January 2012

What Does The Perfect Mobile Interface Look Like?

[Commentary] Shortly after the iPhone 4S went on sale this fall, its marquee feature, the Siri voice assistant, sparked a heated debate in the tech world: Was Siri a great computing interface, or was it the greatest?

To many observers, Apple's software, which combines uncannily accurate voice recognition with an artificial-intelligence engine that's capable of understanding complex English-language requests, marked the realization of our sci-fi dreams. Soon we'd be controlling everything by voice--cars, fridges, toasters, and, crucially, our TVs. Both Google TV and Microsoft's Kinect let people control their televisions by voice; according to The New York Times, Apple's long-rumored entry into manufacturing TVs might rest on the same gimmick. Lost in Siri's coronation is any hint of how strange the world would be if we all took up chattering with our machines. Siri-like interfaces are limited to private use; sure, you can try dictating an email on the subway or an airplane, but be sure to wear a mouth guard--and maybe even full body armor. Even issuing simple commands--"Remind me to buy Metamucil," "Play more Katy Perry"--could incite embarrassment. And then there's the question of utility: Why tell your TV to turn up the volume when you could just hit a button on the clicker?

Young People Track Web Protests Over Online Piracy Bills

According to the latest weekly News Interest Index survey, conducted Jan. 19-22 among 1,002 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, the protest by popular websites against proposed online piracy legislation was a top story for young people.

Nearly a quarter (23%) of those younger than 30 say they followed news about the online piracy fight most closely. That is about the same as the percentage following the 2012 elections most closely (21%). Among the public as a whole, just 7% say they followed news about the web protests – which included sites such as Wikipedia going dark for the day – more closely than any other story. The protests by popular websites and the debate in Congress over anti-piracy legislation accounted for 5% of the newshole, about the same amount of coverage given to economic news last week (4%).

MPAA's Chris Dodd Calls Piracy Defeat a 'Watershed Event'

As part of the Sundance Film Festival's daily Cinema Café speaker series at the Filmmaker Lodge, New York Times writer David Carr moderated a wide-ranging discussion with MPAA chairman Christopher Dodd, independent producer Christine Vachon and NATO president John Fithian. While many issues relating to exhibition and independent film made the agenda, Dodd was the first to address "the elephant in the room," as he put it: the SOPA and PIPA legislation designed to combat online piracy that was recently derailed by an unprecedented public outcry.

"It's a watershed event, what happened," Dodd admitted, noting that opponents' "ability to organize and communicate directly with consumers" was a game-changing phenomenon that he hadn't seen in more than three decades in public office. Fithian agreed, saying that the turnaround in November was "the greatest backlash I've ever seen. This was historic." Dodd seemed genuinely distressed that while the underlying issue of combating piracy is one everyone can agree on, a hyperbolic "hysteria" was stirred up that convinced people they would lose freedom of speech or the internet would be broken if the legislation passed. Dodd claimed that a discussion about "unintended consequences" was valid, as well as other concerns, but that those issues will not be addressed positively in the current climate. To illustrate the point, Fithian noted that his son angrily asked him why he was trying to take away his Internet.

Why we endorse

[Commentary] In an editorial, the Chicago Sun-Times explained why it will no longer make candidate endorsements. Readers are capable of making up their own minds, it said, particularly with such a multitude of information available. The Sun-Times editorial page says it will focus instead on important issues, from improving public schools to reducing crime. We respect the decision by the Sun-Times, but we intend to keep doing endorsements.

As the biggest newspaper in Chicago and the Midwest, we want to inform our readers and encourage them to push an agenda for a more vital community. The most direct way they do that is in choosing who will lead their government. In our editorials, we explain what we think should be done about government pension costs, educational shortcomings, political dysfunction and more. We offer our opinions on issues from the mundane to the cosmic. Not least important, we endorse candidates, from the top of the ballot to the bottom. To arrive at our choices, we send out questionnaires, scrutinize voting records and public statements, and interview hundreds of candidates. We make our evaluation of which ones will best serve the interests of the public. And then we tell our readers. Newspapers have a unique role as public citizen. It would be an abdication to say what we think should be done on an array of issues every day — and then take a vow of silence about who is most likely to advance those goals. Readers get an independent judgment of the choices in each race, even (or perhaps especially) when none of the options is very good. Our readers make up their own minds when they cast their ballots. They get from us an honest assessment of the options, and we will keep providing it.

Apple Profit More Than Doubles on IPhone Demand

Apple reported quarterly profit that more than doubled as holiday purchases of the iPhone catapulted sales to a record and helped the company steer clear of the consumer-spending slump that has hurt rival companies.

Fiscal first-quarter profit surged to $13.1 billion, or $13.87 a share. Sales rose 73 percent to $46.3 billion. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg on average estimated profit of $10.14 a share on sales of $39 billion. Per-share profit for the quarter was more than the company earned in any fiscal year before 2010. Apple sold 37 million iPhones, up from the previous record of 20.34 million. Customers snapped up the 4S model that went on sale in October, a week after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs. The results mark the first time the company’s quarterly revenue topped Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ)’s, underscoring how its focus on sleek touch-screen mobile devices has reshuffled leadership in the industry.

“Those numbers are just unimaginable,” said Michael Obuchowski, chief investment officer at First Empire Asset Management, which has $4 billion under management, including Apple shares. “It’s still an extremely well-managed company and they are showing that the product pipeline is sufficient even now to generate growth rates that are unrivaled.” Apple shares soared as much as 12 percent to $468.95 in extended trading, surpassing their record closing price of $429.11 on Jan. 18.

Verizon reports $2B Q4 loss; blames pension costs, iPhone subsidy

Verizon Communications reported a $2.02 billion fourth-quarter loss, mostly due to one-time charges of $3.4 billion for severance, pension, and benefits, as well as increased subsidy costs for iPhone sales. The quarterly loss, which was 71 cents per share, compared to $2.64 billion in profit in the same quarter a year ago. Not counting one-time charges, Verizon posted earnings per share of 52 cents, just missing analyst estimates of 53 cents. However, Verizon quarterly revenue of $28.4 billion, up 7.7 percent, represented the largest fourth-quarter, year-over-year increase in the company's 11-year history, it said.

The rise in revenue was driven by mobile and broadband growth. Verizon reported $18.3 billion in mobile revenue, up 13 percent from the last quarter of 2010. Mobile data revenue was up 19.2 percent. The company added 1.5 million mobile customers during the quarter, ending the year with 108.7 million total connections. Smartphones represented 44 percent of Verizon's retail postpaid customer base, up from 39 percent at the end of the third quarter, with Apple iPhone and Android devices driving the growth. Verizon added 201,000 Fios broadband and 194,000 Fios television customers in the quarter. The company, with a net increase of 98,000 broadband customers, now has 8.7 million broadband subscribers. Fios revenue grew 20 percent over the fourth quarter of 2010, Verizon officials said. Verizon's fourth quarter wireline revenue, including broadband, was $10.1 billion, down 1.5 percent from a year earlier.

Verizon charging 4G prices but selling a lot of 3G phones

Verizon Wireless has no plans to lower prices on its smartphone data plans. In fact, Verizon plans to milk as much revenue from its 3G and LTE networks as possible, saying on its fourth quarter financial results call it would establish itself as the “premium” carrier in the data market, charging its customers for quality.

That’s a bold statement considering Verizon suffered a string of LTE outages in December, challenging the credibility of its claim to be the nation’s “most reliable network.” But in general, playing up service quality has always worked for Verizon. It tends to be the highest-priced carrier of the big four, while its consumer perception ratings remain high. I’m just not sure it can maintain such a staunch stance for very long given the realities of the hyper-competitive smartphone market. A premium strategy might work if Verizon customers were all on 4G, but the majority of customers are still gravitating toward its 3G CDMA network. If Verizon’s data customers were only the upper echelon of smartphones users, they would all be flocking to the 4G network, but they’re not exactly coming in droves. Verizon sold 2.3 million LTE smartphones, tablets and mobile hotspots in the quarter, which seems like a lot, but not when you compare it the 7.7 million total smartphones it sold over the holidays.

Samsung wins against Apple in the Netherlands on tablet design

The Court of Appeal in The Hague has ruled that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is sufficiently different from Apple's European design patent that the tablet can remain on sale in the Netherlands.

Samsung welcomed the ruling, which affirmed an August 2011 ruling that the design of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is distinctive and does not infringe Apple's intellectual property rights, a spokesman said. The ruling again demonstrates that Apple's products simply do not warrant the intellectual property protections that it believes they should have, he added.

San Francisco Approves Dedicated LTE Network for First Responders

First responders in the San Francisco Bay Area may use a dedicated LTE network beginning next year, after a regional authority approved a 10-year deal for Motorola Solutions, funded primarily with a federal stimulus grant. The dedicated 700 MHz public service LTE network will enable first responders to use broadband applications on a private LTE designed to meet public-safety requirements. Current plans call for BayWEB to have between 144 and 150 sites. The BayRICS Vision is the ability for any public safety radio in the region to communicate with any other public safety radio regardless of location.

Google Updating Privacy Policies and Terms of Service

In just over a month we will make some changes to our privacy policies and Google Terms of Service. This stuff matters, so we wanted to explain what’s changing, why and what these changes mean for users.

First, our privacy policies. Despite trimming our policies in 2010, we still have more than 70 (yes, you read right … 70) privacy documents covering all of our different products. This approach is somewhat complicated. It’s also at odds with our efforts to integrate our different products more closely so that we can create a beautifully simple, intuitive user experience across Google. These changes will take effect on March 1, and we’re starting to notify users today, including via email and a notice on our homepage.
Second, the Google Terms of Service—terms you agree to when you use our products. As with our privacy policies, we’ve rewritten them so they’re easier to read. We’ve also cut down the total number, so many of our products are now covered by our new main Google Terms of Service. Visit the Google Terms of Service page to find the revised terms.
Finally, what we’re not changing. We remain committed to data liberation, so if you want to take your information elsewhere you can. We don’t sell your personal information, nor do we share it externally without your permission except in very limited circumstances like a valid court order. We try hard to be transparent about the information we collect, and to give you meaningful choices about how it is used.

Benton

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