June 2010

TV makers think outside the box

With Google and Intel leading a charge by technology companies to change the face of television, the slow-moving industry is being forced into a radical rethink of its business model.

That could mean that TV sets end up being given away, with a shift towards selling services instead. "You can't just put a TV out there with five to six services and think that will last seven to 11 years," said Richard Bullwinkle, chief evangelist with Rovi, the TV guide and digital content protection company. "We are going to have to look at other models like software, service and application updates, add-on sales and recurring revenues. It's an incredibly exciting opportunity compared to waiting for someone to replace a large television." The industry could even go the way of the mobile phone sector, with TVs being sold at subsidized prices to sell the subscription content services with which they come loaded. "We are witnessing the demise of television, new technologies are going to take over, television is being replaced by the entertainment display," said Ken Lowe, Vizio co-founder.

Compromise offer by Google on data

Google will this week offer a compromise with European data protection authorities, which are demanding that the Internet company hand over data it intercepted from private WiFi connections.

The search company is facing a dilemma over the handling of the data, which it intercepted while taking photographs for its Street View service. Data protection authorities in Germany, France and Spain have asked Google to hand over the hard drives containing the "payload" data - which could contain anything from e-mails to website addresses being visited by individuals - for an investigation. However, other data protection authorities and privacy campaigners, such as the US-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, fear that handing over the hard drives would harm privacy further. Google said its external lawyers had advised the company not to hand over the data. Google is expected to propose a compromise solution this week, but did not outline what this would be.

Google ditches Windows on security concerns

Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft's ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees.

The directive to move to other operating systems began in earnest in January, after Google's Chinese operations were hacked, and could effectively end the use of Windows at Google, which employs more than 10,000 workers internationally. New hires are now given the option of using Apple's Mac computers or PCs running the Linux operating system.

Yahoo to turn subscribers' e-mail contact lists into social networking base

Yahoo plans to announce Tuesday that it is jumping into social networking by using its massive population of e-mail subscribers as a base for sharing information on the Web.

Over the next few weeks, its 280 million e-mail users will be able to exchange comments, pictures and news articles with others in their address books. The program won't expose a user's contact list to the public, as was done by Google through its social networking application, Buzz. But unless a user proactively opts out of the program, those Yahoo e-mail subscribers will automatically be part of a sweeping rollout of features that will incorporate the kinds of sharing done on sites such as Facebook and MySpace. The plan could spark criticism from Yahoo e-mail users, who signed up for the free service perhaps never imagining the people they e-mailed would become friends for sharing vacation videos, political causes and random thoughts throughout the day.

FCC ups the ante for children's TV commercial overages

The Federal Communications Commission has ratcheted up the fines for broadcast television stations that violate limits on advertising during programming aimed at children.

The FCC said that the base fine for this violation was $8K, but noted it had leeway in adjusting the fine upward or downward according to "the nature, circumstances, extent, and gravity of the violation and, with respect to the violator, the degree of culpability, any history of prior offenses, ability to pay, and such other matters as justice may require." It explained, "This represents an increase over the forfeiture assessed for comparable violations in previous renewal cycles. Given the numerous violations of the children's TV commercial limits in recent years, it appears that the forfeiture amounts assessed previously have not had a sufficient deterrent effect. Thus, where, as here, a case presents violations that are comparable to violations reported in an earlier renewal cycle, we are raising the forfeiture levels to strengthen the deterrent effect."

911 program could ease ER problems

Hoping to ease crowded emergency rooms and trim ambulance runs, Louisville Metro Emergency Medical Services (EMS) has launched a program that aims to screen low-priority calls and divert patients from hospitals into more appropriate health care.

Under the program, which started April 19, a small number of the lowest priority calls — such as those for an earache or a stomachache — are being turned over to a nurse who is able to spend time with the patient on the phone to figure out appropriate treatment, which may not include a trip to an emergency room in an ambulance. "We're trying to challenge the way things are traditionally done," says Neal Richmond, an emergency room physician and Louisville Metro EMS director. "Let's find these people better care." The program, which is among the first of its kind in the nation, is widely used in the United Kingdom and Australia, says Jeff Clawson, medical director for the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch. Though a handful of cities have explored similar programs, only Louisville and Richmond VA), which piloted the program, are fully using it in EMS systems, he says.

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