The Pipeline: Circuits calls it in, Forbes waves down the broadcast flag
It's the Pipeline, where you can surf the treacherous waves of the MSM. This week, The New York Times calls it in, Forbes waves down the Broadcast Flag, and eWeek why Japan is losing the tech battle.
This week, The New York Times takes a look at the future of cellphones and finds — surprise, surprise – - that cellphones are packing in more features than just telephony. In a wide-ranging article, Steve Lohr covers everything from the now-ubiquitous cameraphone to smartphones. Readers in the U.S., however, are most likely to agree with his comments on the state of the American cellphone market (while those outside of the U.S. are likely to experience a bit of schadenfreude: "The new technology and services are coming in force, but so far the effort to push beyond voice has gone slowly in the United States compared with other nations. Data services, from short text messages to sending photos, range from 3 to 8 percent of total revenues for American carriers. In Europe, Japan and South Korea, data revenues range up to 35 percent. ... Many industry analysts blame the wireless carriers for clinging to confusing, and often costly, metered payment plans on their networks,
including some by-the-megabyte pricing plans for pictures. 'Consumers don't know megabytes from dog bites,' said Delly Tamer, chief executive of LetsTalk.com, an online cellphone store. 'Complexity is a huge bottleneck.'"
Elsewhere in what The Times bills as a special section on ?Wireless Living,? David Pogue covers the minefield of connecting via WiFi on the road. No big revelations here (he reminds you to open a browser so you can log in if you?re using a commercial hotspot), but anyone who has held a laptop out like a divining rod, looking for the best signal to ride, should appreciate Pogue?s comments. Also included in the special sectionis John Markoff?s look at ultrawideband, Lisa Guernsey on searching the net via cellphone and Wilson Rothman offers tips on how to use Bluetooth to smartphone your ride.
The New York Times – Wireless Living
In a ruling that was celebrated by librarians and hackers alike, a U.S. federal appeals court this week scrapped the
Broadcast Flag, saying the FCC overstepped its authority by mandating the Hollywood-endorsed tech, which would have required new devices to include blocking capabilities to limit video file-sharing. In a good analysis by Forbes? David M. Ewalt and Daniel Fisher, we learn that, not only is the Broadcast Flag far from a dead issue, but that the electronics industry ? which would have had to implement the system ? is far from unified in opposition to it: ?[S]ome electronics vendors are upset with the decision. ?We have worked hand in hand with Hollywood to get some form of broadcast protection,? says Dave Arland, a spokesperson for Thomson Consumer Electronics. ?We?re disappointed in today?s ruling.? Without a broadcast flag in place, content providers might decide not to release new programming in digital format, thus reducing consumer demand for Thomsons? digital set-top boxes, according to Arland.? Ewalt and Fisher also point out that the Broadcast Flag could have given traditional electronics companies an edge over upstarts like TiVo, which presumably would have a harder time complying. As to the future of the Broadcast Flag, Ewalt and Fisher see the MPAA and its allies heading to Congress next. Time to start writing those letters.
Forbes -
Red Flags Over Hollywood
We remember a time, in the long distant past (say, about 1990), when it looked like Japan was poised to dominate virtually every technology industry. The country was ramping up to lead in just about every emerging sector, from LCD production to the then-nascent market for cellphones. And, of course, companies like Sony and Matsushita, flush with cash, were buying up everything from software companies to Hollywood studios. But a series of events ? ranging from the collapse of Japan?s bubble economy to the rise of the Internet to the growth of Korea, India and China?s own tech industries ? changed things, putting a damper on Japan?s plans. In eWeek, Eric Lundquist offers some tips to Japanese tech companies that want to regain their footing in the global economy: ?My suggestion to those Japanese IT vendors looking for a winning strategy in the marketplace this time around is to emulate Toyota rather than Sony. Toyota stayed with its core strengths of building automobiles and thought about what customers would want five, 10 or 20 years in the future rather than worrying about chasing their competitors each year. As a result, Toyota has a hybrid lineup at exactly the same time that the world?s economic and political realities are demanding hybrid vehicles. ... Sony, rather than playing to its main strengths of widely available,
first-quality audio and digital products, headed out on a content-generation strategy that took it far from its core capabilities; it?s a strategy from which Sony is still trying to recover. Whether the Hitachis and Toshibas can do for IT what Toyota has done for automotive technology remains to be seen, but the opportunity is once again in front of them.?
eWeek – Japanese IT
Companies Find World Stage Elusive
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