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In-flight Internet service provider Gogo just revealed a new technology that is expected to deliver peak speeds of over 70Mbps.

The new technology is called 2Ku, named for its two Ku-band satellite antennas. The 70Mbps peak speeds are a considerable improvement compared to the 9.8Mbps speeds available today and the 3.1Mbps speeds Gogo was offering to commercial aircraft passengers five years ago.

US Agency for International Development (USAID) has denied Associated Press allegations that it created a Cuban alternative to Twitter in order to foment political unrest.

USAID has disputed several of the Associated Press' claims, saying that the program was neither covert nor intended as anything but a platform for free speech. "The article contained significant inaccuracies and false conclusions about ZunZuneo," writes spokesperson Matt Herrick, calling it "part of a broader effort that began in 2009 to facilitate 'Twitter-like' communication among Cubans so they could connect with each other on topics of their choice."

Rather than covert, Herrick calls the program "discreet." According to him, it was kept quiet in order to protect its staff and partners, but it was explicitly legalized with a budget line asking USAID to break the "information blockade" in Cuba with methods that included new media. "All funds for this project were congressionally appropriated for democracy programs in Cuba, and that information is publicly available," he writes.

20 years ago, the Internet changed forever. Mosaic Communications Corporation was founded, the company that would later change its name to Netscape.

Founders Jim Clark and Marc Andreesen heralded the dot-com boom as we know it, creating the first popular web browsers, Mosaic and later Netscape Navigator, and helping build new standards like SSL and JavaScript that still define the web today.

@ThinkAgain_DOS doesn't have many followers (just 1,552 at press time), but it's not designed for people to actually follow it.

It's a disruptor, replying to accounts that don't follow it and breaking up hashtags like #ISIS or #BokoHaram, the names of designated terrorist groups in Iraq and Nigeria. As a former State Department adviser described it to Mother Jones, "it's targeted at blunting the recruitment pitches." That means busting up the conversation.

There’s some evidence that the government is trying to head off future IT disasters by calling in the crack team first.

In October, General Services Administration (GSA) administrator Dan M. Tangherlini recruited 11 Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) graduates to start 18F, a 15-person digital services agency within the GSA that just launched.

The rhetoric is lofty: the agency plans to prove that rapid prototyping, live testing, and other elements of the speedy "lean startup" methodology will work for the government, delivering better products to taxpayers and saving money.

"This is about building real IT services," says Greg Godbout, one of 18F’s cofounders. "It wouldn't be fair of me to say that we would build Healthcare.gov in the future, but it might be done differently."

18F is still oblique about exactly what it will be doing, but Godbout says it is already booked to build projects for four government agencies that will be announced this summer. Eventually, 18F also wants to encourage agencies to use open-source software and work with contractors outside the Beltway.

The Federal Communications Commission made clear that it won't heed Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' call to expand the scope of network neutrality to regulate the way companies connect across the physical infrastructure of the Internet.

This system, which includes Internet companies like Netflix, middlemen like Cogent, and Internet service providers like Comcast, is the backbone that moves data across the country from Netflix servers into consumers' homes.

"Peering and interconnection are not under consideration in the Open Internet proceeding, but we are monitoring the issues involved to see if any action is needed in any other context," an FCC spokesperson said. Confusingly, at the same time, the agency also said that it was considering new rules to regulate the paid arrangements between companies like Comcast and Netflix.

[Commentary] Why did Netflix agree to pay Comcast and violate Netflix’s own stated principles? According to CEO Reed Hastings, "Netflix believes strong net neutrality is critical, but in the near term we will in cases pay the toll to the powerful ISPs to protect our consumer experience."

That is certainly part of the truth. Given Comcast’s massive size, Netflix could no longer afford to have so many customers suffering poor service. But informed speculation would suggest there is also a more opportunistic strategy at play here. Netflix had been negotiating with the major American ISPs for two years over these fees.

What if the deal happened now because Comcast, under intense regulatory scrutiny over its proposed merger with Time Warner, finally came to the table with terms Netflix could agree to? Is it possible Hastings saw the chance to strike a deal with the devil, abandoning his own stated principles to capture a bargain at a moment of maximum leverage?

Google just announced that Gmail is more secure than ever before. And the company isn't hiding the fact that it's actively trying to stop the government from spying on your e-mail activity.

Google says that Gmail will now use a secure HTTPS connection whenever you check or send e-mail, regardless of where you're accessing Gmail from -- be it your home network or public Wi-Fi -- or what device you're using.

Google made HTTPS encryption the default for its users back in 2010, but it's continually making improvements wherever possible to keep out prying eyes. As an added barrier between you and the National Security Agency, Google is making another change: every single e-mail message Gmail users send or receive will now be encrypted as it moves internally between the company's data centers.