Category: News

My pal Bruce Bartlett says U.S. demographics support his position that America will need massive tax increases rather than massive entitlement cuts to get its fiscal house in order:

In short, what we see is that over the next ten years the percentage of the population that benefits from Social Security and Medicare is going to rise significantly and that this group of the population votes in higher percentages than those that pay for these programs. And those that will, over their lifetimes, bear the heaviest burden of paying for entitlement programs–the young–vote at the lowest rate of any age group.

Me: He might well be correct. Then again, most of the reform plans I have seen pretty much leave the current system in place for those who are, says over 50 or 55. I also don’t understand why a broad-based tax increase would be any more palatable to people than getting their expected benefits cuts. Not to mention that getting spending under control is a better way to restore solvency than tax hikes.

Allied Fiber said today it’s begun construction of a nationwide wholesale fiber network that will span 11,548 miles. The New York-based company will build out the network in six phases, linking undersea cable landing points, data centers, colocation interconnection facilities, rural networks and wireless towers in order to feed the increasing demand for broadband capacity resulting from everything from the ever-growing number of cellular towers to cloud computing (we’ll talk about the bandwidth needs for cloud computing at our Structure 2010 conference next month).

A New Model to Meet Broadband Demand

But Allied’s effort isn’t just aimed at boosting overall capacity — it’s aimed at changing the underlying business model of providing long-haul telecommunications networks. Hunter Newby, CEO of Allied Fiber, wants to connect the U.S. with an open fiber network comprised of the three disparate systems that essentially make up the backbone of the Internet, and is targeting data centers, high-bandwidth sites, rural ISPs, wireless companies and long-haul networks providers as customers. But it remains to be seen if Allied’s model will compete, not just with offerings from backbone providers such as Level 3 Communications, but also with colocation companies and the tower industry.

Newby, who was the chief strategy officer at colocation provider Telex, is pretty impassioned about his plan to bring wholesale fiber to places where existing backhaul providers may not go. It’s a plan similar to Google’s experimental fiber network for consumer broadband, but enacted on a much larger scale, and for businesses. Newby believes that in underserved areas where Allied Fiber will have a presence, the cost of bandwidth will be driven down significantly because Allied will be willing to sell access to the long haul network, at competitive rates, to anyone who wants them — something the incumbents aren’t inclined to do.

Competition Drives Costs Down

The construction of Allied’s network is a big deal for small ISPs, which can find themselves having to pay more than $100 a megabyte for bandwidth, and may mean they don’t have to implement bandwidth caps as a means to keep their own costs down. It’s also a big deal for cellular carriers like Sprint and T-Mobile, as it will give them access to less expensive backhaul without having to pay the likes of AT&T or Verizon.

As Newby explains, rural providers or cellular providers needing rural coverage will be able to buy transport at wholesale rates from a colocation provider in the middle of field somewhere along a railroad right of way (Allied has a deal with some railways companies for access to their ducts). Such an approach could provide access for a single provider near the colocation facility or other regional providers could build off the Allied network. It would also open up the opportunity to locate data centers in rural areas, perhaps near renewable energy projects.

“The incumbents have control and have made it quite clear they’re not willing to make any significant capital investments in rural areas and are selling off rural assets,” Newby told me. “But you need to change the economics, and if these buyers can buy at even $15 per megabyte…the number of gigs and terabytes will eclipse the current rate because right now it’s so expensive.”

Building a High-Fiber Network

The first phase of the Allied network will cost $140 million, will connect New York, Chicago and Ashburn, Va. and will be completed by the end of this year. Newby said the second phase (from Atlanta to Miami) will cost $180 million, and the third phase connecting Chicago to Seattle could cost as much as $350 million. However, he added that potential customers are willing to go in with him on the cost of the connection to Seattle because big bandwidth providers like NTT Corp. need a shorter route to get their traffic to Asia. The final three projects aren’t budgeted yet, nor is there a definitive time frame.

The first phase will provide a combined 648 dark fibers, 19 colocation facilities and 300 tower sites. From the press release:

Allied is deploying a 432-count, long haul cable coupled with the 216-count, short-haul cable that will be a composite of Single-Mode and Non-Zero Dispersion Shifted fibers. Allied Fiber has implemented a new, multi-duct design for intermediate access to the long-haul fiber duct through a parallel short-haul fiber duct all along the route. This enables all points between the major cities, including wireless towers and rural networks, to gain access to the dark fiber. In addition, the Allied Fiber neutral colocation facilities, located approximately every 60 miles along the route, accommodate and encourage a multi-tenant interconnection environment integrated with fiber that does not yet exist in the United States on this scale.

If Allied Fiber can build an open fiber network that spans the country and includes colocation and towers, it could provide a way for municipal fiber networks and rural ISPs to get online and connect to backhaul for less, while bypassing their potential competitors (for example, a muni fiber network might compete against AT&T but may also have to buy access back to the Internet backbone from AT&T because it’s the only provider in the area). We’ve long argued that open networks are the way to go when it comes to big infrastructure, something with which Newby agrees. “I believe in the power of open networks,” he said, “but instead of talking about it or writing, about I want to do it.”

He went on to say that: “I encourage other people to copy our model and philosophy of neutrality. It drives growth and it’s what drives the innovation and bridges the islands of broadband we have in this country.”

Related GigaOM Pro Content (sub req’d): Who Will Profit From Broadband Innovation?

Having unveiled their plan to extend unemployment benefits through the end of the year (not to be mistaken for a plan to create new benefits), Democrats will no doubt be racing to pass the measure before June 1, which marks the current deadline to file for the next tier of jobless benefits. Budget hawks, however, are already balking at the price tag, leaving the fate of the current package in question, particularly in the Senate.

Today, the National Employment Law Project, an advocacy group, noted the consequences of congressional inaction, estimating that 1.2 million jobless Americans would exhaust their benefits in June alone if the deadline isn’t extended.

“Here we are, five days out from the Memorial Day recess, and Congress has yet to act on one of the most crucial pieces of legislation affecting the unemployed in 2010,” Christine Owens, NELP’s executive director, said in a statement Monday.

Under current law, unemployed folks have access to 26 weeks of state-sponsored insurance benefits before four separate tiers of emergency federal benefits kick in. Confusing the arrangement, recipients must exhaust their current benefits before filing for the next tier. Yet that option disappears at the end of May, when the filing deadline for all tiers arrives.

Complicating the timeline, Congress is scheduled to leave town at the end of this week for their Memorial Day recess, which puts them out of action until at least June 7. NELP estimates that 300,000 jobless folks will exhaust their UI benefits by June 12, the Friday after Congress returns.

Owens, for her part, thinks lawmakers should prioritize the UI extension legislation over their scheduled vacation.

“Unemployed Americans are pulling their hair out — and they are looking to Congress for help,” she said. “Even if it means staying in Washington as the Congressional recess approaches, the unemployment bill must move forward. Taking a break without extending the unemployment program will break faith with the millions of jobless workers Congress is leaving behind.”

Stay tuned.

En un stand que podía pasar algo desapercibido estaba la marca japonesa presentando dos novedades ecológicas en el Salón del Automóvil Ecológico de Madrid. Ambas están ya a la venta en el mercado español pero utilizan dos tipos de energía totalmente diferentes, si bien se ajustaban perfectamente a la temática de la feria.

El primero es una nueva variante del Outback convertida para que pueda utilizar gasolina o GLP indistintamente. Está basada en el motor 2.5i y la transformación, que cuesta 2.000 euros, es obra de la empresa cántabra Ferrosite, S.L., que representa a la italiana BRC Gas Equipment. Los beneficios de usar este combustible alternativo son varios: llenar el depósito de GLP cuesta unos 20 euros más barato que hacerlo con gasolina, reduce en un 60% las emisiones de NOx, permite rebajar el impuesto de matriculación y acceder a centros de ciudades con restricciones de contaminación.

El otro modelo es el Plug-in Stella, la versión totalmente eléctrica del urbano que ya tiene un año de experiencia en el mercado japonés. Su motor eléctrico proporciona 47 kW (unos 64 CV de potencia) y está alimentado por unas baterías de iones de litio que totalmente cargadas le dan una autonomía de 90 kilómetros.

Para recargarlas, además del sistema de frenada regenerativa, es posible enchufar este Stella a tomas de corriente tanto de 100 como de 220 voltios, disponibles en los hogares. Tarda unas ocho horas con las primeras y cinco con las otras. No obstante, si se conecta a un punto de recarga rápida, alcanza el 80% en un cuarto de hora.

Gracias a que las baterías están situadas bajo el suelo del coche e integradas en su estructura, no perjudican el espacio del habitáculo y están totalmente protegidas. Subaru todavía no ha comunicado precios del Plug-in Stella pero está incluido en el Plan MOVELE del Gobierno español. Os dejamos con las fotos:

Salón del Automóvil Ecológico de Madrid 2010: Subaru

Fotos | HighMotor

Glenn Beck-like, I put my head in my hands over the sheer lunacy expressed by the much-disgraced former New York Democratic congressman:

• Earlier in the year, long before the allegations had been made public, Massa had called me with a potentially huge story: Four retired generals — three four-stars and one three-star — had informed him, he said, that General David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, had met twice in secret with former vice president Dick Cheney. In those meetings, the generals said, Cheney had attempted to recruit Petraeus to run for president as a Republican in 2012.

• The generals had told him, and Massa had agreed, that if someone didn’t act immediately to reveal this plot, American constitutional democracy itself was at risk. Massa and I had had several conversation on the topic, each more urgent than the last. He had gone to the Pentagon, he told me, demanding answers. He knew the powerful forces that he was dealing with, he told me. They’d stop at nothing to prevent the truth from coming out, he said, including destroying him. “I told the official, ‘If I have to get up at a committee hearing and go public with this, it will cause the mother of all shitstorms and your life will be hell. So I need a meeting. Now.’”

• Massa eventually came to the Esquire offices in New York to tell us the Petraeus story. He spoke with the bluster and hyperbole I had seen in him at stump speeches, but he had credibility on this matter — twenty-four years of active service in the Navy, a seat on the House Armed Services Committee, and an increasing voice in the media as a Democrat who would speak with authority about military issues. Still, when he called the possibility that Petraeus could beat Obama in an election a “coup” and “treason,” the characterization seemed odd. “If what I’ve been told is true — and I believe it is,” he told myself and two colleagues, “General David Petraeus, a commander with soldiers deployed in two theaters of war, has had multiple meetings with Dick Cheney, the former vice-president of the United States, to discuss Petraeus’s candidacy for the Republican nomination for the presidency. And in fact, that’s more than a constitutional crisis. That’s treason.”

Do I need to write a punchline? This is bark-at-the-moon stuff. Feel free to speculate in comments about how I’m part of the cover-up for the impending tickle-driven coup d’etat.

Thanks to Noah Shachtman’s Twitter feed.

Embittered homeowners and activists packed the yard of a Bank of America executive on a recent weekend, and they brought their bullhorn.

Members of the National People’s Action community group and the SEIU came to the porch steps to tell their stories of foreclosure and bureaucratic indifference, and advocate for financial reform.

In this video, a woman tells how she got a phonecall about a foreclosure on her house 30 minutes after she found out her son died in a car crash. The caller didn’t care about that, but did want her to know that it was a debt collection call and it could be recorded for training purposes.

The video, which grabs you in the chest, is worth a gander. Whether you agree or not with their point of view or tactics, it’s a slice of what’s going on right now.

NPA and SEIU at the home of BofA’s Gregory Baer [YouTube]
MORE:
What’s really behind SEIU’s Bank of America protests? [Fortune]
Hundreds Protest Outside Bankers’ Houses In DC [Huffington Post]

For many years we’ve seen stories of companies making pricing mistakes at e-commerce stores. The news of those mistakes tends to spread very quickly, with lots of people piling on to order something for way less than it cost. Inevitably, the company realizes the mistake, and usually contacts everyone who ordered to let them know the order won’t be fulfilled because it was a mistake. I actually have no problem with this, though some people think it’s horribly evil. Either way, what seems to almost always happen is that the negative publicity that follows leads the company to change its mind and honor the original price. Sometimes, it actually takes a lawsuit to make that happen.

However, this weekend, it looks like Zappos had a pretty massive pricing glitch on its sister site 6pm.com. It lasted a few hours. But what’s different this time is that once Zappos fixed things, it immediately decided that it would still honor the wrong prices, even though the mistakes would end up costing the company (now owned by Amazon) $1.6 million. Now, between Amazon and Zappos, the two companies have a ton of money, and continue making a lot of money every day. But, no matter what, a $1.6 million pricing error is still a big deal. Big enough that you would think that the company could potentially withstand any sort of PR hit to trying to not honor those prices (perhaps offering up some sort of gift certificate or benefit to those impacted, instead). However, for a company that bases its entire reputation on bending over backwards to make customers happy, it appears they quickly decided that it was best for their overall reputation to just eat the $1.6 million, and keep (or even boost) that customer service reputation.

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There’s a handy option in the DirecTV menu guide for “HDTV Channels.” On the rare occasion when I’m actually sitting in front of the TV looking to “channel surf” (more like “menu surf” nowadays), it’s only “HDTV channels” I’m concerned with. Nearly halfway through 2010, it has come to the point where, unless I absolutely have no other choice, I simply won’t watch a network unless the program is in HD. Has it come really come to that? That, unless a show is in HD, you’ll simply skip it?

Pretty sure I first heard of this last week on the radio, I think on Ron and Fez, that for the first time ever TV networks are starting to see their ratings decline specifically because they’re not in HD. That is, people now refuse to watch TV unless it’s in HD! How wild is that? I mean, assuming it’s true…

It probably means a few things. One, biggish networks that aren’t in HD yet should now be shaking in their boots. For whatever stupid reason, DirecTV hasn’t picked up the HD feed of Fox Soccer Channel. That doesn’t mean much to most people, but when given the choice between watching a Premier League game in SD on my HDTV or watching the same game with a tiny online stream (which is probably illegal but who cares?) on my computer, freeing me to play simultaneously play some
http://www.crunchgear.com/tag/steam/”>Steam games in windowed mode, then I’m absolutely going to go with the stream. I will go out of my way to watch an HD feed of a game, subjecting myself to TV’s controls for 90 minutes, but in 2010 SD sports broadcasts really ought to be outlawed. I’d almost rather listen to an audio play-by-play than watch an SD image on my HDTV.

I should stress that Fox Soccer Channel does, in fact, have an HD feed, it’s just that DirecTV hasn’t picked it up yet. Boo!

This could also mean that smaller TV networks are doomed. If people are now skipping SD content altogether, how can Some Niche Channel survive? It’s not exactly cheap to record and air HD content, so the little guy may be squeezed out.

Or maybe this isn’t true at all? I’m pretty sure only something like 50 percent of TVs in America are HDTVs, so these people aren’t going to miss something (HD broadcasts) that they never would benefit from anyway.

I’ll throw it to you guys now: do you still watch SD content on your HDTVs? Again, I pretty much don’t, but I realize my opinion may not exactly line up with a “normal” person’s.

“An increasing trend is big funds like ours banding with angels and writing small checks just to try and get a foot in the door.” Geoff Yang, Redpoint Ventures, on how lean startups are changing the dynamics of the VC industry. (Bloomberg)

The Wii has a handful of great games, and an even smaller handful of great games that truly exploit the Wiimote’s capabilities. The rest? Complete waggleriffic crap. Here, SCEA’s Rob Dyer gives some tough love to would-be PS Move developers. More »

An MMR doctor has recently been struck off the medical board for what has been called “multiple separate instances of serious professional misconduct”.  Among these instances of misconduct on the part of the then Britain-based doctor included the paying of £5 to children for blood samples at his son’s birthday party.

Andrew Wakefield, the doctor in question, released a study in 1998 that suggested a link between MMR vaccinations (a vaccination for measles, the mumps, and rubella) and autism.  At the time this had caused a large drop in vaccinations, and likewise a large rise in measles cases.  Later, Wakefield’s results were discredited.  However, a recent case against Wakefield did  not attack the doctor’s results, but rather his research methods.  Furthermore, it has also been rumored that Wakefield concealed the fact that he was paid to advise solicitors on behalf of parents concerned over their children and the MMRs.

All in all, Wakefield was found guilty of more than 30 charges related to professional misconduct.  According to a  representative of the panel in charge of the sanctioning, “The panel concluded that it is the only sanction that is appropriate to protect patients and is in the wider public interest, including the maintenance of public trust and confidence in the profession, and is proportionate to the serious and wide-ranging findings made against him.”

Related posts:

1. Dr. Wakefield Found Guilty Because of Professional Misconduct Over Research
2. Spanking leads to more aggresive children
3. Effects of Low Quality Child Care Lasts Into Adolescence

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[Note: I expect antivaxxers to flood the comments below with their typical spin and distortions. I urge everyone to read my comments policy. I also note that the article here is extensively linked to other sources backing up my claims about Wakefield and the antivax movement. The debunking of the vast majority of antivax claims can be found in those links.]

Andrew Wakefield, the man who more than anyone started the modern antivaccination movement that has led to the rise of measles, pertussis, and other preventable diseases, has been struck off the UK General Medical Council’s register. The GMC registers doctors in the UK, and oversees their conduct. To be struck off is essentially the same as being disbarred.

This is indeed good news, but forgive me if I don’t dance in the streets. It hardly makes any difference, and is years too late.

In 1998, Wakefield published a paper which led to people thinking vaccines caused autism. His research was shoddy, poorly done, unethical, and, frankly, wrong. Eventually the original paper was withdrawn by the medical journal in which it was published.

That’s all great, in that eventually truth won out. But has it, really? Sure, he’s disbarred, and reality-based people understand he’s totally wrong. But the antivax movement still rolls on. Wakefield moved to Texas where he still spreads his antivax propaganda; he was on NBC’s TODAY show just this morning — what a coincidence! — still proclaiming his innocence, and still spreading falsehoods about vaccines.

And falsehoods they are. From the NBC page:

When [host Matt] Lauer asked Wakefield whether it’s dangerous to continue promoting an MMR-autism link when it causes many families to shy away from vaccinating their children, Wakefield answered, “Matt, you’re missing the point.

“The point is that despite denying it, in the public relations campaign they’ve used against me and against the parents, they are conceding these in vaccine court.”

Actually, that’s completely wrong, and he should know better. For one thing, courts have ruled over and again that there is no evidence to link vaccines and autism. What Wakefield is most likely referring to is the Hannah Poling case, which can be twisted and spun into making it sound like it connects vaccines and autism, but it doesn’t. Read Steve Novella’s entry on that case to see how once again the truth eludes Wakefield.

For another, Lauer was not missing the point at all. Wakefield was dodging the point. Lauer was precisely correct; it is dangerous to promote a link that doesn’t exist between autism and vaccines, for exactly the reason Lauer stated.

It would’ve been interesting indeed to see Matt Lauer following up that question with asking Wakefield about his huge financial conflict of interest in all this, since Wakefield was developing an alternative to vaccines when he wrote that paper. Or if he had anything to say about investigative journalist Brian Deer — a man who has been at the forefront of exposing Wakefield all along — and the evidence he found that alleges Wakefield was paid by lawyers to start a vaccine scare?

Anyway, for years Wakefield has been claiming he’s the victim here. This news won’t change that, and will in fact make him a martyr to his reality-impaired followers.

He’s not the victim here. The real victims are people who get measles, people who get rubella, people who get pertussis. Most of the time these folks recover and are fine, though miserable. But sometimes it’s not such a happy ending. Dana McCaffery, a four month old girl in Australia, died last year because the herd immunity was too low where she lived. Because people chose not to vaccinate — and the antivax movement was strong there — that little girl died.

We’re seeing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases all over the world, and in many of those regions the voices of Wakefield and the antivaxxers are strong. I’m glad the GMC finally took action and did the right thing, but this does not mean we must rest in our fight against those zealots who believe — without any evidence, and plenty of evidence against them — that vaccines cause autism.

They don’t. But how many kids will get sick before everyone finally realizes that?

Syringe picture from ZaldyImg’s Flickr photostream, used under the Creative Commons license.

Although eltrombopag may help some people complete Hepatitis C therapy and thus beat the virus, learn why the FDA is warning physicians that this platelet-boosting drug poses a risk to those with chronic liver disease.

by Nicole Cutler, L.Ac.

Following the latest news updates on medications that you have been or could be prescribed is a monumental and often frustrating task. This is especially true for those living with chronic Hepatitis C, since new developments related to this illness seem to emerge on a daily basis. A recent report from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has delivered news that ranks high on the priority list of things those with Hepatitis C should be aware of. In collaboration with the FDA, GlaxoSmithKline unveiled important information about the platelet-boosting drug eltrombopag (Promacta), specific to individuals with liver disease.

What Is Eltrombopag?
To help those with a blood-clotting problem, eltrombopag is a medication that increases the production of platelets. Other drugs that can restore normal platelet functions are infusions or injections, while eltrombopag has the advantage of being a pill taken just once a day.

Irregularly-shaped, colorless cells that are present in blood, platelets have a sticky surface that helps them form clots to stop bleeding. This function is necessary, because the human body does not handle excessive blood loss well. Thus, individuals who have low levels of platelets in their blood run a substantial risk of a dangerous bleed. There are a handful of conditions that could lead to low platelet levels. Because it is one of the most severe side effects of ribavirin, a low platelet count is the most prominent reason for discontinuing Hepatitis C combination therapy (pegylated interferon and ribavirin).

Eltrombopag Used for Hepatitis C
Following a 2007 study by Duke University Medical Center researchers, eltrombopag has been a medication preferred by some hepatologists for certain individuals with Hepatitis C. According to the study involving Duke and other centers worldwide, eltrombopag was found to boost platelet levels of a majority of patients with low platelet counts and cirrhosis of the liver due to Hepatitis C infection.

Completing the fully prescribed course of Hepatitis C combination therapy offers those with this liver disease the most hope for recovery. Unfortunately, many must discontinue Hepatitis C treatment because of its severe side effects. By capitalizing on the platelet-boosting action of eltrombopag, patients with low platelet counts were deemed eligible for beginning or continuing Hepatitis C combination therapy – giving them a better chance of eliminating the virus.

The Eltrombopag Warning
Despite the appearance of eltrombopag being a savior for many people trying to complete Hepatitis C treatment, a new safety finding reveals just the opposite. Upon this discovery, the FDA has begun notifying healthcare professionals to be aware of eltrombopag increasing the likelihood of a venous thrombus in those with chronic liver disease. Also known as a blood clot in a vein, a venous thrombus located in deep veins is a major risk for a pulmonary embolism – a potentially fatal event. Although the study revealing this trend was small, there was a clear tendency to forming venous blood clots in participants who took eltrombopag compared to those taking a placebo. While GlaxoSmithKline is working with regulatory agencies to include more specific safety information on eltrombopag’s label, here is what you should know:

· Eltrombopag should be aimed at increasing the platelet count to a level that reduces the risk of bleeding – not for bringing the platelet count up to normal.

· Additional caution should be exercised when administering eltrombopag to those with Hepatitis C, including lower dosages and monitoring the patient closely.

Any course of therapy must carefully weigh potential risks with the possible benefits. When it comes to fighting Hepatitis C, this analysis gets complicated, especially if managing low platelet counts during antiviral therapy. Your healthcare provider should be aware of this new warning by the FDA. However, we are always our own best advocates, so make sure you know about the potential risk of using eltrombopag during Hepatitis C therapy.

References:

http://www.docguide.com/news/content.nsf/news/852576140048867C8525772100737C12, FDA Warns Against Eltrombopag Use in Patients With Chronic Liver Disease, Retrieved May 17, 2010, Doctor’s Guide Publishing Limited, 2010.

http://www.drugs.com/mtm/eltrombopag.html, eltrombopag, Retrieved May 19, 2010, drugs.com, 2010.

http://www.fi.edu/learn/heart/blood/platelet.html, Platelets: Sticky Situations, Retrieved May 19, 2010, The Franklin Institute, 2010.

http://www.saudijgastro.com/article.asp?issn=1319-3767;year=2010;volume=16;issue=1;spage=51;epage=56;aulast=Danish, Considerations in the management of hepatitis C virus-related thrombocytopenia with eltrombopag, Fazal A Danish, et al, Retrieved May 17, 2010, The Saudi Journal of Gastroenterology, January 2010.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071128172408.htm, Pill Boosts Platelets In Hepatitis C Patients, Retrieved May 17, 2010, ScienceDaily LLC, 2010.

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Grief typically follows any breakup, whether by the living separating or death taking one away. Apple’s response to the disillusion of its Google relationship is near textbook case of the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Apple is slowly coming to terms with life after Google, and like any grieving the process hasn’t been easy.

Denial. Two years before Apple released iPhone, Google bought Android. From the August 2005 acquisition, it was clear that Google would make mobile a priority, and surely that a phone would follow. “We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs told employees during a March meeting. Google released Android OS about 18 months after iPhone launched in June 2007, but the product was foreseeable. Jobs’ retort is classic denial behavior.

Jobs’ claim that Apple “did not enter the search business” is another form of denial. Google’s search business is all about monetization through advertising. Apple’s iAd is such potential advertising competition to Google that last week the US Federal Trade Commission cleared way for Google’s AdMob acquisition; before Apple announced iAd, the agency indicated the acquisition could be blocked.

Anger. Jobs’ temper is renown around Silicon Valley. Apple’s anger against Google is simply undeniable; there are so many examples. Jobs has personally attacked Google in e-mails to Apple customers and partners and through public statements. In March, Jobs reportedly said that Google’s oft-quoted “You can make money without doing evil” is “bullshit.” Some of those angry statements exhibit deep denial, too, such as Jobs’ early April assertion that: “Search is not happening on phones.” Who is he fooling but himself?

Apple’s HTC lawsuit is a form of repressed anger. While Apple sued HTC, the claims are really about Android and Google. Can you say passive-aggressive behavior?

Bargaining. Google’s advances on Apple extend beyond the phone. There is the browser; according to Net Applications, Chrome usage now exceeds Safari. Google released Chrome about the same time as Android, rapidly iterating on the browser — now approaching version 5 — for technology developed first by Apple; Chrome is based on WebKit. In a clear swipe against Chrome innovations, Apple bargained with developers during the iPhone 4 OS announcement, on April 8, with new Safari features that extended some of Chrome’s best capabilities. Chrome sandboxes tabs to improve performance and to minimize crashes’ effects. Apple will go further with kernel-level multi-processing.

Jobs’ “Thoughts on Flash” is more bargaining. While seemingly all about Adobe, Apple’s anti-Flash campaign is as much about Google. As I explained last month, Apple and Google are taking two different, fundamentally clashing approaches to the mobile Web. Apple’s approach is more applications-centric, while Google puts greater emphasis on the browser. Google supports Flash, which is coming with Android 2.2 (some people have already; you lucky bastards). Google arguably will embrace the real Web, not the one Jobs is bargaining to makeover.

Depression. Jobs has been remarkably prolific over the last couple months responding to customer and developer e-mails. It’s commendable that such a prominent CEO is taking such an active role in such an unorthodox way. C`mon, how often do you read about the chief executives of GM, Microsoft or Pepsico responding to so many customer or partner e-mails? But the timing indicates post-Google breakup depression. Jobs’ prolific responses started after Schmidt resigned from Apple’s board (late summer 2009) and Apple-Google sniping reached public levels (early 2010). Actually, the e-mails are mixed denial, anger and depression.

Acceptance. The e-mails also signal Apple’s acceptance — that Google is a competitor in mobile operating systems and Web browsers, and that the two companies will clash over customers, developers and other partners. In response to a May 22nd e-mail about last week’s Gizmodo article asserting that “Google is leapfrogging Apple,” Jobs reportedly responded: “Not a chance!” Google is buddy no more, but the enemy. If there was a sixth stage to grief, betrayal, Apple could be said to exhibit it, too.

Apple’s HTML 5 push is another form of acceptance, but more self-destructive. While Apple positions HTML 5 as an alternative to Flash, the technology looks to benefit Google much more than Apple. Already Google has used HTML 5 to circumvent Google Voice’s prohibition from the iTunes App Store.

Do you have more examples of Apple’s five stages of Google grieving? Please offer them up in comments.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

The Sprint Evo 4G isn’t all that new to us, having been at its announcement at CTIA in March and its coming-out party in New York City just a few short weeks ago. But it’s finally time to properly put the 4.3-inch WiMax monster through its paces. And we’re going to start with the hardware. Join us after the break as we unbox the black slab.

This is a post by Android Central. It is sponsored by the Android Central Accessories Store

No alcohol, no drugs, no work outside of Los Angeles, and a not-so-trendy new bracelet — those are just a few of the rules Lindsay Lohan will have to abide by if she wants to remain free, a California judge said Monday.

Lohan avoided arrest after failing to show up for probation hearing by posting $100,000 bail, but still faces the other conditions imposed by the judge. In an early morning hearing in Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel ruled that Lohan could remain free on bail, but she cannot consume alcohol, must wear an alcohol-monitoring bracelet, is not allowed to leave the Los Angeles-area, and will have to submit to random weekly drug testing.

While a frustrated Lindsay looked on, her attorney — Shawn Chapman Holley — argued that the actress is beginning filming of a movie in Texas and needs the court’s OK to travel. Tough titty, says the judge, who suggested LiLo delay the start of the project. The bracelet — a SCRAM device — must be in place within 24 hours, per Judge Revel’s order.

Last week’s scheduled hearing involved a progress report on her probation stemming from two arrests in 2007. A July 6 court date has been set to review that matter. If it is determined that Lindsay has violated her probation in any way, she could face up to 180 days in jail.

Facebook has faced backlashes before, but this time feels different. Despite amassing an empire of nearly 500 million users, the company is in the midst of a public relations fiasco, with users, tech columnists and even the FTC slamming CEO Mark Zuckerberg for privacy violations. So Zuckerberg took to the Washington Post today to defend Facebook’s record and name the company’s leading principles.

There’s just one problem. If these are Facebook’s principles, the company isn’t doing a great job adhering to them. Let’s look at the first three:

1. “You have control over how your information is shared.”

Is it fair to say users have control over their information if the rules governing the information keep changing?

In 2007, no Facebook information was public to the broader Internet. At the end of 2009, basic stuff like name and gender became searchable through Google. In December, the company added “likes” and friends to the Internet-public stockpile. In April 2010, it added photos. Without pressing a button, the average default public user would have seen dramatic changes in how his information was shared through Facebook between 2007 and 2010.

The company is working on a simplified privacy system in the next few months, and one hopes that it will be simple, intuitive and wary of the balance between those who want to lock down all of their information and those who don’t mind transparency. But the fact is, it’s in Facebook’s business interest to have users default to public and then to slowly grow the definition of the word public. Facebook’s privacy rules have evolved and personal control over information has sometimes been a casualty of that evolution.

2. “We do not share your personal information with people or services you don’t want.”

This is a strange principle for a company now infamous for sharing personal information with people and services users didn’t expect. Examples abound, but Time magazine’s Dan Fletcher noted one of the more infamous episodes in a new article:

In 2007… default settings in an initiative called
Facebook Beacon sent all your Facebook friends updates about purchases
you made on certain third-party sites. Beacon caused an uproar among
users — who were automatically enrolled — and occasioned a public
apology from Zuckerberg.

In another snafu, Zuckerberg’s photos surfaced on the Web — some were excerpted by Gawker — before he reclaimed them behind the privacy wall. Facebook’s privacy rules and updates have been so complicated and messy that even its founder and CEO has been a victim.

3. “We do not give advertisers access to your personal information.”

Before we parse this statement, let’s review the company’s ad strategy. Facebook gives advertisers access to buckets of information. So if Ford wants to show ads to a 30-year old in D.C. who likes red sports cars, Facebook can scrape together all the thirtysomethings in the D.C.-area who express an interest in sports cars or The Fast and the Furious and put targeted ads by their pages.

Does this count as giving advertisers access to personal information? It’s tricky. Ford does not get to see a list of names. Instead it gets to show its products to a pool of Facebook users. But the more you share, the more access advertisers get. As the Time cover story explains, “if three of your friends click a
Like button for, say, Domino’s Pizza, you might soon find an ad on your
Facebook page that has their names and a suggestion that maybe you
should try Domino’s too.”

At best, these principles are conspicuously inarticulate attempts to
split the difference between Facebook’s business interest (openness)
and users’ chief concern (privacy). At worst, Facebook is engaging in
corporate recidivism — shoving its privacy settings toward publicity,
apologizing with an homage to privacy, and then swiftly re-offending.

______

The weird thing about all of this is that, as a user, I don’t really care. I’m Facebook friends with my boss, my colleagues, and my mom. I don’t place (or leave) information on Facebook I don’t want public. Sure, there are some photos of me I would rather not appear on the 5 o’clock news. But I certainly wouldn’t think of leaving Facebook in indignation over the privacy updates, complicated as they are.

As somebody who’s interested in the future of the Web and Web-advertising, I do care, quite a bit. See, I actually like what Facebook is trying to do with Open Graph, which collects articles and information that users “like” on Facebook widgets throughout the Web and pools it together to personalize our experience on sites like Yelp, Pandora, and the Washington Post. But when Zuckerberg goes national with equivocal statements like the ones above about privacy and user expectations, he damages the potential of his brand and his ideas.

Only $17 and some plugin-plugout action separate you from shiny USB ports. Why do you need that? No idea. But as one of my teachers used to say in high school: “Remember kids, always keep all your ports clean.” [Brando] More »