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At the second privacy multistakeholder meeting regarding mobile application transparency held August 22, stakeholders made substantial progress on procedural issues to move this process forward.

Poll results from the meeting are available. NTIA grouped the poll results into three categories: “general support,” “mixed views,” and “general opposition.” These categories are our rough groupings, and are certainly not binding. However, we think that they are helpful in identifying stakeholders’ initial priorities moving forward. Stakeholders are welcome to propose concrete suggestions on procedural topics from any category.

On Aug 29, stakeholders will meet again, with two main goals. First, stakeholders will develop an initial priority list for substantive elements that might be included in a code of conduct for mobile application transparency. Second, stakeholders will propose concrete procedural steps that the group can take to implement the top priority substantive elements. In an effort to support stakeholders, NTIA has organized the substantive elements previously raised by the group into four categories. We hope that these rough categories will assist in stakeholders’ review of their previous work and streamline the discussion of substantive elements at the August 29 meeting. Stakeholders are, of course, encouraged to propose changes to the categories if they believe a different structure would be superior.

Time Warner Cable announced a $25 million investment to expand its fiber broadband network to businesses in New York City.

The new fiber network will be built in Brooklyn as well as to parts of Manhattan such as the Financial and Flatiron districts. Last year, Time Warner and the city of New York reached a franchise agreement in which Time Warner said it would expand its fiber network to areas that don't currently have access. The new service will offer speeds up to 1 gigabit per second, the company said. The company will target companies that have high data needs, such as design firms and technology companies.

What does the Apple-Samsung decision mean for Motorola Mobility?

Much of Apple's court victory had to do with design patents. Of all the me-too products that followed Apple's cellphone success, Samsung most blatantly mimicked the iPhone. Libertyville-based Motorola already is incorporating clipped corners on some phones, such as the new Photon, which presumably would steer clear of Apple's protected designs with rounded corners and bezel.

As for the software features, such as pinch-to-zoom or the bounce-back that stops a swipe of the finger from becoming the scroll to nowhere, phone makers either can come up with their own features or license them from Apple, if Steve Jobs' successor, Tim Cook, is willing to play that game. But longtime tech analyst Roger Kay doesn't see it happening. If Apple is willing to play along, at a minimum it means the cost of the phones goes up — or you learn to live without pinch-to-zoom.

Some critics argue that the Samsung verdict demonstrates the limits of Motorola's patent portfolio. But Apple's victory over Samsung underscores the importance of Google buying Motorola, analyst Colin Sebastian of Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. told clients. In a world full of tough competitors and deep pockets, Google needs to have intellectual property to defend itself on many fronts.

Two weeks remain for dozens of neighborhoods to sign up enough potential customers to qualify for Google’s service before a Sept. 9 deadline. But many neighborhoods — chiefly the least prosperous pockets of the metro area — remain far behind the pace needed to hit the Google-established thresholds of customer penetration.

That means many of the free connections Google agreed to make to public buildings, library branches and community centers won’t happen. Google insists it’s too early to write off any of what it calls “fiberhoods.” It has begun to fix problems that have complicated apartment dwellers’ efforts to sign up for its service. And, most critically, the company points out that it has every incentive to round up as many customers as possible — and to expand to more neighborhoods rather than fewer. Yet the Google Fiber rollout is driven by very real logistic and economic factors that make it impractical to offer the service where few people show an interest in buying service, even if that means a neighborhood school won’t get wired to tomorrow’s Internet. Meanwhile, community efforts strive to help Google find would-be customers. Some are even paying the $10 fee needed to cast a vote of interest in the service. That in turn creates a problem for Google. Are people who didn’t pay their own registration fee likely to buy the company’s state-of-the-art Internet and TV service for $120 a month for two years? Would they purchase super-fast Internet-only packages for $70 a month for a year? Or pay $25 a month for one year for installation of a 5-megabits-per-second Internet connection that would carry no other cost for seven years? “We’re thrilled that some local organizations want to encourage widespread Internet access by helping with the Google Fiber pre-registration process,” Google spokeswoman Jenna Wandres said. “That being said, people should only pre-register if they intend to get Google Fiber service.”