Touted by an odd coalition, ICANN’s .xxx domain money grab has fallen flat on its face. The expected land rush of defensive buys to avoid stigma never materialized and the smut peddlers are happy with the way things are.
The engineers who warned Lightsquared’s service would disrupt GPS are vindicated. This proves that while you can buy influence by backing corrupt pols, you can’t change the laws of physics. The idea could still work, but investment in engineering instead of elections will be required.
Assuming Lightsquared does solve it’s interference problems, you could score some free wireless access via Freedompop. I expect AT&T and Verizon to spend large with pols to keep that from happening.
More Fourth Amendment abuse in the Senate: SOPA and Protect IP morph into the slightly less abusive OPEN bill. While it promises more due process, it still enables rogue agencies to violate the supreme law of the land. Meanwhile, Senator Wyden does some call out the DHS for going rogue showboating.
How to harass the competition without tarnishing your highbrow image. Wage war on rivals by proxy: Apple Gives mobile patents to a troll.
Comic Louis CK’s latest film goes direct to download for $5. Chances are he’ll make far more from self distribution then releasing through one of the big studios. Look for more big name entertainers to follow.
Another sign the patent system is broken: Google wants to patent the cloud as a print server.
In case you didn’t know, the search results you see on Google aren’t anything near raw, rather they are baked. The formula is a secret that is more carefully guarded than the colonel’s 11 herbs and spices. That formula is also constantly tweaked to ends that are more for the benefit of Google than you might think. Tweaking can favor internal projects, friends, sponsors and political cronies as well as punish outsiders. That’s all fair game, since when you use Google, you are dining at it’s table. The snack you are enjoying isn’t free. You’re just not paying directly.
While Google competitors came and go, there hasn’t been a truly open alternative that could scale until now. YaCy depends on it’s users for infrastructure and allows you to build and manage your own search profile if you install software that also distributes the search load. Yes, it’s a lot more to do than just Google-ing, but if you’re weary of being Googled, it’s the best alternative I’ve seen so far. It could also be the beginning of the democratization of search. That’s bound the shake up the control freaks in boardrooms and Washington like never before. (more at BBC)
The big music label cabal membership shrinks to three. EMI has been sold in pieces to Sony and Universal. Look for more lobbying to make back catalog copyrights immortal with few new releases outside formula pop. Expect the indie market to grow even a little faster as the old school record deal will be all but dead.
Patent insanity: Microsoft gets some DOJ scrutiny after abundant coaxing from Google and B&N. While Android device makers continue to bear the brunt of Redmond’s royalty rustling, Google is accused of violating the Linux GPL in Android. Meanwhile back in the troll dungeon, Righthaven gets another well deserved flogging.
If tablets really are consumption devices, then content is king. The $200 tablet wars appear to be confirming this before new devices even ship. This could spell much bigger trouble for the fruit cult than it’s 66% price premium.
More fodder for new wave of class warfare agitators? Apple and Oracle dominate in tech’s highest executive salaries. Naw, these companies tend to lean left, so they’ll get a pass. Will these over the top salaries cause a shareholder revolt? That’s not likely either.
New life for Moore’s Law: Changes in transistor geometry could push chip density even further.
Zombie former software maker returns to troll again. SCO to sue IBM one more time. I wonder if the judges that keep agreeing to hear these cases ever get performance reviewed.
A $7K open source electric car? A group of German designers say it’s true.
Dead canary in Apple’s smartphone goldmine? US Cellular rejects iPhone over heavy handed T and C’s.
Making knowledge more free in academia: Washington State adopts Open Courseware.
As cord cutting becomes the hottest home entertainment trend, Google toys with entering the the pay TV biz. It’s pretty obvious that making the poorly received Google TV platform viable is a big priority. Subscriptions are the the most likely key to getting Hollywood and alphabet networks the on board. To get the newly cable free consumer on board, GTV channels need to be a la carte or so cheap that no one cares about paying for what they don’t watch. That’s a tall order, even for the almighty searchzilla.
Thanks to Google for this one: The return of full blown browser wars is here. The return of cut throat competition will push the envelope farther, faster.
Is the fat lady about to sing for free, mashup ready API’s? Google rumored to be planning maps fees. If true, this could also be a great opportunity for Yang and Co. at Yahoo Maps to steal a little thunder if they are paying attention.
While API charges could add up, advertising revenue is still the primary source for search: Yahoo buys an advertising tech company while Google promises to make targeted advertising more transparent.
More smoke mirrors and outright E-Parasite lies. Lawmaker and industry advocate can’t agree on whether it’s a DMCA re-write. In this case, I think we’ve seen a rare glimpse of accidental honesty by the lawmaker.
Yes we can! President Obama nominates two more lawyers as FCC commissioners. Unfortunately, the Senate is also dominated by kindred ambulance chasers, so they’ll likely be confirmed. If successful, look for more legal maneuvering in Chairman Genachowski’s relentless power grab. At risk? A free and open Internet. Meanwhile , VP Joe Biden proclaims the internet should remain free and open, At least in Russia and China.
Indelible proof that Twitter has completely devolved from techie toy to a graffiti wall for teeny boppers.
Just when you thought the microprocessor business had gone from speed wars to core wars……..
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