Walt Mossberg interviewed Jon Leibowitz, Federal Trade Commission chairman, this week at the D10 Conference.
Leibowitz explained that there is no U.S. privacy statute, but argues that the FTC’s “broad prohibition against ‘unfair and deceptive acts or practices’ gives it a decent enough paddle with which to smack Google, Facebook and other companies that need to be reminded that our personal information is also our property.”
In the last decade, the FTC has brought more than 100 spam and spyware cases and 30 cases on data security. This includes major cases against Google and Facebook.
A fundamental tenant suggests that your information is your property, not that of the website or service. A Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights is being developed in Congress.
A Do Not Track option for third party apps is a modest provision and company executives have told Leibowitz that this would help address people’s concerns and is good for business. There has been meaningful progress by business.
Privacy is one of the few bipartisan areas of agreement in Congress. If business does not address this, there may be more regulations forthcoming.
Ari Emanuel, co-CEO of William Morris Endeavor, spoke to an audience at the D10 conference about the importance of Google and other Silicon Valley tech companies helping Hollywood figure out a way to deal with online piracy.
“We need Northern California to figure out how to keep our intellectual property from being stolen,” he said.
Emanuel opposes the notion that TV viewers should have to pay only for what they want: “From subs to advertising, that’s $100 million into Hollywood. If we go a la carte, that drops to $40 million.”
He believes that “television business’s economics are better than it’s ever been” and shrugs off the idea that users will stop paying for content in what analysts describe as either “cord-cutting” or “cord-never.”
“I think when people get to a certain age, they pay,” he said. “Somebody’s got to pay for this, or you’re not going to get premium content, and I think that’s more valuable than ‘two dogs doing whatever they’re doing on a couch.'”
When discussing Google’s role in increased piracy on the Internet Emanuel notes that he does not want Google to censor search results, but thinks the company can do more to decrease piracy. He likens potential restrictions to pornography: “Look, Google can filter and does filter for child pornography. They do that already. So stealing is a bad thing, and child pornography is a bad thing.”
Microsoft’s Windows 8 Release Preview is now available at the company’s website.
“Microsoft has listed several tweaks from the Consumer Preview to the Release Preview,” reports Geek.com. “Among them are improvements to the Windows Store, refined Mail, Photos, and People apps, more customizations options for your Start Screen, better support for multiple monitors, and improved multitouch support in Internet Explorer 10.”
The company has confirmed the upgrade path for customers who buy PCs in the months before the OS is released later this year, reports Engadget in a related post.
“The company will be rolling out a Windows Upgrade Offer in no less than 131 markets starting June 2nd, which will let anyone who buys an eligible Windows 7-based PC also purchase a Windows 8 Pro upgrade for $14.99 — that offer will be valid through January 31st, 2013,” details Engadget.
Upgrade options for those who already own a Windows 7-based PC will be announced in the “coming months.”
Some 1,700 software developers are turning to NeuroSky’s MindWave Mobile headset as a controlling interface for video games and other applications.
The $129 headset claims to be sensitive to brain waves and can wirelessly beam digital information derived from the brain to computers and other devices.
“So far the headsets are confined to mostly digital interfaces — videogames and movies whose plots can be altered with the mind — although in some cases real-world objects have been used, like a pair of catlike ears that move depending on a person’s mood,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
“All of the companies vying to emerge in the brain-wave market are using electroencephalograph, or EEG, technology, which measures the brain’s electrical impulses in the forehead and has long been used to diagnose epilepsy and other brain disorders,” notes the article. “The headsets contain a sensor that detects various mental states, and a chip converts the signals from analog format to digital so they can travel wirelessly to a computer.”
“There is going to be a whole ecosystem of new players, and NeuroSky is very well-positioned to be like the Intel of this new industry,” suggests Alvaro Fernandez, chief executive of consultancy SharpBrains.
The company faces competition from San Francisco-based Emotiv Systems and its $300 multi-sensor headset.
Cineastes are turning to a relatively new business model for their collections: DVDs and Blu-ray discs via MOD (“manufactured-on-demand”).
“MOD discs can be purchased only online — from Amazon and more specialized websites — and they are not available for rent through services like Netflix,” notes the Wall Street Journal.
“The leader in MOD in every respect is Warner Brothers, which has led the charge since this technology’s commercial debut three years ago,” explains the article. “Warner not only oversees the biggest catalog — more than 1,000 titles to date sold under the Warner Archive label — but also runs a robust retail operation via its website (www.wbshop.com).”
MOD titles are also currently available from Sony, MGM and Universal.
The article cites an array of hard-to-find and lesser known films: “Viewers may find other titles that interest them more, but that’s the sport of it. MOD allows us to discover new adventures in cinema two ways — by building on what we already cherish and by taking chances with the utterly unfamiliar. And now a vast trove of both lies before us.”
“Amazon.com’s streaming video service LoveFilm, sometimes called ‘the Netflix of Europe,’ said Wednesday that it has struck an exclusive multi-year digital licensing agreement with NBCUniversal for Universal Pictures films,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but the streaming deal will include titles such as “Kick-Ass,” “Despicable Me,” “Battleship,” “Bridesmaids” and others.
This will give LoveFilm another means of competing with Netflix in the UK. The service already has streaming deals with Disney, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Entertainment One and StudioCanal.
“LoveFilm is proud to offer its members access to the highest-quality content across multiple platforms from another of the world’s most respected studios,” says Jim Buckle, managing director of LoveFilm. “NBCUniversal is also LoveFilm’s latest exclusive streaming deal in our quest to deliver the widest choice of content on as many platforms as possible.”
Samsung launched new computers this week based on Google’s Chrome operating system, including a lightweight laptop and versatile new desktop machine.
Additionally, Google has announced “enhancements to Chrome OS and Google Apps, including tight integration with Google Drive and the ability to edit Google Docs documents offline,” reports PCWorld.
The $449-549 Chromebook Series 5 550 laptop has an Intel Celeron 867 dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM and 12.1-inch display (1280×800). The Samsung Chromebox Series 3 desktop features an Intel Celeron B840 dual-core processor, 4GB of RAM and built-in Wi-Fi.
“Coming later will be a tight integration with the Google Drive cloud storage service, as well as the ability to edit Google Docs documents when the machine is offline,” notes the article. “When available, this Google Docs offline editing feature will be available to all Google Docs users, not just people who buy these new Samsung machines.”
The computers feature an apps-centric user interface with simplified app launcher, a more sophisticated media player, native photo editor and enhanced video streaming options for services such as Netflix and YouTube.
The new version of Google’s Chrome operating system features improved support for online video and word processing services, intended to drive sales of Chromebook computers.
The new release comes a few months ahead of Microsoft’s Windows 8 touch-based OS.
“The system is impressive, and designed to work seamlessly with Google products like Android phones and the (still-underwhelming) Google Plus social network,” reports The New York Times. “It is also clearly pointed at Microsoft, just as Microsoft is preparing to introduce Windows 8, one of the biggest changes to its operating system ever.”
“People participate in ecosystems,” says Sundar Pichai, head of the Chrome project at Google. “If you are a Chrome browser user, an Android user and a Gmail user, a Chromebook is a more natural experience than a Windows 8.”
Chromebooks require an Internet connection for access to most applications. “By default you will be able to get the last 100 documents you were working on,” adds Pichai. “When you go back online, it will resynch with your files and update everything.”
Samsung is introducing Chrome-based laptops and desktop computers this week.
MIT’s Technology Review offers a provocative analysis of Facebook’s future and its potential influence on the industry.
“For all its valuation, the social network is just another ad-supported site. Without an earth-changing idea, it will collapse and take down the Web,” suggests the article.
Online ads are increasingly ineffective. Offline ad rates of $10 have now become $1 online and sites are trying to make up the difference by rapidly acquiring more viewers.
Facebook, which gets 82 percent of its revenue from advertising, has convinced everyone that it will be able to use social data and invent a new kind of advertising. Yet its social advertising is something that General Motors, for example, has said is just not effective. And the more users migrate to mobile, the more difficult advertising becomes on such small screens.
Google has become a facilitator between users searching for things and companies trying to sell those things. Facebook — which has the scale, platform and brand — also wants to become a facilitator. But it lacks the big idea to do so. It claims to know what people are thinking even before they do, but it does not have a way to take advantage of that fact.
“Absent an earth-shaking idea, Facebook will look forward to slowing or declining growth in a tapped-out market, and ever-falling ad rates, both on the Web and (especially) in mobile,” suggests Technology Review. “Facebook isn’t Google; it’s Yahoo or AOL.”
Eventually, Facebook will lower its per-user revenues — thus forcing others to do the same, putting all ad-supported sites into a downward spiral.
A new study from Tremor Video and Frank N. Magid Associates shows that customers watch 52 percent of smartphone videos from their homes, suggesting that smartphones are no longer used only to view short-form video on-the-go.
“In essence, we’ve discovered that the device doesn’t matter,” says Mike Vorhaus, president of Magid Advisors.
“According to the study, long-form video now accounts for nearly 40 percent of smartphone video viewing every week,” reports The Next Web. “Peak viewing hours between 5 and 11 pm also indicate that users are now using their mobile as they would use a TV.”
This trend suggests users may be using their smartphones in the same way many people use tablets — for second screen viewing while watching television.
According to the report, second screen viewing may actually go down in the future. This is not because tablet or smartphone use will decline, but because “8 percent of current mobile/connected TV viewers plan to cancel their pay TV service in the next year, and another 23 percent are seriously considering cancelling,” notes TNW.
“It’s important for video producers — whether online or on traditional TV — to look at new devices not as competition, but as new opportunities to engage viewers beyond current content and advertising offerings,” suggests Doron Wesly, Tremor Video’s head of market strategy.
Backed by developing countries and “exemplars of democracy” such as China and Russia, the United Nations is looking into proposals to regulate and tax the Internet.
The International Telecommunication Union, the U.N. agency that traditionally coordinates radio spectrum and satellite orbits, is considering expanding its scope to include the Internet.
“While the ITU may not have the authority to impose controls over the Internet here or inside other resisting nations, those following the process fear the establishment of a separate, regulated Internet regime that would disrupt the global free flow of information and commerce, as well as the development of such cross border technologies as cloud computing,” reports Fortune.
In the U.S., the prospect of U.N. control over the Internet has united the political right, left and center in opposition. The White House Office of Science and Technology has argued that the U.N. plan would “put political dealmakers, rather than innovators and experts, in charge of the future of the Internet.”
However, the public and business community has not engaged with this threat and may need to do so.
Executives from major broadband and media companies such as Disney, Netflix and AT&T were given seats this week on the FCC’s new Open Internet Advisory Committee.
The newly-formed advisory panel is tasked with helping the FCC administer its Net neutrality plan.
The controversial order (adopted in 2010 and facing a court challenge by Verizon), requires service providers to offer equal access speeds to rival services and prohibit them from favoring their own content.
“While the committee does not include some of the most vocal opponents of Net neutrality, some of the companies represented are publicly ambivalent about the FCC’s order, including AT&T,” notes Hillicon Valley.
Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain will chair the committee and MIT research specialist David Clark will serve as co-chair.
Additional companies and organizations with a panel presence include Comcast, Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, the Writers Guild of America and the National Urban League.
According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Facebook will acquire Face.com for $100 million.
TechCrunch suggests this is a logical acquisition for Facebook: “Photos are core to Facebook’s lock-in strategy and facial recognition allows tags to better reflect the social graph, which then feeds into making its advertising platform more efficient.”
“Face.com’s popular Facebook application Photo Tagger allows people to scan their (or their friends’) photo albums for known faces,” details the post. “It also has the iOS facial recognition app KLIK and a public API that could benefit Facebook.”
In a related article, Digital Trends agrees that the deal makes sense: “…add to the equation that Facebook is trying to do a better job with mobile (as partially evidenced by its Camera App), and the added incentive a mobile-only feature like this gives it seems perfectly logical.”
“One of the most convincing elements of the Camera App is that you can tag friends from it, and the ability to simply take, filter, and upload a picture without having to manually find the corresponding name would make it a fundamentally better user experience,” notes Digital Trends. “It’s also a fun novelty to hold up your phone and have an app simultaneously identify your friends.”
Apple has released scheduling details for its Worldwide Developers Conference to take place June 11-15 in San Francisco. It’s likely that Apple CEO Tim Cook will be leading the event’s festivities.
“The big question mark, however, revolves around the possibility of Cook unveiling the new iPhone. Over the last several months, the rumor mill hasn’t come to a consensus on whether the iPhone will be announced at WWDC or sometime later this year,” reports CNET.
“We have some incredible things coming out,” Cook hinted at last night’s D10 Conference, providing few details but noting that Apple TV remains “an area of intense interest for us.”
He added that Apple would be more forthcoming regarding its position on labor rights in China and promised to manufacture more components in the U.S. Cook also addressed Apple’s relationship with Facebook. “I think we can do more with them,” he said.
AllThingsD reports that during D10, Cook hinted at new plans for Siri: “…there’s more that it can do, and we have a lot of people working on this. And I think you will be really pleased with some of the things you’re going to see over the coming months. We have some cool ideas about what Siri can do… Sure, it can be broader, and so forth, but we see unbelievable potential here. We’re doubling down on it.”
Apple has launched a WWDC 2012 app intended to help attendees keep track of events and updates.
The $8.5 billion Skype deal represents the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history — one that “will ultimately be judged by whether Microsoft can weave the product deeply into its vast product portfolio, providing a superior experience on products as various as Windows PCs and Xboxes,” reports Nick Wingfield for The New York Times.
Although Wingfield suggests that Skype and Microsoft have yet to deliver, this could soon change as Skype is expected to release a version of its software specifically for the upcoming Windows 8 — intended to work well with touch-screen computers and devices.
“We always want Skype to be first and best on Windows, but certainly a strategic part of the value in communications software is working on all platforms,” explains Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive. “We’re committed to that cross-platform support.”
“Microsoft plans to integrate Skype into Lync, a Microsoft communications product aimed at businesses,” writes Wingfield. “Another priority is making Skype video conferencing work on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console, though that product is not likely to be released this year.”
Skype still releases versions of its software to non-Microsoft devices like Android smartphones, Sony game consoles, Comcast set-top boxes and Apple mobile devices. During the first three months of 2012, Skype’s use jumped 40 percent to 100 billion minutes over the same period last year.
Walt Mossberg interviewed Jon Leibowitz, Federal Trade Commission chairman, this week at the D10 Conference.
