Sprint testing LTE cell sites in San Francisco, we pay one a visit Mobile

It's not everyday that you get to mill around rooftops like Spider-Man, so when Sprint invited us to visit one of its LTE cell sites in San Francisco, our answer was a resounding "yes." While the company's been testing LTE in the city by the bay for several months now, we're still a few weeks away from an official rollout. Cell site SF33XC664 is located high above Van Ness Avenue with phenomenal views of the Golden Gate and Telegraph Hill. Sprint showed us around the various pieces of equipment and let us run some speed tests. Take a look at our hands-on gallery below then hit the break to join us on a complete tour.

Sprint LTE cell site visit





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This cell site provides LTE data and CDMA data plus voice connectivity, but no WiMAX support. Of all the cabinets in the picture above, only the furthest two will remain once Sprint launches LTE in San Francisco. The rest, which only provide CDMA service and are currently active, will be removed and recycled since the new gear handles both LTE and CDMA. Interestingly, AT&T shares this location with Sprint. It uses its own cabinets and antennae (the smaller white ones in our pictures) but provides both companies with a fiber connection to the backhaul.



Here you can see the junction box for AT&T's fiber connection on the right, the battery backup system in the middle (it powers the cell site for five to eight hours in case of an outage) and the main equipment cabinet (open door).



This is the meat of the gear, which is made by Samsung. LTE data is handled by the top-most rack unit while the middle two deal with CDMA data plus voice. The Cisco router at the bottom interfaces with AT&T's fiber connection.



Here's one of Sprint's antennae on the right along with its RF amplifiers. Three antennae, made by Powerwave, are mounted in a circle and spaced about 120 degrees apart around the building's elevator shaft. Each antenna is capable of handling 800MHz, 1900MHz and 2.5GHz but require separate RF amplifiers for each band. You can see two RF amplifiers for 800MHz (top) and 1900MHz (bottom) to the left of the antenna. The company will have to install additional RF amplifiers for 2.5GHz when it decides to re-farm its WiMAX spectrum for LTE.



We ran speed tests with an iPhone 5 and a Galaxy Note II and reached up to 21Mbps down 9Mbps up. Of course, Sprint's still in the process of fine tuning this LTE cell site and these numbers are not final. Performance isn't that great near the antennae themselves but improves as you move further away and into the signal path (which is directional). That meant the edge of the rooftop for us.



A couple more antennae -- Sprint on the left and AT&T on the right.



The cell site is littered with warning signs, a stark reminder of the power of radio waves.

Panasonic thinks you'll pay $1,200 for a home stereo with neon subwoofers

Of note, that thing you see above cannot be copped for $20 at your local Thrift Shop.

eyeSight software uses standard cameras to power 3D gesture controls (video)

Turning regular ol' devices into motion-activated wonders is all the rage these days, and a company called eyeSight is determined to stand out from the pack. The brains behind eyeSight claim to have developed a purely software-based solution for equipping PCs, TVs and mobile devices with 3D gesture controls using existing standard cameras. It sounds like a pretty sweet deal, but it all comes down to whether or not eyeSight can deliver on its potential. If it can, then it could be a promising sign that gesture-controlled technology is on its way to becoming more accessible for budget-conscious consumers, since a software setup would negate the need for costly hardware. Currently, the platform is limited to developer SDKs, but you can watch an eyeSight-powered Google Earth demo after the break.

10 for 10 publisher stories: Papilles et Pupilles finds a recipe for success

This week marks the last post of our ‘10 for 10’ success story series, which we’ve been sharing in the weeks leading up to AdSense’s 10th anniversary. Thanks for following along and submitting your own stories. Read on to meet this week’s featured publisher, and be sure to check back next week when we’ll be celebrating AdSense’s official 10th anniversary!

Eight years ago, Bordeaux resident Anne Lataillade launched French culinary blogPapillesetPupilles.fr, a site where she shares classic recipes and also recipes for people with food allergies. As the mother of two children with food allergies, Anne had already been conducting culinary research and creating her own recipes for some time. Papilles et Pupilles has grown significantly, and today generates an average of over one and a half million page views per month.


(To enable captions in a number of languages, click on the ‘Captions’ link in the bottom right corner of the YouTube player once the video starts playing.)

Earlier this year, Anne attended a Learn with Google event in Paris to learn more about optimization. After trying out the 336x280 Large Rectangle format and changing her ad units to allow both text and image ads, Anne saw an increase in her revenue. AdSense now generates 20% of the revenue from the site, which Anne uses to cover the cost of maintenance, hosting, and development.

What’s next? Anne’s goal is to continue building traffic to the site by developing new content. She’s also growing awareness of her content through her Google+ page, where she engages with over 34,000 followers.

Posted by Arlene Lee - Inside AdSense Team