Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• The Presidential Wheel Turns - WSJ.com

  • This week something changed. George W. Bush is back, for the unveiling of his presidential library. His numbers are dramatically up. You know why? Because he's the farthest thing from Barack Obama.
  • Obama fatigue has opened the way to Bush affection.
  • One thing Mr. Bush didn't think he was was superior. He thought he was luckily born, quick but not deep, and he famously trusted his gut but also his heart. He always seemed moved and grateful to be in the White House.

• Apple's 10-Year-Old iTunes Loses Ground to Streaming - Businessweek

  • “There is nothing on iTunes’ store today that gives anyone the impetus to buy something.”
  • “It’s no longer about individual tracks, it’s about access,”
  • “The concept of buying music at 99¢ a song is becoming irrelevant.”
  • the market for downloads will begin to decline, albeit slowly, within five years. “We are in an interesting transition,” McGuire says. “Download-to-own will persist, but with younger consumers, access through streaming services makes more sense.”

• 22nd Century unit signs overseas deal | WKBW News 7: News, Sports, Weather | Buffalo, NY | Top Stories

  • Dutch Magic cigarettes fall into the "very low nicotine" category, and contain approximately 95 percent less nicotine than typical "ultra light" and "light" cigarettes
  • The new deal with Wilshire marks the first time VLN tobacco products will be available to consumers in Europe

• The economics behind Amazon's possible set-top box gambit | Internet & Media - CNET News

  • Here's his logic: If Apple, Roku, and others can make money on streaming media devices, so too can Amazon. The advantage Amazon has, though, is that it already provides streaming content. So if Amazon decides to give its set-top box customers Amazon Prime subscriptions for, say, one year, the company will be able to offer a better value than rivals even if they charge the same amount for the device.

• The TV Everywhere Revolution Has Finally Kicked Into High Gear -- AppAdvice

  • Cable’s stranglehold on Hollywood looks less secure than at any time in the history of the medium. The result is that 2013 could finally be the year when TV Everywhere finally becomes a reality, at least in a larger way than before
  • While cable is still the dominant method of TV viewing, streaming is gaining in popularity.
  • the ability to download or stream ad-supported content will be everywhere, no matter the device

• Few cable users aware of TV Everywhere - paidContent

  • Only about a fifth of pay TV subscribers know their cable, satellite or telco service provider offers technology that lets them view video content over the internet on digital devices.

• The Abundance Of "Rich-Hating" | Market Daily News

  • Wealth is no longer seen as a sign of virtue and hard work but as a symbol of exploitation.
  • Mitt Romney was right when he said there exists a mindset of “victimology”. No matter what brilliant entrepreneurs bring to the market, they are demonized simply because they earn much more money than the average Joe. This has lead to a growing sect of businessmen who find it necessary to tell the public that not only do they not support the system that brought them immense wealth, but they support government regulation to make things more equitable.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• Broadcasters file Aereo appeal, warn of 'havoc' and 'massive disruption' to TV industry - paidContent

  • Fox and other broadcasters are asking a New York appeals court to reconsider its decision to give a green light to Aereo, a controversial start-up that uses tiny antennas to retransmit over-the-air TV to mobile devices for $8 a month.
  • In the past, other companies have retransmitted TV signals over the internet but broadcasters quickly smashed them for copyright infringement. Aereo, however, has survived two major court challenges thanks to its technology which assigns a mini-antenna (see pic below ) to each subscriber;
  • On a broader level, the legal manœuvreing is part of a great game between Aereo and the broadcasters over the future of TV that could end up at the Supreme Court. In the coming battle, the broadcasters are pinning their hopes on a recent California court case, which shut down an Aereo clone and rejected the theory that a private antenna means a transmission is not “public” under copyright law – a theory accepted by two out three judges on the Second Circuit court.

• Start-Up Lets Users Track Who Tracks Them - NYTimes.com

  • A start-up based in Palo Alto, Calif., Disconnect, which helps you track who is tracking you online, this week released its latest tool to help safeguard your browsing history. Its new browser extension works on Chrome and Firefox browsers and is meant to block an invisible network of around 2,000 separate tracking companies

• Netflix plans its move from Microsoft Silverlight to HTML5 video | The Verge

  • The solution is HTML5 video, but that relatively young technology requires further development to meet the needs — and DRM requirements — of a service like Netflix. According to the blog post, Netflix has been collaborating on three W3C initiatives that together will provide the required functionality for streaming video services. Dubbed the "HTML5 Premium Video Extensions," they include an extension that will allow the company to handle its delivery streams via JavaScript, another that will allow DRM encryption (perhaps the biggest obstacle for HTML5 video's broad adoption), and a cryptography extension that will allow Netflix to make sure any communication between its JavaScript code and servers remains secure.

• Card Readers Will Lead Mobile Payments - Business Insider

  • the mass adoption of smartphones and tablets has set the stage for a move away from fixed-point, card-based transactions and toward those completed on mobile. The old dream of the "digital wallet" is coming true in a very particular mobile-led fashion
  • attachable credit card readers and their companion mobile apps would become the most widely adopted mobile payment technologies. The main rival technology is called Near-field Communications (NFC)

• How 'Made in the USA' is Making a Comeback | TIME.com

  • step back and you’ll see a bright spot, perhaps the best economic news the U.S. has witnessed since the rise of Silicon Valley: Made in the USA is making a comeback. Climbing out of the recession, the U.S. has seen its manufacturing growth outpace that of other advanced nations,
  • U.S. factories increasingly have access to cheap energy thanks to oil and gas from the shale boom
  • “The offshoring boom,” Ashworth wrote in a recent report, “does appear to have largely run its course.
  • Many new manufacturing jobs require at least a two-year tech degree to complement artisan skills such as welding or milling. The bar will only get higher:

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• Computer Sales in Free Fall - WSJ.com

  • The personal computer is in crisis, and getting little help from Microsoft Corp.'s  MSFT +2.21%  Windows 8 software once seen as a possible savior.
  • world-wide shipments of laptops and desktops fell 14% in the first quarter from a year earlier. That is the sharpest drop since IDC began tracking this data in 1994 and marks the fourth straight quarter of declines.
  • not only has Windows 8 failed to attract consumers, but businesses are keeping their distance as well.

• Verizon CEO: 50% of our wireless traffic is video - FierceWireless

  • Video accounts for 50 percent of Verizon Wireless' (NYSE:VZ) network traffic today and by 2017 the carrier estimates video will make up two-thirds of all traffic over the network

• Can you find me now? How carriers sell your location and get away with it | The Verge

  • the second kind of data also includes your location, determined by the nearest cell tower whenever your phone checks in with the network, providing roughly a hundred data points each day. It’s the same data law enforcement uses if they’ve got a warrant out — but it belongs to the carriers, and as long as your "personal" data is stripped out, they’re allowed to sell the anonymized data to whoever they want.

• CBS joins Fox in considering subscription-only model | Internet & Media - CNET News

  • Another television network has joined the broadcaster backlash following last week's court decision upholding Internet TV company Aereo's right to stream broadcast TV without paying retransmission fees
  • Last week, a federal appeals court in New York upheld a lower court ruling in favor of Aereo, which uses tiny antennas to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals that it then streams over the Internet to its subscribers' Internet-connected devices. Broadcasters, including ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox filed two lawsuits against Aereo for infringing on their copyrights by streaming their broadcast content without paying retransmission fees.

• Next to Use 3-D Printing: Your Surgeon - WSJ.com

  • Surgeons are finding industrial 3-D printers to be a lifesaver on the operating table. This technology, also known as additive manufacturing, has long produced prototypes of jewelry, electronics and car parts. But now these industrial printers are able to construct personalized copies of livers and kidneys, one ultrathin layer at a time.

• Shodan: The scariest search engine on the Internet - Apr. 8, 2013

  • Unlike Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), which crawls the Web looking for websites, Shodan navigates the Internet's back channels. It's a kind of "dark" Google, looking for the servers, webcams, printers, routers and all the other stuff that is connected to and makes up the Internet.

  • hodan runs 24/7 and collects information on about 500 million connected devices and services each month.   

       

      It's stunning what can be found with a simple search on Shodan. Countless traffic lights, security cameras, home automation devices and heating systems are connected to the Internet and easy to spot.   

       

      Shodan searchers have found control systems for a water park, a gas station, a hotel wine cooler and a crematorium. Cybersecurity researchers have even located command and control systems for nuclear power plants and a particle-accelerating cyclotron by using Shodan

• Move Over, Apple and Google: Apperating Systems Are Taking Over Your Phones | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

  • Facebook Home makes its own big changes to the default Android experience. Most significantly, it buries most Android apps several clicks away from the home screen, meaning they are less likely to be used — or even discovered — by consumers. Facebook content and advertisements, meanwhile, will get top billing, appearing even when a user has the phone or tablet locked
  • These system tweaks could mean a big loss of revenue for Google

• Fingerprint Scanners, Voice Unlock Coming to Your Smartphone? - Mobile Phones / Smartphones - Technologist

  • Strengthening smartphone security using biometric devices might just be the next big innovation for manufacturers.
  • According to the Telegraph, Apple could be adding fingerprint recognition to the circular Home button on their phones on either the iPhone 5s or the iPhone 6.

• YouTube Won't Put Your Video Back Up, Even If It's Fair Use, If It Contains Content From Universal Music | Techdirt

  • YouTube now admits that, when it comes to some videos that contain content from certain "partner" companies, it won't repost those videos, even if the video uploaders file a counternotice and show that they're relying on fair use. YouTube claims that it will still keep some of those videos blocked due to "contractual" obligations:
  • Universal Music made a strange claim that it had some sort of contractual agreement that allowed it take down videos like Megaupload's. YouTube quickly came out with a statement denying this, but the situations described in McKay's post certainly raise serious questions about this, and clearly suggest that YouTube has made at least some deals that effectively wipe out fair use for some users. I assume it will surprise next to no one that the key example that led McKay to discover this situation... also involved Universal Music

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

• Traffic: Palm Beach County testing new technology to ease traffic woes - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

  • Based in Palm Beach County's Intelligent Transportation System Center, a combination of traffic cameras, computer programs and devices that detect travel times and speed are giving traffic engineers quick access to data that allows them to make immediate changes to traffic signal timing to break up traffic jams.

    Since October, they've been using Bluetooth readers to determine how long it takes motorists to travel along those corridors. The readers pick up signals emitted by Bluetooth-enabled devices. The wireless signal can be turned off on smartphones, but is on all the time in cars

• Why Facebook Home bothers me: It destroys any notion of privacy - Tech News and Analysis

  • Facebook Home should put privacy advocates on alert, for this application erodes any idea of privacy. If you install this, then it is very likely that Facebook is going to be able to track your every move, and every little action
  • But there is a bigger worry. The phone’s GPS can send constant information back to the Facebook servers, telling it your whereabouts at any time.
  • This future is going to happen – and it is too late to debate. However, the problem is that Facebook is going to use all this data — not to improve our lives — but to target better marketing and advertising messages at us. Zuckerberg made no bones about the fact that Facebook will be pushing ads on Home.

• People Not In Labor Force Soar By 663,000 To 90 Million, Labor Force Participation Rate At 1979 Levels | Zero Hedge

  • Things just keep getting worse for the American worker, and by implication US economy, where as we have shown many times before, it pays just as well to sit back and collect disability and various welfare and entitlement checks, than to work .The best manifestation of this: the number of people not in the labor force which in March soared by a massive 663,000 to a record 90 million Americans who are no longer even looking for work.

• Microsoft threatened as smartphones and tablets rise, Gartner warns | Technology | guardian.co.uk

  • PC market begins to slip and tablets will outsell desktops and laptops combined by 2015, as Android ascendancy means challenge to relevance of Microsoft, research group warns
  • a huge and disruptive shift is underway, in which more and more people will use a tablet as their main computing device
  • also see shipments of Android devices dwarf those of Windows PCs and phones by 2017
  • "the interesting thing is that this shift in device preference is coming from a shift in user behaviour. Some people think that it's just like the shift when people moved from desktops to laptops [a process that began in the early 2000s]. But that's wrong. The laptop was more mobile than the desktop, but with the tablet and smartphone, there's a bigger embrace of the cloud for sharing and for access to content. It's also more biased towards consumption of content rather than production

• Gimmick or a breakthrough? - The Hindu

  • Technology forums say the technology that has been on the sidelines for several years might finally be taking centre stage now.
  • Though some enthusiasts would like the world to believe that the technologically superior NFC would spell death for the QR Code,

• Intel to Offer Multichannel TV Service, Takes on Pay-TV Cable Business | Variety

  • Intel intended to invade the pay-TV business with a nationwide multichannel TV service of its own.
  • his vow that Intel would start selling a device that would deliver video to TVs via broadband by the end of the year

• Obamacare to pay 'navigators' $20 to $48 an hour, provide free translators | WashingtonExaminer.com

  • Tens of thousands of health care professionals, union workers and community activists hired as "navigators" to help Americans choose Obamacare options starting Oct. 1 will be paid up to $48 an hour, more than six times the federal minimum wage of $7.25
  • The rules allow navigators to come from the ranks of unions, health providers and community action groups such as ACORN and Planned Parenthood. They are required to provide unbiased advice

• 22nd Century Group Announces U.S. Patent Issues for MPO Nicotine Biosynthesis Gene - Yahoo! Finance

  • a company that has developed groundbreaking technology for tobacco harm   reduction products
  • The MPO gene encodes a protein involved in a key step of nicotine   biosynthesis. Scientists have attempted to clone the MPO gene for   decades
  • MPO expression can be either down-regulated or up-regulated to   produce tobacco plant varieties and tobacco products with a wide range   of nicotine levels (from very low to high), or altered ratios of   nicotine and other nicotinic alkaloids such as anatabine and   nornicotin

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.