No private net neutrality deal... yet
Earlier this week, a research note from analysts at Stifel Nicolaus suggested that a group of private companies had reached "general agreement" on a private network neutrality agreement after FCC-brokered industry talks failed to reach consensus. The companies, including Verizon, Skype, AT&T, Microsoft, and the cable lobby, have been meeting at the offices of the Information Technology Industry Council in Washington, but they have yet to reach a deal.
Two sources tell Ars off the record that the Stifel Nicolaus note was too strong; no agreement has yet been reached, and the parties haven't met for more than a week. The companies do share some similar views on many issues surrounding network management, which is what led them to talk in the first place, but more discussion is necessary and no formal documents have yet been prepared.
After the speculation about a deal, ITIC head Dean Garfield (formerly a top executive in the movie business trade group MPAA) issued a statement yesterday that talked up all the progress the companies were making in crafting something "pro-consumer" (and nothing says "pro-consumer" like private talks between the largest businesses in the country).
"As we work to reach final consensus, we're focused on solidifying what unites us, incorporating new ideas and viewpoints, and, above all, delivering a series of constructive, pro-consumer and innovation-based principles that will only strengthen the Internet as we know it today," Garfield said. "At the end of the day, any recommendations will ultimately be judged by Congress, the FCC and the millions of people who rely on the Internet as an essential part of their lives. Stated simply, this is more than enough incentive to ensure we get it right."
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Canada avoids broadband duopolies, keeps line-sharing alive
Canada is staying with the community of nations that require their big Internet service providers to share their networks with competitive broadband companies. The country's Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has ruled that the nation's big telcos must do so "at speeds that match those offered to their own retail customers.""Requiring these companies to provide access to their networks will lead to more opportunities for competition in retail Internet services and better serve consumers," declared the CRTC's Chair Konrad von Finckenstein.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Wil Shipley: "we tried to do too much" for Delicious Library 2
Delicious Library is, by all accounts, a very successful Mac OS X application. The software has won numerous accolades, including two Apple Design Awards and a Macworld Eddy. Creator Wil Shipley often brags about how much money he makes from sales, and won't hesitate to mention how fun it is to drive the Lotus Elise he bought with profits he's earned.Despite his bravado, however, Shipley can admit when he makes a mistake. On the release of the 2.5 update to Delicious Library, he told Ars that the ambitious plans for Delicious Library 2.0 ending up resulting in a finished product that, while beautiful and impressive looking, performed poorly for some users. That's why version 2.5 consists largely of bug fixes and performance enhancements, and instead of adding features takes a few away.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Big cable has beef with FCC, says broadband deployment is timely
Upset with the Federal Communications Commission about something? Get in line. Proposed net neutrality rules, the Comcast/NBCU merger, new spectrum auctions—everybody has something at the FCC they want to stop.But what's interesting these days is that some of the loudest cries of pain are directed not at the agency's decisions, but at its reports, like those on the state of wireless competition or consumer "bill shock."
Ditto for the Commission's Sixth Broadband Deployment Report, which concluded that "broadband remains unavailable" to between 14 million and 24 million Americans and is not being delivered in a "reasonable and timely fashion."
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Feature: Enough to forget the Wii? A week with the PlayStation Move
The PlayStation Move is Sony's answer to the motion control trend. It uses a digital camera called the PlayStation Eye to track the movement of a new controller stuffed with gyroscopes and sensors and magic—all of it topped with a glowing plastic ball.
It's been over a week since my Move review hardware arrived, and I've played games with a variety of people just to gauge their reactions. When holding one of the Move controllers for the first time, everyone I've seen so far has one instinctive response: they give that ball on the top a good, hard squeeze, like it's a clown nose.
The ball doesn't light up until you have the PlayStation Eye turned on and a game begins. Then it glows brightly, and the changing color of the ball often provides in-game information. The glowing ball also adds an extra helping of surrealism to some titles; playing archery, it was almost distracting to have that glowing pink orb so close to my face. During dark sections, I could see the glowing ball reflected on the screen of my television.
The ball sometimes cycles slowly between different colors. At other times it pulses. You can feel the motor inside the force feedback mechanism move in time to the light, as though you're holding the heart of some mechanical, bio-luminescent beast. If you have kids, you are screwed during play time; anyone from the ages of ten on down will gravitate towards that glowing ball, and they won't want to let go. My baby wants to gum on it constantly, while my older kids wave it around like they're at a pre-pubescent rave.
The PlayStation Move is here, ladies and gentleman, and it's pretty damn great.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
How do you spell device mandate failure? U-H-F
Man, the broadcasting industry is on a device mandate rampage these days. For weeks, we've been covering the National Association of Broadcasters call for Congress to require all smartphones to include FM receivers. This requirement is apparently what would make passage of the Performance Rights Act acceptable to the NAB—the bill would require radio broadcasters to pay royalties to performers as well as song copyright holders.But this dubious deal isn't enough, it seems. Now the broadcasters and their supporters are also revving up their campaign to require handhelds to carry TV tuners too. The latest call comes from TVNewsCheck.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
iPod FaceTime, touchscreen nano, 99¢ rentals all grist for Apple rumor mill
Every year in September, Apple reveals its new iPod lineup in time for the holiday buying season. This year's event takes place tomorrow, and the usual rumors about what Apple plans to announce have popped up. Here's a rundown of some of the things we've been hearing in the hours leading up to the reveal.Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Amazon rumored to be prepping a subscription video service
Amazon might be getting ready to expand its video offerings, according to a report released this afternoon by The Wall Street Journal. Despite facing a wall of "no comments" from every party rumored to be involved, the report indicates that the retailing giant, which already offers sales of popular TV shows, is looking to launch a subscription video service that would operate similarly to its current services, which can be watched on the Web or a variety of video devices. According to The Journal, Amazon has approached a number of media companies to try to get them to sign onto the plan, which has been pitched in a number of variations. One of the more intriguing ideas is to bundle it in with Amazon Prime, the company's premium shopping service. Although this might cost Amazon money in the short term—its fees to the content providers would have to come from whatever profit it makes on the average Prime customer—it would guarantee the content providers a large audience, and might provide an additional incentive for new and existing Prime customers.
So far, it's not clear if anyone has taken Amazon up on the deal. The company is said to want to have the service in place by the holidays, but may have to revise those plans or scrap them entirely if none of the content providers comes through.
The apparent reticence of the media companies makes for a sharp contrast with the music business, which seemed to be eager to have a subscription service succeed, providing them with an indefinite revenue stream. In contrast to the unified front of the record labels, however, the video producers seem to be very fragmented, experimenting with a variety of ad-supported and paid rental and purchase options. So far, it appears that Amazon hasn't offered them something they feel they can't get somewhere else.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
US finally reforming its high-tech export control system
Many high-technology companies have run afoul of the US' Export Control System, which regulates the overseas sales of items that can be put to use for military or intelligence-gathering purposes. Given the pace of innovation, hardware and software that was once the domain of the military or spy agencies can rapidly wind up in the hands of consumers, meaning that the system for tracking what's restricted needs to be nimble and user-friendly. Unfortunately, it was anything but, and that has led to a new effort to reform the system in a way that would increase the opportunity for US companies to sell goods overseas.The impact of export controls on the high-tech industry have caused problems for everyone from browser makers—who once ran up against restrictions on their encryption software, despite its wide availability outside the US—to hardware makers; Apple once advertised that its G4 processor fell under export control due to outdated definitions of what constituted a supercomputer. But they also affect more mundane items. In the announcement that outlines the reform efforts, the White House notes that the brake pads for the army's M1A1 tank are essentially identical to those used in fire trucks, but only the former ends up under export controls; "Under our current system, we devote the same resources to protecting the brake pad as we do to protecting the M1A1 tank itself."
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Obama administration: "Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft"
US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke went to Nashville yesterday to address a symposium on intellectual property enforcement, and he threw down the gauntlet: the Obama administration will find, board, and scuttle digital pirate ships, and the SS Copyright is going to get a new coat of armored plating."I think it's important to lay down a marker about how the Obama administration views this issue," he said of online copyright infringement. "As Vice President Biden has said on more than one occasion, 'Piracy is flat, unadulterated theft,' and it should be dealt with accordingly."
There's much to be said for this view of "dealing with" piracy—which is why we have long argued that the judgments handed down in P2P lawsuits against twenty-something music fans have been ludicrous. $1.92 million? $675,000? No one walking out of a Walmart with a stack of Richard Marx discs under his arm would be subject to such penalties.
Locke then lamented the fate of songwriters. "Recently, I've had a chance to read letters from award winning writers and artists whose livelihoods have been destroyed by music piracy. One letter that stuck out for me was a guy who said the songwriting royalties he had depended on to 'be a golden parachute to fund his retirement had turned out to be a lead balloon.' This just isn't right."
To make it right, Locke pledged to work for global IP norms, enforcement of those norms, and a "strengthening" of the international copyright system.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Palm brings improved multitasking and Node.js to webOS 2.0
Palm's webOS smartphone platform introduced some compelling innovations when it was first released in 2009. The next major version of the operating system, which is currently under development, brings some noteworthy feature improvements and new capabilities for developers.
The first beta release of the webOS 2.0 SDK, which was made available this morning, offers developers an early look at some of the new functionality. The new feature lineup includes substantial enhancements to webOS multitasking and support for deeper extensibility in several key components of the platform.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Cannibal bacteria could lead to new antibiotics
We tend to think of bacteria as engaging in chemical warfare only when they attack us, wreaking havoc on our cells. But the microbiome is a vicious place, with many species hurling toxins at each other, attempting to gain a competitive advantage. A bacterium called Bacillus subtilis goes beyond the pale; it contains a set of genes for a "cannibalism system" that it uses to off its close relatives when facing starvation, enabling it to get enough nutrients to form a spore and ride out the lean times. A study that will appear in PNAS describes how a clever experimental approach let them purify one of the cannibalism factors, which turns out to be a potent antibiotic. Many bacteria form spores when faced with starvation; the spores have tough shells, and the bacteria inside remain inert, needing neither nutrients nor water. Once conditions improve, the spore opens, allowing the bacteria to resume their normal activities. Some of these spores, which have a specialized base and a stalk that extends from it to ensure the spores spread widely, involve an orderly form of suicide. Cells die in the process of forming a stalk so that their neighbors, who are likely to be their close genetic relatives, can survive in the form of spores.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Apple may release iPhone 4 with revised antenna after Sept 30
When Apple gave its highly publicized explanation of the iPhone 4 antenna issues to the press back in July, CEO Steve Jobs said that Apple would give all iPhone 4 users a free case as an interim solution while the company researched the problem further. An executive with Mexican mobile carrier Telcel has now claimed that after September 30, Apple will release revised iPhone 4 hardware that does not exhibit the same signal attenuation flaw.While announcing the launch of the iPhone 4 in Mexico, Telcel's Director of Value Added Services, Marco Quatorze, told CanalMX that initial units would exhibit the same antenna problems as those released so far in the US. He also said that Apple would be providing free cases to all iPhone 4 buyers who request one from its website.
However, Quatorze also said that after September 30—the date Jobs promised an update on the antenna issue and the date that the free case program expires—Apple will begin supplying revised iPhone 4 devices that "do not have the reception malfunction."
MacRumors notes that it is unusual for a carrier executive to have such advance knowledge of Apple's plans, or to be allowed to share it if he did. However, Quatorze also said that Telcel will have a number of options for early buyers to upgrade to the revised hardware without having to extend the usual two-year contract. Apple did not to respond to our request for clarification at the time of publication.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Microsoft shows off new controller, with transforming D-pad
The D-pad on the existing 360 controllers is, to put it mildly, utter garbage. If you want to play any games relying on precise movements, such as fighting games, buying a third-party controller is a requirement. Microsoft hopes it has this problem licked, however, and is releasing a controller with a new, updated D-pad on November 9. The catch? You won't be able to buy the controller alone; you'll need to grab the Play and Charge Kit to get it, and the final cost will be $64.99.Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
Oxford English Dictionary ponders the (partial) end of print
They just don't make dictionaries like they used to—though perhaps that's a good thing in some ways. Take the monumental and splendiferously fecund pulchritude that is the Oxford English Dictionary as an example. This astonishing linguistic achievement, first appearing in full in 1928, was a bookshelf-breaking set of volumes containing almost half a million words and two million quotations illustrating word usage over the centuries—and a decent chunk of those quotations came from a former US Civil War veteran who eventually savaged his own genitals with a pen (performing an "autopeotomy") while residing in a UK hospital for the criminally insane. Today, the Oxford University Press, which publishes the work, employs 80 professional lexicographers, none of whom (to the best of our knowledge) have been subjected to a peotomy, "auto" or otherwise. After years of work (the second edition appeared in 1989), they are only 28 percent finished with the third edition.
Read the comments on this post
Read More ...
No comments:
Post a Comment