The new Secure Content Storage Association (SCSA) already has its first project underway.
Fox, Warner Bros., SanDisk and Western Digital are coming together for “Project Phenix,” that “will enable consumers to buy, store and playback HD Versions of movies and TV shows at home or on-the-go, easily and seamlessly,” the press release states.
The project is compatible with UltraViolet and the alliance will approve various TVs, tablets and display devices, “so that users will be able to download cloud-based media to compliant WD and SanDisk storage,” reports Engadget.
The project aligns with the SCSA’s goal to secure high-definition content, which comes into competition with popular Internet options like Netflix.
“We’ll see the technology available to license later in the year, which promises to render content ten times faster than streaming media on “over the top Internet” (translation: streaming services),” the article states.
With the anticipated tens of billions of devices connected to the Internet by 2020, some security firms at the Mobile World Congress are concerned the new Internet of Things will face data security issues with the current network security designs for humans, not machines.
“Put another way, could a not-so-smart client on a machine-to-machine (M2M) network become a future target of malicious Internet activity?”
“The nature of malicious attacks will not be made harder or easier by the infusion of M2M,” ReadWriteWeb reports based on an interview with Adaptive Mobile’s Cathal McDaid.”While consumers may drive newer and more sophisticated communications protocols for their mobile devices, M2M communications may not require an upgrade of format for the foreseeable future — certainly not, by McDaid’s estimate, within the next 20 years. So during that time frame, the same protocol will need to be supported as the foundation for secure communications between machines.”
“The fact is, as you make more ‘doorways’ into the Internet, the challenges of controlling access will become ever more acute,” Alex Brisbourne of KORE Wireless tells ReadWriteWeb. “Machine devices will add significantly to the ‘access doorways’ — just as increasing delivery of smartphones, etc., will do.”
Brisbourne goes on to explain that smartphones are in general open in terms of Internet access, enabling virus, malware and security attacks. Oppositely, machine to machine or M2M will likely be very closed.
Nokia plans to incorporate a 41-megapixel sensor into its smartphone to enable digital zooming.
The sensor allows 3-4X digital zooming of both still photos and video while maintaining image sharpness.
Nokia’s research team worked with a number of optical zooms and experimented with different sensors, which led to a revelation. “If a big enough sensor could be fitted into the phone, the camera could just zoom digitally and throw away the unneeded pixels,” reports AllThingsD, regarding the team’s approach.
“Nokia has done it with the 808 PureView — or Hyperion, as it was code-named during development.”
At full resolution, the smartphone’s camera reportedly rivals professional cameras. Unfortunately, the technology will first appear on Nokia’s Symbian phone which is not sold in the U.S.
RIM is working with developers to boost its third-party applications to rival those of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. However, Netflix is not signing on, explaining on Twitter: “We don’t have any current plans to support BlackBerry devices, including PlayBook.”
“Netflix has long been available for Apple’s iPhone and iPad and devices running Google’s Android software,” reports Reuters.
According to the post, it is not clear at this time whether Netflix would “port its existing Android app across rather than create a specific app for PlayBook.”
RIM recently upgraded software for the PlayBook to allow developers to easily translate their Android apps over to the PlayBook. “The upgrade also enables a BlackBerry smartphone to remotely control the tablet, which connects to a television via a standard cable,” adds Reuters.
The Obama Administration has released its Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights — an initiative to protect online privacy for Americans.
Working with the Federal Trade Commission, the plan is intended to enforce privacy standards to provide better personal control for consumers, encourage innovation from Internet companies and uphold global standards.
The proposal focuses on seven protections against data aggregation: “Consumers should have control over the kind of data companies collect, companies must be transparent about data usage plans and respect the context in which it is provided and disclosed. Companies would have to ensure secure and responsible handling of the data and be accountable for strong privacy measures. The bill of rights also calls for reasonable limits on the personal data that online companies can try to collect and retain, and the ability for consumers to correct their information,” Reuters reports.
The Department of Commerce and the FTC will collaborate with privacy advocates and Internet companies to come up with enforceable privacy policies. The industry has made attempts to self-regulate but some consumer groups and members of Congress believe the situation requires government involvement.
One main privacy concern addressed in the proposal is Internet tracking for targeted advertising. The top Internet browsers have opt-out “do not track” buttons (Google Chrome is still in the process of updating) and many online advertisers agreed to uphold “do not track” requests.
Research in Motion released a software update for its PlayBook tablet that includes new features, “some of which frankly should have been built into the device from day one,” reports TG Daily.
“Building on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s proven Web browsing, multimedia and multitasking strengths, the new BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 introduces a range of new communications and productivity enhancements as well as expanded app and content support,” indicates RIM in a statement.
The update enables messaging and a calendar, previously only available to users with BlackBerry phones. Also included is a digital streaming Video Store and professional tools for email and Microsoft Office.
The article says the OS update could have an interesting effect on the new BlackBerry phones to be released by the end of the year.
“But now, with at least six or seven months to wait until this becomes a reality, it may very well be too little too late. By then, Nokia’s partnership with Windows Phone will be in its maturity and the dominance of Android and iOS will only continue to grow on a global scale,” the post states.
Connecting to a Wi-Fi hotspot is hopefully about to get easier by eliminating the need for pop-up log-in screens.
“The Wi-Fi Alliance will begin to certify wireless devices for its industry-wide Passpoint initiative this July,” reports GigaOM. “With devices using the Passpoint standard, users will be able to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots without having to enter logon credentials with each connection instance and will be able to seamlessly roam from one Passpoint-enabled Wi-Fi network to another.”
“WPA-2 Enterprise security for Passpoint-certified hotspots is important, but the seamless roaming to other Passpoint networks and simple connections will surely appeal to consumers and corporate types alike; especially as we all start to carry more wireless devices,” comments the post.
In a statement, the Wi-Fi Alliance explained how it will use SIM cards for authentication: “Devices can be automatically granted access to the network based on multiple credential types. Passpoint supports Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)-based authentication, widely used in cellular networks today, as well as username/password combinations and certificate credentials. No end-user intervention is required in order to establish a connection to a trusted network.”
A study by app analytics group Distimo showed that 42 of the top 110 apps available on both the Android Market and Amazon Appstore made developers more money on Amazon.
“Okay, so that’s not even half,” TG Daily writes, “but look at what we’re saying — apps that are purchased through an external website, meaning users need to log onto a computer, register their Android phone, complete the purchase through Amazon, and follow the instructions on their Android phone to get the content, are doing better than the same apps that are available directly on the phone.”
The article attributes this trend to Amazon’s marketing abilities, the successful proliferation of the Kindle Fire — inherently linked to Amazon — and Google’s inability to make content easy to find on the Android Market.
“…this just goes to show that making an open platform allows third parties to make an even bigger impact,” comments TG Daily.
Mountain Lion, Apple’s latest OS for desktops and laptops, may challenge Android as it brings more of the iOS experience into OS X.
The new software creates a “grand unified user experience” (GUUX), enabling seamless interaction among all Apple devices. It brought many features over from iOS and its notifications are synched between devices.
“Reading an email on my iPhone, for example, removes the notification for that message on my desktop,” reports Kevin Tofel for GigaOM.
This “GUUX” could threaten Android’s share as people look to move easily from one device to another. “Simply put, Android doesn’t have native integration with a true desktop platform. Instead, it is cloud-focused from a data perspective while leaning heavily on third-party apps, browser extensions and its own Chrome browser to offer a ‘use anywhere’ experience. It works, but based on what I have seen from Mountain Lion so far, it is looking more disjointed,” writes Tofel.
Google may catch on to this trend later on with its Chrome OS. Its new Chrome browser for Android is an example of this synchronization, showing tabs open in Chrome on a desktop — something Safari doesn’t do yet.
“How much could this interaction between Mountain Lion and iOS hurt Android sales?” asks Tofel. “That is hard to say. Those who prefer a greater range of control over their mobile devices will still likely choose an Android device in the near term. But people looking for a ‘grand user interface unification’ may give up some control in order to gain a seamless experience across devices and choose iOS, especially if they are current or new Mac OS X users when Mountain Lion arrives this summer.”
London-based social TV company Zeebox is launching clickable TV ads that enable UK users to “purchase products advertised on TV through their tablet or smartphone in real time,” the press release explains.
“Zeebox seems to be one of the only major players in the UK giving them the opportunity to really build a great product in their market and then come to the U.S. with a fine-tuned model and case studies,” comments Lost Remote, noting that U.S. social TV start-ups are also working to make ads useful.
The clickable ads utilize a video fingerprinting technology to recognize ads. A few seconds into the ad, a click-to-buy button appears in Zeebox’s real-time tag stream, with icons to identify the type of product (such as a song or travel service).
The company doesn’t have any deals in place with advertisers yet but is already providing click-through for tagged ads.
According to Zeebox co-founder and CTO Anthony Rose: “For now we’re using click-to-buy zeetags, with our systems and operators selecting the destination — for example, we send music purchases to iTunes, DVDs to Amazon, food to Tesco, cosmetics to Boots.”
Consumers are watching streaming video content for longer periods of time, according to analysis by tech provider Ooyala.
The study found that video plays on Internet-enabled TVs and mobile devices nearly doubled in Q4, with nearly half of all connected-TV viewers watching through to completion.
This stat is significantly higher than the average for all devices.
“Another interesting tidbit from Ooyala: Though this may not be particularly surprising, Facebook remains a much more active source of online video sharing than Twitter: For every video shared via Twitter in Q4, more than 10 were shared on Facebook,” reports TechCrunch.
In a related MediaPost story, nearly 1 in 3 homes with broadband are regularly screening TV content online, according to Parks Associates. Almost 13 percent use Apple TV, a Roku device or other OTT equipment.
Sales for OTT devices are projected to hit 14 million in 2012, suggests Parks.
Google has disabled a computer code that it was previously using to bypass privacy settings on Apple’s Safari browser in order to track “the Web-browsing habits of people who intended for that kind of monitoring to be blocked,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Google placed the code within ads displayed on popular sites and once activated, the code enables Google tracking across most websites. The sites, however, had no knowledge of the code.
“We were not aware of this behavior,” said Michael Balmoris, AT&T spokesman. “We would never condone it.”
In response, Google said in a statement: “The Journal mischaracterizes what happened and why. We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It’s important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.”
Google faces criticism on a number of fronts, especially in response to the recent changes to its privacy policy across all its services. Its search results that promote Google+ have also been highly controversial.
Although there was no admission of wrongdoing, Netflix is paying $9 million to settle a class action lawsuit that claimed the streaming service violated the Video Privacy Protection Act by retaining information about viewers’ habits.
The lawsuit was filed in March 2011 by individuals claiming that the company maintained viewing information “long after they had canceled the service.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Netflix will continue to “push for changes in legislation that would allow it to make more uses of customer data,” like enabling users to share their viewing habits on social media sites.
“The House has approved a bill to do so, but the proposed legislation has encountered resistance in the Senate after it heard from some critics who say the VPPA is one of the few strong consumer privacy protections out there,” explains the article. “There’s also concern that eliminating the VPPA would allow sites like Netflix to share personal information with advertisers.”
Hasbro and Zynga, two rivals in the online videogame world, have announced a new partnership in the physical world of toys and board games.
The companies are teaming up to create games and toys based on Zynga’s online games such as “FarmVille” and “Mafia Wars.”
“Though both companies could use a boost, toy and gaming experts aren’t sure the tie up will help either all that much,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “That is because for the time being, at least, the partnership doesn’t extend to Zynga making new videogame versions of Hasbro’s board-game classics. Electronic Arts Inc. currently holds the digital rights to Hasbro board games. Still, a person familiar with the matter didn’t rule out the possibility of an expanded relationship in the future.”
Hasbro’s game and puzzle sales have been declining, due to “an inability to fully capitalize on the rise of the casual smartphone and social-media games that have made Zynga a burgeoning power,” indicates WSJ.
According to researcher Appdata.com, Zynga’s Scrabble knockoff “Words with Friends” currently has 13 million active monthly users on Facebook, as compared to Scrabble’s 1 million.