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Tennessee bill broadens scope of 'theft,' wide enough to include web-based subscription services?
This week, Tennessee signed a bill that made waves across the web, with many sites claiming that sharing your log-in credentials for services such as Netflix could soon land you in the slammer. The actual story isn't that simple. The bill essentially adds onto laws pertaining to the theft of 'services' in the legal sense by covering more things that can be defined under the title. For instance, the original list included cable services, to keep folks from jacking free HBO -- now, stealing "entertainment subscription services" can make you a felon as well. Tennessee has always been a hotspot for the recording industry, so there's almost no question about what this bill was meant to fight; during a senate hearing for the bill, the RIAA itself explained that online music services could be pirated via password sharing. It also added, though, that users who share passwords "en-masse" are the focus, rather than individual cases like it had pursued in the past. However, this bill covers more than online services and could even extend to physical media such as magazines, another example vulnerable to this type of theft. Furthermore, while sharing passwords to these "entertainment services" may be illegal after its enactment on July 1st, that's not what this legislation is technically about; the RIAA would still need to prove that password sharing equates to theft in a court of law. You can check the links down below for more details.
Tennessee school requires iPads of all 4th-12th grade students
Starting next year, fourth to 12th grade students attending the Webb School in Knoxville, Tennessee will be required to have an iPad for classes. Jim Manikais, technology director at the private school, said this new policy was designed to let students "use that technology whenever they need it." Currently, students have to "check out a cart, a laptop cart, or schedule lab time to take a class to a lab" which made it difficult for both teachers and students to use technology regularly in the classroom. The school has a three-year rental plan for parents who are unable to purchase an iPad. This payment plan will cost about $200 per academic year or $20 per month for the ten-month school year. School officials will block Facebook and Twitter on the school campus and English teacher, Elli Shellist, already has a plan to monitor web browser usage in class. The savvy teacher will randomly perform a flip check that requires students to flip their iPad towards the teacher so he can check what application they have opened. Of course, it won't take very long for even more savvy students to write an app that switches back to the appropriate application when the iPad is flipped forward rapidly. We won't even mention the antics that may ensue when the dual-camera iPad 2 makes its inevitable debut in the classroom. Despite the potential for abuse, this is an excellent use of technology that will continue to expand in the future. Other academic institutions like Seton Hill and the University of Notre Dame encourage the usage of iPads in the classroom, while textbook publishers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are developing applications for use in academic settings. [Via KSLA]
Chattanooga becomes home to 1Gbps internet service, just $350 per month
It pales in comparison to Sigbritt Löthberg's home internet connection, but it sure makes Comcast's Extreme 105Mbps broadband package look downright sluggish. EPB Fiber Optics (Chattanooga's municipally-owned fiber-to-the-premises network) and Alcatel-Lucent have teamed up to offer America's "fastest" home broadband service -- a service that brings 1Gbps (or 1000Mbps, if that strikes you better) directly to your PC. Best of all, the service is actually on sale starting today, and every single home and business within EPB's 600 square-mile, nine-county service area will be able to access the network. Oh, and in case you're wondering, this actually isn't affiliated in any way with Google's own proposed 1Gbps service, which likely means that this record will only sit in southeast Tennessee for a few months. Still, we hear this place is some kind of beautiful in the fall, but make sure you're cool with a $350 monthly charge before pulling the trigger on a relocation. Update: Tipster Jens notes that he can get a 1Gbps connection for 900 SEK per month in Stockholm, or around $126. Baby steps, we Americans are taking.
T-Mobile service down through much of the Southeast this morning
We're getting a few reports this morning that T-Mobile customers through the nation's Southeast have been suffering an outage, and a thread going on the carrier's official forums corroborates the story. It seems that phones attached to both 2G and 3G services throughout much of Florida, Georgia (including Atlanta), Tennessee, and the Carolinas have been affected since the wee hours to some extent; as far as we can tell, service is starting to come back online in some parts, but for others, inbound callers are getting "circuits busy" messages. What's everyone seeing out there? [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Nashville, TN grabs AT&T's U-verse TV this week
AT&T just announced that its U-verse services would be introduced in Birmingham, Alabama this week, and it's evidently making a similar rollout across Middle Tennessee. We've been hearing that AT&T was looking to infiltrate the Volunteer State for months on end, and at long last we're finding out that those whispers were legit. According to a recent article in The Tennessean, select parts of Nashville and Middle Tennessee will become the first areas in the state to receive U-verse TV and high-speed internet. The best part of all of this is that AT&T has successful acquired a statewide license to lay service, meaning that it could very well hit more areas in short order. In fact, the operator has already vowed to expand U-verse to "about 60 cities and numerous counties" over the next two years, with "Chattanooga, Memphis, Knoxville and some rural areas" named in particular.[Thanks, anonymous]
Tullahoma Board of Utilities begins beta testing FTTH services in Tennessee
The Tullahoma Board of Utilities has made no secret of its plans to rollout a fiber-to-the-premise network to deliver television, high-speed internet and phone services to residents of the Tennessee town, but it sounds as if the aforesaid services (to be dubbed LightTUBe) are edging ever closer to being available for ordering. Reportedly, the TUB has just begun beta testing the offerings, though there's no definitive go-live date just yet. Still, we're told that quite a few high-definition channels will be available at launch, including ABC, FOX, CBS, PBS, MyNetwork TV, ION, WGN HD, A&E HD, National Geographic HD, Discovery HD, History HD, HGTV HD, Food Network HD, ESPN HD, ESPNews HD, ESPNU HD, ESPN2 HD, TLC HD, Animal Planet HD, The Science Channel HD, FSN HD, Golf HD, TNT HD, QVC HD, CNN HD, QVC HD, TBS HD, Speed HD, Planet HD, FX HD, Fox News HD, SciFi HD, Bravo HD, USA HD, CNBC HD, Universal HD and all of the premium movie channels in HD. Okay, so maybe "quite a few" was a slight understatement.[Thanks, Jeff]
Memphis, TN gifted with 3 new HD channels from Comcast
The Memphis area hasn't seen any new HD channels from Comcast since April, so it's about time the carrier did its subscribers there a solid and threw in a few more. Starting now, users can find FX HD, Speed HD and FOX News HD on their EPG, though we wouldn't celebrate too loudly -- Comcast might take that as a sign that you're a-okay with even more price hikes. Shhh.[Thanks, Tristan]
Chattanooga, TN getting another bundle of HD channels from Comcast
With U-verse coming to Chattanooga "sooner rather than later," Comcast has been doing its darnedest to push out new HD channels as fast as possible. After locals received four more in May, one particular tipster has passed along a message from his DVR noting that Hamilton County residents will see CNN HD (423), FOX News HD (428), AMC HD (429), ABC Family HD (444), Disney HD (445), Science HD (446), Speed HD (450) and FX HD (451) on October 28th. Mmm, thanks competition![Thanks, Michael]
Comcast adding a fresh dozen in Knoxville, TN
October 17th sure seems like a long ways out, but on that fateful day, Comcast will be adding twelve new high-def channels in Knoxville, Tennessee. According to a local, a friendly message recently popped up on his EPG informing him of the forthcoming additions, and if you're anxious to know which dozen you'll be receiving, here goes. CNN HD, TLC HD, AMC HD, FX HD, Speed HD, FOX News HD, Science HD, Fox Sports HD, NFL HD, TBS HD, ABC Family HD and Disney HD will all be arriving in around a month, so just hold tight till then, okay?[Thanks, Eric]
U-verse coming to Chattanooga, TN "sooner than later"
AT&T has been teasing the Volunteer State for awhile now with its fiber-based TV service, but it sure sounds like U-verse is coming to Chattanooga in particular "sooner than later." That's according to Greg Morton, president of AT&T Tennessee, who also asserts that the company is "working as hard as it can to make sooner as soon as possible." The firm has two full years to get its service operational somewhere in the state, though it'll obviously be advantageous to AT&T to get things cranked up well before then. So yeah, still no definitive launch date, but surely it's not too far off now.[Thanks, Anthony]
DirecTV adds HD locals in Chattanooga, Augusta, Johnstown-Altoona
Coming right back is DirecTV, just a few days after activating HD locals in New York and Nebraska comes word that Johnstown-Altoona, PA, Chattanooga, TN and Augusta, GA are the latest in its 44 planned local rollouts this summer/fall. Better hurry DirecTV, the days are already getting shorter. Beyond the read links is the list of newly-added local networks, proceed with caution, or reckless abandon, it's pretty much the same to us either way.Read - Johnstown-Altoona, PaRead - Chattanooga, TennRead - Augusta, Ga
AT&T to invest $400 million to bring U-verse to Tennessee
Welp, the fat lady has sung. After a long run-up to the inevitable, AT&T has finally admitted that it will be stringing its U-verse services into the Volunteer State. Reportedly, the provider will be coughing up $400 million over the next few years for "fiber network upgrades," which it will likely use to deliver high-speed internet, digital phone service and television programming to the fine citizens of Tennessee. Unfortunately, AT&T failed to reveal a timeline of events for us to focus on, but judging by how long we've been waiting with no results from that supposed investment in the Carolinas, we wouldn't call and cancel that Comcast service just yet.[Thanks, John]
WMC-TV brings local news to Memphis, Tennessee in HD
The number of US cities that still lack at least one option for seeing local news in HD has just declined by one, as WNC-TV becomes the mid-south's very first high-definition news channel. The Memphis, TN NBC affiliate began showing off its fanciful new equipment this week, which included HD studio cameras, graphics tailored for high-def and even an HD version of its StormTrack Doppler 5. Whatcha got to say about that, Nashville / Knoxville?[Thanks, Marcos and Kyle]
DISH Network adds four more HD local markets
DISH Network just keeps on cranking down the list of its 22 markets slated for an HD upgrade in the summer/fall, with four going on line today: Albany - Shenectady - Troy, NY; Chattanooga, TN; Lansing, MI; and Syracuse NY. Hope the recent thunderstorms didn't knock anyone's power out, because now you've got one more reason to stay inside. As usual, we don't know what city will be next, but we expect more markets to be added soon.
DISH Network gets official with summer / fall HD locals
Remember those 20-some-odd cities we heard were getting HD locals via DISH Network earlier this year? Yeah, the satcaster has just now gotten around to confirming what we already knew, but it's good to have something to hold 'em to, regardless. As of today, Grand Rapids, Michigan and Memphis, Tennessee can both look forward to seeing their local channels in high-definition, while 22 other markets are on the clock. As for timing, all we know is that these 22 will be launched sometime during summer / fall of 2008, but it looks like you'll be waiting patiently to find out if your market is closer to going live now or later. Tap the read link for the full list of locales.
Comcast flier all but confirms U-verse in Tennessee
Not even a full week after Tennessee's governor signed a particular cable franchising bill into law, along comes this mysterious flier from Comcast. Now, we know things can get pretty heated between rivals, but this just seems downright bizarre -- if it's not some sort of elaborate prank, of course. From what we can gather, Comcast has been circulating this here flier around, which clearly points out that AT&T "has been installing 52B Cabinets in Nashville and Middle Tennessee for the last several months." It also notes that said boxes are used for distributing its U-verse television service, in case there was any doubt. Apparently Comcast is hoping to create an internal map of all possible distribution points in order to bring the hurt where it matters most, but we must say this seems like quite the stretch to get a leg-up. Ah, the sweet smell of competition.[Thanks, Martian]
Tennessee governor signs cable franchising bill into law
Remember that legislation we mentioned early last month which, if passed, could pave the way for AT&T's U-verse to infiltrate The Volunteer State? Governor Phil Bredesen just signed said bill into law, creating statewide TV cable franchising in Tennessee. Beyond that, details are few and far between, but don't be shocked to see yet another programming provider pop up in the not-too-distant future.[Thanks, roflercopterer]
Comcast HD rollouts continue: 4 more in Chattanooga, TN
Believe it or not, Comcast's HD rollouts are still going strong, with the latest additions happening in Chattanooga, Tennessee. According to our resident tipster, a message popped up informing him that Discovery HD, History HD, Animal Planet HD and SciFi HD would be arriving on June 16th. Call it a hunch, but we reckon quite a few ungrateful Comcast users will be wishing their recent boost included that last station.[Thanks, Reed]
Comcast adding ABC Family, Disney HD in Memphis, TN
No, a couple of new HD channels that nearly every other Comcast user already has (or likely will soon) won't remove that lingering sting from letting the National Championship slip right through your fingertips, but hopefully seeing ABC Family and Disney in high-def will at least get your mind to a happier place. According to a tipster residing in the Tennessee town, the carrier has mailed out notifications that the duo of new channels will be landing on May 22nd, but curiously enough, Science HD won't be along for the ride. And here we were thinking three was company.[Thanks, Matt]
New legislation could pave the way for U-verse in Tennessee
Although the matter has generally been swept under the rug nationally, folks in the great state of Tennessee yearning for more choices when it comes to receiving cable may be one step closer to getting just that. Just this week a compromise cable bill -- which would enable companies such as AT&T to "avoid having to seek hundreds of municipal permits to offer TV service" -- unanimously passed the House Commerce Committee. Still, select committee members questioned the aforementioned carrier's ability to deliver public, education and government (PEG) programming, and in order to avoid having firms roll out their networks to wealthy areas first, a provision was included that would force them to offer service to a certain amount of "low-income" neighborhoods or else face fines. Granted, there's no word on AT&T's immediate plans in The Volunteer State, but don't be shocked to see braids of orange fiber laid down in the future.[Thanks, Brent]
