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Today's Topics:
1. Fake MPAA Video Download Site Goes Offline (Rob)
2. Space travel dreams get a reality check (Williams, Gregory S.)
3. L.A. anchor on leave over relationship with mayor
(Williams, Gregory S.)
4. Macintouch iPhone Review (Monty Solomon)
5. Optimizing Web Applications and Content for iPhone (Monty Solomon)
6. "iPhone Magic" (Monty Solomon)
7. IPhone-Free Cellphone News (Monty Solomon)
8. Apple's Partner Paradox (Monty Solomon)
9. Even After Apple, Designers Dig Jobs (Monty Solomon)
10. Telephony Armageddon? (Monty Solomon)
11. True or False: US Broadband Penetration Is Lower Than Estonia
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
12. Proposal by Qwest would help spread of high-speed Internet
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
13. Feds snub open source for 'smart' radios ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
14. ESPN shut out of All-Star Game (Williams, Gregory S.)
15. Accessories for iPhone Are Hitting Market; Some Are
Worthwhile (Monty Solomon)
16. Questions About Apple's iPhone (Monty Solomon)
17. iPhone Offers a Mixed Experience (Monty Solomon)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 01:38:06 -0500
From: Rob <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Fake MPAA Video Download Site Goes Offline
To: Media-News <medianews@twiar.org>, Tom and Darryl
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Fake MPAA Video Download Site Goes Offline
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8880/Fake+MPAA+Video+Download+Site+Goes+Offline
Thanks to all the publicity, MediaDefender tries to lay low and decides
to parks "Miivi" for now.
A few days ago I reported on how one of the MPAA's henchmen,
MediaDefender, the self-professed "leading provider of anti-piracy
solutions in the emerging Internet-Piracy-Prevention (IPP) industry,"
had quietly set up a video download site called "MiiVi" that was
dedicated to busting those who both like to download copyrighted content
as well as those who already have.
The site was one of the MPAA"s latest tactics in its ongoing struggle
against illegal file-sharing. It offered whole downloads of movies as
well as the ability to download and install an additional client that
promised even faster download speeds.
Well, thanks to all of the the publicity generated by this article and
elsewhere, and a slashdot that seemingly proved to be the final nail in
the coffin, MiiVi.com has been taken offline and visitors to the site
are now greeted by one of GoDaddy's parked domain pages.
It's always nice to know that sometimes good things do happen, and more
importantly, that MiiVi won't be trapping any more unsuspecting users.
Now I'm sure it won't be the MPAA and MediaDefender's last tricky scheme
to fight piracy but, at least it's one less that people will have to
watch out for and the bad publicity that it generated surely couldn't
have been good for either them. Yet, then again, the MPAA seems to be
reading from the RIAA's playbook and doesn't seem to care about its
reputation as well.
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 10:06:30 -0400
From: "Williams, Gregory S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Space travel dreams get a reality check
To: <medianews@twiar.org>
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Workshop takes a businesslike look at spaceflight ventures
By Leonard David
Space.com
Updated: 9:48 p.m. ET July 5, 2007
ASPEN, Colo. - Public space travel is a going and growing industry, but with a
number of hurdles to overcome before becoming a sustainable and profitable
marketplace.
There is already more than $1.5 billion invested in new air transportation
ventures and an estimated $1 billion in new commercial space ventures. But in
the blossoming market for tourist-class space passengers, much needs to happen
- from harnessing the technology and dealing with regulations to dealing with
finances and satisfying customer needs and desires.
Public space travel experts gathered here at "Flight School 2007 - Flying:
Beyond A to B," a workshop for commercial space and private aviation ventures,
held June 20-22 at the Aspen Institute. The unique gathering was hosted by
Esther Dyson, an imaginer specializing in the computer industry and
entrepreneurial investment.
Trial and error
"On the one hand," Dyson told the Flight School audience, "there is the
optimization of air travel. Then there's private space travel on the other. You
have many, many problems in common starting with financing, finding customers,
running your businesses, marketing ... defining what your business is," she
said.
Although public air transportation and space travel businesses cater to
different customers, there's room to learn from one another, Dyson said.
Moreover, there are opportunities to overcome the obstacles, she added.
"Ironically, it is precisely because space travel is defined as not
transportation that it can escape the heavy regulation that governs air
transportation ... and that it can be tried at all, and be practiced enough to
become safe enough," Dyson told Space.com.
"In other words, if it [space travel] were defined as useful, it would have to
be much safer. But the only way it can get safer is through trial and error. In
fact, we need a little more trial and error in aviation, not on the safety
side, but on the business model side," Dyson emphasized.
More routine, more common, more accessible
There is a need to go beyond sitting around crunching numbers and carrying out
viewgraph rocket engineering. To get safe, you've got to fly, said Jeff
Greason, president and chief executive officer of XCOR Aerospace in Mojave,
Calif.
"You have to find out what the problems are. And you have to fix them to drive
them out of the system," Greason said. "XCOR people turn wrenches and make
rocket engines. That's almost a deliberate choice on our part. We don't want to
take the specialness of the space experience away. But if it doesn't get to be
more routine, more common, and more accessible, then there's no business there."
The space travel business model is evolving, observed Rich Pournelle, XCOR's
director of business development. "As an industry, we're very much in a
transitionary period in that some people have flown demonstration vehicles and
shown that this kind of stuff can be done. But not a single one has flown a
revenue flight, in terms of transporting people into space."
For the last 40 to 50 years, there's been a dumbing down of the aviation
enterprise, suggested Peter Diamandis, chairman and co-founder of the X Prize
Foundation. It has moved methodically onward over those decades.
What is happening now, Diamandis said, is that there's been a vacuum created
where regulation has been reduced, or where new technology has come in.
Furthermore, there's a third dimension in that dot-com capitalists have come in
and are willing to take risks.
"The 'Very Light Jet' market and the private aviation market are being born
almost at the exact same time ... and for many of the same reasons as the
personal spaceflight industry," Diamandis said. "People want the chance to
personalize aviation and personalize space. There are people demanding it."
Angel investors
"Funding is a critical issue," said Kevin Leclaire, managing director of ISDR
Consulting of Reston, Va. Venture capitalists, or VCs, raise their own funds
based on an investment focus that they have. If they have a communications
focus, they could invest in satellite communications ventures - and they have,
he said.
However, Leclaire said that certain space businesses such as passenger space
travel are almost always outside the scope of VC investment focal points.
"A VC firm will get penalized if they invest in a business outside their focus
if it doesn't perform well. Even if the investment does well, the VC's limited
partners will usually not give the VC credit for the success because it
happened outside of the VC's investment focus - a lose-lose scenario."
That leaves only a few VCs whose investment focus includes travel or
space-related investments, or possibly those with regional or even
"opportunistic" categories for investments that they consider, Leclaire
explained in an e-mail sent to Space.com as a follow-up to Flight School.
"Thus, instead of VCs, angel investors tend to be the primary recourse for
early space travel companies."
Unproven market
Leclaire said that space businesses that are not already well-funded and are
approaching new markets - such as public space travel - need to gradually
expand their "business envelope" in much the same way as one might expand their
test envelopes for a new aircraft or spacecraft.
"Most investors like to invest in proven markets. Suborbital space travel is a
new, unproven market, so companies in the sector have to rely on the best
surrogates for market data in the absence of actual revenues," Leclaire said.
"The best of these market indicators are the deposits that have been taken by
some of the prospective suborbital operators."
Additionally, Leclaire pointed out, there is market data on the paying
passengers sent to the international space station by Space Adventures, as well
as the zero-gravity flights and high-altitude fighter jet flights that are the
domain of companies such as Zero Gravity Corp. and Incredible Adventures as
well as Space Adventures.
"Ultimately though, at the end of the day, the only way to make the suborbital
travel market 'real' is to have an operator begin to start sending paying
passengers up, bring them back safely, and book the revenues," Leclaire
concluded.
Wanted: Smiling customers
Keeping the customer satisfied - not only in terms of space travel safety - but
also making the spaceflight experience enjoyable is a high priority.
"People that I've come across that want to consider spending a big part of
their net worth to go to orbit ... they want to know that they are coming
back," said Eric Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Space
Adventures, headquartered in Vienna, Va. That firm has handled five private
space trips to the international space station, with each client shelling out
in the range of $20 million to $25 million for their flight.
"Whether or not the windows are 18 inches or 20 inches across is of secondary
importance to being secure in the system," Anderson said. "Safety first and, of
course, great customer service," he added.
Paying attention to those "little details" is part of good customer relations,
said Jane Reifert, president of Incredible Adventures, based in Sarasota, Fla.
While spotlighting the risk associated with adventure tourism, she added that
operators can't forget that they are in the business of making dreams come
true, "and that's a huge responsibility."
Waiting for the 'Netscape moment'
Work is under way to build SpaceShipTwo - a passenger-carrying vehicle now
under construction at Scaled Composites in Mojave.
"Safety is our No. 1 priority," said Alex Tai, chief operating officer for
Virgin Galactic, a spaceline operator bankrolled by British billionaire Richard
Branson that will utilize a SpaceShipTwo fleet to boost paying tourists on
suborbital flings in the near future.
The initial cost is pegged at $200,000 a seat. "We're not here to do this for
free, but we are here to react to our customers," he said.
Tai said he's looking for that "Netscape moment" when the public space travel
business rockets to stardom - just like the Internet browser did when it
kick-started the dot-com boom of the mid-1990s.
"We have taken in $25 million from an interest of 80,000 people ... with our
tiny sales force," Tai told Space.com. "There's a huge appetite for this
offering once we get out there ... once we prove that it's something that's
going to be safe, really fun to do, and is repeatable. What will happen then is
that, suddenly, everyone will see Virgin Galactic making an awful lot of money.
And that is the next 'go' moment."
Tai speculated that when Richard Branson decides to fund his next big venture,
and he sells 10 percent of Virgin Galactic for $100 million, people will hunger
to be part of the public space travel business.
"But at the moment, these guys don't want to invest because there hasn't been
that Netscape moment," Tai continued. "It is being held up because Virgin
Galactic is the gorilla in the room. Who is going to take Virgin on? That's a
shame because I believe it's a massive market. I would much rather there's
competition getting ready now."
? 2007 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19618732/
Gregory S. Williams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
?
?
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 10:53:47 -0400
From: "Williams, Gregory S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] L.A. anchor on leave over relationship with mayor
To: <medianews@twiar.org>
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/05/la.mayor.ap/index.html
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Spanish-language network Telemundo has placed a
newscaster on leave while it investigates whether her romantic relationship
with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa breached journalistic ethics, TV station KVEA
said Thursday.
"I conducted myself in an appropriate way," says Mirthala Salinas, shown with
L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
The Telemundo affiliate announced the investigation two days after
Villaraigosa, whose wife has filed for divorce, acknowledged he had been in an
extramarital affair with newswoman Mirthala Salinas for about a year.
"We will conduct this investigation with the utmost respect to personal privacy
and journalistic standards," said Manuel Abud, the station's general manager.
The mayor's office had no comment, Villaraigosa spokesman Sean Clegg said.
Salinas said in a statement that she would cooperate with the investigation.
She said, "I am confident that when all the facts are analyzed, it will be
clear that I conducted myself in an appropriate way."
Salinas once covered the mayor as a political reporter. Telemundo took her off
the political beat about 11 months ago after she disclosed her relationship to
station management, the mayor has said.
Still, as the station's news anchor, Salinas read an on-air report last month
on the mayor's separation from his wife. At the time, Villaraigosa declined to
say whether he was involved with another woman.
"It's a little late, but good for them," said Kelly McBride, ethics group
leader at the Poynter Institute, a journalism foundation in St. Petersburg,
Florida.
McBride said the station should bring in an outside expert to help conduct the
investigation. She said it should have been conducted when station managers
first learned of her involvement with the mayor.
Any investigation must also ask what role her managers played, McBride said.
"The investigation should include not just what stories did she influence, but
who knew and when did they know and what were their decisions," McBride said.
Since confirming his romantic relationship with Salinas at a news conference
Tuesday, Villaraigosa has all but disappeared. Watch the mayor talk about the
affair ?
The famously ubiquitous mayor had no public appearances on July Fourth. He even
skipped the official opening of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential
campaign headquarters in Los Angeles, even though he is a national co-chair of
the Democrat's campaign.
He had no events Thursday and is not expected to appear in public until next
week.
The mayor "deserves a few days' vacation during a holiday week to attend to
personal and family matters," said Clegg, the spokesman.
Gregory S. Williams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
?
?
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 11:04:55 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Macintouch iPhone Review
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Review: iPhone
By Robert Mohns
(July 2, 2007)
Introduction
Starting up
Features
Security
Pricing
International
Conclusions
Pros and Cons
Links
Document History
http://www.macintouch.com/iphone/review.html
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 11:08:27 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Optimizing Web Applications and Content for
iPhone
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Optimizing Web Applications and Content for iPhone
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/designingcontent.html
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 11:25:48 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] "iPhone Magic"
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcB8CKa73B0
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 11:56:58 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] IPhone-Free Cellphone News
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
State of the Art
IPhone-Free Cellphone News
By DAVID POGUE
The New York Times
July 5, 2007
Man, oh man. How'd you like to have been a PR person making a
cellphone announcement last week, just as the iPhone storm struck?
You'd have had all the impact of a gnat in a hurricane.
But hard to believe though it may be, T-Mobile did make an
announcement last week. And even harder to believe, its new product
may be as game-changing as Apple's.
It's called T-Mobile HotSpot @Home, and it's absolutely ingenious. It
could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars a year, and yet
enrich T-Mobile at the same time. In the cellphone world, win-win
plays like that are extremely rare.
Here's the basic idea. If you're willing to pay $10 a month on top of
a regular T-Mobile voice plan, you get a special cellphone. When
you're out and about, it works like any other phone; calls eat up
your monthly minutes as usual.
But when it's in a Wi-Fi wireless Internet hot spot, this phone
offers a huge bargain: all your calls are free. You use it and dial
it the same as always - you still get call hold, caller ID, three-way
calling and all the other features - but now your voice is carried by
the Internet rather than the cellular airwaves.
These phones hand off your calls from Wi-Fi network to cell network
seamlessly and automatically, without a single crackle or pop to
punctuate the switch. As you walk out of a hot spot, fewer and fewer
Wi-Fi signal bars appear on the screen, until - blink! - the T-Mobile
network bars replace them. (The handoff as you move in the opposite
direction, from the cell network into a hot spot, is also seamless,
but takes slightly longer, about a minute.)
O.K., but how often are you in a Wi-Fi hot spot? With this plan,
about 14 hours a day. T-Mobile gives you a wireless router
(transmitter) for your house - also free, after a $50 rebate. Connect
it to your high-speed Internet modem, and in about a minute, you've
got a wireless home network. Your computer can use it to surf the Web
wirelessly - and now all of your home phone calls are free.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/technology/circuits/05pogue.html?ex=1341288000&en=39e3cc8226651f90&ei=5090
------------------------------
Message: 8
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 12:20:26 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Apple's Partner Paradox
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Commentary July 3, 2007, 10:00AM EST
Apple's Partner Paradox
Alliances with AT&T and Universal Music Group underscore the benefits
and pitfalls of forging close ties with the maker of the iPod and
iPhone
by Peter Burrows
BusinessWeek
Apple has proved time and again that it can crank out appealing,
category-busting digital consumer products on a regular basis. And
after the recent iPhone hysteria, it's apparent that no corporate
marketing machine can come close to Apple's ability to generate the
buzz to ensure those products find their way into consumers' hands.
So what, if anything, can slow the company down as it continues to
evolve from PC maker to consumer electronics powerhouse? According to
many experts and industry insiders, it comes down to one word:
partnering. Nowhere is that more clear than in Apple's aim to conquer
the vast cellular-phone business, where it relies on AT&T (T) to
provide wireless calling services in the U.S. And if anything took
the shine off an otherwise stellar iPhone product launch, it was
early reports of sluggish network performance and customer
activations.
Let's Make a Deal
For Apple (AAPL), the problem isn't finding partners, mind you. That
part is easy. Everyone from electronics accessory makers to corporate
software developers to airlines are knocking on Chief Executive
Steven P. Jobs' door in search of deals (see BusinessWeek.com,
6/28/07, "Welcome to Planet Apple").
And Steve Jobs is almost as storied a deal maker as he is tech
tastemaker. Among Jobs' epic calls were the 1997 reworked deal with
Walt Disney (DIS) that gave his Pixar Animation a bigger slice of
profits just as Pixar was settling into a run of eight consecutive
blockbusters. Then there was his bold move in 2005 to buy up a huge
swath of the world's flash memory chips-a decision that has helped
Apple meet demand for products such as the iPod nano and iPod shuffle
while maintaining cushy profit margins. That year, Apple inked a deal
that is in many ways its most critical, and most successful, with
Intel (INTC). In the two years since, the companies have pulled off a
glitch-free microprocessor transplant for the Mac that has helped
attract new customers to Apple and entrenched Intel with the
industry's fastest-growing and most innovative player.
But is the Intel deal a harbinger of happy partnerships to come? As
it is, many question whether Apple can partner in a manner that
benefits both parties over the long haul. "Apple always looks out for
No. 1, in the short term," says Roger Kay, founding partner of
Endpoint Technologies Associates. "In the end, it comes back to bite
them because they can't always maintain those partnerships."
...
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2007/tc2007073_956512.htm
------------------------------
Message: 9
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 12:28:05 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Even After Apple, Designers Dig Jobs
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Even After Apple, Designers Dig Jobs
Apple's design alumni agree: For a design-driven business strategy,
you need the support of a single-minded risk taker like, well?Steve
Jobs
by Helen Walters and Reena Jana
BusinessWeek
Talk to a bunch of former Apple (AAPL) designers who've gone on to
work with other corporations such as Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Sapient
(SAPE), and the first thing you'll notice is how similar their ideas
of "successful design" are. It's perhaps a little ironic, given how
Apple made such a song and dance back in the day about the whole
concept of "thinking different." And unusual, given that most
high-profile designers are known for their contrarian and opinionated
attitudes. But when we checked in to see where a handful of top
industrial, interface, and other designers wound up post-Apple-and to
get their hindsight on what their design alma mater does right (or
wrong)-we discovered they still share philosophies and thinking. And
belief No. 1 remains that Steve Jobs is King, even among those who
never worked with him directly.
"Apple would not do what it does if it were not for Steve Jobs," says
Robert Brunner, who was Director of Industrial Design at Apple for
seven years before becoming a partner at multidisciplinary design
firm Pentagram in 1996 and who recently set up his own San
Francisco-based consultancy, Ammunition. "His understanding and
support of design is shown in product after product. Apple's
committed to design all the way through the process and that comes
right from the top of the company. It's a belief and commitment
that's cultural, not process-oriented."
The Strength of a Unique Vision
Many companies want to emulate Apple's success (the company recently
topped the BusinessWeek/Boston Consulting Group's list of The World's
50 Most Innovative Companies based on a survey of global senior
management, for the third year in a row). But the visionary power and
influence of one individual may seem discouragingly difficult to
reproduce. As if to emphasize that, some are quick to point out that
when Jobs left the company, between 1985 and 1996, many members of
the design team remained and yet produced products that stopped short
of creating true paradigm shifts.
...
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jun2007/id20070627_004206.htm
------------------------------
Message: 10
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 12:55:22 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Telephony Armageddon?
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Telephony Armageddon?
The iPhone is an incredible technological achievement. Parts of the
technology have already been out there but putting it all into such a
small device with such amazing screen clarity - and doing it all
programmatically without a keyboard - is nothing short of sensational.
And the programmers at Apple have outdone themselves in terms of
impressive graphics wizardry.
And best of all it comes with the space age OS X finally rid of its
Carbon toolbox shackles and architecturally optimised the way it's
hoped that 'other' OS X will be built with time.
In fact it's probably inconceivable the dazzle of the iPhone be
possible without OS X and the NeXTSTEP technology behind it. The
latter jumped way ahead of its day by incorporating vector graphics
through the use of Adobe's EPS. Today the successor uses the PDF
'upgrade'. Screen characteristics such as RGBA values are given in
floating point and not in clumsy integers as used on other platforms.
That all important 'A' - the alpha channel - is there enabling
shadowing and what's called 'shared pixels' - giving you customised
transparency. No other personal system can offer anything close to
this.
Microsoft tried recently - but to achieve a pale copy ended up
requiring four times the processing power and accompanying video
memory - not exactly practical for a handheld device.
And as it's running OS X and as OS X isn't in this case compromised
by 'beige box artifacts' it's principally secure.
It therefore comes as wonder what with all the work that's gone into
this dazzler that the system architects should screw up as badly as
they have.
...
http://rixstep.com/2/1/20070703,00.shtml
------------------------------
Message: 11
Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:02:19 -0500
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Medianews] True or False: US Broadband Penetration Is Lower
Than Estonia
To: medianews@twiar.org
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
True or False: U.S.'s Broadband Penetration Is Lower Than Even Estonia's
By Steven Levy
Newsweek
July 2-9, 2007 issue
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19389299/site/newsweek/
Maybe our proud nation is going through some rough spots, but at least
we have one shining and perpetual triumph: the Internet. People may
refer to it as the World Wide Web, but its capital is Silicon Valley and
the United States is the big dog tapping the global keyboard. At least
that's what we thought, until the news broke in April of a report by the
international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that
ranked the high-speed broadband adoption of 30 countries in the
developed world. The United States was not first. Or second, or third.
It ranked 15th.
This was a continuation of a trend: only a few months ago the OECD
ranked America 12th. Even more mortifying, when ranked against all
countries on broadband penetration (percentage of homes connected), the
United States came in 24th?behind such powers as Iceland, Finland and,
yes, Estonia. In terms of the raw number of connected homes, we still
hold a lead at 60 million broadband subscriptions, but China, with 56
million, is gaining fast. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps called the OECD
report "a national embarrassment ... In broadband, we're not even an
also-ran."
"It's not just a matter of national pride," says Ben Scott, the policy
director of Free Press, a consumer-oriented D.C. think tank. "A country
that's fully connected has access to tools that let citizens do jobs
that we can't do. The cost of falling behind can be hundreds of billions
of dollars every year."
Although President George W. Bush promised during his re-election
campaign that all Americans would have access to affordable broadband by
2007, many rural Americans have no way to connect. It's impossible to
tell how many, in part because of the bizarre way the FCC measures the
issue: if just a single building in an entire ZIP code is connected?a
library, a school, a business?then all people in the area are counted as
having access, even if there's no cable and their phone company won't
give them DSL. (Because the signal deteriorates over distance, the
telcos find it prohibitively expensive to offer the service to customers
in far-flung areas.) Many rural homes can theoretically get broadband by
satellite dish, but the cost is high and the service not as fast as
other alternatives. In any case, a new study by the Pew Internet &
American Life Project reports that fewer than one in four rural
Americans has high-speed connections at home, compared with about 40
percent of subu
rban and urban dwellers. (A more recent survey pegs total U.S.
penetration at 50 percent; South Korea's is 90 percent.)
Another problem is that, compared with broadband in some other nations,
our connections are anything but "high speed." The FCC defines
"broadband" as a connection that delivers 200 kilobits a second, either
to (downstream) or from (upstream) the computer. That's only four times
the dial-up rate?and totally useless for YouTube. "Our definition needs
to change," says Cisco CEO John Chambers, for whom better broadband has
become sort of a crusade. Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, head of the
House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, is proposing that we don't
call it broadband unless it's at least 2 megabits per second. That pales
in comparison with what's already available in many other countries: 50
or even 100Mbps broadband, fast enough for what Chambers calls the "next
wave" of services like realistic videoconferencing, remote health-care
consultations and you-are-there shopping. "We're playing catch-up when
we ought to go where the market's going," he says.
Americans are paying more to putter around the Net at golf-cart speeds
than citizens elsewhere spend to race around the Web in Porsches?often
seven to 10 times as much. AT&T charges its former BellSouth customers
$33 a month for its "Ultra" DSL service?1.5Mbps downstream and a pokey
256 kilobits upstream speed. U.S. cable companies charge about $40 for
4Mbps. But in Japan, customers pay $30 a month for 50Mbps.
Critics say the root of the problem is extremely limited competition:
most Americans' choices reside in a cozy duopoly of a single cable
company and a single telco provider. It's no surprise that those selling
high-cost, low-speed broadband defend the status quo. (AT&T says it's
committed to providing broadband to all; Verizon touts its new premium
fiber-optic service, but what you'll pay depends on where you live: in a
few locations, people can buy "up to" 50Mbps for $140 a month; in
others, you'll pay $180 a month for 30Mbps.) But the administration,
supposedly dedicated to pumping up our broadband muscle, also maintains
that things are hunky-dory. "I think our policies are a success," FCC
chairman Kevin Martin said at a conference last week, citing increases
in the number of broadband homes. (Just imagine what he would have said
if we had Korea's numbers.) "We have the most effective multiplatform
broadband in the world," says John Kneuer, the Commerce Department's head o
f the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Why
the low grades in the OECD study? Because, Kneuer says, the study itself
is faulty. In fact, sniping at the methodology of that report is de
rigueur among those who think our national broadband approach is just fine.
In any case, the OECD study?and the indisputable fact that our
penetration is middling, our prices are high and our speeds aren't
speedy?have galvanized some legislators. Representative Markey and Sen.
Daniel Inouye of Hawaii are sponsoring bills to require accurate
measurements of the depth of the problem, in hopes that by quantifying
it we'll actually do something about it. "If we get a good policy in
place, we should be able to reverse the problem," Markey says.
FCC Commissioner Copps isn't so sanguine. "Every generation in America
has had an infrastructure challenge. And the response has been canals,
turnpikes, railroads and the interstates," he says. "But in the 21st
century, it seems that no one is looking out for us. We're frittering
our future away." Silicon Valley, meet Estonia.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19389299/site/newsweek/
------------------------------
Message: 12
Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:05:02 -0500
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Medianews] Proposal by Qwest would help spread of high-speed
Internet
To: medianews@twiar.org
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
Proposal by Qwest would help spread of high-speed Internet
By Catherine Tsai
Associated Press
Published: 06.30.2007
http://www.azstarnet.com/business/189817
DENVER ? Qwest Communications International Inc. is proposing changing a
subsidy that helps underserved customers get affordable phone service so
they also can get high-speed Internet access.
The proposal also would shrink the amount of money wireless competitors
would get from the federal program. Qwest doesn't get wireless subsidies
from the fund, said Steve Davis, Qwest senior vice president of public
policy.
The Universal Service Fund, or USF, is paid for with a nearly 12 percent
surcharge on phone bills. It subsidizes phone service in rural areas,
mountain communities and other places where installing equipment and
making a profit would be difficult.
Qwest is the primary telephone-service provider in Arizona and 13 other
states, mainly in the West.
Denver-based Qwest and others say the fund, which has grown to about $4
billion, hasn't kept up with the times and is subsidizing phone service
to areas that no longer are unserved or unprofitable to serve.
"It's a well-intentioned program that's gone astray," said Gary Lytle,
Qwest senior vice president of federal relations.
Federal lawmakers have proposed using some of the funds to provide
hard-to-reach customers with broadband service, an idea Qwest supports.
Qwest, for example, said it offers high-speed Internet services to about
83 percent of its service area but has not found an economical way to
serve the rest.
Qwest proposes changing the formula for doling out USF subsidies to
wireless companies so it is distributed on a per-household basis, rather
than per phone.
Currently, a wireless company serving a home where all four family
members have mobile phones can get subsidies for four customers, even
though it is serving one home.
"Wireless subsidies have grown beyond all recognition of the original
intent," Davis said.
Qwest estimates the change could trim subsidies paid to wireless
companies from $1 billion to $500 million annually, leaving $500 million
to subsidize rural broadband services.
Qwest proposes having companies bid on providing high-speed Internet
access in unserved areas for the lowest possible cost.
The winner would get a one-time subsidy for providing the service,
rather than ongoing support provided by the current fund.
States would implement the program while the Federal Communications
Commission would manage it. Qwest has submitted its plan to the FCC.
Davis said Qwest discussed its proposal with federal and state
regulators and a few competitors whom he declined to name. He described
the reaction overall as favorable.
An FCC spokesman said the commission had not yet seen Qwest's filing.
CTIA-The Wireless Association has said it opposes reform proposals that
discriminate against certain types of technology. Sprint Nextel Corp.
has urged the FCC to enact USF reform that treats all providers and
technologies equally.
Jim Greenwood, director of the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel, said
he had not discussed the proposal with Qwest but liked the idea of
changing the distribution formula of the subsidy.
"It's a transfer of wealth from urban to rural customers that goes well
beyond what it was intended to do, in my opinion, which is provide
affordable universal service in rural areas," Greenwood said.
"It's making phones on some level less affordable, simply because the
surcharges are getting so large to provide money for the funds."
------------------------------
Message: 13
Date: Fri, 06 Jul 2007 13:06:45 -0500
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [Medianews] Feds snub open source for 'smart' radios
To: medianews@twiar.org
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Feds snub open source for 'smart' radios
By Anne Broache
News.com
http://news.com.com/Feds+snub+open+source+for+smart+radios/2100-1041_3-6195102.html
Story last modified Fri Jul 06 08:10:42 PDT 2007
Mobile-gadget makers are starting to take advantage of software-defined
radio, a new technology allowing a single device to receive signals from
multiple sources, including television stations and cell phone networks.
But a new federal rule set to take effect Friday could mean that radios
built on "open-source elements" may encounter a more sluggish path to
market--or, in the worst case scenario, be shut out altogether. U.S.
regulators, it seems, believe the inherently public nature of
open-source code makes it more vulnerable to hackers, leaving "a high
burden to demonstrate that it is sufficiently secure."
If the decision stands, it may take longer for consumers to get their
hands on these all-in-one devices. The nascent industry is reluctant to
rush to market with products whose security hasn't been thoroughly
vetted, and it fears the Federal Communications Commission's preference
for keeping code secret could allow flaws to go unexposed, potentially
killing confidence in their products.
By effectively siding with what is known in cryptography circles as
"security through obscurity," the controversial idea that keeping
security methods secret makes them more impenetrable, the FCC has drawn
an outcry from the software radio set and raised eyebrows among some
security experts.
"There is no reason why regulators should discourage open-source
approaches that may in the end be more secure, cheaper, more
interoperable, easier to standardize, and easier to certify," Bernard
Eydt, chairman of the security committee for a global industry
association called the SDR (software-defined radio) Forum, said in an
e-mail interview this week.
The Forum, which represents research institutions and companies such as
Motorola, AT&T Labs, Northrup Grumman and Virginia Tech, urged the FCC
to back away from that stance in a formal petition (PDF) this week.
Those concerns were endorsed by the Software Freedom Law Center, which
provides legal services to the free and open-source software community,
staff attorney Matt Norwood said in an interview this week.
Still, in a white paper released Friday, the group says there's also
good news for its developers in the FCC's rule: because it focuses
narrowly on security-related software, it appears that programmers would
not be restricted from collaboration with hardware makers on the many
other kinds of open-source wireless applications. (Many 802.11 wireless
routers that are under the FCC's control already rely on open-source
systems for network management.)
Software-defined radios--also known as "smart" or cognitive radios--are
viewed by some as the foundation for the next generation of mobile
technology. Traditional radios use electronic hardware to process
signals--for example, to transform a particular type of radio waves into
a radio station's musical broadcast or to screen out interference.
Expanding radio's scope
But software-defined radios put the brains of the operation into
software that manages the signals being sent or received by the radio
hardware. With that approach, new software downloads, as opposed to more
labor-intensive hardware changes, could let radios do more than ever before.
Imagine, for instance, a single gadget that can deliver TV shows,
terrestrial radio stations, cell phone calls and broadband, depending on
how it's programmed; or a cell phone equipped with the intelligence to
detect the strongest signals in a particular area and change the phone's
settings to subscribe to them, regardless of whether they belong to a
GSM, CDMA or some other type of network.
Although the software-defined radio industry has generally found
welcoming treatment on the FCC's part so far, some security experts said
the agency's recent take on open-source software is unjustified.
"Obscurity works best when the hackers can't test their attacks," said
Peter Swire, an Ohio State University law professor who has written
about the tensions between closed and open approaches to computer
security. "For software like this, used in distributed devices, there
should be no extra burden on open source."
There's also no clear evidence that the number of vulnerabilities in
open-source software differs dramatically from that of proprietary
software, said Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute,
which provides computer security training. (Some earlier studies have
found that the generally more intensive scrutiny of open-source code can
help keep its quality higher and vulnerabilities lower.)
"They should be defining it as software with reliable maintenance or
software without reliable maintenance--that's the fundamental security
issue," Paller said in a telephone interview. "If I don't have somebody
I can call when I find out there's a vulnerability in my software, I'm
dead."
Already in military use
The term software-defined radio hasn't exactly made it into public
consciousness yet, but the technology has been gaining traction in
military and public safety spheres. Perhaps the highest-profile example
is the Pentagon's Joint Tactical Radio System project, which is designed
to give soldiers in the field the ability to shuttle voice, data and
video across multiple networks.
Commercial offerings, however, remain in the early stages. About three
years ago, the FCC awarded its first specialized software-defined radio
license to a small firm called Vanu. That company went on to produce the
first commercially available base station that can support multiple
wireless standards--GSM, CDMA, iDEN and others--from a single piece of
hardware, which it markets as a more cost-effective, time-efficient
approach. According to the FCC, some CDMA mobile phone networks and
wireless local area network devices are also using the technology in
some form.
The new FCC rule, prompted in part by a petition last June from Cisco
Systems, builds on software-defined radio ground rules established in
2001 and 2005.
The FCC has always worried that the technology's flexible nature could
allow hackers to gain access to inappropriate parts of the spectrum,
such as that used for public safety. So the regulators required
manufacturers to submit confidential descriptions showing that their
products are safe from outside modifications that would run afoul of the
government's rules. Cisco's petition asked the regulators to clarify how
use of open-source security software, whose code is by definition
public, fit into that confidentiality mandate.
In response, the FCC decreed that open-source security software, too,
cannot be made public if doing so would raise the risk that the FCC's
rules could be sidestepped. Then the commission added: "a system that is
wholly dependent on open-source elements will have a high burden to
demonstrate that it is sufficiently secure to warrant authorization as a
software-defined radio."
In its filing this week, the SDR Forum asked the FCC to allow radio
makers to discuss their code in public, as long as they weren't
intending to encourage rule-breaking. The group also urged a neutral
stance on the security of open-source software, arguing that "academic
inquiry and industry discussion coupled with a market test," not
regulators, should decide.
The Cisco representative who petitioned the agency for the rule changes
was not available for an interview with CNET News.com this week. Robert
Pepper, the company's senior technology policy director, said he
believed Cisco was comfortable with the new rule. An FCC spokesman said
the commission had received and would review the SDR Forum's filing, but
it was unclear when it would respond.
The FCC's latest move isn't the first time the open-source side of
software radio has faced potential limits.
A few years ago, the agency issued rules that would have made it illegal
to manufacture TV tuners and PCs that did not support the controversial
"broadcast flag," an anticopying regime backed by the entertainment
industry.
A federal appeals court threw out the rules. But if left in place or
revived by Congress, they would threaten the ability of consumers to
build their own unrestricted radio signal receivers, using the likes of
a free software radio toolkit known as GNU Radio.
An attorney for the Software Freedom Law Center, which provides legal
services to free and open-source software developers, said the
regulators could have done far worse in their latest rule: the FCC
acknowledged that the open-source platform may have "advantages," such
as lower costs and development time, and it didn't outright ban
open-source applications.
"I was gratified at least to see they've moved away from...all the
rhetoric a few years ago about how the GPL is a virus and free software
is un-American," said Software Freedom Law Center's Norwood.
The lingering concern from the manufacturers' side is that as long as
the FCC discourages open discussions of security tactics, consumers will
encounter delays or fewer choices in the new gadgets--or products laced
with bugs that could have been caught with more collaboration.
The SDR Forum has cited the Secure Socket Layer (SSL), a widely used
technique for securing e-commerce transactions, and the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)'s public hash algorithms as
evidence that open processes often yield the most highly successful
security techniques.
Without similar freedoms for software radio makers, "there may be some
people that will shy away or may delay some (software radio) pieces that
go out there because they have this extra burden they have to go
through," said Bruce Oberlies, chairman of the SDR Forum's regulatory
committee.
------------------------------
Message: 14
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 16:00:42 -0400
From: "Williams, Gregory S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] ESPN shut out of All-Star Game
To: <medianews@twiar.org>
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
By Paul J. Gough
ESPN shut out of All-Star Game
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3icec89c18d5ef8ec58165dfae65c9791c
July 7, 2007
NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball has called ESPN out on strikes for this
week's All-Star Game after the network carried the all-star selections a few
minutes after the exclusive telecast on Turner Broadcasting's TBS.
Baseball executives told ESPN that it couldn't telecast from AT&T Park in San
Francisco where the game is being held, meaning that coverage of the 78th All
Star Game will be done at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Conn., rather than
having "Baseball Tonight" and a portion of "SportsCenter" originate from the
West Coast.
ESPN doesn't have the rights to carry the All-Star Game -- those are Fox's --
and beginning this year it didn't have the right to carry an All-Star selection
show either as it is now on Turner Broadcasting's TBS as part of the new rights
deal. MLB was steamed after ESPN's "SportsCenter" reported the National League
rosters on Associated Press report and the entire NL and AL rosters a few
minutes after they were unveiled on TBS.
Baseball executives have told ESPN that they can't telecast from the San
Francisco ballpark where the game is being held beyond an hour Monday and hours
before Tuesday's game. The decision spiked ESPN's plans to telecast several
hours of programming from the All-Star game, including its signature
"SportsCenter." The ESPN set was taken down Thursday from AT&T Park in San
Francisco; the majority of the game coverage will now be anchored from Bristol,
Conn.
"ESPN viewers will receive the same complete, in-depth All-Star coverage they
have come to expect," ESPN said in a statement Friday. "We have a long and
productive relationship with MLB which we value."
Representatives for Turner Broadcasting and Major League Baseball declined
comment.
The brouhaha started late Sunday afternoon when MLB had unveiled the All-Star
selections in an hourlong show that was scheduled by contract to be exclusive
to new rights-holder Turner Broadcasting. Other media, including ESPN, were
prevented from disclosing the names until after the Turner show. Sources
familiar with the situation said that ESPN had asked for permission to do a
special All-Star selection show but was told that as in the past when it was
ESPN's under the rights deal this was an exclusive.
Turner originally planned to do the show between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. ET,
following the Atlanta Braves-Florida Marlins telecast. But the Braves game was
delayed 85 minutes by rain and then went into extra innings so that the
All-Star telecast started two hours later at 6 p.m.
Sources said ESPN had scheduled a selection show between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. but,
having no names, filled it with other baseball issues like Barry Bonds' effort
to break the career home run record. But after 6 p.m., ESPN's "SportsCenter"
announced the names of the National and American League All-Stars a few minutes
after they were announced on Turner.
This drew the ire of MLB, even without Turner having to say anything, say
sources familiar with the situation. MLB took the unusual step of telling ESPN
that since it didn't respect the embargo of the rightsholder, it would be
treated like a non-rights-holder for the All-Star Game and not given any
special treatment.
"It broke the spirit of the agreement," a source said Friday morning.
ESPN will be allowed to broadcast only from the field between 2:30 p.m. and
3:30 p.m. PT Monday, just like any other non-rights-holding network and then
until 4 p.m. PT. "Baseball Tonight" and "SportsCenter" will go on as scheduled,
along with pre- and post-Home Run Derby coverage, in the same number of hours
and with the same talent. But only Dusty Baker and Peter Gammons will be on
site, not the entire "Baseball Tonight" crew.
Gregory S. Williams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
?
?
------------------------------
Message: 15
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 15:56:35 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Accessories for iPhone Are Hitting Market; Some
Are Worthwhile
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
All Things Digital
Personal Technology
Accessories for iPhone Are Hitting Market; Some Are Worthwhile
Published on July 5, 2007
by Walter S. Mossberg
The hundreds of thousands of people who have bought the Apple iPhone
since its debut Friday may soon start looking for add-on hardware and
software for their shiny new devices.
At first glance, this should be easy. The iPhone uses the same
hardware ports as the iPod, which has attracted thousands of
accessories. And the iPhone uses a modified version of Apple's
Macintosh operating system, which runs numerous small programs called
"widgets" that would be perfect for the iPhone.
But, in fact, using add-on hardware for the iPhone will, in many
cases, require buying new gear, or at least adapters to make the old
iPod gear work, because of subtle differences in the way its hardware
ports work. And there is no way to load Mac software onto an iPhone -
even widgets. So you have to access iPhone-specific software through
the phone's built-in Web browser.
I have been testing some of the very first crop of iPhone add-on
hardware and software. Some work well, others not so much. I expect
to return to this topic when the add-on market is more mature, but
here is an early look.
...
http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20070705/accessories-for-iphone-are-hitting-market-some-are-worthwhile/
------------------------------
Message: 16
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 16:00:51 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Questions About Apple's iPhone
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
All Things Digital
Mossberg's Mailbox
Questions About Apple's iPhone
Published on July 5, 2007
by WALTER S. MOSSBERG
There's no other major item most of us own that is as confusing,
unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has
questions about them, and we aim to help.
This week, I was swamped with questions about Apple's hot new iPhone,
so this is a special all-iPhone edition of Mossberg's Mailbox.
...
http://mailbox.allthingsd.com/20070705/questions-about-apples-iphone/
------------------------------
Message: 17
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 16:05:52 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] iPhone Offers a Mixed Experience
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
iPhone Offers a Mixed Experience
By Andrew Garcia
July 5, 2007
eWEEK
Review: Apple's iPhone is an outstanding media player and an above
average phone but has spotty data service and limited applications.
The iPhone is finally here, complete with a fantastic industrial
design that stands up well to the considerable hype that's been
swirling for months around Apple's first smart phone device. However,
for all the iPhone's groundbreaking design attributes, the unit's
spotty data service and limited applications conspire to deliver an
experience that's mixed at best. In my tests of the iPhone, I found
it to be an outstanding media player and an above average phone, but
a below par Internet and productivity device.
The iPhone's ease of use and future potential make it a compelling
and somewhat addictive device for consumers. However, considering the
unit's severely limited application set and restrictive voice plans,
corporate buyers have should not consider the iPhone for their mobile
work force. Rather, IT departments should be pondering how much
interaction IT will have in enabling iPhones for use with corporate
assets when users inevitably show up with one of their own.
I tested the 4GB iPhone model, which sells for $499 (Apple also
offers an 8GB model for $599). Exclusively for use with the AT&T
network, the iPhone's rate plans start at a reasonable $69.99 per
month, which includes 450 minutes of talk time, unlimited data and
200 SMS messages. By comparison to other smart phone rate plans with
unlimited data, the iPhone's rate plans are relatively affordable.
However, the iPhone only works with Individual or Family Plan
accounts. Phone numbers on corporate accounts will need to be
migrated to an individual account before they can work with an
iPhone. And AT&T's migration processes have proved spotty in the
iPhone's early days.
The iPhone's design is revolutionary. The device has a minimal number
of physical buttons, just a sleep button on the top, volume and mute
controls on the left side, and a single button on the face of the
device that returns the user to the main menu. All other interactions
are done via the glass touch screen that covers the iPhone's bright,
vibrant 3.5-inch, 480-by-320-pixel resolution display.
...
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2155149,00.asp
------------------------------
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