Hasta La Gadget!

KPN set off some alarms in Holland last month when it announced a plan to start charging customers separate fees for using VoIP, streaming video, and sending instant messages. But, the question remained: how exactly would it keep mobile data users honest? The answer turns out to be deep packet inspection, which examines network traffic to identify what you’re sending and where it’s going. It’s been suspected that the secret ingredient in KNP’s service-throttling sauce was DPI, but it was finally confirmed in a presentation to investors recently. In fact, Mark Fisher, the director of KPN Mobile, bragged that it was the “very first” provider to be “able to identify by deep packet inspection what is actually the destination as data packages go along.” Predictably, privacy and net neutrality advocates are up in arms, with some claiming it is a violation of the Dutch Data Protection Act. We just hope someone nips this in the bud soon — we don’t need American carriers knowing about our Scottish Fold obsession. Check out the source link for an audio clip of Fisher’s confession.

[Thanks, Daan]

Dutch telco KPN using deep packet inspection to monitor mobile customers, throttle services originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 May 2011 17:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember how Adobe said Flash 10.2 wasn’t living up to its full hardware-accelerated potential on Honeycomb thus far? Well, it seems the company’s found a solution by the name of Android 3.1. We’ve been inundated with tips (and have confirmed with Adobe) that there’s a sticky-sweet new build of Android on the way for the recent crop of slates that OEMs and carriers are rolling out, and that — just like last time — you’ll need that software to take advantage of all the hardware rendering and compositing that your Tegra 2 silicon can afford. With any luck, 720p playback won’t burn our eyeballs this time around. By the way, the Android Market item above was updated this morning to read “requires an upcoming release of Android 3” rather than “Android 3.1,” but it’s unclear whether the original number was inaccurate or whether Adobe got in trouble.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Android 3.1 gets namechecked by Adobe Flash Player 10.2, will be required to enjoy accelerated 720p video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just like our friends at TiVo, DirecTV likes to poll its customers occasionally about possible new features and its latest one was all about Netflix. Several tipsters have indicated to us and ZatzNotFunny they were asked to evaluate a possible Netflix-like online subscription video service that DirecTV would offer in addition to their current satellite TV. While premium video channels circle the wagons around Starz Play and HBO Go — this also puts an interesting spin on last week’s “mistweet” about streaming video coming to DirecTV apps — type services and a network owned by the cable companies has already launched a similar service called Vutopia, it’s possible DirecTV could be the next big all you can eat streaming competitor. Check out ZNF for a few more screengrabs, but all we know for sure right now is we’re not the only ones wondering what would it take to pull you away from Netflix?

[Thanks, Mike & Patrick]

DirecTV asks its customers what they like so much about Netflix, could launch competitor originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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RIM wants Hulu Plus on the just-released Blackberry PlayBook. It also wants everyone to know it wants Hulu Plus on the Blackberry PlayBook, after the streaming video service unceremoniously blocked access to its videos just days after the tablet’s launch. Now, both PC Mag and The Wall Street Journal are reporting the same terse email statement from RIM: “We are in conversations with Hulu to bring the Hulu Plus subscription service to BlackBerry PlayBook users.” No word on the content of those conversations or a timeline for resolution, so for now PlayBook users will need to find another way to satisfy their yearning for Seinfeld reruns.

RIM wants Hulu Plus on the Blackberry PlayBook, ‘conversations’ continue originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Apr 2011 12:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s resolve to bring WebM video streaming to the masses doesn’t seem to have been weakened by a general lack of interest from the rest of the tech world, and the company’s announced that each and every new YouTube upload will now be automatically transcoded into a WebM version. Nearly a third of YouTube’s archives have already made the transition to the open source format, though if you think that’s a small proportion, you should probably know that those 30 percent account for 99 percent of all views on the site. Apparently, we all have a narrower set of interests than we like to believe. So, with all popular vids encoded and every incoming one getting the transcoding treatment, all you really need now is a compatible browser — Chrome (naturally), Firefox 4, Opera, or IE9 with a plug-in — and to enroll in YouTube’s HTML5 trial linked below to get rolling with WebM playback. Appending “&webm=1” to a search string or a video’s URL will also help you ensure you’re getting the good stuff.

YouTube starts transcoding all new uploads to WebM, already has a third of its library ready originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Apr 2011 04:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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