FCC's Martin resurrects 'a la carte' proposal, content providers respond
While Congress looks into the strange way the FCC chairman advanced his first, failed attempt to inject channel-by-channel programming into US law, cable programmers set up a proactive defense against a possible second attempt.
During his regular testimony before a US House Appropriations Subcommittee last Wednesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin happened to be asked whether he would still favor a move toward an "a la carte" programming arrangement for cable systems. Chairman Martin responded, as first reported by Multichannel News, by saying he remains a vehement supporter of the idea.
Intel extends its winning streak, but a bad storm is coming
It has reclaimed the honor of being the world's leading CPU manufacturer in every important respect. But like a kid with a hole in his Easter basket, Intel's leaving a trail behind it: Its flash memory business could be its Achilles' heel.
There's a point where you can't help but laugh at the night-and-day difference between Intel's business status and that of its singular competitor, AMD. Then there comes a point where you stop laughing and almost start to cry in sympathy for AMD's position, having been pushed back an entire process generation, fighting hard from its traditional stronghold in the value segment.
Official XP SP3 release date still up in the air
A Microsoft spokesperson declined this afternoon to confirm reports circulating on technology blogs today citing purportedly leaked documents as saying the online release date for Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be April 29.
"We expect Windows XP SP3 to be available in 1H 2008, provided it meets our quality bar for release," stated the spokesperson, in response to BetaNews' question about the specific date.
Re-org at Microsoft relocates UC head to its emerging markets unit
Last year at a conference in Los Angeles, Microsoft introduced spectators to its new efforts to reach emerging markets and build innovative new form factors...to somewhat mixed results. This morning, there was a mix-up of another kind.
At last year's WinHEC conference in Los Angeles, the opening session featured Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' proclamation that the telephone and the PC were merging, followed soon thereafter by a demonstration from Chief Research Officer Craig Mundie. It was obvious to everyone that what Mundie's team produced for him couldn't keep up with Gates' presentation of Unified Communications, especially when Mundie found himself extolling the virtues of a piece of assemble-it-yourself furniture that had been converted into a device to remind seniors to take their medication.
AOL's Platform-A still out front, now pulling away
Things are not as they seem in online advertising, or at least not as they've been characterized in political and financial circles. While Google has been receiving scrutiny of late, AOL's strategy to take the lead while no one's looking may be working.
While Google continues to be the Internet's principal search engine, now with a 67% share of US searches according to Hitwise numbers released last week, the popular presumption is that its reach in search translates directly to its reach in advertising. Microsoft was counting on that association in its campaign against the Google + DoubleClick merger -- a campaign which, of course, completely failed.
Microsoft's 'trust' chief steers his company back toward Trusted model
The first time Microsoft launched a Trustworthy Computing initiative, it was met with skepticism, especially with the way Bill Gates played it up. But six years later, a key Microsoft executive suggests it may be time to revisit the subject.
In a surprisingly frank white paper from the man in charge of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing strategy, released this morning, Corporate Vice President Scott Charney writes that his company's own first two major initiatives toward providing greater security for software and Internet users fell short of their intended goals, and that a third initiative just now getting under way may still fail to completely address the problem of ensuring consumer safety and privacy.
Blockbuster proposes 'exclusive' content, devices in Circuit City bid
With the format war over, the half-life of disc-based video in the US may already have been expended. So the survival of Blockbuster as a brand may depend on a device that helps move its storefront directly into the household. Enter Circuit City.
In his public letter to the CEO of Circuit City requesting that negotiations commence on a merger deal, Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes suggested that the combined retailers would not only be able to secure exclusivity deals for content -- as Blockbuster has already been known to do for its 7,800+ rental outlets in the US -- but might also have the ability to market and sell an undefined, exclusive content delivery device.
Carmi Levy: Yahoo's options, now that it appears to have some
At this time last week, Yahoo was said to have reached the end of its rope. It didn't appear very viable on its own, and certainly no one would be crazy enough to try to top Microsoft's cash offer. Seven days later, and it's a different world.
Just days after Microsoft's February 1 bombshell that it was going after Yahoo directly, many financial analysts declared Yahoo to be headed to that great collection of defunct Internet brands in the "cloud" someplace, perhaps alongside Netscape.
EchoStar's motion to re-hear TiVo patent case denied
A federal appeals court this afternoon turned down Dish Network parent company EchoStar's petition to rehear its long-fought patent infringement case, which was only partially reversed in EchoStar's favor last January.
Having attained a glimmer of hope last January with a partial reversal and partial remand -- amid a partial upholding -- of an April 2006 verdict in TiVo's favor, EchoStar this afternoon lost its appeal to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals to have the entire case reheard. The Dish Network parent went for all the marbles and lost.
Paragraph against ISP throttling hailed as users' rights victory in EU
A simple recommendation that the European Commission consider not passing laws that help ISPs throttle Internet traffic, is being heralded as a stick in the eye of French President Sarkozy, who has aims to require ISPs to do just that.
What passed the European Parliament yesterday was not a bill or a new law. But a single paragraph of text added to a simple parliamentary report, at no less than the last minute, is being treated as a huge symbolic victory for users who don't want their ISPs throttling or cutting off their Internet access.
ISO takes full charge of Open XML, sets up 'harmonization' group
It will now be up to a new working group, yet to be given an official name, to manage the process of making OXML play nice with ODF. It's out of Microsoft's hands.
We can't call it "Office Open XML" anymore, because it no longer belongs to Microsoft Office exclusively. As of yesterday, International Organization for Standardization committee SC 34 passed a resolution that effectively assumes stewardship of Open XML, the document format standard originally produced by Microsoft, and which is now officially under new management.
Yahoo's 'strategic alternative' surprise involves AOL, Google
The way the game of mergers and acquisitions is typically played involves the carefully measured use of speculation seeding -- the fine art of making the other side wonder what you're going to do, without having to actually amass the real tools to do it.
ANALYSIS Yesterday, Yahoo revealed it can play this game quite masterfully. In an almost effortless stroke of gamesmanship, the Web portal leader announced it would test giving Google an extra outlet for its AdSense for Search, and then in the same statement pronounced quite sternly that by no means should anyone take this to mean anything permanent is taking place...because after all, Yahoo maintains the right to explore all its alternatives.
AMD quad-core Opteron servers claim performance records
The return of AMD to any kind of dominant position in the CPU market depends on its ability to be perceived by systems analysis personnel as the performance leader. Today, the company obtained some much-needed ammunition in that battle.
The question prospective customers have been asking recently about AMD is whether its reticence to produce a 3.0 GHz+ quad-core CPU will hurt it, not only in head-to-head matchups against Intel Xeon but with respect to its perception as a potential performance champion. Today, AMD claimed leading scores among turned in by three separate x86-based servers, all of them HP ProLiant models.
Yahoo to test running Google ads alongside its search results
In what appears to be a very carefully considered, strategically phrased statement this afternoon, Yahoo said it will actually test carrying Google's ads on its own pages, calling the test a "strategic alternative." Microsoft isn't happy and quickly responded.
For an upcoming two-week period, the date of which was not announced, Yahoo said that it will imbue up to three percent of readers' search queries with ads generated using Google's AdSense for Search service. That service was intentionally created to give other Web sites a mechanism for its users to search the Web using Google, with AdSense ads appearing next to the results, and with sites sharing in Google's revenue.
After an 11-year holdout, Iomega agrees to a buyout
It's the end of another great technology brand that came to light, shot like a comet, and then started blinking out all during the 1990s. Iomega held out as long as it could, and in the end, a nearly quarter-billion-dollar buyout may not be all that bad.
When my ten-year-old daughter asked me the other day why there was no "A" or "B" drive on any PC she had ever used, I gave her the short and sweet answer that the older drives that used to have those letters are now too small to be significant. The real answer, of course, was Iomega.
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