June 2011

GPS Users Fear Getting Lost In Wireless Expansion

GPS devices have become ubiquitous: Millions of drivers rely on them for directions. The government hopes to construct a new air traffic control system based on GPS navigation rather than the use of radar. They've also become an important tool in agriculture. But a multibillion-dollar proposal to provide broadband Internet access using satellites and a network of 40,000 antennas could interfere with their devices. This could potentially make it harder for first responders to find emergencies, aviators to fly and drivers to navigate.

Available Data Shows Facebook User Numbers Growing Quickly, or Slowly, or Falling

Did Facebook have fewer monthly active users in the United States at the start of June than it did at the start of May? What about user counts in other early-adopter countries like Canada and the United Kingdom? Is the company continuing to gain as many new users around the world now as it has in recent years? Facebook appears to have had fewer monthly active users at the start of June than at the start of May in the US and a few other countries — at least according to one data source — even as it has grown bigger than ever worldwide. Although today a source close to the company tells us that the site is “still growing in the US.”

Privacy groups urge investigation of Facebook facial recognition tool

Facebook already knows about your friend, random thoughts and likes. Now it wants to collect biometric data? That’s the subject of a complaint by privacy advocates filed at the Federal Trade Commission, asking the agency to stop Facebook’s facial recognition service.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) also urged the FTC to investigate the service for privacy and consumer violations. In its complaint, the Electronic Privacy Information Center said Facebook — with an estimated 60 billion photos of individuals in its collection — secretly collected facial images for automated online identification. Through its facial recognition software, Facebook recommended tags to help identify people in photos. It began rolling out the service last December, and the company said it should have done a better job of alerting consumers that it was being implemented more widely. That, according to EPIC’s Marc Rotenberg, violates consumer protection laws. The feature was implemented without user consent. And even though users can opt out of the service, Facebook subscribers weren't notified of the risks associated with the service, he said.

The creeping of TV bleeping

Getting bleeped: It's not just for awards-show speeches anymore.

Once largely relegated to slips of the tongue during live events, censored cursing has evolved into a pre-planned, or at least largely expected, punch line that's network-approved and no longer lowbrow. Over the past few years, even smart network comedies such as "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation" have used bleeps to elicit laughs. And since last summer, when the FCC lost much of its power to fine networks, some writers are bleeping a blue streak. Whether you blame it on Bono's "[bleep]-ing brilliant" outburst at the 2003 Golden Globes or chalk it up to TV scribes' freedom of speech, the use of bleeped curse words on television has risen steadily, particularly over the past few years, according to a recent study by the Parents Television Council, an L.A.-based media watchdog group. Across all networks and prime-time hours in 2010, a bleeped or muted S-word aired 95 times (up from 11 times in 2005) while a bleeped or muted F-word aired 276 times (up from 11 times in 2005). Last year, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Federal Communications Commission's efforts to limit "fleeting expletives" to late-night television, a ruling that has severely hampered the government agency's ability to punish what it deems indecent language. As a result, some contend that networks are taking full advantage of the FCC's diminished capacity and are making a concerted effort to popularize profanity on television.

Google's Android ambitions go beyond mobile

Andy Rubin, Google's top mobile-phone executive, likes to talk about everything being "Android-ized." Android has become the top smartphone operating system in the United States, but Google's ambitions for it go well beyond tablet computers and smartphones, even beyond the mobile Web. With its forthcoming Google Wallet payment service, an Android smartphone will become a credit card. Now Google says Android can also become the first mass-market bridge between the virtual world and the physical world, allowing smartphone apps to control light bulbs, home appliances, and even medical devices. At its annual I/O developer conference last month, Google announced a program called Android@Home, a system that will allow Android phones and tablets to turn on household lights, activate speakers in a wireless stereo system, or analyze the calories burned on a gym exercise bike. The first Android@Home products are LED light bulbs embedded with technology that can be controlled by an Android device. Built by a Florida company called Lighting Science Group, they will go on sale by December. But Android's executives say their ambition goes beyond turning a smartphone into a universal remote that could switch on the kitchen coffeemaker from your upstairs bedroom.

Comcast's $4.4B Olympian bid a bold online bet

NBC lost more than $200 million the last time it showed the Winter Olympics, and it's bracing for similar losses in London next year. So, plenty of people scoffed when the network bid $4.4 billion — nearly a billion more than runner-up Fox — for the U.S. rights to carry the four games through 2020. Yet the price may prove right.

The growth of Internet video and opportunities under NBC's new owner, Comcast, should help cut losses significantly and perhaps make the Olympics profitable after the London Games. There's also an intangible promotional benefit to NBC. Consider this: Even at a loss, the Olympics generate huge audiences. About 185 million people saw some of the Olympics in Vancouver last year. The struggling broadcaster can promote new shows to those viewers as it tries to dig out of fourth place. NBC didn't pay all that much for the Olympics, considering that TV rights fees for other major sports such as Pac-12 college basketball have been doubling or tripling. For the 2014 and 2016 games, it's paying about the same as it has been. For the final two games in the deal, NBC is paying just 19 percent more.
Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne called NBC's deal an "Olympic win at the right price."

Bloomberg Files Complaint Against Comcast With FCC

As promised, Bloomberg has officially asked the Federal Communications Commission to require Comcast to move Bloomberg Television into "existing news neighborhoods" on its systems, saying that not to do so violates a condition in the FCC's order approving the NBCU deal.

In a complaint filed at the FCC, Bloomberg said that Comcast's assertion that it does not have such neighborhoods and that any "neighborhooding" requirement applies to any future such possible news is off base. "[T]he evidence clearly indicates that Comcast right now extensivley groups news channels [like Fox News channel, MSNBC, and CNN] into new neighborhoods. Moreover, the FCC order expressly states that the news neighborhooding condition applies to news neighborhoods that Comcast carries "NOW or in the future,"thus meaning that it applies to any news neighborhood that Comcast carried as of the date of the FCC order (Jan. 18). Bloomberg wants the FCC to make Comcast move Bloomberg TV into "exisiting news neighborhoods" as defined by Bloomberg, within 60 days in the top 35 DMA's in the country.

Delaware Governor Backs AT&T/T-Mobile

Gov Jack Markell (D-Delaware) supports AT&T's purchase of T-Mobile. Saying it was about getting private sector investment in jobs and helping connect schools and hospitals, among others, to broadband, Gov Markell said in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission that approving the deal "is one way you can help us build a strong climate for investment, education, and employment here in Delaware." That makes a total of 18 governors, to date, according to AT&T, that back the deal.

USDA Announces Goal for Smart Grid Investments and Funding to Improve Electric Services to Customers in 10 States

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joined Administration officials to announce initiatives aimed at modernizing the nation's electric grid, including USDA's goal to invest $250 million in smart grid equipment deployment in rural America over the next 12 months.

With funding from USDA Rural Development's Rural Utilities Service (RUS), rural electric cooperatives are leading the way in smart grid deployments. Last year, RUS approved $7.1 billion in loans for a broad range of rural electric grid modernization, including $152 million in loans for smart meters. Smart grid infrastructure includes metering, substation automation, computer applications to monitor and control systems and processes, two-way communications, geospatial information systems, and additional system improvements.

Smart grid technologies give consumers more control over their electric costs and help utilities better manage the electric grid to improve operational efficiency. Smart grid investments make it possible to increase the use of renewable energy by balancing intermittent sources of power – like wind and solar –with other fuels. A smart grid also enables greater use of demand side management tools to save energy.

FCC Charts a Wise Course for Media's Future

[Commentary] Seventeen months ago the Federal Communications Commission teed up what until June 9 was known as the “Future of Media” project. For all practical purposes the project’s report, now called “The Information Needs of Communities,” is likely to be forgotten in half that time.

On the face of it this sounds like a criticism. Far from it. For its thoroughness and level-headed analysis, and especially for its acknowledgment of the constitutional limits on governmental involvement in the media, this report, and its principal personnel — most notably the man brought in to oversee the effort, Steven Waldman — are owed a debt of gratitude. The report effectively dismisses the worst aspects of the media reformers’ governmental agenda. Missing or explicitly rejected, for instance, are increased funding of public broadcasting, a “Geek Corps” for local democracy (patterned after AmeriCorps), federal tax credits for investigative journalism, or calls for a halt to media consolidation. In fact, one of the few “action elements” in the report was a call for less government regulation.

Benton

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