A new team of digital experts will work with federal agencies to make their websites more user friendly and improve their back-end technology, said a White House news release Monday (http://1.usa.gov/1B9D9EI). Former Google engineer Mikey Dickerson will helm the squad, dubbed the U.S. Digital Service, in his new role as deputy federal chief information officer, the White House said. Dickerson previously helped work out Healthcare.gov glitches after the site launched, said the administration. His team will work to establish government digital service standards “in line with the best private sector services,” and set up accountability measurements to bring each agency’s services up to the standards. The White House also requested public comment on two reports released Monday as part of the government’s IT tool kit -- the Digital Services Playbook (http://playbook.cio.gov/) and TechFAR Handbook (http://playbook.cio.gov/techfar/). The playbook “lays out best practices for effective digital service delivery and that will serve as a guide for agencies across government,” and the handbook explains how agencies can execute the playbook in line with Federal Acquisition Regulation, the White House said. Comments can be submitted at each item’s home page.
FTC and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials last week met with Sajai Singh, president of the International Technology Law Association (ITechLaw), a global technology lawyer association, said a Monday news release (http://bit.ly/1opE3ZB). Cybersecurity was the main issue discussed, ITechLaw said. Officials from the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau and Office of International Affairs attended to talk possible collaborations, said ITechLaw. Senior staffers from DOJ’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section also attended, the group said. “Our desire is for ITechLaw to be a trusted and authoritative resource -- especially on global cyber crime, through our new Cyber Crime Committee,” said Singh.
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) invested $444.46 million for 10 percent ownership of Berlin-based Rocket Internet, which focuses on e-commerce and financial technology, said a Rocket Internet news release (http://bit.ly/1qXUazj) Thursday. “The partnership will leverage PLDT’s experience and intellectual property in mobile payments and remittance platforms, together with Rocket’s global technology platform, to provide products and services for the ‘unbanked, uncarded and unconnected’ population in emerging markets,” it said. The companies will work to develop “online and mobile payment solutions” in developing markets, said PLDT CEO Napoleon Nazareno in the release.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling against software firm Alice (CD June 20 p13), which criticized abstract software patents, major tech companies are diverging on how they believe the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) should interpret the decision, according to comments filed to the PTO (http://1.usa.gov/1kn6lmz). The PTO issued preliminary instructions on what the decision meant for companies examining patents (http://1.usa.gov/1nHVmR7). Microsoft, which favored the high court’s narrow ruling, approved of the PTO’s subsequent “clear, thoughtful, and prompt guidance.” It said “no major changes are required to the substantive description, interpretation, or application of the Alice decision set forth in the preliminary instructions.” Google and Twitter filed joint comments arguing the PTO should go further. “The guidance should make clear that claims directed toward abstract ideas can arise in all fields, not only the specific categories identified in the Preliminary Guidance, and should provide multiple examples of abstract ideas as instruction for examiners."
The ability to access the Internet and stream content was the top factor in a TV or video device purchase decision among 50 Chicago-area homes canvassed over 15 weeks ending April, said the Council for Research Excellence in a study. Smart TVs were the device of choice among most of those canvassed, followed by over-the-top streaming devices such as a Roku component, it said. Content was the driving force behind most purchase and usage decisions, it said. “Consumers demand devices that can stream content -- to enable time-shifting or binge-watching, for example.” All participating homes in the study sought ways to stream content, “regardless of demographic or technographic differences,” and “casting” content from one device to another was another “material attraction,” it said. When TV sets with over-the-top access were introduced into a home, “they became the most-used device for video, generating increased group viewing,” it said. But the TV set, whether “smart” in its own right or connected to a streaming device, “remained the dominant video-viewing device, although other devices were often present in the same room,” it said.
Apple TV sales have slowed “significantly” in 2014, said Strategy Analytics, estimating that 1.9 million Apple TVs were sold in Q2. While over-the-top (OTT) streaming player shipments are expected to rise 54 percent this year on strong demand for “affordable delivery of OTT content on TV screens,” Apple TV’s market share in the segment fell 11 percentage points from 2012 to 27 percent in 2014, Strategy Analytics said in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1tSZQuR). David Watkins, Strategy Analytics analyst, said Google and Amazon have “staked their claims” on the OTT streaming player segment and the “aging Apple TV is lacking features like voice control, gaming support and, most of all, an open app store.” Some of those features are rumored to be part of the next-generation Apple TV, but “delays are impeding its chance to succeed before Google’s Android TV and Amazon’s Fire TV grab a foothold in the market,” Watkins said. Analyst Eric Smith said the next Apple TV would be “revolutionary” if Apple’s negotiations with service providers would clear the way for 4K video delivery or integrated pay TV and OTT delivery “through a single box.” But Smith said that’s a tall order, citing efforts from tech giants such as Intel that have “unsuccessfully spent hundreds of millions of dollars to break into the pay TV business.” Convincing pay TV providers and content owners “to share control of lucrative video content with non-traditional players will continue to be challenging,” Smith said. Apple had no immediate comment.
The FTC report on shopping apps, which concluded privacy policies are often unclear, is more evidence app developers should institute privacy policies in line with the NTIA-backed mobile privacy code of conduct, said Jules Polonetsky, executive director of Future of Privacy Forum, the industry-backed group favoring self-regulatory privacy guidelines. The FTC report released Friday said many shopping apps make security promises in privacy policies but use vague language to retain an ability to collect, use and share consumer data (CD Aug 4 p14). “It is apparent that many apps should consider adopting the model app privacy nutrition label notice developed by the NTIA multistakeholder group to avoid the vagueness problems identified by the FTC in their study,” said Polonetsky by email. The Application Developers Alliance recently released open source code, based on the NTIA-backed mobile privacy code, that creates such a “nutrition label notice” for apps (CD July 25 p9).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said the full text of National Security Presidential Directive 54 is subject to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, in a Thursday ruling (http://bit.ly/1nZXRTf). According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which filed the lawsuit and FOIA requests, the directive is “a previously-secret Presidential order granting the government broad authority over cybersecurity matters” (http://bit.ly/1nZYaxa). The document (http://bit.ly/1ncaCnG) also discusses “government efforts to enlist private sector companies to assist in monitoring Internet traffic,” EPIC said.
Peer-to-peer network BitTorrent has “enabled a huge black market for the ’sharing’ of creative works without the creators’ permission,” said Ruth Vitale, executive director of CreativeFuture, an anti-piracy advocacy group for artists and creators, in a Thursday blog post (http://bit.ly/1zDq8Sf). She criticized BitTorrent’s refusal to “clearly and definitively condemn the misuse of its protocol for piracy” and was skeptical of its reported plan to crowdsource funding for a TV series. “If BitTorrent really wants to be a friend to creativity, the company can’t have it both ways,” she said. BitTorrent didn’t comment.
Time Warner Cable is adding its higher-speed TWC Maxx service to eight new markets, said the operator in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/UOkI7a). The new markets are Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, Hawaii, Kansas City, Raleigh, San Antonio and San Diego. The service is in Los Angeles and New York City, Time Warner Cable said. Depending on a customer’s current speed, the service is up to six times faster and includes an all-digital TV lineup, a larger VOD library, and an advanced set-top box and DVR with more storage capacity, it said. The upgrade is in progress in Austin, and will begin in the other locations starting in 2015, said the cable ISP. “Making these groundbreaking changes is quite an undertaking and requires major enhancements to all of our TWC hubs in these markets."