FCC: Allow Wireless Internet on Planes
The FCC board overwhelmingly voted in favor of allowing high-speed Internet on airline flights Wednesday. The vote opens the door for wireless access on commercial flights by 2006.
"If there is a theme for this meeting, it is that we want (new technologies) on the land, in the air, and on the sea," FCC Chairman Michael Powell said. "We are pushing the frontiers in order to bring the information age to all corners of the world." Part of the ruling also opened for public comment a proposal to lift the in-flight cell phone use ban.
MD Judge: Spam Law 'Unconstitutional'
A Maryland Judge on Tuesday ruled that the state's antispam law is unconstitutional because it attempts to regulate out-of-state commerce. The decision came as part of a ruling that dismissed a case against an alleged New York spammer brought by Eric Menhart, a law student at George Washington University. In the case, the spamming party was in New York, the recipient in Washington, and the ISP was in Virginia.
Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran said that although it didn't involve anyone in Maryland, the judge's ruling was in error. "The facts in this case may well be beyond the scope of our law, but that doesn't mean our law is unconstitutional," Curran said. Menhart says he will appeal.
Time Warner to Pay $510 Million in Fines
The U.S. Government Wednesday announced that an agreement with Time Warner has been reached to settle a lawsuit alleging its AOL unit purposely inflated revenue, and will pay fines of $210 million.
The suit claimed that during the fourth quarter of 2000 and the first quarter of 2001, AOL and the now-defunct website PurchasePro.com schemed to inflate PurchasePro's revenues to shareholders and the general public.
Verizon Reportedly Eyeing Sprint Merger
Verizon has reportedly gained the blessing of wireless partner Vodafone to go ahead with plans to propose merger with Sprint, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. A merger between the two companies would result in a wireless giant with over 65 million customers.
Sprint is already in talks with Nextel Communications over a proposed merger, and an announcement of a deal could occur as soon as Wednesday. The $36 billion merger of equals would create a new company called Sprint-Nextel.
Microsoft: We Must Grow Search Share
MSN vice president Yusuf Mehdi told investors Tuesday that Microsoft is working overtime to increase its share of Web searches in the face of strong competition by Yahoo! and Google. With only 9.5 percent of search queries, Microsoft has long a road ahead as it endeavors to chip away at Google's 60 percent hold on the search market, Mehdi said.
The conference for investors came one day after MSN's announcement that it was joining the desktop search arena with its MSN Toolbar Suite Beta.
AIM, Netscape Recovering from Glitch
America Online began to reactivate thousands of instant messaging accounts Monday after it had mistakenly deleted them due to a computer glitch. The company said the error occurred during a regular purge intended to open up inactive AIM screen names to new users.
"As of today, all AIM screen names that were accidentally affected by the recent screen name refresh, as well as all corresponding AIM Buddy Lists, will be fully restored," AOL spokesperson Krista Thomas told BetaNews. AOL acknowledged some Netscape.net e-mail users were also affected by the glitch, and those screen names "will also be fully restored by the end of the day."
MSN Launches Desktop Search Beta
Microsoft has released a beta of MSN Toolbar Suite, which includes the company's long-awaited Desktop Search. According to Microsoft, the search functionality within the toolbar suite will help users search through documents, media files or e-mail messages on their PC.
The suite includes three toolbars, one for Microsoft Outlook, a toolbar for Windows and Internet Explorer, and the MSN Deskbar for the Windows taskbar. Deskbar includes the MSN Desktop Search, which indexes files on a computer during periods of inactivity.
Blu-ray Founder Thomson Backs HD-DVD
Leading DVD manufacturer Thomson announced Friday that it will support both new competing high-definition DVD formats. However, in what could spell early trouble for Blu-ray, BetaNews has learned that the company feels there is a "greater opportunity" in HD-DVD. A founding member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, Thomson currently only has plans to produce HD-DVD players.
Tom Bracken, Vice President of Marketing for Thomson told BetaNews that the company's movie studio customers have played biggest role in Thomson's decision to produce HD-DVD players initially. "Since there are few who have announced the availability of HD-DVD players, there appears to be a greater opportunity," he said.
T-Mobile: No 3G in US Until 2007
T-Mobile customers eager for high-speed 3G access received some bad news Thursday. At a conference for investors, T-Mobile USA CEO Robert Dotson told the audience that a network based on UMTS is at least two years away if not more.
UMTS, or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, is a third generation mobile technology that promises data transmission speeds of up to 2 megabits per second.
Kazaa: We Talked With Record Execs
As the closely-watched file sharing trial in Australia reaches its midpoint, Kazaa executives told the court Thursday that it had attempted to hold talks with the record industry over its concerns of unauthorized file sharing occurring on its network.
Several record companies brought the file sharing case to the Australian court system in late November after being rebuffed by the courts in both the U.S. and Europe. Part of Kazaa's parent company, Sharman Networks, is alleged to be based in Australia.
HD-DVD Eases Transition to High Def
Japanese electronics giants Toshiba and NEC, joined by disc manufacturer Memory-Tech continue to work on a new format called HD-DVD that will help ease the transition to high definition DVD. The companies hope that Hollywood and DVD player manufacturers take their side in what looks to be a brutal fight brewing in the race to HD.
The competing format, called Blu-ray, is being developed by Sony and several partners. Disney recently announced it will release movies based on the format when discs become available late next year.
IM Providers Back IMlogic 'Threat Center'
With the growing threat of viruses via instant messaging, IMlogic announced Wednesday the IMlogic Threat Center to serve as a one-stop clearinghouse for virus information for its users. The first-of-its-kind project received the blessing of all the major IM providers plus two anti-virus companies, McAfee and Sybari.
IMlogic will provide a knowledge base containing detection, analysis, alert, and protection details for IM-borne viruses, worms and spim. Messaging giants Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL have backed the initiative.
Artists Split on Internet File Sharing
Artists and musicians mostly agree that unauthorized file sharing should be illegal, but a large majority believes file sharing poses a minor threat or no threat at all. That's the finding of a survey released Sunday by the Pew Internet polling organization.
The study could potentially be seen as a positive by either side in the file sharing trial in Australia, where record labels have sued Kazaa creator Sharman Networks for alleged rampant piracy occurring across its network.
MP3 Goes 5.1 Channel
Soon audiophiles may be listening to their music in surround sound thanks to a new standard released by the creators of MP3. Scientists and engineers from Fraunhofer IIS, Thomson and Agere Systems have released an encoder and decoder to the public which they claim produces files half the size of currently released formats and is backwards compatible with standard MP3.
"As surround sound is increasingly gaining importance in the marketplace, we are confident that MP3 Surround will attract the attention of music production professionals and consumers alike," Juergen Herre, scientist at Fraunhofer IIS told the media. The MP3 Surround software, which includes an encoder, decoder and Winamp plug-in, will be available for free evaluation through December 31, 2005.
Microsoft to Pull NT 4 Life Support Plug
Users of Microsoft's Windows NT 4.0 Server operating system were reminded Friday that free support will end on December 31 of this year. The move is part of a previously announced program to phase out the aging server software in favor of Microsoft's newer operating systems.
Redmond officials claim that it is not cost-effective for Microsoft to continue supporting NT due to new security vulnerabilities. "These enhancements are included in new platforms such as Windows Server 2003," said Peter Houston, Senior Director of Windows Serviceability. "[They] offer our customers a far greater level of security than is possible with Windows NT Server 4.0."
Ed's Bio
Ed Oswald is a freelance journalist from the Reading, PA area. Although he has written across a variety of subjects, Ed’s passion and focus has been on technology and gadgets. His work regularly appears on tech news sites BetaNews, PCWorld, and Technologizer, and has been syndicated to eWeek, Time’s Techland blog, VentureBeat and the New York Times.
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