October 2012

Inside Apple's major shakeup

Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the departure of mobile software chief Scott Forstall. He also booted retail chief John Browett, who lasted all of eight months after having been hired from the U.K. retailer Dixons. The moves, together with the divvying up of Forstall's responsibilities among four other executives, constitute the biggest management shakeup at Apple since the Steve Jobs putsch that eliminated Gil Amelio in 1997.

Indeed, as Hurricane Sandy barreled toward the East Coast, a worsening storm embroiled Apple too. Suffice it to say that even as Apple's stock-market valuation has made the company the biggest in the world, these past few months haven't been Apple's finest. Little by little, mistakes that, taken in isolation, might have seemed trivial have added up to represent a company that needs to get its act together.

Justices Weigh Case on Imported Textbooks

The Supreme Court heard arguments in a copyright case about the sale of imported textbooks on eBay that has wide-ranging implications for many products made abroad and sold in the United States.

The case arose from the entrepreneurial impulses of Supap Kirtsaeng, a Thai student who attended Cornell University and the University of Southern California. He helped pay for his education by selling textbooks that his friends and relatives had bought abroad and shipped to him. Publishers of textbooks, like other manufacturers, often charge different prices in different markets. One publisher, John Wiley & Sons, successfully sued Mr. Kirtsaeng for copyright infringement. The general rule for products made in the United States is that the owners of particular copies can do what they like with them. If you buy a book or record made in the United States, for instance, you are free to lend it or sell it as you wish. The question for the justices was whether that rule, called the first-sale doctrine, also applies when the works in question were made abroad. The answer turns on a phrase in the Copyright Act, which appears to limit the first-sale doctrine to works “lawfully made under this title.” The lower courts said that textbooks manufactured outside the United States cannot have been made under American law and so remained subject to the control of the owner of the copyright.

In Seattle, Virtual University Will Have a Physical Campus, Too

Remember the notion that technology would destroy the idea of place, creating work forces of telecommuters and disembodied companies — or universities, for that matter — that were no longer anchored anywhere because they did not have to be? Turns out to have been entirely wrong, say Northeastern University officials, who are enthused over what they see as a post-recession technology boom in the making in places like Seattle, and one where postgraduate science and technology workers are in particularly short supply.

Being where the action is, with a smile and shoeshine and the reputation of a 114-year-old research university to back it all up, they say, is more important than ever. Starting in January, Northeastern will offer online graduate-level courses here, taught by instructors back East, alongside real classroom courses in a Seattle neighborhood called South Lake Union, once more known for warehouses than Wi-Fi. In recent years, a cluster of health science research and computer science companies have also gathered to rub shoulders with Amazon.

UK's first 4G mobile service launched in 11 cities by EE

The UK's first major fourth generation (4G) mobile service has gone live in 11 cities. London, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Glasgow and Southampton will have access to network EE's 4G. Belfast, Derby, Glasgow, Hull, Newcastle and Nottingham will be active by Christmas, the company said. Critics have questioned the service's affordability - particularly with regard to data usage allowance.

Benefits of 4G overstated, says report

Superfast broadband is unlikely to deliver the rapid returns for the UK economy that have been predicted, according to a leading business consultancy.

The Economist Intelligence Unit will say that expectations of big early returns from superfast fiber and mobile broadband may be overstated, even if there is greater confidence of a beneficial longer-term impact. The warning that there needs to be a “dose of reality” about short term benefits will come as mobile users in the UK have their first opportunity to use long-delayed superfast mobile broadband on a 4G network. The network, which will initially be available in 10 cities, will allow download speeds several times faster than 3G.

Liberty Proceeds With Telenet Deal Amid Valuation Dispute

Liberty Global doesn’t plan to change its offer to buy out the shares of Belgium’s Telenet Group Holding for 35 euros ($45) a share, despite a Lazard report saying the company is worth 37 euros to 42 euros. Liberty announced plans last month to buy the almost 50 percent of Telenet that it doesn’t already own for a total of about 2 billion euros. Lazard, a financial advisory firm, was hired to assess the shares under Belgian takeover rules. Liberty, a cable company led by billionaire John Malone, said that Lazard’s methodology was flawed.

Administration defends Bush-era surveillance law before high court

The Obama Administration defended a warrantless wiretapping law before the Supreme Court. At stake in the case is whether civil liberties groups -- including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Amnesty International -- have the legal standing to challenge the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments, which former President George W. Bush signed into law in 2008.

The law authorizes the government to monitor phone calls and emails without a warrant as long as one of the parties to the communication is reasonably believed to be outside the United States. The civil liberties groups sued, arguing the law allows for "dragnet surveillance" of American citizens in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Donald Verrilli, the solicitor general of the United States, argued that the civil liberties groups cannot challenge the law's constitutionality because it does not harm them. But Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director for the ACLU, argued that his organization has had to take expensive precautions to keep the government from listening in on phone calls with clients who are suspected of terrorist activity. He argued that those precautions, such as flying overseas to meet clients face-to-face, qualify as a harm of the law, giving the ACLU the right to sue. The court's liberal members appeared skeptical of the government's claim that the ACLU lacks standing.

FEMA, WH send storm victims to Internet

Television and radio are still the primary methods of getting information about Hurricane Sandy to the public, but social media are increasingly important to those efforts, Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Craig Fugate said.

Despite the heightened expectation of widespread power and cable television failures, everyone from President Barack Obama to local newscasters seem to expect the public to rely entirely on the Internet and their TVs for vital news and instructions. A call to FEMA’s news desk found even they didn’t have any non-Internet information readily available beyond suggestions that people call 911 in an emergency. When asked where folks should turn for information if they have no power, a FEMA spokeswoman said, “Well, those people who have a laptop with a little battery life on it can try that way. Otherwise, you’re right.” Such blind spots are perilous to the public, experts say.

Stations Improvise to Cover Massive Sandy

Local television executives like to say it's all hands on deck when breaking news such as a lethal hurricane hits, and sometimes that even means the station general manager grabbing a camera and playing photographer for a few hours. Covering such a giant event presents a stiff challenge for station reporters. Within the CBS family, reporters, and equipment, from as far off as Minneapolis and Dallas headed east to pitch in with owned stations in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston. "It's probably the biggest storm we've experienced in more than a generation," said David Friend, senior VP of news at the CBS owned stations. Stations are making the most of technological and social media advances -- at times with resources that were not available, or not as widely available, as recently as when Irene rolled up the coast. CBS' Mobile 2 Weather Lab is an SUV equipped with weather technology, including wind meters and rain gauges, to provide street level weather updates. "It brings viewers closer to the action," says Friend. "At the end of the day, that's what we're here for."

Ace Metrix Scores Most Effective Ads of Election

If there was any doubt that PACs and other outside groups wield big influence in this presidential election, check out Ace Metrix's top 10 most effective presidential ads among independent voters. Only three ads, from the Obama for America campaign made the researcher's list of top 10 most effective ads; the other seven were from PACs. The six ads favoring Mitt Romney are all from outside groups; not a single ad from the Romney for President campaign, which really couldn't ramp up until after the GOP convention, made the list.

Benton

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