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For decades, technologies to assist the blind have focused on the simple mechanics of day-to-day living—helping the visually impaired safely cross a street or turn on a stove. Increasingly, a new generation of products is on the rise to help enhance visually impaired consumers' emotional well-being and keep them more connected to society. From entertainment to fashion, a number of companies are developing new technologies that they say can help boost individual confidence and allow visually impaired users to participate more completely in society—by helping them to enjoy Broadway theater and TV programs, to pick out color-coordinated outfits and more.
New Gadgets Assist the Blind
Early next year in a swath of northern Florida, as many as 8,000 people will be able to get 4G wireless broadband with a twist: the service will beam over a frequency normally used by gadgets like garage-door openers and baby monitors.
The project at Northeast Florida Telephone, using gear from a startup called XG Technology of Sarasota, Florida, appears to be the first commercial use of cognitive radio, which senses available frequencies and switches between them on the fly. Cognitive radios are now used mainly by the military. The technology is one of many creative approaches that will be needed to forestall a spectrum shortage triggered by the boom in super-fast smartphones. Other companies are filling gaps with something called "super Wi-Fi," tapping unused parts of the TV spectrum (also often called white spaces) to deliver service. But those frequencies become available only with advance notice, not on an instant, real-time basis.
4G on the Baby-Monitor Frequency
The Federal Communications Commission amended its rules to allow cable operators to encrypt the basic service tier in all-digital cable systems if they comply with certain consumer-protection measures.
The FCC believes this rule change will benefit consumers who can have their cable service activated and deactivated from a remote location. By allowing remote activation and deactivation, the FCC expects the rules will result in benefits to both cable operators and consumers by significantly reducing the number of truck rolls associated with provisioning service and significantly reducing the need for subscribers to wait for service calls to activate or deactivate cable service. At the same time, the recognizes that this rule change will adversely affect a small number of cable subscribers who currently view the digital basic service tier without using a set-top box or other equipment. If a cable operator decides to encrypt the digital basic tier, then these subscribers will need equipment to continue viewing the channels on this tier. To give those consumers time to resolve the incompatibility between consumer electronics equipment (such as digital television sets) and newly encrypted cable service, the FCC requires operators of cable systems that choose to encrypt the basic service tier to comply with certain consumer protection measures for a period of time. In addition, the FCC notes that this rule change may impact the ability of a small number of subscribers that use certain third-party equipment that is not CableCARD compatible to access channels on the basic service tier. To address this issue, the FCC requires the six largest incumbent cable operators to comply with additional requirements that are intended to ensure compatibility with certain third-party-provided equipment used to access the basic tier.
FCC OKs Basic Service Tier Encryption
The Federal Trade Commission is raising the ante in its antitrust confrontation with Google with the commission staff preparing a recommendation that the government sue the search giant.
The government’s escalating pursuit of Google is the most far-reaching antitrust investigation of a corporation since the landmark federal case against Microsoft in the late 1990s. The agency’s central focus is whether Google manipulates search results to favor its own products, and makes it harder for competitors and their products to appear prominently on a results page. The staff recommendation is in a detailed draft memo of more than 100 pages that is being shared with the five FTC commissioners, said two people briefed on the inquiry. The memo is still being edited and changes could be made, but these are mostly fine-tuning and will not alter the broad conclusions reached after an inquiry that began more than a year ago, said these people, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified.
The commission is also building a team to take Google to court, if it comes to that. Last spring, it hired a seasoned litigator to help with the case, Beth A. Wilkinson, a partner in the firm Paul, Weiss in Washington. In a further sign that it means business, last week it brought on a well-known economist as a consultant: Richard Gilbert of the University of California, Berkeley.
Drafting Antitrust Case, FTC Raises Pressure on Google Google Antitrust Suit Said to Be Urged by FTC Staffers (Bloomberg) FTC moving closer to Google antitrust case – sources (Reuters) Trade commission likely to decide whether to sue Google after election (The Hill) The FTC, Google and anti-trust: Some thoughts
The debate between Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. and Rep Paul Ryan(R-WI) attracted well over 50 million people — a significant chunk of the public, but a smaller total than the first debate between the presidential candidates. Nielsen estimated that 51.4 million viewers watched at home on one of the 12 rated networks that showed the debate. Nielsen’s total did not include television viewers in offices, restaurants, bars, or other areas, nor did it include any Web viewers. The Oct. 3 debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney garnered about 67.2 million viewers at home, according to Nielsen, and untold millions more via the Web.
Vice-Presidential Debate Draws More Than 50 Million Viewers
American intelligence officials are increasingly convinced that Iran was the origin of a serious wave of network attacks that crippled computers across the Saudi oil industry and breached financial institutions in the United States, episodes that contributed to a warning last week from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that the United States was at risk of a “cyber-Pearl Harbor.”
American officials described an emerging shadow war of attacks and counterattacks already under way between the United States and Iran in cyberspace. Among American officials, suspicion has focused on the “cybercorps” that Iran’s military created in 2011 — partly in response to American and Israeli cyberattacks on the Iranian nuclear enrichment plant at Natanz — though there is no hard evidence that the attacks were sanctioned by the Iranian government. The attacks emanating from Iran have inflicted only modest damage. Iran’s cyberwarfare capabilities are considerably weaker than those in China and Russia, which intelligence officials believe are the sources of a significant number of probes, thefts of intellectual property and attacks on American companies and government agencies.
US Suspects Iranians Were Behind a Wave of Cyberattacks US: Hackers in Iran Responsible for Cyberattacks (A)
If the Federal Trade Commission brings an antitrust case against Google, the company has two fundamental courses of action: Settle or fight. If it settles, the result will be a negotiated order that applies to Google, and Google only. The same will happen at the end of a lawsuit, assuming the FTC wins, which isn’t exactly certain. There is another course of action the FTC could take, and has been known to take before: Issue guidelines.
David Balto, a former FTC litigator during the Clinton Administration, says enforcement actions can be messy, and even when they’re successful they only apply to the target, not to anyone else. “Antitrust law is a really narrow tool,” he told me. “It doesn’t really fit in a lot of situations.” Guidelines would apply to everyone and would set ground rules for every participant in the market, including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and whoever else might be affected. And all parties would benefit from participating in the dialogue leading up to the crafting of the guidelines: In the end, there would be a more informed consensus, and everyone involved will know the rules of the road. It would be more complex and would take longer than it did 10 years ago, Balto says, but in the end, the FTC’s mission is to protect consumer welfare, not bring big and costly lawsuits.
How the FTC Could Address Its Concerns About Google Without a Lawsuit
US Ambassador Terry Kramer warned that a proposal to give a United Nations agency more control over the Internet is gaining momentum in other countries.
The proposal by the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association could force websites like Google, Facebook and Netflix to pay fees to network operators around the world. Ambassador Kramer said the idea of an international Internet fee is "gaining more interest in the African states and also in the Arab states." He said the United States delegation to the conference will have to redouble its efforts to convince other countries that the proposal would only stifle innovation and economic growth.
US ambassador: Internet fee proposal gaining momentum
Chinese telecommunications company Huawei is fighting back against claims made by Cisco that one of its executives misstated facts about a past intellectual property battle between the two companies. "As a world respected leader, Huawei is disappointed with the continued rhetorical tactics from Cisco," said William Plummer, a spokesman for Huawei said in a statement. "We prefer to compete on the merits of our products." Plummer also claimed that Cisco may have violated a provision of the companies' lawsuit agreement for publicly posting excerpts of a confidential expert's report about the intellectual property case.
Huawei hits back at Cisco allegations
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he will try and revive stalled cybersecurity legislation on the heels of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s warning that the U.S. is at risk of a devastating cyberattack.
Sen Reid said that when Congress returns in November he will bring back legislation that stalled in August. “My colleagues who profess to understand the urgency of the threat will have one more chance to back their words with action, and work with us to pass this bill,” he said. “Cybersecurity is an issue that should be handled by Congress, but with Republicans engaging in Tea Party-motivated obstruction, I believe that President Obama is right to examine all means at his disposal for confronting this urgent national security threat,” Sen Reid said.
Sen Reid vows fresh effort to pass stalled cybersecurity bill in November