April 2013

Hey Apple - give Americans the good deal you gave the Chinese!

[Commentary] Apple has insulted the American consumer. And we -- that is, not the editorial "we" but the Royal American "We" -- are outraged. Outraged, We tell you! We will not stand for it! Kowtowing to a week's worth of overwrought editorials in Chinese state-run media, Apple has humbled itself before the powerful Chinese market, apologizing for its shabby treatment of customers there. But the iEverything maker went too far. Now it's giving Chinese customers a better warranty on its products than Americans get. Yes, better than WE, the greatest shopping nation on Earth! We can deal with losing jobs to China -- but consumer deals? O the ignominy!

Bravo Discusses Mixing Advertising With Its Shows

Sponsorship agreements — known as branded entertainment, content marketing and native advertising — are becoming common on Bravo, part of the NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment division of NBCUniversal.

And as the channel plans its programming lineup for 2013-14 during what is called the upfront season, more sponsorships that integrate advertising into shows are planned. Content marketing deals “require a lot of commitment from both sides,” said Dan Lovinger, executive vice president for cable ad sales at NBCUniversal, because of the additional work needed to integrate brands or products into shows in ways “that make sense.”

SMG to Track How Mobile Ads Lead to In-store Visits

Starcom MediaVest Group has partnered with New York City-based startup PlaceIQ to unlock mobile marketing's great mystery: when someone shown a mobile banner ad is enticed to walk into a store.

The metric, which PlaceIQ calls Place Visit Rate, uses location data to illustrate what percentage of customers served a mobile banner ad for a retailer subsequently visited one of that retailer's stores. PlaceIQ conducted a case study on the technology for one of SMG's retail clients that showed a correlation between customers being a shown an ad and ending up in store. Neither PlaceIQ or SMG would disclose which retailer was involved. SMG's retail clients include Best Buy and Walmart.

Opening a Gateway for Girls to Enter the Computer Field

Girls Who Code is among the recent crop of programs intended to close the gender gap in tech by intervening early, when young women are deciding what they want to study.

With names like Hackbright Academy, Girl Develop It, Black Girls Code and Girls Teaching Girls to Code, these groups try to present a more exciting image of computer science. The paucity of women in the tech industry has been well documented. Even though women represent more than half the overall work force, they hold less than a quarter of computing and technical jobs, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology based at the University of Colorado, Boulder. At the executive and founder levels, women are even scarcer.

Iraq: 4 Newspapers Are Attacked

About 50 gunmen in military uniforms burst into the offices of four independent newspapers in Baghdad, stabbing and beating employees.

Verizon denies bid with AT&T for Vodafone

Verizon Communications denies it's looking to partner with AT&T to buy Vodafone, the British cellphone company that owns 45% of Verizon's wireless business.

Verizon owns the 55% of Verizon Wireless that Vodafone doesn't own and has been openly interested for years in buying out Vodafone. But tax and pricing issues have gotten in the way. In a April 2 statement, Verizon said it's still interested in buying out Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless. "It does not, however, currently have any intention to merge with or make an offer for Vodafone, whether alone or in conjunction with others," Verizon said. AT&T had no comment.

Who knew? Fiber is also good for a telco’s health

Fiber deployments aren’t just good for the consumers — for small to medium-sized telcos they are also good for the bottom line, resulting in an average operating savings of 20 percent.

The data, which came from a Fiber to the Home Council survey, also noted that the number of homes that can access fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks increased by 17.6 percent over a year ago to 22.7 million. Most of the cost savings associated with FTTH deployments came from an end to costly maintenance and down time on telco networks, which one would expect if you are going from an aging DSL network to a newer network. However, offering fiber also enabled these smaller and mid-sized telcos to offer TV offerings as well as faster speeds, which enables them to compete against cable or satellite providers.

California lawmaker introduces unprecedented personal data disclosure bill

It may seem odd, but in the European Union citizens have a near-blanket right to compel companies to release personal data held about them. The concept is sometimes referred to in its Latin shorthand: habeas data. It’s the principle through which an Austrian law student has become a thorn in the side of Facebook, trying to compel the social network to disclose the vast amount of data that it holds about him. Here in the United States, we generally don’t have this right. But after lobbying by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, California Assembly Member Bonnie Lowenthal (who represents parts of the Los Angeles area) recently introduced a bill that could extend that concept to the Golden State for the first time. The "Right to Know Act of 2013" (AB 1291) was re-read and amended a second time on April 1.

SEC gives OK for companies to publish announcements on Facebook, Twitter

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a report that says companies can announce key information on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites as long as they notify investors about where to find the information first.

Existing law prevents companies from sharing information with a select group of shareholders that would give them a leg up on trading before the information is made available to the public. For this reason, the agency said companies need to alert investors about which social media networks they plan to use when publishing an announcement. “One set of shareholders should not be able to get a jump on other shareholders just because the company is selectively disclosing important information,” George Canellos, acting director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, said in a statement. “Most social media are perfectly suitable methods for communicating with investors, but not if the access is restricted or if investors don’t know that’s where they need to turn to get the latest news.”

Six European countries launch formal investigations into Google's privacy policy

Six European data protection authorities will conduct formal investigations of Google's privacy policy after the company repeatedly rejected their requests that it reverse changes it made to the policy last March.

Data protection authorities in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K. have resolved to conduct investigations or inspections of Google's privacy policy, following an initial investigation by the French data protection authority. The precise nature of the actions will depend on how the European Data Protection Directive has been transposed in their respective national laws. A Google spokeswoman offered the same response the company has made since the beginning of the investigation: "Our privacy policy respects European law and allows us to create simpler, more effective services. We have engaged fully with the DPAs involved throughout this process, and we'll continue to do so going forward." The six data protection authorities working on the case are all members of the Article 29 Working Party (A29WP), which brings together data protection authorities from across the European Union. Last year it mandated the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty to begin an investigation on its behalf, after the company repeatedly refused to answer questions about its plans to introduce a new privacy policy.

Benton

Search