June 2011

Big Names in Tech Back AT&T’s T-Mobile Bid

In its quest to win approval of its $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile USA, AT&T just got a lot of help from its friends. Eight technology giants, including Facebook and Microsoft, and 10 venture capital firms, filed letters supporting the acquisition on June 6.

The letters, filed with the Federal Communications Commission, lent their support to AT&T’s argument that the T-Mobile deal will help the company extend its next-generation data network across the country, helping to meet the growing need for wireless broadband services. “Many policy-related efforts will not be able to quickly address near-term capacity needs,” the Microsoft-led group wrote in its letter. “The FCC must seriously weigh the benefits of this merger and approve it.” Other companies that have signed on are Yahoo, Oracle and the BlackBerry’s maker Research in Motion. The venture capital firms include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Partners. Microsoft approached “a select few” technology companies to support the deal, mostly those whose products would obviously also benefit from wider data pipelines, and received quick and positive replies. The software giant also contacted several trade associations to which it belongs, letting them know of the company’s position. While Microsoft and Research in Motion have signed the letter, other notable smartphone players whose offerings consume large amounts of data, like Apple, have not.

Security 'Tokens' Take Hit

RSA Security is offering to provide security monitoring or replace its well-known SecurID tokens -- devices used by millions of corporate workers to securely log on to their computers -- "for virtually every customer we have," the company's Chairman Art Coviello said.

In a letter to customers June 6, the EMC Corp. unit openly acknowledged for the first time that intruders had breached its security systems at defense contractor Lockheed Martin using data stolen from RSA. SecurID tokens have become a fixture of office life at thousands of corporations, used when employees log onto computers or sensitive software systems. The token is an essential piece of security, acting as an ever-changing password that flashes a series of six digits that should be virtually impossible to duplicate. Coviello didn't specify what happened to the tokens at Lockheed. The intruders didn't take any Lockheed customer or employee data. But as a precaution, he said RSA will offer to replace nearly all tokens -- millions of them used by government agencies and businesses.

NBCUniversal Buys Rest of Universal Orlando

NBCUniversal agreed to buy the 50% of Universal Orlando it doesn't already own from Blackstone Group LP for $1.025 billion. The move consolidates the media company's ownership of the theme parks and is one of the first deals NBCU has done since Comcast took control of NBCU in January. Universal Orlando comprises two theme parks -- Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. NBCU Chief Executive Steve Burke said the deal affirms NBCU's commitment to the theme park business and said Universal is performing "extremely well." The transaction is expected to close July 1. NBCUniversal said the enterprise value of the deal is $3.165 billion. Blackstone put its stake up for sale in March, forcing NBCU to decide whether to pick it up or risk another bidder sweeping in to purchase the whole thing.

A Clinical Drug Trial Via Phone, Computer

Pfizer is conducting a drug trial in which patients participate from their homes using computers and smartphones rather than visiting a clinic.

The company plans to compare the results to those obtained from a previous, traditional trial of the same drug. The study involves the company's overactive-bladder drug Detrol. If successful, the methods used in the study might eventually be used to help drive down the high cost of bringing new medicines to market. The Food and Drug Administration recently signed off on Pfizer's study, which is believed to be the first all-electronic, home-based study of a drug to receive agency approval. Study participants are being recruited through Internet advertisements and directed to the study's website, which explains the study and allows enrollment. Patients who enroll in the study will be required to have blood drawn at a local clinic or during a home visit. Medications will be mailed to participants, something that's rarely, if ever done in clinical trials. Patients will keep diaries using a mobile phone that has an application specifically designed to track symptoms of overactive bladder. Patients will fill out assessments on a secure website four times throughout the study. Although a home-based, electronic approach won't work for all drugs in clinical trials, the company and the FDA are looking to see if the technology can be integrated into more studies to make it easier to recruit patients and allow them to participate in clinical research. Now, patients usually need to live near a study site to participate.

Power up the 'smart meters'

[Commentary] You don't have to be a tinfoil-hat-wearing paranoiac to be worried that the electromagnetic radiation from modern wireless devices may be harmful to your health. But are the "smart meters" being installed by utilities throughout the state frying homeowners' brains, as many consumers and even municipal governments fear? The risks are vanishingly small, while the economic and environmental benefits of smart meters are wide and obvious. In fact, we wish LA's municipal utility would get busy installing the devices, though that isn't likely to happen any time soon.

Verimatrix gives studios another reason to offer movies earlier to homes

San Diego-based Verimatrix announced a watermarking technology that studios could use to help combat piracy on streamed movies, potentially encouraging them to offer more early-release films.

The watermarks won't make the offer more appealing to consumers or the studios' other distribution partners, though, and those hurdles are at least as big for the early releases as the technological limitations. The Federal Communications Commission's decision allowed pay-TV services to offer early-release movies only through encrypted digital outputs on their set-top boxes. Although that restriction rendered the films inaccessible to viewers with older TV sets equipped only with analog or unencrypted digital inputs, it also deterred viewers from recording and sharing the films online. That deterrent was a prerequisite for studios to make movies available in high definition as little as two months after they had appeared in theaters.

Laptops in class: How distracting are they?

They say education is the only thing people pay for that they want less of. Unfortunately, technology is helping students get the lesser education they want.

After observing law students during lecture periods, Sovern finds that the cure for technology distractions is sometimes more technology: Putting up a slide revived students’ attention at least long enough to take down what is on the screen, though that seems not to be true for students whose professors post slides on the class website. Does this mean professors should ban laptops? When the incentive to pay attention is low – as may be true, for example, for students whose grades are unlikely to affect job prospects – a ban might be prudent, for much the same reasons that dieters should not keep candy around: Sometimes people yield to temptation. To be sure, barring laptops is paternalistic. Still, law professors also have a responsibility to their students’ future clients. Would you want a doctor who had played solitaire while your illness was covered in class? Law schools must certify that their graduates seeking admission to the bar attended classes. Perhaps we should also certify that the students did not spend those classes on Facebook. But professors should realize that banning laptops eliminates only one temptation and does not change the incentives students face. More study is needed to see if what my observers saw holds up elsewhere, so we can understand better what causes students to vote with their fingers to ignore us, and perhaps to guide us in changing the incentives students face or even how we spend class time. In the meantime, Sovern has told his two children in college not to use their laptops in class.

Facebook has youngest staff among top tech firms

Facebook employees are the youngest and most satisfied, and yet the most stressed, among workers at big technology companies, a survey found. Facebook has the lowest median age, 26, as well as the highest portion of female workers, 33 percent, among nine of the industry's top businesses, according to PayScale, a Seattle research firm. Employees at Hewlett-Packard and IBM are the oldest surveyed, with a median age of 44. The social-networking site, run by the 27-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, has thrived by disrupting more-established technologies, such as Internet search and Web portals. That upstart spirit extends to its hiring policies, where workers aren't judged by how many years they've spent in the business.

MTV Survey: 66% Of Mobile TV And Movie Apps Checked Daily

Two-thirds of TV and movie apps for mobile devices are checked at least once a day -- but more than a third of these apps (38%) are deleted in the first three weeks after download, according to an MTV Networks (MTVN) consumer survey.

MTVN commissioned the multipart "State of Mobile Apps" study to determine the attributes of the most popular apps. The report is based on a quantitative survey of about 1,300 self-reported daily mobile app users and qualitative interviews with dedicated app consumers. Overall, 83% of mobile app users said they are addicted to them -- and about 63% of women who use mobile apps every day would give up their favorite reality TV show for a year rather than lose access to their favorite app for that long. Roughly 45% of users said they spend more than 10 minutes with their favorite TV or movie app each time they open it, according to the study. Ease of use (79%) and new content (55%) are the biggest reasons consumers will use an entertainment-oriented app for the long term. Conversely, better alternatives (55%) and lack of new content (42%) will drive a consumer to delete an app.

Will the FCC stay committed to rural America?

[Commentary] In the US, communications tools are essential for our daily lives. We almost take for granted that every American has access to them. But that’s not the case. People who live in rural areas have often struggled to get telephone and broadband service. They get their service only when one of the smaller telephone companies in their rural area builds out new services to their customers.

Today there are new and real questions about who will be able to access advanced telecommunication services in the future. Will the people who live in rural and hard-to-reach areas have the same access as other Americans? That question is going to be answered by the actions of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the coming months. Unless the FCC protects a time-honored principle called “universal service,” millions of rural Americans could be left behind in this telecommunications revolution.

The FCC document proposing a new “Connect America Fund” as a substitute for USF describes their interest in “market-driven” policies. But history has shown us that if we had relied on the “market” to move electricity and telephone service to rural and high-cost areas, we'd still be waiting. I believe the first step for the FCC must be to recommit to the principle of “universal service.” The wrong decision by the FCC could be a disaster for the economic future of high-cost and rural areas. Without access to the latest and best telecommunications services, rural areas of our country will be on the wrong side of the digital divide, and consigned to a future without economic opportunity or development. Reform done right could pave the way for sustained service and the universal build-out of the latest telecommunications services to all Americans in every region of our country, as well as the economic opportunities that come with it. That is the path I hope the FCC will choose.

[Dorgan is a former senator from North Dakota]

Benton

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