Verizon Wants To Kill Net Neutrality, YouTube, Netflix

During oral arguments in the case, Levy said, Verizon claimed a First Amendment free-speech right to curate what kind of content is transmitted across its broadband networks. "Verizon believes it should be able to edit the Internet, much like the way a publisher has control over a newspaper," Levy said. (source infra)

Net Neutrality Lawsuit Threatens Netflix, YouTube - Tom's Guide: "The appeals court could go many ways with its decision in Verizon v. FCC. The court might choose to strike down some, or all, of the net neutrality rules on the grounds that the FCC lacks authority to impose such rules. It might also cite legal precedent that suggests the FCC already has the authority, but just hasn't explicitly claimed it, which would reject Verizon's argument. It’s also likely that a decision that favors one side over the other will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.... if the FCC wants to protect net neutrality, it needs to reclassify broadband and mobile networks as "common carriers." These are public utilities, such as the telephone network, that everyone needs and that can be regulated by the government."(read more at the link above)

Julie Larson-Green, Executive Vice President, Devices and Studios at Microsoft, November 21, 2013 - UBS_LarsonGreen.docx: "So I think there will always be for a long time, for my lifetime, there will be desktop computers where people are doing precision movements with a mouse which are highly tuned towards productivity and typing, as well as maybe something on your wrist, or something on your head, or something in your pocket that you will want to interact and see your e-mails, hear notifications, get access to corporate data that you need to do your job, as well as interact with friends and family...."

Apple's new Mac Pro signals commitment to professional computing
PCWorld
Apple is sending a signal that it hasn't abandoned the professional computing market with the latest Mac Pro, which will ship next month. But the workstation faces competition from its own sibling iMac as computer buyers weigh purchases. Loyalists of...

Motorola's Unlocked Moto G Smartphone Heads to U.S. Ahead of Schedule | Maximum PC: "Motorola has a holiday surprise for the mobile crowd. The company announced that its unlocked and affordable Moto G smartphone is now available to purchase in GSM form from Motorola's website with no contract, no SIM lock, and an unlocked bootloader for $179 with 8GB of storage or $199 with 16GB of storage. Those are full retail prices - you own the device outright for "

Google-backed 23andme ordered by FDA to stop selling genetic tests

San Jose Mercury News
MOUNTAIN VIEW -- In a harsh warning letter made public Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered Google (GOOG)-backed 23andme to stop ...

Times of India

Apple's latest deal is a gesture to the future

MarketWatch
Apple, as it typically does whenever it makes an acquisition, declined to comment further ... Microsoft, too, has been touting the potential of gesturing and voice.

Mirror.co.uk

Google Maps scrubs image of dead California teen, updates satellite ...

New York Daily News
The image of what appeared to be the dead body of a California teen was removed from Google Maps by early Monday — a week after the victim's father said he ...

New York Daily News

Apple Defeats Patent Claim Over Invention of Smartphone

Bloomberg
Apple Inc. (AAPL), the world's most valuable technology company, was found by a federal jury not to infringe the patent of a 70-year-old electrical engineer who ...

The Mac Observer

Microsoft and the Rise of Hardware Walled Gardens

TIME
The recipe that won Microsoft its once-dominant stance in the market is not the ... they simply can't do so with a proprietary software ecosystem like Apple can.

Apple's new iPad Mini: With a Retina Display, it's a Mini in name only

Computerworld (blog)
Computerworld - It took Apple two and a half years after the debut of the first iPad to rollout the smaller, more mobile-friendly iPad Mini. Soon after it was unveiled ...

Computerworld (blog)

Inside Google's Ecosystem

Wall Street Journal
Here's the existential dilemma I weighed when I visited Google's GOOG ...ham and maple-brined roasted turkey were the desserts—the homemadeapple cider ...

Wall Street Journal

Microsoft still open sources more technologies than many think

ZDNet
Summary: Don't look now, but Microsoft is continuing to open source many of its ... Meanwhile, competitors like Google grabbed the off-the-shelf Linux kernel and ... for OS X. Apple was the main force behind the open-source WebKit browser.

Microsoft, suspecting NSA spying, to ramp up efforts to encrypt its Internet ...
Washington Post
Suspicions at Microsoft, while building for several months, sharpened in October when it was reported that the NSA was intercepting traffic inside the private networks of Googleand Yahoo, two industry rivals with similar global infrastructures, said ...

Microsoft Xbox users' accounts suspended after swearing
BBC News
Users of Microsoft's Xbox One console caught swearing in video clips are having their accounts suspended. Files containing "excessive profanity" will be taken down and their owners will have access to some features on Xbox Live removed. Microsoft said ...

Apple's new iPad Mini: With a Retina Display, it's a Mini in name only
Computerworld
Soon after it was unveiled in October 2012, it quickly became Apple's most popular iPad -- its portability and light weight trumped the faster performance and sharper Retina display on the larger, heavier models. With the debut last month of the 2013 ...

Apple supplier Biel Crystal violates workers rights: HK activists
Reuters
BEIJING (Reuters) - Biel Crystal Manufactory Ltd, a Hong-Kong based company that makes screens for Apple Inc, is violating workers' rights at its Chinese factories, a Hong Kong rights group alleged in a report. The Students & Scholars Against Corporate ...

Google Street View Lands In Airports
InformationWeek
Google aims to help travelers find their way by providing first-person access to 16 airports and more than 50 train and subway stations around the world. Travelers can now use Google Street Views to see a preview of the stops along their journey, be it ...

Google brings automatic voice search to computers running Chrome
PCWorld
Laptop and desktop users can now do a Google search without typing just by speaking aloud, with a Chrome extension that Google made available on Tuesday. The browser extension, Google Voice Search Hotword, can be downloaded from the Chrome ...

Why Does the Seahorse Have Its Odd Head? Mystery Solved
National Geographic
For the seahorse, the shape of its head, along with its stealthy approach and lightening speed, literally makes a meal of some of the ocean's most sought after prey: the copepod, according to a new study. ...

Comet Nears Sun, Offering Planetary Clues
New York Times
A comet that spent the first 4.5 billion years of its existence in the farthest reaches of the solar system will almost graze the furnace of the sun on Thursday...

Google Earth spies unreported fish traps, study reveals
NBCNews.com
This Google Earth image shows a fishing weir along the Persian Gulf. Fish swimming close to shore get trapped by the weirs at low tide. Fishing traps known as weirs that jut from coastlines may be snaring six times more fish in the Persian Gulf than what is ...

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