Wednesday, June 11, 2014

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Google Glass being banned everywhere

Posted: 11 Jun 2014 02:20 AM PDT

Google's plan to put a computer on everyone's face appear to be coming unstuck because the specs can film people.

A cinema chain announced that it is now barring patrons from wearing Google Glass at its movie houses across the US in a bid to clamp down on piracy.

Alamo Drafthouse, which runs movie theatres in Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and California, is among the first US chains to ban Google's computerised eyewear.

The move follows a slew of incidents in which wearers of Google Glass have had brushes with the law.

In January the FBI dragged an Ohio man watching Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit from an AMC theatre. The unit was not on and was instead functioning as a pair of prescription glasses. But hey this is the Land of the Free and if the FBI can't act as the corporate goons for Big Content who can?

Also in January, a California motorist was cited for wearing Google Glass while driving, but she was cleared months later.

Google Glass has also been banned at restaurants, strip clubs, and other venues like casinos.

Pretty soon the devices will be banned before anyone gets a chance to buy them at a reasonable price. 

Apple will help people find their cars

Posted: 11 Jun 2014 02:18 AM PDT

 Presstitutes working for the Tame Apple Press are getting all excited about a feature which will help the absent minded remember where they left their car.

The news has been around since September, but like many things Applish, like the iWatch, nothing really happened. Despite its software compontant it was not mentioned during WWDC last week either.

However some new icons found inside the Maps application indicate that the feature was in development at some point and is likely still be worked on.

What it appears to be is it is testing a tool for its Maps app that, with the M7 chip, could analyse when your car is parked. When you park your car, the iPhone will register the car's location. Now when you return to the parking lot, your iPhone will be able to help you assist with finding your car since it knows the vehicle's location.

Apple's latest mapping software contains six images dedicated to the parked car location feature, each a purple pin with a car-shaped glyph. It's very likely that this is one of the many features cut from what is now the first public beta of iOS 8 late in development.

The idea has a few problems. Firstly it involves the use of Apple maps which is a little like relying on the appearance of a London bus. It can't find an Apple store, or its own backside with both front and rare sensors. It could tell you your car is in St Petersburg, or in the middle of the ocean when it is in your garage. Secondly, if it is GPS based it will have some trouble telling you which floor your car is parked on, which is half the problem when you lose your second most valuable asset. However the biggest issue is that Google has already got a very good system of finding a parked car and has had it for nearly three years.

Last year, Google Maps for Android began introducing floor plans of shopping malls, airports, and other large commercial areas. Nokia, has an indoor positioning system, but using actual 3D models, rather than 2D floor plans. Two years ago Broadcom released a new chip (BCM4752) that supports indoor positioning systems.

So all up Apple is coming so late to the party, it might has well have not bothered showing up, and yet it is still being touted as a super-cool innovation. 

Apple investigated in EU tax probe

Posted: 11 Jun 2014 02:15 AM PDT

The European Commission has announced that it will launch a formal investigation on into Apple somewhat dodgy tax scheme.

The news follows a statement from the EU's competition authority last year that it was looking into corporate tax arrangements in several member states and had requested information from Ireland. Apple is widely seen as low hanging fruit as it, along with Google, have the most public relationship with Ireland.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny declined to comment on whether the Commission might be preparing to open an investigation but said he was confident of the legality of Ireland's tax system.

"We believe that our legislation ... is very strong and ethically implemented and we will defend that very robustly," Kenny told journalists in Dublin.

Apple had cut billions from its tax bill by declaring companies registered in the Irish city of Cork as not tax resident in any country.

Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the subcommittee, dubbed the Apple structure represented "the Holy Grail of tax avoidance."

Apple in the United States entered into deals with the Irish subsidiaries whereby the Irish units received the rights to certain intellectual property that were subsequently licensed to other group companies, helping ensure almost no tax was reported in countries such as Britain or France.

This meant that the Apple had an effective tax rate of just 3.7 percent on its non-U.S. income last year.

Apple insists that it complied with the law. "We pay all the taxes we owe - every single dollar," Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook testified to U.S. Senate committee investigators last year.

The Tame Apple Press has been reassuring people that nothing will happen to Apple.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said investors are currently "hyper-focused" on new product speculation.

So, in other words, while Apple is planning to bring out a new product, it can take money from whoever it likes investors are only interested in the shiny. Still investors will be happy that Jobs' Mob is not paying tax, because it means more money for them. The people who should be really cross are governments who are strapped for cash for things like schools and medical programmes. 

Community groups duped into anti-net neutrality group

Posted: 11 Jun 2014 02:14 AM PDT

A large number of US community groups found themselves roped into joining an anti-net neutrality lobby group supporting the cable companies.

Desperate to appear like their greedy views on net-neutrality were part of the mainstream of American thought, the cable and cellphone industry, signed up a number of small groups to their lobby organisation.

The sign ups were designed to show to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) that consumer advocates agreed with the comms companies plans to charge users twice for their internet use. By having small businesses in their lobby group, dubbed Broadband for America, it made it look like there was a grass roots call for a two tiered interent.

However it has been revealed that Broadband for America largely funded by a single contribution from the National Cable and Telecom Association (NCTA) which is the trade group that represents Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner Cable. The member list is a random assortment of companies and community groups, many of which say they never intended to sign up for an anti-net neutrality coalition.

For example Vice  found several groups that did not know that they were members of the group. Bob Calvert, the host of TalkingWithHeroes.com, did not even know he had signed up for anything political. Another Broadband for America member, the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals, said it had joined only to support broadband access in rural and underserved areas, not on issues relating to net neutrality or the classification of broadband as a utility.

Dave Pearson, president of the group said he would reexamine its endorsement and make a determination whether to continue supporting the coalition should it find that the current policies they are proposing would undermine the original goal of greater access for all Americans

Don Hollister, the executive director of the Ohio League of Conservation Voters, said he was unaware of his organization being listed as a Broadband for America member.

Broadband for America's has used its "300-member coalition" saying that net neutrality the rules would "cripple development of the internet".

Netflix spat with Verizon gets amusing

Posted: 11 Jun 2014 02:12 AM PDT

After "persuading" Netflix into paying more money for its internet connection, Verizon might have expected the content provider to be a little meek in its dealings with the comms company in the future.

Verizon gave Netflix a Chinese burn until it paid up to stop the company throttling its bandwidth, er... applying sensible network management.

However it is clear that Netflix has decided to keep pulling Verizon's chain about its rubbish service.

Last week, Verizon sent a cease and desist letter to Netflix threatening a lawsuit unless Netflix immediately stops sending notices blaming Verizon for poor quality. Verizon also demanded a list of all customers who received such messages and evidence that each message was justified.

Verizon says its stellar reputation is hurt when Netflix blames it for bad video.

"Failure to provide this information may lead us to pursue legal remedies, and Verizon reserves all rights in that regard," Verizon wrote.

Netflix General Counsel David Hyman hit back saying that the messages the company is sending to consumers are part of a "test" that's ending next week.

However Netflix's response did not include the list of customers to whom it has sent the messages or specific justification for each one, as Verizon wanted.

Netflix's letter slammed Verizon for not joining Netflix's Open Connect peering and caching program, which lets ISPs connect directly to Netflix or bring Netflix storage boxes into their own networks in order to improve quality.

"You have chosen not to participate in the Open Connect Program, but instead have allowed your network connection to Netflix to degrade until we agreed to pay for augmented interconnection. We brought the data right to your doorstep...all you had to do was open your door."

While Netflix agreed to pay for a direct connection to its network more than a month ago, Verizon hasn't established enough links with Netflix to improve quality and promises only that the upgrade will be done by the end of 2014.

Hyman wrote that Netflix's messages "merely let our customers know that the Verizon network is crowded. We have determined this by examining the difference between the speed at which the Verizon network handles Netflix traffic at peak versus non-peak times."

Verizon's claimed that it is Netflix which is responsible for poor quality, saying that "Netflix chose to continue sending its traffic over these congested routes."

Hyman said that Verizon actually upsells customers to higher speed packages based on improved access to video services, including Netflix. However it refuses to augment its access ports to major internet backbone providers. In short it is making customers pay for services they are not getting.

"To try to shift blame to us for performance issues arising from interconnection congestion is like blaming drivers on a bridge for traffic jams when you're the one who decided to leave three lanes closed during rush hour." 
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