June 2012

FTC Chair Dines With Google Ad Exec Amid Antitrust Probe

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz took time away from a Southern California technology conference to dine with a senior executive at Google, the subject of an intensifying government antitrust probe.

Chairman Leibowitz had lunch with Susan Wojcicki, Google’s senior vice president of advertising, at Catalina Kitchen at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes. The pair were attending the D10 conference, put on by technology blog AllThingsD. Wojcicki spearheaded Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick Inc., an Internet-advertising company, and was involved in Google’s purchase of AdMob Inc., which specializes in mobile ads. Google’s advertising practices are part of the FTC’s antitrust investigation.

Advertisers Concerned Over Explorer Default Do-Not-Track

Microsoft said that it will include do-not-track in the latest Explorer iteration (10) in Windows 8, which drew some praise from Capitol Hill and concern from online advertisers.

Microsoft, Mozilla and others have committed to the Obama Administration that they would support a do-not-track browser option also supported by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), but the default setting takes it up a notch. "[W]e hope that many consumers will see this value and make a conscious choice to share information in order to receive more personalized ad content," said Brendon Lynch, chief privacy officer, Microsoft. "For us, that is the key distinction. Consumers should be empowered to make an informed choice and, for these reasons, we believe that for IE10 in Windows 8, a privacy-by-default state for online behavioral advertising is the right approach." Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), who co-chairs the Congressional Privacy Caucus and has sponsored a do-not-track kids bill, was pleased, but wanted more. Caucus Co-Chair Joe Barton (R-TX), called it a good first step. Online advertisers were troubled. So were advertisers in general.

New Netflix iOS app capitulates to bandwidth caps

Carriers like Verizon and AT&T are trying to convince Netflix to pay for the bandwidth its subscribers consume on their networks. On May 31 Netflix delivered a rather oblique response. It’s giving its iPhone customers the option of turning off cellular access to Netflix completely and instead rely on old-fashioned Wi-Fi to deliver their movies and TV shows.

When Facebook goes down, the Internet barely blinks

Facebook went down for a few hours May 31, causing people to turn to Twitter to complain, quip and mourn. But despite the outsized reactions from the site’s 901 million users, the web itself barely felt the shock of losing the largest social network on the planet. A quick check with Sandvine indicated that Facebook’s faltering didn’t lead to any noticeable traffic dip unlike, say, the huge drop off in traffic that occurred worldwide when digital file locker MegaUpload was taken down. The reason is simple. Facebook deals primarily in words and images, as opposed to video.

Putting Talk Radio on Trial at the FCC

[Commentary] Anyone remember a time when radio seemed friendly and informative, rather than hostile and manipulative? I do. And I remember when it changed in 1996, after President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act into law, and suddenly, huge corporations like Clear Channel began using our public airwaves -- those scarce radio frequencies which are owned by us ALL -- as a hammer to pummel Clinton and all other Democrats. I've been working to correct the problem ever since 1998. I've advocated rewriting the Telecommunications Act, made the film Broadcast Blues to educate people about the problem, founded the Media Action Center to get local groups communicating with their local broadcasters, filed petitions to deny stations' licenses, and more. Nothing worked. But now, I believe I have found the legal means to put Talk Radio on trial at the Federal Communications Commission -- and perhaps eventually at the Supreme Court.

Android Owns Half US Smartphone Market

Half the smartphones in the U.S. ran on Google’s Android platform through April, according to the latest mobile market data from comScore. Android’s 50.8% market is essentially unchanged from March, but up slightly from 48.6% at the start of the year.

About half of users are both downloading apps and using mobile browsers, up from less than 40% in the year-earlier period. More than a third (36%) are going to social networking sites or blogs, a third play games, and almost 26% listen to music on their devices. Apple’s iOS claimed almost a third (31.4%) of the market as of April, trailed by Research in Motion’s BlackBerry (11.6%), Microsoft’s Windows Mobile/Windows Phone (4%) and Symbian (1.3%). RIM’s share is down from 12.3% in March and 15.2% in January, underscoring its losing battle to maintain its customer base against Google and Apple. Microsoft and Symbian also continue to see shrinking smartphone market share.

Your Neighbor's Wi-Fi Router Would Like You to Vote for Romney

If you use wireless Internet at home, one of the rites of passage upon moving to a new place is naming a new network. Most of us keep it simple: "275_Elm_Street," "Apt23," "my_network." Some of us, however, get more creative and communicative in our naming strategies: "Apt112IHaveYourMail," "PrettyFlyForAWiFi," "WeCanHearYouHavingSex." Particularly in large apartment buildings, where almost every unit has a unique Wi-Fi network that will be detected in turn by all the other unique Wi-Fi networks, SSIDs can be a cheeky, geeky way to broadcast messages to your immediate neighbors. In an election year, especially, that communication can take on distinctly political overtones. The team at OpenSignalMaps, which maintains a database of geolocated Wi-Fi access points, analyzed the data they've collected about wireless routers to see whether Wi-Fi names are "being used to fly political colors." They found, globally, 1,140 results for "Obama" and an additional six for "Romney" -- an indication not necessarily of Romney's popularity relative to the president's, but of the attention that four years as president can confer.

Report Urges Shift to Spectrum Sharing

Although the short, post-Memorial Day week was not short on news, we focus instead today on news that first broke while we were all scrambling to begin our holiday. On May 25, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) held a meeting and released recommendations on better using spectrum currently used by the federal government. Because of consumers’ increased reliance on wireless phones and other devices, demand for mobile voice and data capacity is booming. Many government departments and agencies have been allocated spectrum over the years, but may not be making the best use of that capacity. In recent years, there have been many calls to clear government users off of various spectrum bands and unleash them for auction to wireless carriers. However, recent research found that clearing just one 95 MHz band will take 10 years, cost $18 billion, and cause significant disruption. John Markoff reported in the New York Times that PCAST’s report urges President Barack Obama to adopt new computer technologies to make better use of a huge swath of the radio spectrum now controlled by federal agencies.

Judge bars Apple from turning court into reality distortion field

Judge Richard A. Posner, the federal judge who drew Apple v. Motorola, is one of America's most respected -- and outspoken -- jurists.

He's had a hand in everything from the Microsoft antitrust trial to the Monica Lewinsky case. He once called the War on Drugs "quixotic" and wrote that anyone who wouldn't use torture if that were the only way to prevent detonation of a nuclear device in Times Square shouldn't be in a position of responsibility. The patent dispute that brought Apple (AAPL) and Motorola to Posner's court is scheduled to begin in less than two weeks, and the judge has already made it clear that he will brook no nonsense. Three weeks ago, he ordered both sides to rewrite their briefs in language intelligible to laypeople. "There's no point in giving jurors stuff they can't understand," he wrote. He also forbade Apple from presenting newspaper articles or other media praising the iPhone or iPad unless they specifically refer to patents Apple claims Motorola infringed. Last week, he went even further: "More broadly, I forbid Apple to insinuate to the jury that this case is a popularity contest and jurors should be predisposed to render a verdict for Apple if they like Apple products or the Apple company or admire Steve Jobs, or if they dislike Motorola or Google."

Secretary of Agriculture Discusses Rural Broadband With FCC Chairman

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Rural Utilities Service Administrator Jonathan Adelstein, and staff met with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Genachowski and his staff on May 29, 2012, to discuss the importance of broadband to the rural quality of life.

Secretary Vilsack noted that RUS makes loans to finance the construction and upgrade of high capacity broadband networks whose terms can exceed 20 years, and these investments were made under then-current FCC rules with the understanding that the revenues would be necessary to recover costs and repay loans to lenders including RUS. Secretary Vilsack also noted the regression analysis model can affect long term revenues and USF predictability. He suggested the waiver process could be improved by incorporating key elements of the "safety net" process, which was suggested in the October 11 filing by the RUS Administrator which recommends inter alia that the standard for relief should be tied to a default on an obligation to government, not the loss of voice service. Secretary Vilsack underscored the need for USDA and the FCC to continue to work together to address the communications needs of rural America.

Benton

Search