Does it really matter that the LCD TV has a contrast ratio of 40,000:1 or that the digital camera has a 12-megapixel resolution?
David Colker gets to the bottom of these befuddling questions ahead of the holiday shopping season. He offers an in-depth gadget guide that doesn't make suggestions about what to buy but about how to buy.
--Peter Pae
The Consumer Electronics Assn. and the CTIA (the main trade group for the mobile phone industry) urged the Federal Communications Commission today to consider reclaiming some digital TV airwaves and dedicating them to use with wireless devices. The chief executives of the CEA and CTIA sent a joint letter to members of the FCC, reminding them that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 required the commission to review how the digital TV airwaves were being used within 10 years of the first licenses being granted for DTV channels. Those licenses were issued nearly 11 years ago, so a review is technically overdue (not that deadlines seem to matter much in Washington). Said review is supposed to determine whether broadcasters could get by with less spectrum as well as evaluate alternative uses. According to the CEA-CTIA letter:
The DTV channels are extremely valuable, and broadcasters have tried for several years to find ways to use them for more than just high-definition TV signals -- for example, by transmitting a version of their programs that's customized for mobile devices, or leasing part of their channel to data service providers. They've also fiercely resisted the high-tech industry's push to allow unlicensed uses of empty TV channels -- the so-called white spaces -- in areas where it might interfere with local broadcasts. (The FCC sided with the tech firms last year, but the decision is under appeal.) But the FCC is under orders from Congress to develop a national plan for increasing the supply of broadband connectivity, and Chairman Julius Genachowski has said that the demand for wireless broadband will soon be an order of magnitude greater than the supply (a situation that Genachowski has called the "looming spectrum crisis"). So the commission may be unusually receptive to the idea of forcing TV stations to share more of their spectrum wealth.
But then, the National Assn. of Broadcasters has some powerful friends on Capitol Hill. Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and still a formidable player, sent a letter to the FCC yesterday expressing concern about any move to devote digital TV airwaves to other uses. Quoth Dingell: "I believe that a further loss of spectrum by broadcasters may have an adverse effect on consumers by limiting their choice in available broadcast television."
Meanwhile, NAB officials started meeting in the Capitol today with representatives of the Recording Industry Assn. of America and musicians' unions to discuss a compromise approach to performance royalties -- which the NAB refers to as a performance tax on radio stations -- under the auspices of the chairmen and senior members of the House and Senate Judiciary committees. Members of the Democratic leadership are expected to drop by the sessions, raising the heat on the NAB to capitulate. Although the broadcasters' lobby has lined up 252 House members and 27 senators behind resolutions opposing new royalties for performing music publicly (on the air or at a business, such as a bar), both Judiciary committees have passed bills that would have a federal arbitration panel set royalties that local radio stations would have to pay. The bills also would set limits on the annual royalty payments for smaller businesses, public and religious broadcasters.
Looks like the broadcasters' lobbyists will be stuck playing defense for a while.
-- Jon Healey
Healey writes editorials for The Times' Opinion Manufacturing Division. Follow him on Twitter: @jcahealey
-- Peter Pae
Google Inc. has shown which way it believes the winds are blowing by forking over $750 million for mobile advertising firm AdMob, one of the Web giant's largest acquisitions to date.
As AdMob itself has described, the volume and effectiveness of mobile advertising has been skyrocketing over the last several years as more advanced smartphones have caught on, making it easier to deliver more kinds of graphical and text-based advertising to phone-toting consumers.
In a recent report, AdMob said that the number of mobile ads it served had increased nearly 540% from September 2007, to 10.2 billion per month from 1.6 billion.
As mobile phones morph further into pocket Internet devices, and consumers grow accustomed to performing online functions like search, gaming and instant messaging on their handsets, opportunities for advertising companies like Google will grow rapidly, analysts expect.
Google says the number of searches performed by smartphone users has increased by a factor of five over the last two years, led primarily by iPhone users and owners of Google Android phones. At least a dozen new Google-powered phones, such as last week's launch of Verizon's Droid, are expected to be released in the coming year.
Google also says that marketer spending on mobile advertising is growing at 30% annually.
AdMob was founded in 2006 by Omar Hamoui, a Web entrepreneur looking to generate traffic for his mobile-based website. The company has taken funding from venture firms such as Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and Northgate, and the company's clients have included Ford, Coca-Cola, Electronic Arts and Paramount Pictures.
Google, which already owns a major stake in mobile advertising with its DoubleClick Mobile unit, said it expects regulatory scrutiny of the AdMob deal but hopes the pact will be approved within a matter a months.
-- David Sarno
An Indian model holds an Intel Xeon processor 7400 series product in 2008. Credit: NV Jagadeesh/EPA.
New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo today filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker, alleging that the company engaged in "a worldwide, systematic campaign of illegal conduct" to further its business and stifle competitors.
“Rather than compete fairly, Intel used bribery and coercion to maintain a stranglehold on the market,” Cuomo said in a statement. “Intel’s actions not only unfairly restricted potential competitors, but also hurt average consumers, who were robbed of better products and lower prices."Cuomo's office maintained that Intel paid or threatened some of the world's leading computer makers -- Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM among them -- to prevent the companies from doing business with Intel's main rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. The payments, the complaint alleges, came in the form of high-dollar "rebates" to the computer makers, though Cuomo's office dismissed the rebates as "payoffs" that Intel made to hide their true nature.
The case is assembled in part from internal e-mails collected from Intel's business partners and from within the company itself, according to the filing.
“'I understand the point about the accounts wanting a full AMD portfolio,'" wrote an IBM executive in 2005, according to a statement from Cuomo's office. "'The question is, can we afford to accept the wrath of Intel …?'”
Intel could not immediately be reached for comment.
The lawsuit is a result of a nearly two-year investigation by Cuomo's office, in which investigators say they evaluated millions of pages of documents and e-mails and interviewed dozens of witnesses.
The suit was filed in federal court in Delaware and aimed to bar Intel from what it called "further anti-competitive acts," and recover damages to New York consumers and government entities.
In May, the European Commission fined Intel nearly $1.5 billion over similar charges of anti-competitive practices, saying the results harmed millions of European consumers. Intel disagreed with those charges and vowed to appeal the decision.
-- David Sarno
Sophisticated pets, with deep-pocketed owners, can now use garage-like doggie doors that open and close electronically when a pet wearing a collar with a radio-frequency-identification chip approaches. The doors only open for the pet with the RFID chip, keeping out unwanted visitors.
The chips are widely used at automated toll booths and for tracking airline baggage.
Plexidor Electronic Pet Doors cost $129 to $800 depending on the size and model. To see a picture, check out our L.A. Unleashed blog.
"It allows the pets to go outside when they have to, not when you're able to let them out," said Plexidor President Joe Ambrose. He added: "For the pet owner, it is very helpful in preventing pet messes in the house from the pet having to hold it too long."
-- Melissa Rohlin
Sony saw sales drop nearly across the board in its fiscal second quarter as the consumer electronics and media giant continued to struggle with a withering global economy.
As shoppers around the world cut back on buying televisions, cameras and computers, Sony's revenue plunged 19.8% to $18.5 billion from the same quarter a year ago. Bargain pricing also eroded profit margins, leading Sony to swing from a $200-million profit last year to a $292-million loss.
Sales slipped in all of Sony's divisions except for its financial services business in Japan. Sony's consumer products and devices division, which includes its Bravia TV and Cybershot camera businesses, plunged 36.5% to $8.9 billion as consumers bought fewer electronics and at lower prices. Still, the unit eked out a $99-million operating profit.
Its networked products division, which includes Sony's PlayStation video game and Vaio computer businesses, also saw a steep 24% drop in sales to $3.9 billion. Losses for the unit widened substantially to $654 million, accounting for the bulk of Sony's operating loss in the quarter.
Sales of its PlayStation 3 game console jumped 33% to 3.2 million units, thanks to a $100 price cut that brought the price down to as low as $299. But that was not enough to make up for a 24% slide in sales of the PlayStation 2 and a 6% decline in sales of its handheld PSP console.
Consumers appeared to also have cut back on other types of entertainment. Sales for Sony's music labels, the second largest in the world after Universal Music Group, fell 3%. But the decline was cushioned by a surge in the popularity of Sony's catalog recordings of Michael Jackson, leading the unit to post a $96-million operating profit on $1.4 billion in revenue.
Sony's movie business also took a hit. Sales declined 30% to $1.5 billion as consumers bought fewer DVDs and curtailed trips to the movie theater. Sony Pictures posted a $71-million loss for the quarter.
On a brighter note, the company said it now anticipated lower losses than it had initially projected for its current fiscal year ending March 2010. Sony credits the improved outlook to the ability for its consumer products business to turn a profit, thanks in part to aggressive cost-cutting, and the health of its Japanese financial services business. File under: It's not as bad as we thought.
-- Alex Pham
Follow my random thoughts on games, gear and technology on Twitter @AlexPham.
What I want most in life, aside from world peace and Jack Nicholson's Lakers tickets, is an inexpensive gadget that can bring the rich world of online video to my TV set.
Netgear's Digital Entertainer Live (aka the EVA2000) isn't that device. But it comes tantalizingly close -- close enough, perhaps, to satisfy the needs of some avid online video fans. It also brings into focus the technical and design problems that need to be solved before the living room TV can be as friendly to Internet video as the PC in the den.
The company gave a preview of the device at January's Consumer Electronics Show, positioning it as an inexpensive yet versatile link between the Web and the TV screen. By the time it started selling the EVA2000 in mid-September, however, Netgear had pared back its capabilities a bit. The box could still connect directly to YouTube and numerous other online video sites. But to access Hulu, Netflix and a handful of other popular outlets ...
If Thomas Jefferson and our enlightened forefathers were here today, perhaps our unalienable rights would mimic Finland's, which will now include the right to broadband access. According to Finland's Ministry of Transport and Communication, 1-megabit Web access will become a legal right for all citizens in July.
France is one of the few countries that has made it a human right but Finland said it's the first country to make it a legal right.
It's not clear whether those who can't get connection can sue the government for the violation.
Since 1-megabit web access is dauntingly slow -- it's equivalent to DSL speed -- the government has pledged to expand the legal right to 100-megabit broadband access by the end of 2015. This news must come as a relief to Finns who have more important things to do than suffer the pain and frustration of a slow Internet connection. (There are allegedly 1.6 saunas for every Finn.)
How fast is a 100-megabit connection? A Best Buy representative laughed and said, "Ridiculously fast," adding, "You'd be able to download a 500-megabyte file in only like five minutes."
The government's magnanimity is not surprising, because the world's ultimate philanthropist, Santa Claus, is a Finn -- his office is in northern Finland on the Arctic Circle, according to the Finnish Tourist Board.
-- Melissa Rohlin
Microsoft Corp. is now putting space between itself and Danger Inc. -- the now-ironically named subsidiary that created the Sidekick and was responsible a computer network that failed, causing many of the device's loyal users to lose substantial amounts of personal data.
Microsoft is now emphasizing that the data loss, and the problems that led to it, were limited to a segment of the company's network that is separate from its core cloud infrastructure.
“The Danger Service platform, which experienced the outage, is a standalone service operating on non-Microsoft technologies, and is not related to Microsoft’s cloud services platform or Windows Live," Microsoft spokesperson Tonya Klause wrote in an e-mail. “Other and future Microsoft mobile products and services are entirely based on Microsoft technologies and Microsoft’s cloud service platform and software."
The Sidekick outage was severe enough that users were warned that their data might not be recovered, an unusual outcome in a technology environment where users are increasingly entrusting their data to large Web firms -- who in turn invest heavily in keeping the data backed up in case of problems.
This was apparently not the case with the Danger Service platform.
Microsoft drew a further distinction between Danger and its other data assets, saying that "it’s important to note that for native Microsoft services such as Windows Live, Hotmail, Azure, etc., we write multiple replicas of user data to multiple devices so that the data is available in a situation where a single or multiple physical nodes may fail," Klause wrote.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a question about why Danger would have been subject to different standards for data integrity and redundancy, unlike other parts of the company's worldwide network of servers.
The Sidekick appears to have been taken off the market by Microsoft and its carrier, T-Mobile, on whose site the device is marked "temporarily out of stock."
-- David Sarno
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