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January 22, 2013
Google’s infrastructure spending continued its upward trend during the fourth quarter, hitting a two-year high of $1.02 billion, the biggest infrastructure investment in its history.
It’s difficult to say where, exactly, all that investment went, but the record spending probably shouldn’t come as a surprise given the current state of the web economy. Much more than just a search engine, Google now finds itself competing against (or has put itself in a position to compete against) formidable foes in a variety of different areas. Doing battle against companies such as Apple, Facebook, Yelp, Amazon Web Services and (with the advent of Google Fiber) internet service providers — and doing it well — costs a lot.
Google spent a billion on infrastructure last quarter
January 22, 2013
The fanatically strict North Korean policy against cellphone use by outsiders has begun to crack. Tourists will be allowed to bring their smartphones, though calls will be highly restricted. The only service they could use is the state-run Koryolink, and the only calls allowed -- with rare exception -- are to phones outside the nation. Before the new cellphone thaw, if a tourist was carrying a phone when entering the country, it would be taken at the airport and then returned when the person was leaving.
January 22, 2013
Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE) -- the new chairman of the House subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade -- he plans to examine whether the government should do more to protect the privacy of Internet users. He is considering whether to form a bipartisan group of lawmakers that would study the issue more closely and make recommendations to the subcommittee.
Whether that comes to legislation or not, we don't know," he said. Chairman Terry said he will not start the year by pushing any particular privacy-protection measures. "We're coming in with open minds," he explained. Terry's subcommittee, which is part of the Energy and Commerce Committee, held numerous hearings last Congress on online privacy issues under Chairwoman Mary Bono Mack (R-CA). Rep Terry took over the panel after rep Bono Mack lost her bid for reelection. He said the subcommittee will use the previous hearings as a starting point, but noted that there are new members who did not participate in the previous hearings.
New chairman of House Trade panel open to online privacy regulation
January 22, 2013
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) said his committee will look at a computer hacking law that has come under fire since the death of Internet activist Aaron Swartz.
"We certainly are going to look at that very carefully and see what we can do in that area, but at this point in time we're looking at what occurred in specific instances and what needs to done to make sure that the law isn't abused," Chairman Goodlatte told reporters at the State of the Net Conference. "There's a lot of legal input, judicial input into this and we're going to look at that and pair it up against what the language of the law is today and how we're going to pursue it—but we're just starting on that." He also added that the committee "may" hold hearings on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and Rep Zoe Lofgren's draft measure to narrow CFAA, but emphasized that "no decisions have been made yet."
House Judiciary Committee to look at hacking law in wake of Swartz's death
January 22, 2013
Users who signed into third-party Web or mobile applications using their Twitter accounts might have given those applications access to their Twitter private "direct" messages without knowing it, according to Cesar Cerrudo, the chief technology officer of security consultancy firm IOActive. The issue is the result of a flaw in Twitter's API (application programming interface) that led to users not being properly informed about what permissions an application will have on their accounts once granted access. Cerrudo described the problem and explained how he discovered it.
Twitter flaw gave third-party apps unauthorized access to private messages, researcher says
January 22, 2013
A new study from advertising consultancy Simulmedia suggests that there's a large disparity between prime-time ad spending and the actual return on the investment. In the two-week period measured, more than half of TV ad dollars (54 percent, or about $91 million) were spent on the four-hour block between 8 p.m. and midnight, and yet only 34 percent of all measurable impressions were logged during that time. Mind you, that's still a lot of impressions—certainly disproportionate to its share of the programming day—but conventional wisdom has had it for years that the most bang for your buck to be had was in prime time. Now, that's appearing to be less and less the case.
Study: Prime-time Spending Wildly Inefficient
January 22, 2013
Information technology has transformed much of the American economy, but its use in health care still lags, especially when it comes to electronic medical records.
The number of doctors and hospitals using electronic records has doubled in the past two years thanks in part to federal stimulus money for doctors who adopted electronic records, says Farzad Mostashari, the national coordinator for health information technology at the Department of Health and Human Services. He admits there are growing pains but says the government's strategy is helping, though it will need six more years before it can show significant savings. Both he and Dr. Art Kellermann, a policy analyst with the Rand Corp agree that patients would get better care, at lower cost, if health care systems could share patient records easily. But that won't happen until doctors and hospitals start getting paid for being smart about IT. Right now, duplicative testing also means duplicative payments.
Growing Pains As Doctors' Offices Adopt Electronic Records
January 22, 2013
During Google's fourth-quarter earnings call, Google Chief Executive Larry Page and Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette made it clear Google Fiber is not a "hobby" for the company.
"It's been great to see the success there with the initial roll-out," Page said. He cautioned: "We are still in the very early stages of it." But he emphasized: "We are excited about the possibilities there." Pichette said Google Fiber installations are growing each week. "People just love the product," he said. "It’s not a hobby," he added. "We really think we should be making a good business with this opportunity." "We are going to continue to look at the possibility of expanding." For the time being, Pichette said Google is "debugging" the product and the experience for users. But, he said, such super-fast Internet is "what people are dying to get everywhere."
Google Fiber 'not a hobby,' could expand, tech giant's execs say
January 22, 2013
The parent company of Alltel, a mobile telephone network serving rural customers in six states, has agreed to sell the business to AT&T for about $780 million, Atlantic Tele-Network announced.
The all-cash transaction will give Alltel customers access to a nationwide 4G mobile network, a larger selection of mobile devices and additional retail locations, said Michael Prior, Atlantic Tele-Networks CEO. Many of the company's employees will benefit from new career opportunities at the larger company, he added. The deal will give AT&T a larger presence in some rural areas where it did not have a lot of customers, Prior said during a conference call with press and analysts. Atlantic Tele-Network purchased Alltel from Verizon Wireless for $200 million in a deal that closed in April 2010, and Atlantic Tele-Network spent an additional $85 million to set up Alltel, Prior said. The sale to AT&T represents a "strong return on our investment," Prior said. "It is clear this is the right time to enter into this strategic transaction." It has become "increasingly challenging" to operate a stand-alone rural mobile network spread across six states, Prior said. Atlantic Tele-Network believes Alltel is best operated as part of a larger, national network, he said. Atlantic Tele-Network's Alltel serves 585,000 mobile customers in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Ohio and Idaho, while AT&T has about 106 million mobile customers across the U.S. Alltel had about $350 million in revenue in the first nine months of 2012.
The transaction is subject to approval from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
AT&T to buy Alltel for $780 million AT&T scoops up the remnants of Alltel to harvest its spectrum (GigaOm) AT&T snaps up rural mobile carrier Alltell for $780 million (ars technica) Atlantic Tele-Network Announces Sale of U.S. Retail Wireless Business to AT&T (Press release)