American Public Media

The Federal Communications Commission voted to open its latest net neutrality proposal to public comments. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has said the commission is "dedicated to protecting and preserving an open Internet." Much of the debate around the current proposal has focused on the agreement between Netflix and Comcast, in which Netflix pays extra to guarantee its content is delivered to homes without delay.

Netflix accounts for about a third of peak-period broadband traffic. So what does that mean for the net neutrality debate? "I don't think it matters," says Barbara van Schewick, faculty director of the Center for Internet and Society at the Stanford Law School, "because under a good network neutrality regime, people pay for the bandwidth they use and it doesn't really matter where it comes from."

Social networks, search engines, and new apps are trying various strategies to answer your questions. At the same time, all of them have one big question to answer for themselves. If someone wants to know something, why shouldn't they just Google it? Google's search engine framework has limitations that are being exploited by a new wave of companies. For instance, with Google you can't use your phone to pose a question with a picture. You also can't ask for responses from experts or friends. Venture capitalists think these approaches have the potential to make some money.

Hollywood is no longer the go-to place for shooting feature films and TV shows.

Just eight percent of big budget Hollywood films were made in LA in 2013, down from 65 percent in 1997. And from 2005 to 2013, California's share of one-hour TV series dropped from 64 percent to 28 percent.

Why the big exodus? States like Georgia, New York and Louisiana -- and countries like the UK and Canada -- are offering attractive tax subsidies to lure filmmakers.

California, by all accounts, hasn’t kept up. The state has a lot else going for it: local talent, sunny weather, and a support system, like caterers and electricians. But documentary filmmaker Deborah Rankin said it ultimately comes down to dollars and cents: “Especially as an independent filmmaker, it’s really, it’s hard. It’s hard raising the money, and you’ve gotta make it go as far as it can,” Rankin said.

There has been growing evidence that online surveillance conducted by the US government is impacting the tech industry. One area in particular? Cloud Storage.

Tech companies have started to move some of their facilities overseas under pressure from foreign governments. Some of those governments have even considered building their own infrastructure, so that their citizens information won't be stored in the US. Germany, in particular, is talking about a so-called "Bundescloud."

[Commentary] In the world of the Internet of Things, every device from your refrigerator to your thermostat seems smart. The idea is, we humans don’t have to set temperatures or see if we’ve run out of milk because the devices will do it for us. It’s all supposed to be seamless. Until it’s not.

And that brings us to Nest, which is halting sales of its Nest Protect fire alarm and smoke detector. The company said the fire alarm's “wave function,” which allows you to turn off false alarms, can, under certain circumstances, delay an alarm going off in a real fire. It appears that the "Internet of Things" isn’t making devices as smart or as seamless as promised. The reason is simple: It's still the early days for the Internet of Things, said Jeremey Jaech, the CEO of SNUPI technologies. He said right now, the business landscape is like the Wild West. Jaech said there are lots of different start-ups producing almost as many varieties of software and hardware to power the Internet of Things.

But these products don’t always speak the same language. And that often means you have to start dealing with a human being in customer support. "What I would expect to happen, because it’s happened in virtually every other industry, is that you start to see consolidation occur, and standardization will come," Jaech said. When winners emerge, everyone in the industry starts speaking the same languages. The technology becomes more seamless, and so the help line becomes less necessary -- maybe.

Massive security breaches at Target and Neiman Marcus in 2013 put millions of customers at risk of identity theft and credit card fraud.

In light of these major rifts in consumer security, Federal Trade Commission chair Edith Ramirez is urging Congress to adopt several new rules to better protect consumer data such as credit card information, usernames and passwords.

"What we are seeking is that there are robust security requirements as well as a national breach notice requirement," said Chairwoman Ramirez. "We'd also like any national legislation to include FTC enforcement with a civil penalty." According to Chairwoman Ramirez, a federal requirement would benefit shoppers across state lines as well as aid law enforcement in prosecuting cybercrime.