July 2013

Apps That Know What You Want, Before You Do

A range of start-ups and big companies like Google are working on what is known as predictive search — new tools that act as robotic personal assistants, anticipating what you need before you ask for it.

Glance at your phone in the morning, for instance, and see an alert that you need to leave early for your next meeting because of traffic, even though you never told your phone you had a meeting, or where it was. How does the phone know? Because an application has read your e-mail, scanned your calendar, tracked your location, parsed traffic patterns and figured out you need an extra half-hour to drive to the meeting. The technology is the latest development in Web search, and one of the first that is tailored to mobile devices. It does not even require people to enter a search query. Your context — location, time of day and digital activity — is the query, say the engineers who build these services. Many technologists agree that these services will probably become mainstream, eventually incorporated in alarm clocks, refrigerators and bathroom mirrors. Already, an app called Google Now is an important part of Google’s Internet-connected glasses.

Toss Your Old Phone? Think Again

US wireless carriers have found a new appreciation for used smartphones.

Carriers were long happy to let customers drop their old phones in desk drawers or pass them down to their kids. But the market for previously owned iPhones and Androids is booming, producing high and predictable resale values that carriers are starting to exploit. That shift underlies a spate of recently announced plans from T-Mobile US, AT&T and Verizon Wireless that offer users more frequent upgrades. Instead of insisting subscribers pay off their phones in full before becoming eligible for newer models, carriers are now confident they can milk enough value from trade-ins to let upgrades happen more frequently. What this might mean for consumers and device makers isn't yet clear. The new trade-in plans from AT&T and Verizon Wireless have been panned by some smartphone market observers as too costly. And the strong demand for used phones is a sign that many consumers are finding older devices are good enough as the pace of innovation from device makers like Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. slows.

Still, the emergence of new efforts to capture the value of used phones ultimately could leave the smartphone market more like the auto business, where trade-ins fuel sales of newer models.

Our schools need better Internet access, capacity

[Commentary] Only 23 percent of America's schools have the bandwidth they need for the 21st century classroom. That's 40 million kids, the next generation of talent we need across every segment of society, being left behind. The most common problems: slow connections to schools, outdated content filters that create network bottlenecks and spotty Wi-Fi. Even in Silicon Valley, only 39 percent of schools have the Internet infrastructure they need.

So why do we have this problem? In part, it's because computers are moving from the principal's office and computer lab to the student's desk - increasing the demand for bandwidth by more than 10-fold. It's also partly a lack of resources: Few school districts have the capital to connect their schools to fiber and upgrade their Wi-Fi networks. Even fewer can afford the specialized networking and purchasing expertise needed to design, implement, monitor and manage a network. Addressing these issues will be the equivalent of upgrading our schools from dial-up to broadband.

The Federal Communications Commission action to modernize its subsidy program provides an opportunity to address this. Digital learning can transform education, but first, Congress and the FCC must have the vision to ensure that our schools have world-class Internet infrastructure. We need to convince Washington that upgrading our schools must be a national priority.

[Evan Marwell is the CEO of EducationSuperHighway, a nonprofit with the mission of upgrading the Internet infrastructure in America's K-12 schools for digital learning.]

Time Warner Cable raises Internet modem fees for customers

Time Warner Cable has started notifying customers that it is raising the monthly fees to rent modems from the cable company. Subscribers on Time Warner's Cable's most popular Internet plan began paying $3.95 a month last November to lease a modem. The fee will rise to $5.99 a month starting in the next billing cycle for customers. The higher rate could generate an additional $150 million in revenue this year, according to ISI analyst Vijay Jayant. Time Warner Cable has roughly 12 million customers.

FCC Announces Updated Tentative Agenda for August Open Meeting

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn announced that the following items will be on the tentative agenda for the next open meeting scheduled for Friday, August 9, 2013:

Comprehensive Review of Licensing and Operating Rules for Satellite Services: The FCC will consider a Report and Order that streamlines Part 25 of the Commission’s rules to facilitate greater investment and innovation in the satellite industry and promote more rapid deployment of new satellite services to the public.
Revision of Part 15 of the Commission’s Rules Regarding Operation in the 57-64 GHz Band: The FCC will consider a Report and Order addressing technical requirements applicable to unlicensed services in the 57-64 GHz frequency band to provide additional competition in the broadband market, improve efficient delivery of broadband services in residences and businesses, and facilitate backhaul transport to support the deployment of 4th Generation (4G) and other wireless services.
Reforming Rates for Interstate Inmate Calling Services: The FCC will consider a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to reform interstate inmate calling services rates and practices.
Status of the Broadcast Incentive Auction: The FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force will present the latest update on progress towards the Commission’s 2014 television broadcast incentive auction.

FCC moves to cut prison phone rates

The Federal Communications Commission will vote August 9 on an order to cut the rates that prisoners pay for interstate phone calls. The agency will also seek public comments on whether to limit rates for calls within states.

“For too long, the high cost of long-distance calls from prisoners to their loved ones across state lines has chronically impacted parents and children, especially among low-income families," Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn said. " Multiple studies have shown that meaningful contact beyond prison walls can make a real difference in maintaining community ties, promoting rehabilitation, and reducing recidivism."

Little change for women, minorities in TV/radio

The latest RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey finds virtually no change in the percentage of minorities in TV news from a year ago; radio numbers are down overall.

The percentage of minority news directors went up in radio but down a bit in TV. The percentage of minority news directors at non-Hispanic TV stations fell back from last year's record high -- but it's still the second highest level ever. Women overall in TV news rose back over the 40% mark, but women TV news directors pulled back from last year's record high. In radio, women and women news directors edged up slightly. As far as minorities are concerned, the bigger picture remains unchanged. In the last 23 years, the minority population in the U.S. has risen 10.7 points; but the minority workforce in TV news is up 3.6, and the minority workforce in radio is up 0.1.

Is online privacy a right?

[Commentary] Using encryption is clearly a smart move in this Orwellian era. After all, even with the NSA’s impressive codebreaking abilities, secure encryption still works. In fact, when done properly, it works so well to preserve privacy and lock data away from snoops that the government has now kicked off an aggressive campaign to turn the concept of “secure encryption” into an oxymoron.

Specifically, the Obama Administration has launched an initiative to force tech companies to give the NSA a set of Internet-wide skeleton keys. The radical move, which would let law enforcement agencies access vast troves of encrypted information, adds significant questions to the ongoing debate over privacy. It begs us to ask not only whether the government has a right to vacuum up millions of Americans’ private data, but also to ask whether the security-conscious among us should even be allowed to retain the right to make data truly secure?

With NSA revelations, Sen. Ron Wyden’s vague warnings about privacy finally become clear

It was one of the strangest personal crusades on Capitol Hill: For years, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said he was worried that intelligence agencies were violating Americans’ privacy. But he couldn’t say how. That was a secret.

Wyden’s outrage, he said, stemmed from top-secret information he had learned as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. But Sen Wyden was bound by secrecy rules, unable to reveal what he knew. Everything but his unhappiness had to be classified. So Wyden stuck to speeches that were dire but vague. And often ignored. The revelations from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden — detailing vast domestic surveillance programs that vacuumed up data on phone calls, e-mails and other electronic communications — have filled in the details of Wyden’s concerns. So he was right. But that is not the same as winning.

How the Obama campaign won the race for voter data

In one of their first conversations about 2012, campaign manager Jim Messina said he told the President that they could not rerun 2008. Messina said too much had changed. For one thing, Obama was now an incumbent with a record. But technology had also leapfrogged forward, with new devices, new platforms and vastly more opportunities to exploit social media.

The whole campaign would have to be different. The Obama team was investing enormous amounts of time, money and creative energy in what resembled a high-tech political start-up whose main purpose was to put more people on the streets, armed with more information about the voters they were contacting, than any campaign had ever attempted. Message and media operated on one track. The other track focused on identifying, registering, mobilizing and ultimately turning out Obama voters.

Benton

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