Outgoing FTC chairman famous for battling Google and others
An aggressive defender of online privacy, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chief Jon Leibowitz will be leaving his post later this month after vigorously battling everyone from generic drug companies to social networking giant Facebook.
The New York Times reported Thursday that FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz has resigned from his position, effective mid-February, ending a four-year battle for consumer online privacy protection.
Among them are alleged violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protections Act (COPPA) against social network Path, who reached a settlement Friday after addressing concerns over children under 13 being permitted to sign up for the service.
"I felt like this was a good time to leave because we got through a number of things that I wanted the commission to address," Leibowitz explained in an interview.
What's next
The FTC chairman's most recent high profile case put Google's search results under the microsocope, an effort which ultimately led to voluntary changes that fell short of what consumer advocates had been hoping for.
Advertisers claimed Google had been giving higher priority to companies whose interests aligned with theirs, at the same time reducing the presence of competitors.
Five FTC commissioners were unanimous in their decision that the company's actions actually benefitted users, even though some were considered less than helpful to the competition.
The departure of 54-year-old Leibowitz had been widely expected, and the chairman now plans a move into the private sector, where he'll continue his laser focus on privacy issues and anticompetitive practices.
Word is that Sony will draw back the curtain on the PlayStation 4 at the end of February, but the company’s history demonstrates that just because a console is announced doesn’t mean its release is right around the corner.
Sony is promising to show off the “Future of PlayStation” at a media event in New York City on Feb. 20. The expectation is that Sony plans to give a look at its tent pole PlayStation 3 games coming throughout the rest of 2012 like Beyond: Two Souls and The Last of Us, as well as substantial new first party games for the PS Vita handheld like Killzone Mercenary. The immediate future doesn’t seem to be the main event at this function, though. Sources tell the Wall Street Journal that this will be the moment that Sony unveils the PlayStation 4 (whether it’s called Orbis or not) to the public.
Just because Sony plans to give a glimpse of what the PlayStation 4 is, that doesn’t mean it will show its full hand. Far from it. Sony has a long history of early home console coming out parties, and they have by and large come almost a year before the actual device hit shelves.
The most famous of these was Sony’s March 1999 event announcing that the development of the PlayStation 2 was complete. At the time, Sony showed off a series of tech demos that took more advanced polygonal characters from FMV sequences in PSOne games and rendered them in real time. The cinema sequences from games like Final Fantasy VIII and Ridge Racer 4 were purportedly what PlayStation 2 games would look like. It then showed what industry figures refer to as “target demos,” footage of games like Namco’s Tekken Tag Tournament and Squaresoft’s The Bouncer that looked far more advanced than the games that were ultimately released. Sony didn’t announce the price or release details for the console for another six months, and the PlayStation 2 didn’t release for another six months after that. Even then, it only came to Japan with a US release following in October 2000.
The E3 2005 announcement of the PlayStation 3 echoed that announcement as well. PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi showed a prototype version of the console itself while confirming basic technical information (the machine will have Blu-ray drive, etc.) and then showing off not games, but technical demos, many of which became infamous. The early footage of Unreal Tournament 3 shown demonstrated what Sony believed the console would be capable of. Other early demos shown for titles like Killzone 2 and Motorstorm were again not actual game footage but target renders.
This history doesn’t necessarily preclude Sony from announcing the price and release date of its new gaming machine, but it does demonstrate why industry pundits and fans should temper their expectations before February 20 rolls around.
Back at CES, Vizio demonstrated the first tablet to run a Tegra 4. Now DigiTimes is reporting that Toshiba plans to be among the first (if not the first) to release an actual product running the new Nvidia processor.
The DigiTimes article further claims that Asus and Acer have at least briefly considered using Tegra 4, but right now Asus at least seems to only think of it as a “backup possibility” since they have a relatively close relationship with Qualcomm. The sources to DigiTimes are rather critical of Nvidia chips in general, stating that Tegra 4 will struggle to compete with quad-core platforms developed by Qualcomm, Mediatek and China-based IC design houses.
The last bit of DigiTimes report suggest that the Tegra 3 processor costs will be cut to attract more entry-level orders, but the same sources say this likely won’t create a competitive enough solution against other processors.
Personally, while the Toshiba Tegra 4 use sounds very possible, the rest is awfully negative and I’m not sure I totally agree. The Tegra 4 processor looks like a solid offering, and while I believe Qualcomm will provide major competition for Nvidia, it sounds like the sources reporting are talking more about the general situation in China– not globally. In China, consumers will likely be more attracted by cheaper offerings from Mediatek and others, but globally? I anticipate that the Nvidia Tegra 4 will see quite a bit of success.
How about you, do you prefer Qualcomm or Nvidia chipsets for your mobile devices? Or perhaps you’d rather see Intel continue to move into the space? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
The new Sony Xperia Z has turned a few heads with a top-end spec list…so how can you go about getting it?
The handset caused something of a stir at CES 2013, mostly because it saw Sony finally releasing a phone that wasn't a couple of generations behind the competition.
This means a massive 5-inch full HD display, which pushes closer to the edge of the screen so you're not left with a comically huge phone dwarfing your hand.
It's also water and dust resistant, comes with top-end Bravia tech and offers an impressive camera too – so which networks will be stocking it?
Clove is offering the handset with a SIM free price of £528 - putting it squarely alongside the low-capacity iPhone 5 and other top-end handsets, and it's joined by Expansys at that price point too.
Sony itself has jumped into the selling game with the Xperia Z, and you can pre-order it from its own website for £529 - although it's only stuck a 'coming soon' tag on the release date.
O2
The effervescent provider tweeted at stupid o'clock in the morning to confirm it would be bringing the handset to market, and it's confirmed the February release date from its "coming soon" page.
You can pre-order it now with prices for the phone starting from free at a high contract price, or paying £480 for the handset and getting it for £13.50 a month - although you do get those £300 Sony headphones if you sign up 'while stocks last'.
Oh, it is coming in "Exclusive Purple". That may mean it's only landing on O2 in that colour, or it's the actual name of the hue - you know, like Ranging Green or Megalithic Blue.
Three
The numerical network also confirmed it would be stocking the Sony Xperia Z and it's now given us a LOAD more information. You can pre-order the new phone from today although the cheapest contract price will start at £34 a month with a £69 upfront cost, and will be available from 28 February.
You can also buy it on PAYG though, and it's at a relatively cheap £449.99 if you want to go down this route. Three is also throwing in a pair of Sony headphones worth £300 for the first 1000 customers to nab one, but chances are that deal will be sucked up faster than a Dyson hopped up on Red Bull.
Vodafone
Big Red has done a blog post outlining some of the specs you'll have read about loads already, but it's also managed to confirm via Twitter that it will be stocking the phone from 28 February. You annoyingly can't pre-order yet, but we're sure it will pop up pretty soon.
EE / Orange / T-Mobile
Nothing from this tri-headed behemoth as yet, but we've asked the question and it has promised to furnish us with details as they become available.
Phones 4U
The independent retailer is already open for pre-registration on this top-end phone, and has now updated its listing to reveal prices and a special gift* for those that sign up.
The Xperia Z will be landing on 28 February (if you're not seeing the pattern here, shame on you) and will start at £36 a month on a range of networks.
* It's those blasted Sony headphones again. The electronics brand must have a surplus it can't shift.
Carphone Warehouse
We're going to get a little quote-y on yo' asses now: "Carphone Warehouse, has confirmed that it will be stocking the brand new Sony Xperia Z from launch in February." Saves us from writing that.
The retailer also confirmed that the Z will be available in later February to purchase, so it could beat Phones 4U to the punch of actually getting it into the hands of consumers.
We're going to be updating this piece with prices and any more definitive release dates as and when we get them (plus the inevitable offers of more headphones for EVERYONE) – stay with us during this difficult time.
What if you could use your phone to ask a stranger for some cash, and they actually gave it to you? A new patent application suggests Apple wants to make that happen.
We’ve all been there: When you least expect to need cash, you realize your wallet’s empty – the restaurant won’t accept cards, you’re catching a bus, you wanna tip the hotel maid – but there isn’t a bank or ATM around for miles. What do you do in that circumstance? According to a new patent published yesterday by Apple, the answer in the near future might be “pull out your phone and transmit a request for a stranger to give you some money.”
The patent is for what Apple calls an “ad-hoc cash-dispensing network” that would allow members to broadcast their location and amount of cash they desire. The requests are then visible to other members within a certain distance. Once an agreement has been reached between the borrower and lender, the two can arrange to meet at a particular location where the money will change hands, with their reimbursement coming in the form of a payment via the borrower’s iTunes account.
At least, that’s one of the variations on the idea listed in the patent application; others include loans via social networking, electronic transferring of funds, and GPS location of lenders/borrowers. The patent explains that “the ad-hoc cash-dispensing network includes a cash-dispensing server, a network, and a plurality of client terminals that connect to the cash-dispensing server through the network,” describing in detail the “embodiment” of the idea as detailed above.
“Most businesses accept payment through credit, check, or other forms of non-direct cash payments,” Apple says. Although there are benefits to using credit – i.e. fraud alert, theft protections, rewards programs – sometimes you just really need cold hard cash. “For example, some smaller businesses do not accept payment with credit cards because of the charges the proprietor of the business must pay to the credit card companies. Accordingly, there is a need for a cash-dispensing network that allows users to exchange cash as needed.”
The idea brings a familiar online notion – crowdsourcing – to a real world problem. There are obvious potential pitfalls (What if the borrower had an iTunes account that he or she had defaulted upon? What if the iTunes account was fake, or stranger still, the lender was fake and wanted to abuse the system), but the potential for change that it brings can’t be discounted. If Apple manages to make this model of crowdsourcing lending work, then it’d be interesting to see what will happen to banks as a result.
