Author Archive | Ed Oswald

FCC Votes for Net Neutrality, McCain Wants to Stop Them

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 22, 2009 at 11:00 pm

john_mccain Well net neutrality fans, your enemies list just got one person bigger. John McCain is the latest to come out against the FCC’s work, and has even proposed legislation to stop the agency in its tracks.

On Thursday, the FCC approved a measure to begin the process of formalizing a set of net neutrality rules that would ban ISPs from selectively filtering or throttling content. Texas Rep. Barton tried to stop the FCC from voting on the measure in the first place by pleading with commissioners to stop the vote from occurring.

This was an exercise in futility: Chairman Julius Genachowski had already worked to seal the support of the two other Democratic commissioners, making approval all but certain before the vote occurred.

Enter McCain. The Arizona senator introduced the Internet Freedom Act, which would expressly prohibit the FCC from making rules on net neutrality in the simplest terms. Using the Republicans’ favorite phrase of late–“government takeover”–McCain said net neutrality would stifle competition and hurt the job market.

Much like Barton, McCain also took issue with the inclusion of wireless Internet in the FCC’s planned policy, saying the lack of regulation has helped the industry grow rapidly. It’s unclear if such a measure could pass: however at least 70 House Democrats have already written the FCC expressing concern over the proposal, Reuters reports.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out as net neutrality was one of Obama’s campaign priorities. You can bet there will be a lot of vote counting being done in the coming months: Republicans will have to get a super majority as I would almost expect the President to veto any legislation like this if it makes it to his desk.

16 comments

Comcast Launching On Demand Online Shortly

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 21, 2009 at 10:17 am

comcastonline After testing out its latest online offering with about 5,000 customers earlier this summer, Comcast is set to launch On Demand Online with all customers by the end of the year, the company is saying. As we reported earlier, the feature would work much like Hulu does although it would be available only to Comcast subscribers.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Comcast has struck deals with about two dozen cable and movie channels to provide content. There is some bad news here though. You won’t gain access to the entire lineup of online content — only what is included in your package.

Either way, the move signals an effort by the entertainment industry to get a leg up on illicit distribution of programming. By offering the programming itself, and on-demand, the urge to run for BitTorrent and the like may be lessened for some.

Take the music industry for example. It decided to resist the digital movement, and ended up getting burnt badly. Only now is the industry beginning to gain some foothold in the digital world.

2 comments

Real-Time Tweets Headed to Bing?

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 21, 2009 at 9:11 am

Kara Swisher over at Boomtown claims that Microsoft is close to a non-exclusive data mining deal with Twitter that would bring real time tweet results to Bing. According to her sources, an announcement on the deal could come as soon as the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, which is happening this week. Twitter is negotiating with Google, although sources say the Bing deal is likely to be finished first.

If you think you may have heard this all before, you have (sorta). Back in July, Hsrry reported that Bing had begun to integrate some tweets into search results. This mainly was just a test, and limited to certain prominent twitterers.

It appears however whatever is going on here might be more extensive. Tweets would be available in real time, and would probably be spread out across any search, rsther than just for searching specifically for the tweets of a certain person.

2 comments

House Republican Asks FCC to Stop Open Internet Vote

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 20, 2009 at 9:03 pm

joe_barton If you’re a fan of net neutrality, meet your next enemy. Republican Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who has asked the FCC to stop a planned vote on open Internet rules.

PresidentObama has pushed for the change, and it appears as if it will pass, as Chairman Julius Genachowski apparently has the support of the commission’s two other Democrats, reports the WSJ.

Essentially, what these rules would do is make it illegal for ISPs to selectively slow down or block certain Internet content, while at the same time compelling them to reveal how their networks are managed. Barton sees this as a problem apparently, and so do the big telcos.

He believes it would be “potentially catastrophic” to the broadband industry, which is a take that’s certainly at complete odds with about two dozen smaller providers who have lauded the imminent vote. To them, it offers a more level playing field and will be an impetus for growth.

Big telcos are complaining that this hampers their investments in the broadband network, and are pulling the Obama card–he’s a big proponent of nationwide broadband.

Wireless Internet is also covered by this proposal, which to date has been unregulated. Barton here believes such regulations would “retard the deployment” of the wireless web.

It’s hard to read here exactly who is right and wrong. In defense of the big telcos, these folks have spent quite a bit on building out broadband. Then again, sticking up for the little guy, a few companies control basically the entire US Internet, effectively shutting others out.

But why would the Republicans want to get on this side of the issue? After all, Obama’s broadband policy is intended to help those who many of these folks claim to represent–our rural citizenry and small business. Ah, politics in Washington these days.

16 comments

Microsoft: “Steady Progress” on Sidekick Data Restore

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 19, 2009 at 1:39 pm

Good news for those of us out there affected by the Sidekick data mess: Microsoft on Monday said that it was continuing to work “around the clock” on the problem, and was making “steady progress” in attempting to restore data. The first of the user content to be restored would be user contacts (probably the most important for most of us), with photographs, notes, to-do-lists, marketplace data, and high scores to follow later.

No exact time frame has been given for the full restore. However, for those who have been affected by the issue (I actually met somebody over the weekend that lost nothing, so it’s not everybody), this is now two weeks after the initial data loss. You have to figure that many have recovered most of their data through other means, so a restore is becoming less and less useful.

No comments

Nokia’s Netbook Gamble

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 13, 2009 at 1:32 pm

I don’t quite understand Nokia’s thinking, but the company has made it official that its Booklet 3G, its first true netbook PC (or any type of full PC for that matter) will come to the states through AT&T and Best Buy on October 22. Entering into the increasingly crowded netbook space could be risky for Nokia.

First off, the device will run a pricey $599 unsubsidized. To me thats pretty astronomical for a netbook. Let’s take a look at those specs, and for fairness let’s for now forget about the 3G data capability.

It runs a Intel Atom 1.6GHz chip — the same used in the market leading Acer Aspire Ones — and includes Wi-Fi, a 120GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and a 10.1″ display. My Acer has all of that, and was $259 without any subsidy.

The only thing I could find that my netbook doesn’t have is Bluetooth, and an accelerometer (oh and Windows 7 out the box: mine runs XP). So essentially, are we paying here $300 for 3G, which we’ll also be required to sign up for a $60 per month data plan for two years? That’s pretty steep.

While no doubt this entrant has a lot to do with Nokia’s recent cozying up to Microsoft, however I’m a little confused as to “why now.” With Acer and others able to give us netbooks under $300, how many people are going to be able to justify paying that plus an extra $2,000 or so over the life of the contract just for data?

Right now I just don’t think there’s a market for it.

One comment

Snow Leopard Bug May Eat Your Data

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 9, 2009 at 11:46 am

Just as I was about to head to the Apple Store to pick up a copy of Snow Leopard, one of the most serious bugs yet is starting to get more play in the Apple media. Apparently, an issue in the way the new version of Mac OS X handles guest accounts could cause the computer to seemingly ‘delete’ all of a users files stored in their main account.

The gist of how it happens is this, according to user reports: shortly before the bug appears, a Guest folder appears in the /Users directory. Previous to this, no such folder exists. When the computer is restarted, the user is somehow logged in as a guest and all their files stored under their main account appear to have been deleted.

Apparently this issue is nothing new: CNet has an article from September 19 which seems to allude to the issues that people are experiencing, as well as offering a possible solution to your problems.

Note that this method does not restore your data. In order to do that, you’re going to need a backup. Moral of the story here? If you’re on Snow Leopard, start backing up your home folder regularly.

Apple is currently looking into the issue, however has not provided any guidance as to when the problem could be fixed.

I’m just guessing here, but disabling the guest account before upgrading to Snow Leopard might also be another way to prevent a problem if you’re still looking to upgrade. I just checked my accounts here and the Guest Account is labeled “sharing only.” I have to do some more research here to see if I’m safe.

3 comments

AOL Can Be Yours for a Cool $4.2 Billion

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 30, 2009 at 3:07 pm

It’s a far cry from the $20 billion value that Google placed on AOL when it invested $1 billion for a five percent stake in the company in 2005. But $4.2 billion is what JP Morgan analyst Imran Khan now speculates the company is worth as Time Warner gets ready to spin the company off by the end of this year, close to a $4 billion valuation put on AOL by Pali Research analyst Rich Greenfield.

The company’s value has apparently declined since the beginning of the year: when Google wrote down it’s stake in the company in January, it placed a value of $5.5 billion on the company.

AOL doesn’t have much to blame other than itself: the company was slow to change with the times, and the transition from dial-up to broadband left the company without a major source of revenue. It’s try at selling advertising, while not a failure by any means, certainly did not fill that void.

Not everybody is down on AOL’s chances. Let us remember that the company still has a large traffic base to its properties, and Greenfield says that “there could be meaningful valuation upside – not to mention, the upside if M&A speculation surfaces” if AOL’s new CEO Tim Armstrong can play his cards right.

I’m no expert on mergers and acquisitions, but I don’t see the company being a merger target for anyone anytime soon. AOL’s still existing dial-up business is a costly one to take on, especially considering its all but certain that part of the company’s bottom line is all but set to disappear over the next few years.

Then again, stranger things have happened…

2 comments

AT&T’s A-List Leaves Out Its A-List Customers

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 30, 2009 at 11:35 am

Expanding unlimited calling to off-network phone numbers is one of the wireless industry’s newest ways to attract customers. Alltel was one of the first major carriers with its My Circle (which now has been rolled over to Verizon Wireless with the merger, called “Friends & Family”), then T-Mobile followed with myFaves. Sprint’s also doing something with “Any Mobile, Anytime” on select plans.

Now AT&T is getting into the game with a service called A-List. Like its competitors, the gist is the same: customers add their five most frequently called numbers. These are then treated like mobile-to-mobile calls, which are typically unlimited.

I will give kudos though. AT&T does not mess with the rest of the plan when you use the service. Neither your normal mobile to mobile or rollover minutes will be affected.

There is a catch. Like Verizon Wireless, you must have a $59.99/mo. or greater voice plan in order to use the service. This is somewhat troubling to me, as a large segment of AT&T’s growing iPhone population is from the get go excluded from the service.

Almost all of my iPhone-equipped friends are on the $39.99 monthly voice plan. The reasoning for this is simple: on top of that, a $39.99 $30 monthly data plan is required, already pushing the bill to nearly $70 a month. Add the fact most of us are texters, so we’re already now pushing that bill to near $90 a month even before taxes and fees, or any other service we might be inclined to add.

If we’d bump up to the next plan, there’s a good chance our monthly wireless bill would exceed $110, which in most cases is just too much to justify for. But through AT&T’s policies, none of us would qualify for A-List.

This seems rotten to me. I’m willing to place money on the fact that the average iPhone users bill is probably on the order of 50% or so higher than that of a non iPhone user. Look at AT&T’s ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) for the second quarter: $60. That is already about $10 below the base cost of owning an iPhone, without texting or anything else added.

Yes, iPhone users put a strain on the AT&T network. But at the same time, they are the basis of the company’s bottom line. The least the company could do here was include its “A-List” customers in on the deal.

Hopefully, the carrier reconsiders the requirements and allows for iPhone users who are already paying a lot every month to benefit from this new feature.

Update: I had the data plan cost wrong here, as well as T-Mobile putting back M2M with myFaves now (it wasn’t at first) so I’ve tweaked our math and wording here. Thanks to commenters for catching this.

5 comments

AT&T Manages a Successful iPhone MMS Launch

Posted by Ed Oswald on September 29, 2009 at 1:46 pm

I will eat my words, somewhat at least. After launching MMS for the iPhone on Friday, it appears AT&T has managed to launch the functionality without much of a problem after all. Yes, there were some hiccups and glitches, but nothing widespread from what we can gather.

My own personal experience with MMS has been positive. Friday was bumpy from time to time, including one or two messages that seemed to take minutes to send. But none of them failed, and to my knowledge every one of them made it to their destination. I could complain about Apple’s implementation of MMS, but hey that isn’t AT&T’s fault.

I’ve received some reports from my Twitter followers (shameless plug: @edoswald) which reported some problems early on:

User @CanonThom:

“An MMS message sent to a non-updated iPhone disappears. Sent to a non-iPhone but still AT&T seems to work. Non MMS texts work fine”

User @walter_theman:

“my signal is fading in and out, mms will send on occations and others get the red !”

AT&T’s Facebook page is also abuzz with some problem reports, but nothing that seems overly serious, here’s a roundup of the most common issues:

– Problems with receiving MMS from Verizon
– Problems sending MMS to Verizon (I have received/sent fine here)
– Intermittent failure to receive or send MMS
– Slowness in sending (I’ve seen this)

In the interest of fairness, AT&T contacted us shortly after my initial post asking to be able to respond. I have been in contact, however I haven’t received any official response as of yet. When it comes I’ll be sure to update this post.

I’ve also asked for some idea on the added strain on the network, which was apparently one of AT&T’s chief concerns when MMS was first announced for the iPhone earlier this summer.

Are you having problems at all? Have they been resolved? Let us know in the comments.

2 comments

← Previous 1 … 43 44 45 … 82 Next →