April 2012

British Prosecutors Consider Charges in Phone Hacking Case

The wide-ranging police inquiry into phone hacking and other wrongdoing at Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid newspapers moved a step closer to possible criminal prosecutions when Scotland Yard sent four files on 11 unidentified people, including 4 journalists and a police officer, to the Crown Prosecution Service.

There also appeared to be an intensification of interest in the case of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief of Mr. Murdoch’s British newspaper operations, and her husband, Charlie Brooks, an Eton-educated racehorse trainer. Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, told reporters that the two had been made the subject of a separate police inquiry, Operation Sacha, on suspicion of trying to pervert the course of justice. They were arrested last month. Under Britain’s judicial system, criminal charges are drawn up by the Crown Prosecution Service on the basis of evidence gathered by the police. A spokeswoman for the service said that the names of those now being considered for prosecution would not be released, and that the service could not say when it would decide whether to prosecute those involved.

Federal Communications Commission
April 23, 2012
9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db0418/DA-1...

AGENDA
9:00 a.m. Welcoming Remarks: Jamie Barnett, Chief, Public Safety and Homeland SecurityBureau

9:10 a.m. Introductory Remarks: Chris Essid, Director, Office of Emergency Communications, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

9:15 a.m. Introduction of the Members of the Interoperability Board Opening Remarks: Charles Robinson, City of Charlotte, NC; Chairman of the Interoperability Board

9:30 a.m. Panel 1: The Scope of the Recommendations Developed by the Interoperability Board
· Brian Fontes, CEO, National Emergency Number Association
· Anna Gomez, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information, National Telecommunications and Information Administration
· Robert LeGrande, Advisor to the City of Baton Rouge, LA
· Jeff Cohen, Chief Counsel – Law and Policy Director of Government Relations, Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO)
· Moderator: Charles Robinson, City of Charlotte, NC; Chairman Interoperability Board

10:15 a.m. Panel 2: Standards, Interfaces, Guidelines; User Equipment and Device Management; Network Evolution
· Tom Sorley, Chair, National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) Technology Committee
· Ajit Kahaduwe, Head of Industry Environment – North America, Nokia Siemens Networks
· Patrik Ringqvist, Vice President, Wireless Network Solutions, Ericsson
· Martin Dolly, Lead Member of the Technical Staff, Core Network and Government Regulatory Standards, AT&T
· Moderator: Paul Steinberg, Motorola Solutions, Member of the Interoperability Board

11:00 a.m. Break

11:15 a.m. Panel 3: Mobility and Handover; Grade of Service; Prioritization and Quality of Service
· Pat Amodio, Chief Engineer, DHS Joint Wireless Program Management Office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
· Roger Quayle, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, IPWireless
· Robert Wilson, Telecommunications Manager, Wyoming Department of Transportation, State of Wyoming
· Scott C. Somers, Vice Mayor, Mesa City Council, City of Mesa, AZ
· Moderator: Kenneth Budka, Alcatel-Lucent, Vice Chairman of the Interoperability Board

12:00 p.m. Panel 4: Security
· Mark Adams, Director, Principal Architect, Networks and Communications,Northrop Grumman
· Thomas Farley, Senior Systems Engineer, Network Centric Systems, Raytheon
· Matt Schnell, Supervisor of Telecommunications, Nebraska Public Power
· Mark Althouse, Technical Director – Mobility Mission Management, National Security Administration
· Moderator: Brian Shepherd, Adams County, Colorado, Member of the Interoperability Board

12:45 p.m. Closing Remarks: Kenneth Budka, Alcatel-Lucent; Vice Chairman, Interoperability Board

Read more about Technical Advisory Board for First Responder Interoperability

Verizon Aims New Data Package at Global Travelers

Aiming to make international cellphone use slightly less excruciatingly expensive, Verizon Wireless announced a new $25 plan that gives users 100 megabytes of data when traveling; it will be available in 120 countries. Once users have gobbled up that allotment, they can buy another 100MB for another $25. The rate, which is available starting April 23, is still way more than one pays for data in the U.S., but also less than one might expect to pay under previous options. Previously Verizon sold a 50 MB bucket for $30 a month, a 150 MB for $75 and 300 MB for $125, which works out to between $416 and $600 a GB.

Larry Page evasive with Oracle's lawyer, but admits Google never obtained Java license

Google CEO Larry Page completed his testimony in federal court after an hour of laborious grilling by an attorney for tech rival Oracle, in the high stakes lawsuit claiming that Google misused Oracle's Java technology to build the popular Android mobile software. Under repeated questioning, Page eventually acknowledged that Google never obtained a license for using Java, but he added that Google ultimately felt it didn't need one, because, he said, Google only used elements of the Java programming language that are freely available in the public domain.

"When we weren't able to reach terms on a partnership, we went down our own path," he testified. That is a key theme of Google's defense in the case, while Oracle is seeking nearly $1 billion in damages for what it says are violations of Java copyrights and patents that Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems, which created Java. Throughout his testimony, however, Page repeatedly balked at giving direct answers to a number of questions posed by Oracle attorney David Boies. US District Judge William Alsup interrupted several times to order Page to answer simply "Yes or no."

Ron Paul still buying ad time in Rhode Island

While the general consensus is that Mitt Romney has all but officially clenched the Republican presidential nomination, Ron Paul isn't going quietly into the night.

Rep Paul announced that his campaign would go up with a television ad in Rhode Island ahead of the state's April 24 primary. That's the second commercial purchased by the Paul campaign since Rick Santorum dropped out of the presidential race, allowing Romney to cement his status as likely nominee. Last week, Paul's campaign announced the release of a new ad in his home state of Texas.

Amazon, seeking to relieve partner angst, launches partner program

Amazon, the provider of public cloud services which have — at times – made its technology partners nervous, is launching an official partner program. The new AWS Partner Network, (APN) targets ISVs, SaaS companies, tool and platform providers as well as consultative partners like systems integrators and agencies. The goal is to provide them with the technology information and services they need, according to a post to the AWS blog. APN, now in beta, mimics the types of partner programs that are common among older-school tech vendors like Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, etc. Partners will be divvied into Advanced, Standard or Registered tiers. Benefits will include logos, a listing in a partner directory and credits to be used for services or support.

Goldman Sachs: This Is the Beginning of a Big Year for Apple

Apple’s recent Wall Street losing streak over the past week didn’t shake Goldman Sachs’ faith in the company in the slightest. Indeed, in a note to clients this morning, analyst Bill Shope reiterated his “buy” rating on Apple and boosted his 12-month price target on the stock to $750 from $700, arguing that this is “the beginning of a very big year” for the company. According to Shope, recent investor concerns that have weighed on Apple shares — soft Mac sales, the prospect of an iPhone subsidy revolt among carriers — are overblown and will be proven wrong when the company reports earnings next week.

Google Opens Up About Its Network

Unusually, Google is putting its mouth where its money is. Company representatives appeared at a computer networking conference in Santa Clara (CA) to discuss some of Google’s data center network workings. It has disclosed that its data centers have moved over to an advanced system dominated by software, instead of traditional hardware of custom switches and routers. The industry calls it a software defined network or SDN.

Google has been famously close-mouthed about how it runs its internal systems because it considers every engineering innovation as potentially strategic. Google is going public with this work, according to a senior engineer, to accelerate change throughout the Internet. “Lots of people talk about the importance of software virtualization in the data center servers. We thought it is just as big a deal in the wide-area network,” said Urs Hölzle, senior vice president of technical infrastructure at Google, and one of its first 10 employees. “It’s not competitive for us, and it will help the Internet grow faster. That’s good for us.” The participation does not exactly signify a sea change in Google’s approach. While Google has contributed some bug fixes to associated open source projects, Hölzle said Google would not be donating its networking software to any open source project. “It is very specialized,” he said.

Either AT&T or Verizon Has the Faster LTE Network, Depending on Which of Two New Studies You Believe

With the battle over LTE now heating up, both Verizon and AT&T are eager to tout the benefits of their networks. And, depending on which of two studies you believe, both can lay claim to having the fastest network.

AT&T is pushing a PCWorld study that found its network to be the faster of the two. “In our tests, AT&T’s new LTE network pumped out the fastest speeds of any 4G provider,” PCWorld senior editor Mark Sullivan said in a statement. Verizon, meanwhile, calls attention to a RootMetrics study that finds that it has the better-performing of the LTE networks.

Sergey Brin: I Didn’t Actually Conflate Government Censorship With Apple and Facebook

Google co-founder Sergey Brin wrote on his Google+ account to clarify his recent comments about threats to the open Internet by “very powerful forces,” including censoring governments, Apple and Facebook.

Here are the three key sentences from Brin’s defense of himself:

“The primary threat by far to internet freedom is government filtering of political dissent.”
“I certainly do not think [the problem of "digital ecosystems that are not as open as the web itself"] is on a par with government based censorship.”
“While openness is a core value at Google, there are a number of areas where we can improve too.”

Benton

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