February 2012

Verizon To Set Up Streaming Service With Redbox

Verizon Communications will challenge Netflix and start a video streaming service this year with Redbox and its DVD rental kiosks.

Verizon and Coinstar, Redbox's parent, say the service will be national and available to non-Verizon customers as well. It adds another leg to Verizon's quest to become a force in home entertainment, and it looks set to compete to some extent with the cable-TV services it already sells. Verizon has its own cable-TV service, called FiOS, in some areas. Its Verizon Wireless subsidiary has also signed a deal to sell service from Comcast and other cable companies in its stores. With the Redbox venture, Verizon is breaking ranks with the cable and satellite industry, which makes its own video streaming services available only to people who also subscribe to its traditional TV feeds. They don't want households switching to Internet-only services, which are cheaper — Netflix charges $8 per month for its video streaming plan. Verizon Communications will own 65 percent of the unnamed venture, with Coinstar owning the rest. Redbox is contributing an initial $14 million to the venture

Is GigaOM Buying paidContent?

Who wants to pay for paidContent? We’ll find out soon, it seems, because the sales process for the pioneering blog and its parent company ContentNext appears to be wrapping up. But if you were making a bet, you’d get good odds that the most likely buyer will be GigaOM, another pioneering tech/media business. People familiar with paidContent believe GigaOM is in the last stages of a deal to purchase the site and its related businesses from Guardian Media Group, which bought the company in 2008 and then put it on the block last fall.

A social media role in governing?

[Commentary] The SOPA and Komen protests are further examples of the power social media can exert on organizations and governments.

As is the Tea Party movement; its formation and power is also closely linked to social media. The ability of the Web to help campaigns raise money, recruit volunteers and disseminate information on a targeted basis is well documented. Then-Sen Barack Obama mastered this in 2008 and is investing heavily in a new and improved version in 2012. But what interests me more than the use of this medium on campaigns is its potential implications for governing. President Obama tried but failed to convert his social media campaign army into a force to pass his agenda. The next President should pay more attention to this conversion. It is potentially a new way of breaking gridlock and imposing an agenda.

FTC Warns Marketers That Mobile Apps May Violate Fair Credit Reporting Act

The Federal Trade Commission warned marketers of six mobile applications that provide background screening apps that they may be violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FTC warned the apps marketers that, if they have reason to believe the background reports they provide are being used for employment screening, housing, credit, or other similar purposes, they must comply with the Act.

According to the FTC, some of the apps include criminal record histories, which bear on an individual's character and general reputation and are precisely the type of information that is typically used in employment and tenant screening. The FCRA is designed to protect the privacy of consumer report information and ensure that the information supplied by consumer reporting agencies is accurate. Consumer reports are communications that include information on an individual's character, reputation, or personal characteristics and are used or expected to be used for purposes such as employment, housing or credit. Under the FCRA, operations that assemble or evaluate information to provide to third parties qualify as consumer reporting agencies, or CRAs. Mobile apps that supply such information may qualify as CRAs under the Act. CRAs must take reasonable steps to ensure the user of each report has a 'permissible purpose' to use the report; take reasonable steps to ensure the maximum possible accuracy of the information conveyed in its reports; and provide users of its reports with information about their obligations under the FCRA. In the case of consumer reports provided for employment purposes, for example, CRAs must provide employers with information regarding their obligation to provide notice to employees and applicants of any adverse action taken on the basis of a consumer report.

Over 3 years later, "deleted" Facebook photos are still online

Facebook is still working on deleting photos from its servers in a timely manner nearly three years after Ars first brought attention to the topic. The company admitted that its older systems for storing uploaded content "did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site," but said it's currently finishing up a newer system that makes the process much quicker. In the meantime, photos that users thought they "deleted" from the social network months or even years ago remain accessible via direct link.

LTE spectrum sharing could accelerate coverage

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich-Hertz-Institut HHI in Berlin, have found a way to make it easier for providers to build out 4G LTE infrastructure in the face of growing demand for high-speed mobile access to the Internet.

They’ve created a new technology, dubbed LTE spectrum sharing, that allows two or more providers to share frequencies and infrastructure, such as base stations and mobile radio antennas. HHI’s Dr. Volker Jungnickel, explains: “This way, for example, customers of network provider A in Bavaria could use the base stations of network provider B in Brandenburg and vice versa.” Apart from cost savings, say the researchers, the new approach can close coverage gaps and make LTE available more quickly in rural areas.

High school cracks down on drugs by checking students’ text messages

An Illinois high school is cracking down on campus drug sales by confiscating the cell phones of student suspects and using their text messages to identify others—an investigative technique that has raised questions among some legal experts and unnerved students who said they assumed texting to be private. Stevenson High School spokesman Jim Conrey said the ongoing investigation, in which Lincolnshire (IL) police are also participating, has resulted in multiple suspensions, though he would not provide the number. He said examining student text messages was a legal and appropriate way to gather information about the alleged sales.

Forecast: the evolution of the digital music industry

The music industry has been in trouble for a long time. But now, aided by smartphone proliferation, new entrants are aggressively pushing alternative business models.

This report examines the U.S. digital music market’s key disruption vectors: the areas where large market shifts are occurring and where companies will position themselves to gain share and increase revenues. These vectors will take some time to play out, but the overall industry should finally return to growth within the five-year forecast horizon, as digital music spending, driven by subscriptions, will average double-digit yearly growth to total $4.1 billion in 2015.

Let the battle for the smart thermostat begin

The often-ignored, hardly ever programmed, humble thermostat is morphing into a unique and undercover gateway into the smart home — that is, the dream of the fully connected house where all the objects can talk to one another and be controlled remotely.

In 2012 there will be a growing number of companies across sectors — from device makers to analytics firms to utilities to telcos — that are now suddenly looking at the networked, digital thermostat as an important way to connect with consumers. Why 2012? After the growth of home Wi-Fi networks, consumers are just now becoming more comfortable with the idea of the connected home, and they are starting to use the mobile phone as the remote to manage connected devices like TVs, audio systems, cars and eventually appliances and thermostats.

The double-edged sword of political mobile ads

The recent political use of mobile highlights the opportunities the platform offers to create ongoing local, mobile conversations with voters. And those opportunities extend beyond the political realm to the larger world of mobile marketing and advertising. But because mobile phones are such immediate, personal devices, those opportunities must be pursued carefully and thoughtfully.

Benton

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