French ISP Nordnet will make Gilat Satellite Networks' SkyEdge II-c consumer kits part of its Star package that bundles satellite-based Internet, phone and TV services, Gilat said in a Tuesday news release.
U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman chose USTR General Counsel Timothy Reif as the agency’s first chief transparency officer. In a statement, USTR noted that the new position comes at a “critical time in trade policy” as the U.S. angles to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership and make progress in other trade negotiations. The agency won't appoint new general counsel, said a USTR spokesman. Lawmakers forced the agency to create the new position through a provision in the 2015 version of Trade Promotion Authority, which President Barack Obama signed into law in late June. That provision directs the chief transparency officer to “consult with Congress on transparency policy, coordinate transparency in trade negotiations, engage and assist the public, and advise the United State Trade Representative on transparency policy.” Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., an advocate for more transparency in trade, also applauded the new position.
The “new Pioneer,” in cooperation with Onkyo, is readying a portable digital audio player with 4.7-inch screen and powered by a quad-core processor working under Android Lollipop Version 5.11. The XDP 100R player was previewed Thursday in Berlin at IFA in near-ready state. The XDP 100R was introduced as the “world’s first product with MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) to deliver super hi-res audio in CD bandwidth. The new Pioneer player can download music directly from online stores such as Onkyo Music, without the need for a computer, and also access Google Play and third-party stores such as Deezer, Spotify and Tidal. The large screen can be used for YouTube, Internet radio and gaming. Onboard storage is a mix of 32 GB inbuilt memory and up to two 128 GB SD cards, making a total of 288 GB, appearing to the user as one large memory bank.
Sony CEO Kaz Hirai, hosting his company’s IFA news conference Wednesday in Berlin, promised the company's mantra will be to “make major strides” in innovation to create products that will touch consumers in a “deeper and even more profound way” than in the past. Sony introduced its new Xperia Z5 smartphones in a “compact” 4.6-inch screen size and a 5.5-inch step-up “premium” version that Sony is billing as the world’s first 4K smartphone. Both versions feature a variety of camera innovations, Hirai said.
Italy is the most TV-watching of major European nations, though Italians' screen time pales compared with Americans' TV consumption, IHS said Wednesday in a study of European and TV viewing habits. Last year saw British TV viewing roughly three hours a day, down 14 minutes from 2013 and at a record low, while French and German viewers each averaged close to 3.5 hours a day in 2014 -- down about 10 minutes for French viewers and holding steady for Germans, IHS said. Average daily consumption of broadcast TV was up in Italy in 2014, to roughly four hours 20 minutes a day; including online and pay TV, it was at four hours 37 minutes. In Spain, average TV viewing was 242 minutes a day, IHS said. In the U.S., average TV watching was 351 minutes a day. That big difference between American and European consumption habits is due in part to the fact Americans often turn on the TV for background noise, while Europeans use radio, said Dan Cryan, IHS senior director-media and content.
Despite international scrutiny after surveillance scandals in recent years, Colombia’s intelligence and police agencies built their own secret and unlawful surveillance systems that have the capability to monitor mobile and Internet communications, Privacy International said in a report released Monday. The report said the Integrated Recording System was developed in 2005 and was capable of “monitoring 3G mobile phone networks as well as trunk lines, carrying voice and data communications for the whole country,” the report said. The surveillance system was created as a result of “institutional rivalries between the different security agencies,” it said. The Administrative Department of Security (DAS), which was dissolved in 2011 after revelations it spied on journalists, judges, opposition politicians and human rights activists, also had separate surveillance capabilities. “The exposure of DAS’ secret probe should expand the existing investigation to consider whether there is more to this scandal than the abuse of one surveillance system,” said Privacy International Advocacy Officer Matthew Rice. News of a previously unheard of mass surveillance system “points out serious problems of transparency of and control over expenditures on intelligence activities, besides the obvious lack of legitimacy of deployment of mass surveillance systems in Colombia," said Juan Diego Castañeda, a lawyer and researcher at the Karisma Foundation in Colombia.
Gilat Satellite Networks' SkyEdge II-c platform will replace an existing very-small-aperture terminal system used now in GeoTelecommunications' satellite broadband service in Russia, Gilat said in a Monday news release. GeoTelecom chose Gilat's SkyEdge after evaluating all the major VSAT competitors, Gilat said.
Huawei opened its first Middle East customer service center in Dubai as part of the company’s ongoing expansion in the region, it said Monday. The center will cater exclusively to customers using the company’s flagship device series, it said. The Middle East region, with 48 percent growth year over year in the first half 2015, played a significant role in Huawei’s growth in the period, the company said. Huawei had revenue of $9 billion in the first half, compared with $12.2 billion for all of 2014, it said. Total smartphone shipments in the Middle East and Africa are forecast to reach 155 million units this year, Huawei said, citing IDC figures, which showed Huawei as the No. 2 smartphone brand in the Middle East and Africa region with 8.9 percent of shipments in 2014. Huawei operates in more than 170 countries, with two-thirds of its revenue from markets outside of China, it said.
One of two Space Systems/Loral-built Ka-band satellites for Australia's Nbn broadband network was delivered to the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, where it will be launched by Arianespace, SSL said in a Thursday news release. SSL is building a second satellite for the Nbn network, it said.
The EU will release online “detailed and extensive reports” on Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations in an effort to quell concerns over transparency, said Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. “The only changes in my trade policy will be more openness, not less,” said Malmström in a Friday blog post. “That is the pledge I gave at the beginning of my mandate. I am committed to keeping that promise.” The U.S. has come under fire for insufficient transparency in TTIP and Trans-Pacific Partnership talks.