Hasta La Gadget!

Back in October of last year, Google and Verizon came together in order to provide an intense amount of corporate support for the FCC’s then-fledgling net neutrality push. Today, said push has turned into quite the monster, with a recent court ruling asserting that the FCC doesn’t actually have the authority to impose net neutrality. Since then, a cadre of telecommunications firms have banded together in one form or another to attempt a compromise (and slyly get what each of them really want), and today the Big G and Big Red have taken the stage together in order to publicize a well-thought out policy proposal for “an open internet.” Both firms seem to agree that web users “should choose what content, applications, or devices they use,” and they both want “enforceable prohibition against discriminatory practices” — and yeah, that definitely includes prioritization and blocking of internet traffic, including paid prioritization. In an odd twist, what seems to be happening here is that both Google and Verizon are actually in favor of more government oversight on the internet, but they want that oversight to be beneficial to consumers. In other words, more regulations from the feds to enforce fewer regulations imposed on you from your ISP. Get all that?

Where things really get interesting is when they touch on the wireless angle; essentially, they’re admitting that the very proposals they are putting forth for wireline shouldn’t apply to wireless just yet (aside from the whole “transparency” thing). It seems that the prevailing logic is that there’s simply not enough spectrum for this idyllic “play fair” scenario to truly work, so fewer restrictions would be necessary for the wireless internet space to blossom as the wireless side already has. Moreover, we get the impression that these guys feel the wireless space as a whole is simply too competitive right now to withstand any red tape.

The proposal also mentions that, if passed into law, the FCC would have the ability to fine “bad actors” (read: misbehaving ISPs) up to $2 million for breaking any of these “open internet” stipulations, and naturally, both outfits are highly in favor of the National Broadband Plan taking hold, moving forward and getting broadband to places that are currently using a strange mixture of used canisters and rope to check their inbox.

Google and Verizon publish joint policy proposal for ‘an open internet’ originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Worried that former HP CEO Mark Hurd might not know what to do with himself after getting caught falsifying expense reports to hide girl #2 and being forced to resign? Don’t be: ol’ Mark’s getting a $12,224,693 severance payment in exchange for agreeing not to sue HP. Yep, Mark Hurd just got $12 million in cash for fraudulently filing expense reports to conceal his mistress — not a bad trick if you can pull it off, we suppose. (We don’t know how much he’ll have to pay back, but we’re guessing he’ll have a little cash left over.) Oh, and he’s also having his option to buy 775,000 shares of HP stock extended to September, which is pretty groovy considering HP actually upped its quarterly forecast today, some other assorted stock-related compensation, and 18 months of health and dental benefits. Whoever said a little white collar crime doesn’t pay?

Update: CNBC has sources claiming the total value of Hurd’s severance including stocks is closer to $40-50 million, give or take. That’s… well, that’s a lot of ink cartridges.

Continue reading Former HP CEO Mark Hurd rewarded with a $40m severance after being forced to resign over fraudulent expense reports

Former HP CEO Mark Hurd rewarded with a $40m severance after being forced to resign over fraudulent expense reports originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 19:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So what if Rambus doesn’t really produce anything tangible these days? We’re hearing the “innovation” business is going really well for the company that recently celebrated its 1,000th patent, and now there’s a nice big windfall in its near future as well. The US International Trade Commission has handed down a ruling agreeing with a previous judgment that NVIDIA infringed on three Rambus patents in the design of its memory controllers, with the ultimate outcome being a ban on importing such infringing goods into the country. Of course, that’s the one thing we’re sure won’t be happening, but NVIDIA will now have to sign up for a license to Rambus’ precious IP portfolio, which might be a tad bit costly given that GeForce, Quadro, nForce, Tesla and Tegra chips are named as being in violation — aside from Ion, that’s pretty much NVIDIA’s whole hardware business.

[Thanks, Marc]

Update: NVIDIA, unsurprisingly, has said it will appeal the ruling. [Thanks, Xero2]

Rambus victorious in patent fight with NVIDIA, can expect neat wad of cash for its troubles originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Jul 2010 03:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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San Francisco may have signed cellphone radiation labels into law, but the stickers won’t stick without a fight — the Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA) just filed a complain in federal district court, claiming the new law supersedes the FCC’s authority to regulate radio emissions and misleads consumers into believing some phones are safer than others. As we’ve discussed previously, the CTIA does have something of a point. Every phone that makes it to market is rigorously tested for cell phone radiation levels, and those that pass fall below a specific 1.6 watt per kilogram threshold already. But hey, we’re all for bombarding our brains with that much less radiation, as long as our calls stay connected and our text messages arrive on time. If only there were a label for that… Read the CTIA’s full complaint at our more coverage link.

CTIA sues San Francisco over cellphone radiation law originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Apple’s latest privacy policy revealed the company could track any iPhone’s location in real time, it threw some for a loop… including a pair of gentlemen from the US House of Representatives, who asked what Cupertino was up to. In a thirteen page letter dated July 12, Apple’s legal counsel explains the whole matter away, while giving us a fascinating look into how the company collects — and justifies collecting — all that GPS data. Legally the defense is simple, as Apple claims users grant express permission via pop-up messages for every single location-based service and app, and if you don’t care to be tracked, you can simply shut down location services globally or (in iOS 4) on a per-app basis in the phone’s settings panel.

Where it gets more interesting is when Apple explains what it actually collects, and who they share it with — namely, Google and Skyhook, who provided location services to earlier versions of the operating system. In iOS 3.2 and beyond, only Apple has the keys to the database, and what’s inside are locations of cell towers, WiFi access points, and anonymous GPS coordinates. None of these are personally identifying, as the company doesn’t collect SSIDs or any data, and in the case of device coordinates they’re reportedly collected and sent in encrypted batches only once every 12 hours, using a random ID generated by the phone every 24 hours that apparently can’t be linked back to the device. In the case of iAd, Apple says coordinates don’t even make it to a database, as they’re immediately converted (by remote server) to a advertising-friendly five-digit zip code. Concerning location data collection for services other than iAd, there’s still the little question of why, but we’ll just leave you with Apple legal’s quote on that subject after the break, and let you hit up the full document yourself at Scribd if you want the deep dive.

Continue reading Apple responds to congressional inquiry, details location data collection in 13-page letter

Apple responds to congressional inquiry, details location data collection in 13-page letter originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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