November 2012

Ericsson Sues Samsung on Patents

Ericsson, the market leader in mobile phone networking equipment, filed a lawsuit against Samsung, the biggest smartphone maker, claiming that it had infringed on 24 of Ericsson’s software and hardware patents.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Tyler, Texas, was the second brought by Ericsson in six years against Samsung, which climbed atop the smartphone market largely by using Google’s Android operating system, the most widely used operating system, instead of relying on its own. The lawsuit involves patents that are considered essential and part of broad mobile industry standards, as well as nonessential patents covering elements of a device’s user interface. One involves the software technology Ericsson uses to translate speech into digital information and back again. The lawsuit, which asks for unspecified damages, is intended to raise the pressure on Samsung to negotiate. In its suit, Ericsson also alleged that Samsung, in a bid to compel Ericsson to lower its royalty demands, had refused to license Samsung’s own industry-standard patents that are essential for modern mobile telephony.

Apple back on top in U.S. smartphone market thanks to iPhone 5

Sales of the iPhone 5 helped Apple edge out Google's Android for the lead in U.S. smartphone market share in the 12 weeks that ended Oct. 28. Apple managed to grab 48.1% of the smartphone market during the period. That was just enough to beat out phones running Android, Google's mobile operating system, which took 46.7% of the market, according to Kantar Worldpanel, which measures smartphone sales data. The numbers are especially impressive for Apple considering the iPhone 5, which launched Sept. 21, was on sale for less than half of the measured period.

NBCU, O&Os to Award $1.2 Million to Nonprofits

The NBCUniversal Foundation announced it is awarding $1.2 million in grants to 30 local nonprofit organizations nationwide, helping them implement innovative community programs as part of a newly launched initiative called 21st Century Solutions.

In partnership with the NBC Owned Television Stations, 21st Century Solutions was designed to support high-impact, progressive programs in the categories of arts and media; civic engagement; community development; education; environment; jobs and economic empowerment; and technology. Launched in June, the 21st Century Solutions program aims to help communities identify opportunities for positive change and support non-profits that are putting new ideas into action. Inaugural year awardees include a storytelling program designed for students to address societal issues, a microsavings initiative aimed to help low-income working families develop a life-long savings habit and an employment program designed to expand opportunities for young people with disabilities by building the capacity of local employers.

The competitive grant program accepted applications throughout the summer in the 10 markets served by NBC-owned stations: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco Bay Area, Washington, D.C., South Florida, San Diego and Connecticut. Each of the stations promoted the grant program locally and created a panel to review and select the final grant recipients. One winning organization and two runners-up were awarded grants in each market.

Pump Up the Volume

Clear Channel’s streaming service iHeartRadio is turning up the volume in an aggressive bid to take on red-hot Spotify and Pandora.

Over the past six months, Clear Channel’s digital service has recruited a slew of media executives. Clear Channel definitely has pushed its way into the digital music mosh pit. IHeartRadio’s app, which streams 1,500 terrestrial radio stations, along with digital stations and 15 million on-demand songs, is gaining traction. Since launching on Facebook last year, it’s attracted 20 million registered users and 5 million fans. The mobile app has been downloaded 135 million times since its launch four years ago. IHeartRadio also powers Yahoo Music’s radio service. It all sounds impressive. But Pandora still commands 70 percent of the Web radio market and 6.6 percent of the total U.S. radio audience, per Triton Media, while Spotify this month scored a staggering $100 million from Coca-Cola in new funding.

The 2016 campaign: A tech forecast

Mark Bernstein, who works for a small new media developer and publisher, takes a few guesses at what the new media and tech landscape will look like 4 years from now -- and how it might affect the 2016 presidential campaign.

We’ll continue to depend more and more heavily on the Web.

Raw traffic numbers will be concentrated at a few incredibly large sites.
The most effective political persuaders will continue to be small, independent sites with a distinctive personal voice and specialized expertise. We’ll depend more on writers like Nate Silver, Juan Cole, and Nouriel Roubini, and less on horse-race pundits.
The personal media landscape, today dominated by Facebook and Twitter, will continue to change rapidly. We’ll continue to use something like these, but the features, technologies, business models, and companies may all change.
The separation of the political Web into Left and Right blogospheres will continue, and will continue to afflict the Right with a cacophony of infotainment and a dearth of grounded ideas.
Web advertising will continue to decline in effectiveness, but will remain common. Lots of alternative business models will support writers, reporters, and activists.

Concentration of Web and other media delivery in the hands of phone, cable, and satellite providers will provide ample scope for sabotage, vandalism, and chicanery. Cable franchise deals may emerge as a significant issue in town and neighborhood politics, and a variety of dirty tricks may disrupt campaigns.

Reps McCaul, Smith and Royce selected as House committee chairmen

House Republicans picked three new committee chairmen for the 113th Congress. The GOP Steering Committee selected Rep Michael McCaul (R-TX) to be the new Homeland Security Committee chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) to be the new Science Committee chairman and Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) to chair the Foreign Affairs Committee. The Steering Committee also granted a waiver to Rep Paul Ryan (R-WI) to serve an additional term as chairman of the House Budget Committee. Other lawmakers were promoted to committee chairman positions in uncontested races, including Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) to be the new Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA) to be the new Transportation Committee chairman and Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) to be Financial Services Committee chairman. At this point, it appears as if no women will chair House committees in the next Congress. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has yet to make his selections for Ethics and House Administration committees.

Apple Fires Maps Manager

Apple continues to clean house after it stumbled badly with its mobile mapping service, firing a manager who oversaw it.

Eddy Cue, the senior vice president for Internet software and services at Apple, fired the manager, Richard Williamson, according to two people briefed on the matter who did not want to be named to avoid Apple’s ire. Cue dismissed Williamson shortly before Thanksgiving, according to one of these people. The maps service has been widely criticized for offering incorrect addresses, misplaced landmarks and misleading driving directions. Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, in a rare move, publicly apologized for the deficiencies of the service and recommended that disappointed customers use mapping services from Apple’s rivals while the company worked out the kinks.

A Wireless Network To Keep Cows From Burping Too Much

Because there are so many cows on the planet waiting to be eaten, all their burps add up to a lot of carbon emissions. But a new experiment is trying to figure out how to limit those emissions. All it takes is the cows swallowing a little Wi-Fi-enabled probe.

Dick Costolo says Twitter is a reinvention of the town square – but with TV

New forms of media are often disruptive to existing forms, but Twitter CEO Dick Costolo says that his network is complementary to traditional forms like television, because it adds the kind of real-time discussion we associate with the town square or the “pulse of the planet.” Costolo said that solving the problem of managing the noise in Twitter while still increasing the signal for users was one of the biggest challenges the company faces in the future — along with the need to generate enough revenue to justify its $10-billion market value, presumably, although the Twitter CEO didn’t get into the details of how it plans to do that.

New York City Is Amassing Trove of Cellphone Logs

When a cellphone is reported stolen in New York, the Police Department routinely subpoenas the phone’s call records, from the day of the theft onward. The logic is simple: If a thief uses the phone, a list of incoming and outgoing calls could lead to the suspect. But in the process, the Police Department has quietly amassed a trove of telephone logs, all obtained without a court order, that could conceivably be used for any investigative purpose.

The call records from the stolen cellphones are integrated into a database known as the Enterprise Case Management System, according to Police Department documents from the detective bureau. Each phone number is hyperlinked, enabling detectives to cross-reference it against phone numbers in other files. The subpoenas not only cover the records of the thief’s calls, but also encompass calls to and from the victim on the day of the theft. In some cases the records can include calls made to and from a victim’s new cellphone, if the stolen phone’s number has been transferred.

Benton

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