April 2014

Why can't anyone make money in hyperlocal news?

Hyperlocal news coverage on the Web has been touted as conventional journalism's best hope in the digital era. One big problem: No one has figured out how to make money from it.

In metro Chicago, the suburban Patch network has shrunk to a sixth of its former size to stem losses. Startup news organization DNAInfo Chicago has been pumping out neighborhood coverage on its website since 2012, while losing millions of dollars. And EveryBlock isn't even trying to make money.

No matter how compelling the news next door is, readers don't want to pay for it and local businesses -- the universally hoped-for sponsors of local content -- can't afford to advertise, or they pay so little that sales reps can't earn a living. As a result, when the starry-eyed backers of hyperlocal ventures get a grip on the mounting labor and overhead expenses, the experiments often end badly.

Fast Home Wireless: A Content Weapon?

Broadcom announced the guts for a new kind of home router that is says will zip information around the house at up to 3.2 gigabits per second, about twice what a current, high-end home Wi-Fi device can do.

It is meant to handle all kinds of video, to and from phones, tablets, computers and connected televisions. Under good circumstances, a speed like that could send a high-definition movie in significantly less than 30 seconds. In other words, it won’t matter much where the video came from, and it can go anywhere. That is likely to lead to preferences for lower-cost providers, who supply video that can be well displayed among a lot of different sources.

Consumer first-quarter 2014: analysis and outlook

The first quarter of 2014 was marked by controversies that dragged key elements of the connected-consumer space into the public policy arena -- dangerous and unpredictable territory for any industry. Among the key developments:

Comcast announced plans to acquire Time Warner Cable for $45 billion, combining the two largest cable MSOs in the country and touching off fierce debate over media ownership, net neutrality, broadband access and antitrust issues just as the MVPD business is poised for further consolidation.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced plans to re-impose network neutrality rules after a federal appeals court rejected the agencies previous rules
A keenly watched court showdown between Pandora and ASCAP ended inconclusively, which is likely to pitch the ongoing debate over music performance rights back to Congress.
Broadcasters will have their own courtroom showdown over performance licensing with Aereo, but even a win there won’t fully resolve the issue.
Netflix’s transit and interconnection deal with Comcast thrust Internet peering into the policy spotlight in the first quarter but for now the FCC is keeping its powder dry on the issue.

That China Mobile Deal Is Paying Off for Apple’s App Store

After years of talks, Apple struck a deal in 2013 with the world’s largest mobile carrier, China Mobile, and began selling the iPhone 5s and 5c on its network on Jan 17.

Now it looks like that team-up was a boon for App Store revenue. According to an App Annie report released this morning, iOS revenue from China grew 70 percent between Q4 2013 and Q1 2014. The report also cited strong app download numbers led by the games, travel and social networking categories.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung and Carriers Back Anti-Theft Measures for Smartphones

With several states and municipalities considering various mandatory “kill-switch” laws for mobile devices, the wireless industry announced a voluntary commitment to include new anti-theft technology on phones starting 2015.

The commitment has the backing of the five largest US cellular carriers as well as the key players in the smartphone device and operating system markets, a list that includes Apple, Google, HTC, Huawei, Motorola, Microsoft, Nokia and Samsung.

Those signing the pledge agree that devices going on sale after July 2015 will have the ability to remotely wipe data and be rendered inoperable, if the user chooses, to prevent the device from being reactivated without the owner’s permission. Lost or stolen devices could later be restored if recovered. The carriers also agreed they would facilitate these measures.

Conspirators in Two Android Mobile Device App Piracy Groups Plead Guilty

Members of two different piracy groups engaged in the illegal distribution of copies of copyrighted Android mobile device applications have pleaded guilty for their roles in separate schemes, each designed to distribute more than one million copies of copyrighted apps.

Acting Assistant Attorney General David A. O’Neil of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, US Attorney Sally Quillian Yates of the Northern District of Georgia and Special Agent in Charge Britt Johnson of the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office made the announcement. Thomas Pace, 38, of Oregon City (OR), pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and is scheduled for sentencing on July 9, 2104.

According to the information filed on Jan 24, 2014, Pace and his fellow conspirators identified themselves as the Appbucket Group, and from August 2010 to August 2012, they conspired with other members of the Appbucket Group to reproduce and distribute more than one million copies of copyrighted Android mobile device apps, with a total retail value of over $700,000, through the Appbucket alternative online market without permission from the copyright owners of the apps.

Two other defendants charged in the information -- Thomas Dye and Appbucket Group leader Nicholas Narbone -- pleaded guilty to the same charge in the information on March 10 and March 24, 2014, respectively.

Consumer Advisory Committee

Federal Communications Commission
May 19, 2014
2:00 P.M. to 2:30 P.M.
http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2014/db0415/DA-1...

At its May 19, 2014 meeting, the Committee will reaffirm recommendations adopted at its March 28, 2014 meeting regarding the IP transition, E-rate, a workshop to assess requirements for wireless medical test beds, and a commendation to the Commission regarding its recent TV caption quality rule. This reaffirmation is necessary because timely notice of action on these recommendations in the Federal Register was not provided as required by the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. App. 2 (1988).

Read more about FCC's Consumer Advisory Committee

Aging surveillance drones become flying Wi-Fi hotspots

With all of the talk of Facebook’s efforts to blanket the planet with drones that the company promises will provide global Wi-Fi accessibility, another technology leader, the US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), has also entered the drone Wi-Fi game.

Through DARPA’s new “Mobile Hotspots Program,” the agency has planned to retrofit a fleet of aging RQ-7 shadow drones that were once deployed for various surveillance missions by the US military in Iraq. The repurposed drones will now be used to help the military carry out operations in remote locations that lack Internet connectivity.

The hotspot program aims to provide a 1Gbps communications backbone to deployed units. In order to establish a secure connection from ground stations without requiring large antennas, each drone will be equipped with a lightweight, low-power pod, holding low-noise amplifiers, which DARPA claims can boost signals while minimizing background noise. The drones can apparently run for nine-hour shifts to provide continual coverage as needed.

The insanely fast Wi-Fi router you’ll probably never need

The average American household connects to the Internet at a rate of 10 megabits per second. Not bad, but also not fantastic -- by way of comparison, a single HD Netflix stream takes up 5.8 Mbps of bandwidth.

Now with that as our baseline, consider the speeds of the country's fastest Internet connections today: 1 Gbps, or a gigabit per second. That's equivalent to 1,000 Mbps, or roughly 100 times faster than the national average.

But if you thought that was fast, wait until you hear about a new Wi-Fi router, from Quantenna, that's coming in 2015. It's capable of 10 Gbps -- 10 gigabits per second. That's a thousand times the rate of the average American broadband connection. It's mindboggling. You could theoretically stream 1,724 Netflix movies, all in HD, all at the same time and not see any lag.

But since the average household Web connection is still lagging at 10 Mbps, it'll be hard for most people to take advantage of the 10-gig router right away. They simply don't consume enough data to need the giant pipes provided by this new technology.

Clear Channel Says Radio Hosts Are Still Relevant

Radio isn’t dead. It just wasn’t advertised correctly, according to Clear Channel Communications CEO Bob Pittman.

“I think radio did a very poor job of marketing itself, and everybody started talking all about the shiny new things,” the MTV creator said.

Findings from the radio conglomerate showed on-air personality endorsements were similar to a friend’s recommendation -- and they trusted it more than a sponsored Facebook post, sponsored tweet or TV commercial. Six out of 10 listeners said that radio hosts were "like a friend" whose opinions they trusted. Forty percent argued that they felt radio personalities made the broadcast more personal, which turned listening to the radio into a more social event.

Pittman said the study is an example of the current efforts radio companies are now undertaking to showcase the influence the medium still has. He added that 92 percent of people listened to the radio every week in the 1970s, and the figure remains the same today when counting digital and other modern ways to tune in. With its digital toolbox, Pittman believes radio is unstoppable. Radio ads can be better targeted and have companion sites, video, visuals and even coupons.

Benton

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