry for countries unaligned with the world's most powerful country.
The United States has also led in the development and use of destructive software in military operations that take advantage of anonymous Internet routing and security flaws.
Some of the proposals now being contested by the American and Canadian delegations are aimed at increasing security and reducing the effectiveness of such attacks, though the West and several rights groups argue that is a pretext for greater repression.
ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré told Reuters last week that any major changes to the 1988 treaty would be adopted only with "consensus" approaching unanimity, but leaked documents show that managers at the 147-year-old body view a bad split as a strong possibility.
If that happens, debates over ratification could erupt in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.
Samsung promotes son and heir closer to top job
Labels: TechnologySEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co pushed the anointed heir of the company Chairman closer to the top job on Wednesday as the it cemented a global lead in smartphones with a stock price that is close to record highs.
The promotion of the snappily-dressed and bespectacled Jay Y. Lee, aged 44, to the job of vice chairman comes after Samsung marked the 25th anniversary of his father Lee Kun-hee's chairmanship last week.
"It is a stamp of approval from the chairman that the vice chairman has shown capability to manage Samsung. It's a major step forward (for Jay Lee to become) the future successor at Samsung," a Samsung executive familiar with the matter said.
Jay Lee is already chief operating officer and president and was thrust into the spotlight in June when then Samsung Electronics chief executive Choi Gee-sung, known to be his mentor, was promoted to lead the entire Samsung group's strategy, a defacto No.2 role within the group to chairman Lee.
Observers said at the time that Choi's move was aimed at preparing a succession plan for Jay Lee.
"As Vice Chairman, Lee will build on his existing responsibilities and take a broader role in managing Samsung Electronics' businesses," Samsung said in a statement.
"Lee will continue to play a critical role in transforming Samsung's business model - the set (product) business into one based on a platform and the component business into a total solution provider."
FROM SMALL TRADING COMPANY TO TECH GIANT
Samsung Group was founded in 1938 by Lee Byung-chull, Jay Lee's grandfather, as a small trading company and Samsung Electronics which is the jewel in the crown of its vast industrial empire now sells more televisions, memory chips, flat screens and mobile telephones than any other company.
Samsung Electronics alone is worth $195 billion based on Tuesday's closing share price.
Jay Lee will have big shoes to fill as it was under his father's watch that Samsung Electronics was transformed into from a low cost producer into a global player that has overtaken Apple Inc in terms of smartphone sales.
The annual Samsung reshuffle of top management, of which Jay Lee's promotion is a part, comes as South Korean chaebols, or big business groups, are under pressure to reform amid growing anger over their dominance in an economy where wealth gaps are widening.
The issue of family succession is viewed as a key marker of transpareny and presidential candidates from the ruling and opposition parties have pledged 'economic democratization' in a bid to rein chaebols' growing economic prowess.
"I think JY Lee's promotion means that he has somewhat proved himself worthy of following in his father's footsteps," said a fund manager at foreign fund based in Seoul who owns 2 million shares in Samsung Electronics.
"However, because of the political climate that is bent on economic democratization which frowns on the cross-shareholding structure, it would be better if the company were to be sensitive to minority and outside voices," said the fund manager who could not be named due to his company's media policy.
While Jay Lee steers clear of the limelight when his father appears in public, he has become the first point of contact at Samsung for many key customers and competitors.
Jay Lee has met Apple's chief executive Tim Cook as well as political leaders from China, Hong Kong and Vietnam.
Critics say he lacks his father's charisma, business insight and entrepreneurship and that he faces tough challenges, not least a patent battle with Apple that is being fought out in courts across the globe.
Lee has a degree in East Asian history from Seoul National University, an MBA from Keio University in Japan and also attended the doctoral program at Harvard Business School. He has two children and went through one of Korea's highest profile divorce cases. ($1 = 1083.4500 Korean won)
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How to Email Tweets Directly From Twitter's Website
Labels: TechnologyA More button now appears beside the Reply, Retweet, and Favorite options at the bottom of each tweet.
Click here to view this gallery.
[More from Mashable: Writer Sued for his Twitter Followers Settles Case]
Twitter has started rolling out the ability to email tweets from its website.
Announced mid-November, the feature allows you to send a tweet directly to someone else, complete with your own personal comments, regardless of whether or not that person is a Twitter user.
[More from Mashable: Social Media Use Leads to Real-World Actions]
Available in Twitter’s mobile app for some time now, on the web it exists as part of a “More” button beside the Reply, Retweet, and Favorite buttons.
When clicked, the “Email Tweet” option appears below the More menu in a drop-down style that suggests Twitter may add additional options to the menu in the future.
SEE ALSO: Twitter Triples Down on Downloadable Tweets Promise
We gave the feature a spin and, while easy to use, it might not be very effective. Currently, Twitter is using a no-reply email to send the tweets. While that's great for hiding your email address from people you might not want to share it with, tweets we sent to friends often ended up in spam folders rather than inboxes.
It's worth nothing that the feature supports expanded tweets, and links on those tweets are live within an email. So, for instance, if you wanted to share a tweet from our @mashable account with a link to a story, the recipient would see the headline, photo, and other data associated with that post, as well as have the option to click through to the story. All without ever having to visit Twitter.
Check out what the emailing process looks like in the gallery above and let us know if the email tweets feature is live on your Twitter account in the comments.
Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, sodafish
Read More..
Click here to view this gallery.
[More from Mashable: Writer Sued for his Twitter Followers Settles Case]
Twitter has started rolling out the ability to email tweets from its website.
Announced mid-November, the feature allows you to send a tweet directly to someone else, complete with your own personal comments, regardless of whether or not that person is a Twitter user.
[More from Mashable: Social Media Use Leads to Real-World Actions]
Available in Twitter’s mobile app for some time now, on the web it exists as part of a “More” button beside the Reply, Retweet, and Favorite buttons.
When clicked, the “Email Tweet” option appears below the More menu in a drop-down style that suggests Twitter may add additional options to the menu in the future.
SEE ALSO: Twitter Triples Down on Downloadable Tweets Promise
We gave the feature a spin and, while easy to use, it might not be very effective. Currently, Twitter is using a no-reply email to send the tweets. While that's great for hiding your email address from people you might not want to share it with, tweets we sent to friends often ended up in spam folders rather than inboxes.
It's worth nothing that the feature supports expanded tweets, and links on those tweets are live within an email. So, for instance, if you wanted to share a tweet from our @mashable account with a link to a story, the recipient would see the headline, photo, and other data associated with that post, as well as have the option to click through to the story. All without ever having to visit Twitter.
Check out what the emailing process looks like in the gallery above and let us know if the email tweets feature is live on your Twitter account in the comments.
Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, sodafish
NASA Will Launch New Mars Rover in 2020
Labels: TechnologyOn the heels of Curiosity rover's success, NASA announced today that it's planning a multi-year program that will solidify the United States as a leader in Mars exploration.
The program includes a new robotic science rover that is set to launch in 2020. It will be another significant step toward sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s, according to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
[More from Mashable: NASA Reveals Curiosity Rover Martian Soil Findings]
Mars Science Laboratory will use the same framework as Curiosity for the next rover's development and design. The agency says this will help keep costs and risks low. The mission fits within the five-year budget plan in the president's Fiscal Year 2013 budget request and is contingent on future appropriations.
Just a few months into the two-year mission, Curiosity has already made significant discoveries -- like finding an ancient streambed where water once flowed. More recently, it determined that astronauts could survive Mars radiation levels.
[More from Mashable: 11 Hot News Stories You May Have Missed]
SEE ALSO: NASA Reveals Curiosity Rover Martian Soil Findings
NASA now has a total of seven Mars missions in the works. Shortly after the Curiosity rover landing in August, the agency announced plans for a 2016 program called InSight, a Discovery-class mission that will look into the deep interior of the Red Planet by drilling underneath Martian topsoil.
BONUS: Curiosity Rover's Latest Soil Samples in Photos
Scoop Marks in Rocknest Sand
The Curiosity rover took soil samples from an area called "Rocknest." The team chose this area because it lies in a flat part of the Gale Crater. This specific sample came from a drift of windblown dust. This particular photo shows the third (left) and fourth (right) scoops, each 1.6-inches wide.
Read More..
The program includes a new robotic science rover that is set to launch in 2020. It will be another significant step toward sending humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s, according to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.
[More from Mashable: NASA Reveals Curiosity Rover Martian Soil Findings]
Mars Science Laboratory will use the same framework as Curiosity for the next rover's development and design. The agency says this will help keep costs and risks low. The mission fits within the five-year budget plan in the president's Fiscal Year 2013 budget request and is contingent on future appropriations.
Just a few months into the two-year mission, Curiosity has already made significant discoveries -- like finding an ancient streambed where water once flowed. More recently, it determined that astronauts could survive Mars radiation levels.
[More from Mashable: 11 Hot News Stories You May Have Missed]
SEE ALSO: NASA Reveals Curiosity Rover Martian Soil Findings
NASA now has a total of seven Mars missions in the works. Shortly after the Curiosity rover landing in August, the agency announced plans for a 2016 program called InSight, a Discovery-class mission that will look into the deep interior of the Red Planet by drilling underneath Martian topsoil.
BONUS: Curiosity Rover's Latest Soil Samples in Photos
Scoop Marks in Rocknest Sand
The Curiosity rover took soil samples from an area called "Rocknest." The team chose this area because it lies in a flat part of the Gale Crater. This specific sample came from a drift of windblown dust. This particular photo shows the third (left) and fourth (right) scoops, each 1.6-inches wide.
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