The Democratic chairman is stepping down, according to the Wall Street Journal, just as a Republican commissioner is departing, preserving an administration-friendly majority on the commission. Read more »
America has joined the rest of the world in switching from a “first-to-invent” system to a “first-to-file” system. Here’s a quick summary of the change and why it will not have a big effect on the patent system. Read more »
Congress is supposed to write our laws, but it’s looking inadequate at doing so in the face of a rapidly evolving technology industry. The near-term passage of a bill allowing Netflix to share user data is too little, too late — and altogether too common. Read more »
Wi-Fi, 4G, smart grids and the Internet Of Things are leading to a radiowave logjam, the European Commission fears. It wants license holders to hand over spectrum usable by a new generation of waveband-sharing technologies. Read more »
Tea Party favorite Senator Rand Paul took to the podium at a Heritage Foundation event last week to talk about tech policy. However, individual rights and less government regulation certainly are important to the future of the internet, there are necessary limits to that freedom. Read more »
In an aggressive proposal, the President’s Council of Advisors on Policy and Technology not only wants the administration to double the amount of federal spectrum being targeted for new mobile and wireless networks, but it also wants to make a good portion of those airwaves shared. Read more »
In terms of mobile data, our smartphones are far more reliant on Wi-Fi. So why are carriers so single-mindedly focused on acquiring new licensed spectrum and building expensive 3G and 4G networks, when they could implement more Wi-Fi and tap into other sources of unlicensed spectrum? Read more »
Network neutrality, the idea that ISPs can’t discriminate against traffic on its network, is an enshrined right in some areas and a hotly contested regulatory fight in others. But it may become moot if the ITU succeeds in take over the management of the Internet. Read more »
The launch of a think tank to educate Congress about disruptive technologies is just one of several new efforts proposed by the Internet and startup community. Conversations between Silicon Valley and D.C. will no longer rely on big tech firms. The Internet can disrupt politics too, Read more »
Politico has a great post Wednesday that details how folks in Washington are astonished Apple isn’t blanketing Capitol Hill with lobbyists and money. It goes against standard procedure in our nation’s capital, but as is well known in tech, Apple doesn’t tend to follow standard procedures Read more »
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act is a lot like your old college buddy who used to get way too drunk and then puke in your lap: it claims to mean well, but its actions suggest otherwise. Here’s how to improve it. Read more »
The federal government talked a lot about grand scientific visions when it unveiled its big data agenda last week, but the government has consumers on its mind, too. Specifically, it doesn’t want to unduly hinder innovation, and it might even be willing to provide data. Read more »
The AT&T-Mo saga wasted countless dollars and resources, dominating the attention of regulators and the wireless industry for a year, but AT&T’s failure more than made up for those losses. We now have more fearsome regulation and a greater awareness of the mobile market’s precarious competitive state. Read more »
Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has an image police – but an arrest they have made may be mistaken. A blogger using its SkyDrive cloud storage servic… Read more at paidContent »
Some countries in Europe, like France, are looking at ways of extending their copyright protection laws to streamed media, in addition to ex… Read more at paidContent »
One more development in the legal fight between Samsung and Apple: a court in Australia has granted a March date for a case being brought by… Read more at paidContent »
The cost of delivering a gigabyte of data will surpass the cost carriers receive for said gigabyte some time in early 2013, according to a chart provided by telecommunications gear vendor Tellabs. Read more »
At this week’s Strata Conference in New York, there’s a lot of discussion about data transparency. As masses of easily available, quickly an… Read more at paidContent »
Executives from Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (NSDQ: RIMM) have warned a committee of MPs that switching off soc… Read more at paidContent »
A sign of Twitter’s growing power, and increasing need to interface with government to get its message across: the company has hired a new h… Read more at paidContent »
As a manager or small business owner, you’ve seen the light and decided to expand your team by adding remote workers. Now all you need is a remote work policy that lays out everything your employees need to know. But why is this necessary? Read more »
» Ahead of Earnings Next Week, Demand Media (NYSE: DMD) Shares Drastic Dip Due to Googley Panda-Monium. (AllThingsD)
» … Read more at paidContent »
Tomorrow is a big day. The individuals we vote into office will have a tremendous effect on the connected issues of pulling out of this years-old economic funk and advancing IT policy. Certain proof points suggest a stark contrast in how parties approach this nexus. Read more »
I’m now primarily a Mac user, but back when I was on Windows, my multi-protocol IM client of choice was Miranda IM. It’s a lightweight, highly extensible and unobtrusive open-source tool. The Miranda IM team this week released version 0.9, which contains some useful new features: Read more »
Because I was lame as a teenager, I didn’t watch a lot of MTV. (Or is it the other way around: Was I lame as a teenager because I didn’t watch a lot of MTV? A deeper question for a deeper time.) Anyways, the point is […] Read more »
Yesterday, the New York Times published an article examining what it refers to as the upcoming “war” between computer chip manufacturers. It’s an interesting read if you’re desperately into that sort of thing, but what’s most compelling is the assertion that Apple probably invested at least a […] Read more »
Due to repeated and numerous customer complaints, and despite the fact that they seem to pretty regularly make their way into the top 25 and 50 lists of both free and paid apps, Apple decided this week to begin removing software from the App Store it […] Read more »
A study out today shows that broadband deployments are good for boosting employment in communities that have a lot of industries that rely on computing, but do little to affect the actual rate of employment or wages paid in those communities. Read more »
GE Chief Calls for Swift, Certain Climate Policy: “What’s most important for the U.S. is that we go from Copenhagen, go into 2010, and have the courage to act on clean energy,” General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt told a conference on renewable energy at Clemson University […] Read more »
EPA Finalizes Endangerment Finding: The EPA said today “that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten the public health and welfare of the American people. EPA also finds that GHG emissions from on-road vehicles contribute to that threat,” paving the way for the agency to regulate emissions rather than […] Read more »
Definite GOP Votes for Climate Bill: “There are definite Republican votes,” for the Senate’s climate legislation, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said today, “and we hope to grow that over the next weeks and months.” — The Hill’s E2-Wire Lockheed Martin Backs MIT Greentech Research: Lockheed Martin […] Read more »
The App Store is known for a few things, including the sheer volume of apps available, the tremendous success it’s brought some independent developers, and, most notoriously, for the constant stream of rejections that it issues with remarkable frequency. Now one scorned developer has taken it […] Read more »
At the Apple iPod event this past September, the iPod nano got a video upgrade, but despite rumors to the contrary, the iPod touch didn’t get a similar treatment. The Internet was ablaze with expectation thanks to the appearance of a number of iPod touch cases […] Read more »
Dutch to Try Road Tax Alternative: The Dutch government has approved a plan to replace the annual road tax on cars with mileage fees in an effort to reduce traffic congestion and vehicle emissions. Starting in 2012, GPS devices will be used to monitor vehicles, tracking […] Read more »
Senate Panel Green Lights Climate Bill, Sans GOP: Sen. Barbara Boxer has moved the energy and climate bill out of the Environment and Public Works Committee and onto the Senate floor, despite a Republican boycott of the debate. But that doesn’t get the bill any closer […] Read more »
Cap and Trade’s Biggest Losers: A new report by energy consultants Wood Mackenzie finds “cap-and-trade legislation will cost U.S. refiners about $100 billion a year by 2015 and put them at a competitive disadvantage to refiners in Europe.” — WSJ’s Environemental Capital Bright Automotive Bags $1.4M […] Read more »
Two Spanish Apple sites are reporting that the latest build of Apple’s upcoming update to its Mac OS X Snow Leopard software contains references to as-yet unreleased new models of MacBook Pro. Build 10C531 lists “MacBook Pro 6,1” and “MacBook Pro 6,2”, an indication of major […] Read more »
As we reported just yesterday, Apple didn’t take too kindly to El Gato’s “accidental” inclusion of a workaround to enable 3G streaming of live TV on the iPhone using its EyeTV app. The app, combined with an EyeTV USB Mac TV tuner, allows users to stream […] Read more »
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is alienating its member companies with a hard-line stance it’s taken against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and climate change legislation currently making the rounds in the Senate. The latest casualty in the conflict generated by the Chamber’s controversial position is […] Read more »
Nearly half of the electric car charging equipment installed worldwide by 2015 will be heading to China, according to a recent report from Pike Research. Today an announcement from Scottsdale, Ariz.-based charging infrastructure company ECOtality indicates that China’s role in the electric car charging boom will […] Read more »
