Twitter has a new policy for responding to DMCA copyright notices that aims to provide more transparency.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act does not hold companies like Twitter or Google responsible for copyrighted material that their users post; however, it does require the companies to take down the content when they receive copyright complaints. Users can then counter the notice to get their content reinstated.
Previously, Twitter would simply remove the content without providing any public notice of copyright notices. Now the company is “withdrawing” tweets, replacing them with a statement explaining the takedown.
“This is important to reporters and scholars who use Twitter as a news source and now have an explanation when a piece of news vanishes due to copyright reasons,” notes GigaOM. “This is consistent with other efforts by Twitter to shine light on a copyright process that critics say is susceptible to abuse by content owners.”
After Twitter withdraws the tweet, it also sends the requests to the Chilling Effects clearinghouse for online publication, according to a Twitter spokesman.
“The new Twitter policy comes as both Internet companies and copyright owners are growing frustrated with the existing DMCA regime,” GigaOM writes.
“On one hand, content creators say it is too much effort to track and send DMCA notices for each infringement. On the other hand, rights owners may be growing trigger happy with notices; Google, for instance, is now receiving more than 1 million copyright requests a month, some of which are not justified and can create a ‘chilling effect’ for users.”
Facebook is developing a classifieds application for its users to help them engage with each other, expand their social circles and sell that couch.
“The new tool, which is tentatively called Marketplace… would allow users to create short advertisements that appear in their friends’ news feeds notifying them of everything from apartment rentals to furniture sales to job boards,” reports The Daily. “In short, practically anything you do on Craigslist can be done with this new service.”
For some ads — like those for a couch — users may have to pay a small fee (likely under $5) for the post to show in friends’ news feeds. “The new ads could include multiple photos and links to external resources. Users can also elect to ‘share’ a post on their own timeline,” expanding the message’s reach, the article explains.
The tool helps Facebook users create posts for targeted audiences, based on location or other criteria. For example, if a user is sharing a career opportunity, the ad could be restricted to those who have a Master’s degree.
“But it’s the projects section that is maybe the most interesting,” The Daily suggests. “Similar to Craigslist’s Gigs section, it would let users post tips and information about a variety of topics from clearing brush to installing WordPress. It would also let people share ‘ideas,’ or broadly scoped ventures they’d like to flesh out with help.”
Seagate Technology, supplier of disc drives and data storage products, announced it has joined the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE) — the cross-industry consortium behind the cloud-based UltraViolet digital content ecosystem.
“Digital distribution beyond DVDs and Blu-ray Discs is not only the way of the future, it is the present and we know that storage is key to this ongoing transition,” says Scott Horn, VP of marketing for Seagate.
“Seagate sees UltraViolet as a leader in bringing content to consumers in this new digital age and we are excited to be helping them make their vision a reality,” he adds.
“With UltraViolet, consumers enjoy the flexibility and security of cloud-based entertainment rights combined with the choice-expanding benefits of a widely-honored industry standard,” notes Mark Teitell, general manager of UltraViolet.
“As a DECE member, Seagate’s expertise and perspective on cloud solutions and storage devices will help the organization continue to evolve these benefits,” he says.
Seagate joins the nearly 70 member companies of DECE including Sony, Warner Bros., Fox, Paramount, NBCUniversal, LG, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Netflix, Intel and others.
Barnes & Noble announced it has struck deals with NBCUniversal, Fox Home Entertainment and other major studios to bring more movies and TV shows to its NOOK tablets.
Consumers can now stream or download popular television series or movie titles such as “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “Battleship,” “Ice Age: Continental Drift” and “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax.”
The NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ (which started shipping last week) also connect users’ UltraViolet video libraries “right out of the box,” reports RTTNews.
“The company stated that customers will be able to easily link their UltraViolet accounts to the NOOK Cloud allowing them to view their previously and newly purchased UltraViolet-enabled movies and TV shows across NOOK HD and NOOK HD+ devices and free NOOK Video apps coming soon,” the article explains.
According to the press release: “In addition to purchasing movies and TV shows via NOOK Video, customers can shop for DVDs and Blu-ray Discs with the UltraViolet logo in Barnes & Noble and other retail stores, add them to their digital collection, and instantly watch compatible titles from the NOOK Cloud to enjoy wherever they go and however they choose.”
“This is certainly a huge bonus for consumers that have a big UV library, and coupled with all the new content, we wouldn’t be surprised if NOOK sales start stealing a little heat from the Fire,” comments Engadget in a related post, referring to NOOK competitor — the Kindle Fire from Amazon.
Tech giant eBay decided to generate its own power for its Utah data center rather than rely on power grids, reports GigaOM. EBay installed 6 megawatts worth of Bloom Energy solid oxide fuel cells on site in Utah, which marks the largest non-utility fuel cell system in America, according to GigaOM.
“Fuel cells are primary power for the computers and then the grid is used as backup. We have a higher available data center with this design than we would have with a traditional generator and UPS design. That was a big ah-ha moment for me,” said Dean Nelson, eBay’s Vice President who was behind the provisioning and consolidating of the data centers.
While fuel cells are more expensive than grid power in the short run, “the elimination of UPS and generators along with the simplification of the building design that included changing the height of the building as well as the structural support needed” could help eBay economically in the future, reports GigaOM.
While eBay paid the upfront costs for the fuel cells, Bloom Energy now offers an energy-as-a-service option to deal with the considerable capital costs.
EBay’s move could be the first of many companies taking control of their own power production. Generating power and using grid power as a backup gives companies more control over their operations, even if it is more expensive.
Imagine having a wireless Internet connection everywhere. That’s what the Electronic Frontier Foundation and nine other groups in the Open Wireless Movement coalition hope to see as they advocate for universal sharing of Internet access.
“We envision a world where sharing one’s Internet connection is the norm,” EFF Activist Adi Kamdar said in a press release. “A world of open wireless would encourage privacy, promote innovation, and benefit the public good, giving us network access whenever we need it. And everyone – users, businesses, developers, and Internet service providers – can get involved to help make it happen.”
There have been concerns about security and legal responsibility on open networks, which the Open Wireless Movement website tries to address. The FAQs discuss Transport Layer Security (TLS), WPA2 and other Wi-Fi security protections.
As for legal liability for others’ illegal activity on the network, the coalition’s site simply says it doesn’t think it will be a problem and links to a longer explanation. “The detailed explanation isn’t much more reassuring than ‘we don’t think so,'” Network World writes.
Also on the site are how-to tips for users, small businesses, ISPs and developers. Many ISPs don’t allow open sharing, but the Open Wireless Movement provides a list of those that do, saying all ISPs should just be open.
HTML5 promises to allow web-based apps to run on any device, regardless of operating system. But as it stands now, native platform-dependent apps remain dominant, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has openly criticized HTML5 as inadequate.
That said, Business Insider Intelligence has published a report that supports the idea that HTML 5 will eventually surpass native apps.
“It’s currently less good than native apps at lots of things,” the report concedes. “But the technology is improving. And it is cheaper to produce HTML5 apps than native apps. Over time, the new, cheaper technology of HTML5 will get better and better, and as it does it will start to eat the rest of the market.”
Ad/subscription-based apps that display text, images and video can be created more effectively and inexpensively with HTML5, BI Intelligence concludes. As such, media apps and “access” apps that provide mobile access to existing accounts (like banks) will benefit most from this new standard. These apps will also be the jumping off point for HTML5 with gaming apps expected to follow suit later.
“Shell” or “wrapper” apps will also help the expansion of HTML5. These apps get the “best of both worlds” by having a native “shell” that allows them to be sold in platform-specific app stores but operating entirely with HTML5, the article explains.
“But, it will still take a while,” BI concludes. “HTML5 comes from a consortium, which means the technology will evolve slowly. It still isn’t ready for prime time, as there are many things that HTML5 apps just can’t do right now…So HTML5 will likely progressively replace apps as the feature set improves…”
Despite expectations that Apple will revolutionize television, HDNet founder Mark Cuban says in an AdWeek interview that he doesn’t see Apple making game-changing content deals with programmers for its Apple TV set-top box.
“I think there is zero chance of that happening. Apple tries to do everything on commission. It’s not big on upfront deals, and I don’t see that changing,” Cuban says. “Apple has always been about leveraging content to sell hardware and software. In order to get a return on a pay-up-front-for-content deal, they would have to sell a lot of high-margin products that have yet to be introduced.”
He does, however, say that Apple has the opportunity to push out competitors like Xbox, Roku, Boxee and connected TVs.
“Having a set-top box that uses a TV-ready version of iOS that changes the paradigm for user interfaces would create a platform from which Apple could sell content and integrate new options. I don’t think there is any doubt that if Apple released a set-top box that supported authentication for multichannel video programming distributors (like cable and satellite companies), it would be a huge success,” he says.
“If Apple succeeds at fully integrating its products with cable and satellite companies to facilitate both authentication and programming guides, it’s game over [for competitors],” he continues.
Cuban agreed that many technology companies that have tried to reinvent the TV business have been halted by programmers that require huge up-front cash commitments.
He also said Microsoft’s Xbox is poised to do well as a set-top box but he says the company might wait to see how the Apple TV pans out – and then try to improve upon it.
Two decades ago, Nintendo accounted for 80 percent of the gaming hardware market. It has since fallen to 25 percent, but the company hopes that its new Wii U device will help it stay relevant in the new world of streaming content, mobile devices and social gaming.
“As the Kyoto, Japan-based company prepares for the Nov. 18 launch of its Wii U — a flashier, more powerful and social-oriented update of its Wii system that debuted in 2006 — its executives are taking a page from showbiz and positioning the console as a broad entertainment-delivery platform,” the Hollywood Reporter writes. “Think television, web and video game enabler rather than just a home for Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokemon.”
The Wii U will feature a handheld controller equipped with TVii, which enables recording of shows, snapshots the viewing habits of family members and friends, access to Facebook and Twitter and an easy-to-use programming guide. “If TV is going to become more about engagement and the ‘second screen’ experience, then Nintendo hopes its controller serves as the platform of choice.”
Moreover, Nintendo has content deals with cable companies, satellite distributors, and streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon.
When the Wii first debuted, Nintendo sold 5 million consoles in the first year, and enjoyed a few years in the lead before the Xbox and the PlayStation3 caught up. “But the motion-sensor novelty soon ebbed,” the article states. “Casual gamers moved on to low-cost diversions downloadable through more open platforms like Apple’s iOS and the Android universe or social platforms like Facebook. Games on smartphones also have gobbled up Nintendo’s share of the portable gaming market.”
Some analysts remain skeptical that the Wii U can turn Nintendo’s decline around, saying the reinvention is too little, too late. But Nintendo disagrees. “It’s the games that will drive the system into the household,” says Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. “But what consumers also will find is that they are getting a robust social space … then find out they have a super remote and an aggregator.”
Pay TV providers are pushing against new online content companies who threaten the long-established high-dollar cable packages. Meanwhile, consumers want to watch whatever they desire, whenever they want it, and on multiple devices.
Comcast, for example, has taken a number of steps to protect its businesses which GigaOM highlights in this article.
1. Blocking P2P: The FCC compelled Comcast to manage its broadband network in a way that didn’t center on protecting its TV business after the company was found to have actively blocked peer-to-peer files.
2. Implementing data caps: Comcast instituted a 250 GB per month data cap on its users, saying that it would reconsider the cap as Internet usage rose. The 250 GB limit still remains even though traffic has increased, but customers now have a meter.
3. The Level 3 peering fight: “In 2010 Level 3 Communications, the middle-mile Internet provider that is also a content delivery network for Netflix, accused Comcast of seeking an additional payment from Level 3 in order for the CDN to deliver content from its network to Comcast subscribers. In effect, Level 3 was saying Comcast was trying to charge it more to deliver its CDN traffic,” GigaOM writes.
4. Protecting Tivo and its Xfinity traffic over the Xbox from its cap: That 250 GB limit does not include traffic from Comcast’s own services, giving users incentives to opt for Xfinity over other services.
5. Prioritizing its own traffic over other traffic at the packet level: Similar to how AT&T allotted bandwidth for its U-verse TV offering, Comcast tagged packets for Xfinity traffic.
6. Secretive plans with Verizon: Awaiting approval by the FCC, the deal would let the two companies share technology and give Verizon cable spectrum.
7. Possibly making Hulu available for pay-TV subscribers only.
When an availability zone in Amazon’s U.S. East data center complex went down, Netflix was able to circumvent cloud outages. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, Netflix’s maneuver could serve as a model for other companies dealing with potential outages.
Netflix had experience with outages in the past and has run evacuation drills to prepare for such an event. The company noticed issues with Amazon Web Services U.S. East on the Monday before superstorm Sandy. “Amazon was also able to confirm that the degradation was limited to a single Availability Zone,” two employees wrote in a blog. “Once we learned the impact was isolated to one AZ, we began evacuating the affected zone.”
“Netflix’s Asgard technology helped in this effort,” GigaOM writes. “Asgard, which Netflix open sourced last summer, is a web interface (once known as Netflix Application Console) that engineers use to deploy code changes and manage resources on Amazon. According to Netflix, the technology lets engineers track multiple AWS components — Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), EC2 instances, etc. — used by their applications and manage them more efficiently than Amazon’s own console allows.”
Using Asgard, Netflix was able to evacuate the troubled zone in 20 minutes and restore service to all users.
“So far, AWS U.S. East has not exhibited problems associated with the massive superstorm [Sandy],” GigaOM reports. “But given past issues — and the fact that other east coast data centers have crashed – companies that rely on Amazon’s cloud are (or should be) scrambling to find ways to mitigate outages and performance problems.”
Apple’s iPad mini announcement overshadowed another Apple product – the “fourth generation” iPad which has a faster A6X processor and a Lightning port. “The 1.3-pound iPad’s 2048 x 1536 Retina display is still among the best we’ve seen on a tablet.” The new iPad comes just a few months after the “new iPad,” writes The Verge.
The new iPad’s A6X processor launches apps and Safari noticeably faster. WiFi performance is improved and Facetime’s video is sharper. Game graphics are “smooth no matter how detailed, everything’s incredibly responsive, and I saw nary a skipped frame or stuttery animation.” LTE data numbers are “off the chart.”
The new processor does not decrease battery life, which is an important aspect of the update. Maintaining battery life is crucial, writes The Verge.
The connector “means that any docks, cables, or accessories you had for your iPad are now useless without a $29 adapter that’s currently all but impossible to find anywhere,” writes The Verge. While they is critical of the adaptor, it does note that “Lightning’s clearly the future for Apple’s products.” Apple wants to get as many products on the market with Lightning adapters so people begin to make the switch to the new adapter.
Following the lead of Walmart, Amazon, eBay and the U.S. Postal Service, Google is launching its own same-day delivery service, according to two anonymous sources.
For some Google employees and their friends in the San Francisco area, the service has gone live. They can “buy a product, using their phones or computers, and have it delivered to their homes in a matter of hours,” reports The New York Times.
Same-day delivery has been in the works at Google for more than a year. “Though the service propels Google into commerce, the company does not intend to operate warehouses or a shipping service but to team up with retailers and delivery companies,” the article explains. “Several San Francisco retailers, including national chains, are participating in the program already.”
At least one national apparel chain is involved, the sources say. The program is promising for physical retailers facing pressure from e-commerce companies that are taking away brick-and-mortar’s last advantage: same-day ownership.
It’s not clear why Google is investing in same-day delivery, but NYT notes that the company has been facing increased online competition. Consumers are more frequently bypassing the search giant altogether and going straight to e-commerce sites such as Amazon for their searches.
“Additionally, Google has been trying to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds to better understand and profit from mobile ads,” the article explains.
“On computers, Google and advertisers know if a user clicks on an ad and visits or buys on another Web site. But they lose track of customers who look up a business or product on their phone and then put their phone away, walk into the store and buy something. Online ordering and delivery could help solve that problem.”
On an average day, the word “sandy” is mentioned 3,000 times on social media. The Wall Street Journal reports that on Monday, the word was mentioned 4.8 million times across various social media sites as people looked to Twitter, Facebook and other networks to get information on the storm.
Manhattan resident Naomi Ben-Shahar tracked Hurricane Sandy news on social media after she lost power Monday night. “As the power flickered off in millions of homes around New York and New Jersey, many like Ms. Ben-Shahar had been forced to give up on television and radio and rely almost exclusively on social media, where the storm played out on the tiny screens of mobile devices in a hugely fast-paced alternative narrative of destruction.”
Citizen journalists took to Instagram to post pictures of the storm’s progression, from people prepping to the hurricane’s aftermath.
“As the frenzy for information grew with the storm, some disinformation creeped into mainstream outlets,” the Journal reported. “A false rumor claiming that the floor of the New York Stock Exchange was three feet under water, found its way onto CNN and the Weather Channel.”
Also, many online news sites went down as East Coast data centers flooded. Datagram, a center in Lower Manhattan which hosts the Huffington Post, Gawker, BuzzFeed, Mediate and others, went down Monday evening when it was flooded.
Ben-Shahar says social media presented its own challenges. “I feel so disconnected. I’m trying to read only reliable tweets,” she wrote in a Facebook message, adding that “It was frustrating to feel so stuck with my 5-year-old and read about normal life continuing elsewhere.”
AU Optronics is making a 65-inch TV panel that it says will offer 4K TV resolution while consuming less power than current screens.
The company has developed an “IGZO panel that wields the very light-friendly technology to reach 4K resolutions without the usual penalties — as the screen doesn’t need much backlighting to illuminate all those pixels, it can stay slim and keep the shocking energy bills to a minimum,” reports Engadget.
“The smaller size and miserly power draw also leave a real chance that any pricing will be closer to the mere mortal realm than current 84-inch behemoths,” comments the post, referring to early Ultra HD offerings from LG and Sony.
The AU Optronics’ panel uses indium gallium zinc oxide as its semiconducting material. However, it has yet to be announced whether there are deals in place for companies to use AUO’s display.
Additionally, “the Taiwan firm has simultaneously developed a more conventional, 55-inch 4K screen with a wide color range as well as a 50-inch, 1080p panel with an extra-skinny 0.14-inch bezel,” notes the post.
“It’s at least good to know that there’s already competition for technology that’s just getting started,” suggests Engadget.
