Hasta La Gadget!

Speaking this week on the future of the detention center and naval station set in Guantanamo, Cuba, Pentagon spokesman Todd Breasseale mentioned this week that a $40 million dollar fiber optic link is in the works for 2013. This link, said Breasseale, would offer up greater telecom access for those living at the US military base. The link would not, however, as Breasseale assures, be any sort of indication that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility would be open for any longer than it would have had the link not been built.

It’s still on the books that President Obama plans on closing the detention center, currently housing 169 inmates at this very moment, but all substantive measures aimed at doing so have been blocked thus far in Congress. The fiber optic cable project will be coming (if approved) after the relatively recent construction of a football field for inmates at the detention center, it having cost $744,000 USD on its own.

“It would be a mistake to assume that some potential use of fiber optic communication lines is any indication of how long the detention center will be around. Our goal remains to close the detention facility. We have no plans to close the naval station there.” – Breasseale

The land on which the Guantanamo Bay naval base is built is still being leased to the United States from Cuba, that deal having been initiated all the way back in 1903. The prison there has been detaining “terror suspects” since 2001, and the entire facility was marred with controversy since its existence was first hitting the airwaves in the early 2000′s as well. The US Defense Information Systems Agency has conducted a “feasibility study” for the fiber optic link and have found the potential cost to be around $40 million USD.

[via PhysOrg]

Pentagon plans fiber optic link to Guantanamo Bay is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Although Hollywood doesn’t exactly have a chummy relationship with China, the nation is hoping it can start changing that by promising revenue deals for studios that opt to be a part of a new government-run streaming movie service. The idea sounds like something most Americans could never even imagine, but it could be a huge thing for those in China.

The new online service, which is to be operated by the state-owned China Movie Channel, has already signed on a content agreement with Paramount Pictures. Movies and TV shows are included. MGM is apparently also interested in providing content. The service is likely to be priced at the equivalent of less than $10 a month, on par with Netflix. China is partnering up with a company called Jiaflix Enterprises.

“This new venture will bring the best that Hollywood has to offer to viewers in China. It represents a great opportunity for Hollywood to increase its exports to China and enhance cultural cooperation between our two nations,” said Jiaflix partner Sid Ganis, who is also a Columbia Pictures chairman. It will launch in the fourth quarter of the year.

[via Reuters]

Chinese government to launch Netflix rival is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you’re reading this, then you’re probably always looking ahead at what technology might bring next. Tomorrow at 10AM ET, US Congress members of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology will be doing that too. The specific segment of the market being discussed is video and on the docket to testify is a who’s who of the video business. The old guard, NCTA and the MPAA, is being represented by Michael Power — yes, the previous Chairman of the FCC — and Michael O’Leary, respectively. On the other side are representatives from Dish Network, Sky Angel, Netflix, Roku and Public Knowledge. So yeah, this could get interesting. The NCTA has already starting posturing on its blog, Cable Tech Talk, with a post highlighting all the wonderful changes in the video distribution industry in the past 20 years — however, curiously, the upwardly creeping price of the average bill wasn’t mentioned. Of course a subcommittee hearing is just the first of a very long process towards real change, and while we’d be shocked if any of our ideas are implemented anytime soon, it’s good to see some movement in Washington on a topic we care about.

Congress to hold a hearing tomorrow on the Future of Video originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 22:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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