Link Hoewing is stepping down from Verizon, where he spent the last 29 years, most recently as assistant vice president-Internet and technology policy, he said in a blog post Wednesday (http://vz.to/1dQJt8z). “Making good policy is not easy,” he said, and requires a careful balancing of different interests and ideas. Reacting quickly is less important than thinking deeply, he said, citing the storied habit of Abraham Lincoln to write out letters in the heat of the moment, but put them in his desk for later reflection. “We don’t live in a paper and pen world anymore, but it would not hurt us to pause and reflect more often than we do in thinking about policy or reacting to the ideas of others,” Hoewing said. “Constructive criticism often helps move the ball forward. Quick, reactive commentary can sometimes do just the opposite.” Good policy also depends on defining the problem correctly, he said. “In far too many cases, we debate issues that are not really important to solving a real public policy problem because we are not asking the right questions and hence not really defining the issue that needs to be addressed.” It’s also crucial to respect the people involved in policy making, he said. “The vast majority of those participating in policy debates have good motives and have principles that are at the heart of what they support and say,” Hoewing said. Although there may be an “occasional bad apple,” it’s important to focus on opponents’ ideas, rather than attack their motives, he said. Hoewing told us his biggest accomplishments at Verizon were helping lead the effort among then-RBOCs to push through the Telecom Act; managing a real-life transition to a non-regulated environment in Telecom New Zealand; and helping work through rule changes at the FCC that helped spur investment in fiber.
Version 3.0 of the MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) specification, available for download early next month, is expected to ship in products beginning next year, Judy Chen, president of Silicon Image subsidiary MHL, told Consumer Electronics Daily. The next-gen spec, announced Monday, will double the bandwidth of the current interface, making it suitable for 4K resolution content with a wider color gamut, MHL said. A new feature is a high-speed data channel that will support file transfers between a laptop or external drive and a phone, Chen said. Current products with MHL connectivity are not upgradeable to MHL 3.0, she said. Other features include an improved Remote Control Protocol supporting touch screens, keyboards and mice; power charging up to 10 watts; backward compatibility with MHL 1 and 2 devices; compatibility with HDCP 2.2; and support of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, multiple displays and multiple connector types, MHL said. Users will be able to watch 4K content from a smartphone on a TV while using the TV’s remote control to control stop, rewind, fast forward and pause functions; enabling game play on a 4K display with no lag; turn a mobile device into a portable PC by adding peripherals including a mouse and keyboard; and interact with a car’s infotainment system through a smartphone while it’s charging, MHL said. MHL has an installed base of more than 330 million MHL 1- and 2-enabled products from more than 200 adopters, it said. The group plans to expand beyond the mobile-to-TV interface this fall to become “a relevant connectivity standard for audio/video receivers, Blu-ray Disc players, game consoles, and set-top boxes,” it said. Further details will be available later this year, it said.
Pushing content from a mobile device to a TV screen -- a content-sharing feature that Samsung debuted in its AllShare technology at the Galaxy 4 launch last spring -- pushed further into the technology mainstream this week. Verizon and Motorola bowed a new family of Droid phones, including the Mini, Ultra and Maxx, with Wi-Fi Direct-based Miracast under the hood. And Google’s new Asus-built 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet -- announced Wednesday -- can be paired with a $35 device called Chromecast, which plugs into the USB port on an HDTV, enabling viewers to “cast” online content to the TV screen. Microsoft, meanwhile, announced embedded support for Miracast last spring in Windows 8.1. It could be a steep climb for all of the technologies, said John Buffone, analyst with NPD Group. According to NPD data, 94 percent of smartphone and tablet users aren’t aware of Miracast since the certification of the technology last September. The primary challenges for all of the sharing technologies are “more or less the same,” Buffone said, including delivering features consumers want in an easy-to-use manner and generating awareness. Google’s Chromecast works with Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, and Google Play Music, Google said. More apps, “like Pandora,” are coming soon, said Google’s Sundar Pichai, senior vice president-Android, Chrome & Apps, in a blog post, calling Chromecast an “easy solution” for viewing content from mobile devices on USB-equipped TVs throughout the house. Google is including a three-month free subscription to Netflix with the device, which could be a “small, but important positive” for Netflix subscriber growth in the second half, “depending on consumer excitement for Chromecast,” said BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield. After connecting Chromecast, viewers can use a smartphone, tablet or laptop to browse and cast content to the TV, eliminating the need for a remote control for functions including play and pause and volume up or down. Users can multitask while casting programs -- send emails or surf the Web -- while watching TV, Pichai said. The device works across platforms including Android tablets and smartphones, iPhones and iPads and Chrome for Mac and Windows, with more to come, he said. A new feature in the Chrome browser, currently in beta, allows viewers to project any browser tab to the TV, including images from a photo-sharing site or a video clip. “We're excited for people to try it out and give us their feedback,” Pichai said. Google has developed Google Cast, a technology that enables developers to build “consistent, intuitive” multiscreen experiences across mobile devices and TVs, Pichai said. Google launched a preview version of Google Cast for developers to incorporate into their apps, Pichai said. More supported apps are “coming soon,” and Google expects the technology to be embedded in hardware products in the future, he said.
Pushing content from a mobile device to a TV screen -- a content-sharing feature that Samsung debuted in its AllShare technology at the Galaxy 4 launch last spring -- pushed further into the technology mainstream this week. Verizon and Motorola bowed a new family of Droid phones, including the Mini, Ultra and Maxx, with Wi-Fi Direct-based Miracast under the hood. And Google’s new Asus-built 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet -- announced Wednesday -- can be paired with a $35 device called Chromecast, which plugs into the USB port on an HDTV, enabling viewers to “cast” online content to the TV screen. Microsoft, meanwhile, announced embedded support for Miracast last spring in Windows 8.1.
Pushing content from a mobile device to a TV screen -- a content-sharing feature that Samsung debuted in its AllShare technology at the Galaxy 4 launch last spring -- pushed further into the technology mainstream this week. Verizon and Motorola bowed a new family of Droid phones, including the Mini, Ultra and Maxx, with Wi-Fi Direct-based Miracast under the hood. And Google’s new Asus-built 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet -- announced Wednesday -- can be paired with a $35 device called Chromecast, which plugs into the USB port on an HDTV, enabling viewers to “cast” online content to the TV screen. Microsoft, meanwhile, announced embedded support for Miracast last spring in Windows 8.1.
Apple shares rose more than 5 percent Wednesday following its Tuesday fiscal Q3 earnings call, despite a drop in profit to $6.9 billion from $8.8 billion in the year-ago quarter. Apple surprised financial observers with a 20 percent jump in iPhone sales to 31.2 million for the quarter, compared with a year ago. Apple sold 14.6 million iPads during fiscal Q3, versus 17 million in the year-ago quarter.
The European Union issued the following trade-related releases July 10-11 (notices of most significance will be given separate headlines):
Content delivery network operators are turning to CDN interconnection as a way to pursue faster and simpler delivery of increasing loads of over-the-top traffic and to maximize their global footprint, the operators told us. CDN interconnection can provide a more efficient, cost-effective alternative to traditional peering and transit relationships, they said, acting as a partial solution to what some see as increasingly contentious peering relationships (CD July 1 p1).
Content delivery network operators are turning to CDN interconnection as a way to pursue faster and simpler delivery of increasing loads of over-the-top traffic and to maximize their global footprint, the operators told us. CDN interconnection can provide a more efficient, cost-effective alternative to traditional peering and transit relationships, they said, acting as a partial solution to what some see as increasingly contentious peering relationships (WID July 1 p1).
Dish Network is implementing its standard procedures for natural disasters to serve customers affected by the Colorado wildfires, it said in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/17MLxgI). It said these customers can pause their Dish service and account, waive equipment fees for lost or damaged equipment and waive installation fees when a customer is ready to resume service.