RealNetworks has submitted to Apple a free application that will bring its $15-a-month Rhapsody subscription music service to anyone with an iPhone or iPod touch and an EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi connection–assuming it’s approved by Apple, which is anything but a sure thing at this point.
“Contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it.” So begins Apple’s response to the FCC’s inquiry into its rejection of the app and of its App Store approval process. Seems Google Voice was withheld from the App Store not because of any ill feeling toward Google or a nefarious request from AT&T, but because it too closely mimics the iPhone OS.
Before the Federal Communications Commission begins doling out the $7.4 billion in federal grants up for grabs through national broadband stimulus programs, the agency must answer an important question: What is broadband? And so, in a public notice issued today, the Commission is requesting “tailored” public comment on what the definition of broadband should be.
Next week looks to be a painful one for big American wireless carriers. The Federal Communications Commission has announced its agenda for Thursday’s Open Commission meeting and it implies some long days ahead for wireless industry attorneys. Among the issues to be discussed: The state of competition in the wireless market, carrier handset vendor-exclusivity deals like those between Apple and AT&T, fee-setting and “truth in billing.”
Is it too late for Sirius XM? CEO Mel Karmazin and John Malone, whose Liberty Media just tossed the foundering satellite radio outfit a $530 million lifeline, clearly don’t believe so. So do the company’s long-suffering investors, who continue to stand by it, though their faith has been sorely shaken. But the same cannot be said for Martine Rothblatt, the entrepreneur who founded Sirius nearly 20 years ago.
At long last it’s official: President Obama on Tuesday afternoon nominated Julius Genachowski as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, confirming an appointment that was widely viewed as inevitable.
The Federal Communications Commission imposes decency standards on publicly broadcast radio and television signals. No surprise, then, to hear it’s looking to do the same to the free wireless Internet service it envisions in the AWS III spectrum. At its December meeting, the FCC is expected to push forward with another major spectrum auction, one that would require the winning bidder to use a portion of those airwaves to offer a free, and smut-free, broadband service.
As predictable as day following night, litigation has followed the Federal Communications Commission’s sanctions against Comcast. In a long-expected action, Comcast sued the commission today claiming the FCC had no legal grounds on which to punish it for throttling file-sharing traffic on its network.
The Federal Communications Commission today released its official order sanctioning Comcast for interfering with its Internet customers’ right to access. And while the order is largely toothless, it is quite critical of the company’s so-called “network management practices” and its laughable efforts to downplay them.
The HTC Dream, the first handset based on Google’s Android mobile platform, has been given the Federal Communications Commission seal of approval. With that last hurdle cleared, the device is ready for market–though it looks like it may now arrive a bit later than expected.
John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
12:58 AM: Breakfast: Two schools of fish from Tokyo Bay. Calories: 782,000. How I was feeling when I ate this: confused, irradiated, hating my size.
11:37 AM: Exercise: “Taxi Stomp” (alternating legs, for 30 blocks). Calories burned: 148,900,183.
1983. The Beatles announce their first tour in thirteen years, but likewise announce that Michael Jackson will be going on tour with them as a one gigantic mega-concert event.
Best video mashup ever.
A Facebook Memorial
Wow.
Worth it for the Rickrolling photo alone.
Excellent.
Flughumor!
… you vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous perverts
Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine meet the kakapo — a fat, flightless and very randy rare parrot.
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