In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled the Federal Communications Commission doesn’t have the authority to regulate broadband, overturning a 2008 commission ruling against Comcast for throttling P2P traffic. The ruling, which wasn’t expected for weeks, sets up a major hurdle for FCC Commissioner Julius Genachowski, who’s national broadband strategy will be forced to undergo a major reshaping, or will need to take a new route–through Congress. The FCC also could attempt to manage broadband as “common carrier,”potentially setting up a showdown with telco and cable companies.

The case revolves around an FCC decision in 2008 to censure Comcast after it throttled P2P services that used enormous amounts of bandwidth. Comcast, the nation’s largest cable company, challenged the FCC’s authority to decide how a company manages its network traffic.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that “The Commission may exercise this ‘ancillary’ authority only if it demonstrates that its action is “reasonably ancillary to the . . . effective performance of its statutorily mandated responsibilities.” The Court, said the FCC, “relies principally on several Congressional statements of policy, but under Supreme Court and D.C. Circuit case law statements of policy, by themselves, do not create “statutorily mandated responsibilities.” The Commission also relies on various provisions of the Communications Act that do create such responsibilities, but for a variety of substantive and procedural reasons those provisions cannot support its exercise of ancillary authority over Comcast’s network management practices. We therefore grant Comcast’s petition for review and vacate the challenged order.”

Parul P. Desai, Vice President of Media Access Project, called the ruling a disappointment, and vowed to continue working to get the FCC the “ability to protect the rights of Internet users.”

“Media Access Project continues to maintain that the Commission must have the authority to protect all Internet users against harmful and anti-competitive conduct by Internet service providers,” said Desai. “Because this case has turned into a lawyers’ debate over technical issues, it is easy to lose sight of its importance to freedom of speech and expression. ISP interference to lawful uses of the Internet must not be tolerated, and the Commission must have the power to adopt rules to prohibit such practices.”

Public Knowledge President Gigi B. Sohn agreed, saying the decision “means there are no protections in the law for consumers’ broadband services,” and called for Internet services to be brought under common carrier regulation.

“Companies selling Internet access are free to play favorites with content on their networks, to throttle certain applications or simply to block others,” she said. “If it chooses, the Commission can continue to roll the dice and let the courts decide each time it wants to try to put some consumer protections on a broadband service. … Some parts of the Communications Act, which prohibit unjust and unreasonable discrimination, could be applied here. The Commission would not have to impose a heavy regulatory burden on the telephone and cable companies, yet consumers could once again have the benefit of legal protections and the Broadband Plan could go forward.  The American public deserves no less. We need to emphasize that no one is talking about regulating ‘the Internet.’  No one is talking about regulating search engines or Web sites.  We are talking about re-applying policies to a telecommunications service that the FCC incorrectly abandoned.  That is the most simple solution and it’s the correct one.”

Telecom Channel Updates Group News | LinkedIn.

The patents in question relate to technologies for enhanced speech and data transmission, using positioning data in applications and innovations in antenna configurations that improve performance and save space, allowing smaller and more compact devices. These patented innovations are important to Nokia’s success as they allow improved product performance and design.

“Nokia has been the leading developer of many key technologies in mobile devices” said Paul Melin, General Manager, Patent Licensing at Nokia. “We have taken this step to protect the results of our pioneering development and to put an end to continued unlawful use of Nokia’s innovation.”

During the last two decades, Nokia has invested approximately EUR 40 billion in research and development and built one of the wireless industry’s strongest and broadest IPR portfolios, with over 11,000 patent families. Nokia is a world leader in the development of handheld device and mobile communications technologies, which is also demonstrated by Nokia’s strong patent portfolio.

Smartphones drove a rebound in the overall mobile handset market in the first quarter of 2010, as BlackBerry maker Research In Motion broke into the top five of cell phone makers for the first time.

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 21.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010, compared to a decline of 16.6 percent during the first quarter of 2009 when the global economy was in recession, according to market research firm IDC. Growth was fueled mainly by the economic recovery and sales of smartphones, IDC said. In total, cell phone makers shipped 294.9 million units in the first quarter of 2010 compared to 242.4 million units in the first quarter of 2009.

Smartphones, which allow people to e-mail, surf the Web, and access other Internet-based applications, have grown in popularity over the past year. The growing demand also helped catapult RIM, the largest maker of smartphones, into the top five of worldwide mobile handset makers. The company displaced Motorola, which has struggled over the past few years to find another hit phone to replace its popular flip-style Razr. Motorola has steadily been slipping in market share.

Despite its better than expected first quarter earnings reported Thursday, Motorola is still struggling to sell phones. That said, its strategy to focus on smartphones is starting to pay off. And the company beat expectations in smartphone sales for the first quarter. Executives expect the momentum to continue as it introduces 20 new devices this year using Google’s Android operating system.

RIM tied with Sony Ericsson for the No. 4 position in IDC’s market share rankings with 10.6 million units shipped in the first quarter. Motorola, which had been in the top five since IDC started tracking quarterly market share in 2004, shipped 8.5 million units.

“The entrance of RIM into the top five underscores the sustained smartphone growth trend that is driving the global mobile phone market recovery,” Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC said in a statement. “This is also the first time a vendor has dropped out of the top five since the second quarter of 2005, when Sony Ericsson grabbed the No. 5 spot from BenQ Siemens.”

So how did the rest of the mobile phone makers do in the first quarter? Nokia maintained its No. 1 position shipping 107.8 million phones in the first quarter. But the company still managed to lose market share, slipping from 38.4 percent market share in the first quarter of 2009 to 36 percent market share in the first quarter of 2010.

Samsung held the No. 2 spot for the 12th consecutive quarter with total shipments of 64.3 million devices. Its market share grew from 18.9 percent in the first quarter of 2009 to 21.8 percent in the first quarter of 2010.

LG Electronics held onto its third place position. It’s year-over-year shipments grew 20 percent, but the company’s market share remained relatively flat at 9.3 percent.

Research In Motion and Sony Ericsson tied for fourth place each with 3.6 percent market share. While RIM increased its market share compared to the previous year, Sony Ericsson lost ground. In the first quarter of 2009, Sony Ericsson had a market share of 6 percent.

IDC analysts said the positive trends in the mobile handset market are expected to continue throughout 2010, but they warn that growth won’t be as strong throughout the year mainly because the first quarter of 2009 was so bad. The firm is forecasting growth of the worldwide market to be about 11 percent overall in 2010.

“It should be noted that the market’s first-quarter growth, while impressive, is relative to one of the worst quarters in mobile phone industry history (first quarter of 2009),” Restivo said. “The market’s growth should not be taken as a proxy for future quarters nor annual growth.”

via Signal Strength: Tuned in to all things wireless and broadband – CNET News.

They sneak up on you while you’re working, pretend to help you, and then betray you. By the time you realize what’s going on, you’re infected.

They’re sneaky malware programs designed to look and operate like antivirus scan prompts from Windows or other software, but rather than search for bugs, they plant them. And according to a detailed study from Google, they are on the rise and pose an increasing threat.

“Our analysis of 240 million web pages collected by Google’s malware-detection infrastructure over a 13-month period discovered over 11,000 domains involved in fake AV distribution. We show that the fake AV threat is rising in prevalence, both absolutely and relative to other forms of web-based malware.”

Fake antivirus programs amount to 15 percent of the malware Google detected on the web. In most cases, the attacks aim to trick people into buying a bogus program, but they can also be used to grab log-ins and account information.

Ad Attacks

Hosted ads are an increasingly prevalent source of malware, the report said. “As of this writing, fake AV is responsible for 50 percent of all malware delivered via ads, which represents a fivefold increase from just a year ago,” Google said.

The report defined fake AV web sites as those that present “content misinforming users about the security of their computers and attempts to deceive them into buying a ’solution’ to remove malware supposedly found during a false system scan.”

The search giant said it will blacklist any company linked to such malware by keeping them out of search results.

Rapidly Evolving

The origin of these attacks goes back to 2003, when social-engineering attacks, those designed to trick the user into granting entry rather than exploiting vulnerable systems, prompted victims via Microsoft Messenger that their systems were vulnerable. (Ironically, a similar social-engineering attack is believed to have given hackers located in China access to Google’s servers last December in one of the biggest data breaches in history.)

“As computer systems become more difficult to compromise, social engineering is an increasingly popular attack vector,” the report said.

Further, Google first observed a fake AV attack in its systems on March 3, 2007, involving a simple JavaScript alert asking users to download the malware. More recent versions use complex JavaScript to mimic the look and feel of the Windows user interface. The spammers have gotten to the point where they can even detect the operating-system version of a victims’ computer and adjust the interface to match.

Scanners vs Scammers

This rapid adaptation makes it more difficult for legitimate scanners to detect malware. Google cited several dips in detection during the study period that could be attributed to “polymorphism” of the scammer’s software. “Fortunately, our internal detection algorithm allowed us to weather these storms while providing protection to Google’s users,” the report authors said.

Google was careful not to reveal its method of detection “due to the highly adversarial nature of the field. This algorithm is currently used to protect hundreds of millions of web users from fake AV attacks, and disclosing it may jeopardize this effort.”

Altimeter Group analyst Michael Gartenberg said the report “underscores the importance of authentication and trust on the Internet. No doubt scams will continue, and it’s going to be important for users to take responsibility for their safety and security as they do in other parts of their life.”

via Fake Scans That Plant Malware Are Rising, Google Says – Yahoo! News.

It sneaks in, evades the immune system, delivers the siRNA, and the disassembled components exit out.

Those are the words of Mark Davis, head of the research team that created the nanobot anti-cancer army at the California Institute of Technology. According to a study to be published in Nature, Davis’ team has discovered a clean, safe way to deliver RNAi sequences to cancerous cells. RNAi (Ribonucleic acid interference) is a technique that attacks specific genes in malign cells, disabling functions inside and killing them.

The 70-nanometer attack bots—made with two polymers and a protein that attaches to the cancerous cell’s surface—carry a piece of RNA called small-interfering RNA (siRNA), which deactivates the production of a protein, starving the malign cell to death. Once it has delivered its lethal blow, the nanoparticle breaks down into tiny pieces that get eliminated by the body in the urine.

The most amazing thing is that you can send as many of these soldiers as you want, and they will keep attaching to the bad guys, killing them left, right, and center, and stopping tumors. According to Davis, “the more [they] put in, the more ends up where they are supposed to be, in tumour cells.” While they will have to finish the trials to make sure that there are no side-effects whatsoever, the team is very happy with the successful results and it’s excited about what’s coming:

What’s so exciting is that virtually any gene can be targeted now. Every protein now is druggable. My hope is to make tumours melt away while maintaining a high quality of life for the patients. We’re moving another step closer to being able to do that now.

Hopefully, they will be right. [Caltech via Nature]

Photograph of nanobots killing cancer via reddit.com.

Nokia starts new phone line with C5 model

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Nokia unveiled a new C5 smartphone model on Tuesday, hoping to benefit from a booming demand for cheap smartphones and from rising consumer appetite for mobile social networking.

The C5 handset will be one of the cheapest smartphones from Nokia, selling for 135 euros ($183), excluding taxes and subsidies, and hitting the shelves next quarter.

“It is products like this that will grow Nokia marketshare in the smartphone segment and help them to increase their average sale prices,” said John Strand, chief of telecoms consultancy Strand Consult.

Volumes on the smartphone market are seen surging in 2010, with some analysts forecasting up to 50 percent growth, as handset vendors are pushing advanced features, once exclusive to pricey top-end models, into cheaper and cheaper phones.

Nokia continues to lead the global smartphone market with an around 40 percent market share, but it has lost ground to Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry.

The Finnish firm is in the midst of a massive revamp of its smartphone offering and has said in 2010 almost all of its smartphones would have a touch screen, a full keyboard or both, compared with less than half in 2009.

NAME CONFUSION

After introducing the C series — focused on personal social networking — Nokia has four smartphone product families. The E series phones are for business users, X series for youth and music, and N series for the most advanced models.

It plans to use the new names across its smartphone offering.

Nokia has historically flooded the market with phone models little different from each other, with additional confusion arising from their four digit names, which have been hard to differentiate for consumers.

However, the new naming of X series phones may also create confusion as Sony Ericsson has used the name for few years — X1 and X2 smartphones are from Sony Ericsson, while Nokia has launched the X3 model.

Sony Ericsson’s new flagship device is the X10, while Nokia is also widely expected to launch an X10 cellphone.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), ranking member of Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, said in a release:

“We must tread lightly when it comes to new regulations. Where there have been a handful of questionable actions in the past on the part of a few companies, the Commission and the marketplace have responded swiftly,” Hutchison said in the release.

“The case has simply not been made for what amounts to a significant regulatory intervention into a vibrant marketplace. These new regulatory mandates and restrictions could stifle investment incentives,” she said. Senators John Ensign (R-Nev.), Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), David Vitter (R-La.), Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and John Thune (R-S.D. co-sponsored the amendment.

Rebecca Arbogast, head of technology policy research at Stifel Nicholas, said the move was a standard vehicle for Congress to block what regulatory agencies were trying to achieve in the executive branch or in a regulatory agency. “But the likelihood of it getting passed it pretty low. This is standard procedure and a time-honored tradition but the Republicans are in the minority.”

The two Republican commissioners at the five-member FCC issued a joint statement

in response to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s announcement, expressed concern that conclusions have been prematurely drawn about how consumers and businesses are being affected by Web policies.

“We are concerned that both factual and legal conclusions may have been drawn before the process has begun,” said Commissioners Robert McDowell and Merideth Baker. “We do not believe that the Commission should adopt regulations based merely on anecdotes, or in an effort to alleviate the political pressures of the day, if the facts do not clearly demonstrate that a problem needs to be remedied.”

An official at the agency stressed, however, that Genachowski viewed the proposal as the start of a process to investigate how new rules for the Internet should be approached for different technologies. Some wireless providers have balked at the proposal, with AT&T saying it does not agree that the rules should apply to its giant national wireless network because of capacity constraints. Genachowski said in his speech that the rules would apply to all platforms – which would include wireless – but that such questions would be part of a process that will begin late October to come up with new rules. If approved, final rules could be drawn next spring.

via The Washington Post

There are a lot of misconception about high speed internet. With the increasing popularity of broadband service and variety of technologies that power our internet connections, it is important to understand what’s true, what really matters and what is quite simply…myth.

Myth 1: High Speed Dial-Up

Dial-up is dial-up. There is no way to turn a regular modem connection into a lightning fast portal to the Internet universe. Essentially “high speed” dial-up is a regular dial-up service that is “enhanced” by the compression of common file types like text and graphics so they are more quickly transmitted, and by storing frequently used files locally so they don’t have to be downloaded each time you visit a page. While it may help you access your favorite web pages more quickly it won’t increase your Internet connection speed in any way. If you want speed, get a real high speed internet connection such as DSL, Cable or Satellite.

Myth 2: Internet Speed Tests

When you request a file or a web page over the Internet, it is transmitted to you in small data packets that are passed along the Internet from the source to your computer. The speed at which the information arrives at your computer is dependent upon the path it takes. Think of it like maneuvering though traffic. The busy intersections and slow roads can increase travel time. While a fast connection is nice, it won’t help you if traffic is heavy or the web site you are visiting is slow to respond. When you visit a speed test website you can gauge the speed of that web site in sending you data at that time. Nothing more. Nothing less. Does it help you to know this?

Myth 3: High Speed Internet Performance is Not Dependent on my Computer

Often we hear people justifying the purchase of a cheap or outdated computer: “I only need it for Internet and e-mail.” While accessing the Internet is certainly less taxing on a computer than some other tasks, the performance of your high speed internet connection may be severely limited by a poorly outfitted or old computer. An underpowered computer will not be able to render a web page for viewing, stream music, or show a video nearly as fast as a modern machine. With the increasing complexity of Internet content, the need for modern equipment is even more necessary. Your broadband connection may transmit data at a faster rate, but your computer puts it all together into something you can use.

Myth 4: I can “Uncap” my Cable Modem and Freely Enjoy the Blazing Speeds that I Deserve.

Your cable company is secretly holding out on you and they are terrified that you will discover the secret to unlimited speed. Sorry. Not true. First, your cable company is not secretly holding out on you. They are intentionally holding out on you – it’s their business. If you pay for their lowest level of service they will give you their lowest level of service. If you pay for their top speeds they will give you their top speeds. This myth developed out of a half truth: A few years back, certain cable modems could be hacked to bypass the service limits imposed by the cable provider. Broadband technology has matured over the last few years. Modern cable modems can’t be “uncapped”, but if they could, your theft of service would not go unnoticed by the provider.

Myth 5: I Don’t Need a Router Since I Don’t Have a Home Network.

A few years ago you might have found a router in the back office of a business network. Now, you can pick up a router at any department or electronics store for less than the price of the latest video game. It’s true that a router allows a number of computers to share a single internet connection, but even if you’re only using a single computer connected to the internet, a router is an extremely useful piece of equipment to own. Your router sits between your Internet connection and your computer. In addition to acting as a traffic cop in a multi-computer or home network environment – it acts as a firewall – blocking unwanted traffic before it ever gets to your computer. While it is useful to have a firewall installed on your computer, the built-in firewall in a router cannot be beat for simplicity and overall protection. In addition, many routers now function as Wireless Access Points, feature parental controls to block questionable content and can even schedule or restrict access during certain times. They will also allow you to network your modern electronics, such as a gaming console or a TiVo®. A router is the technology centerpiece to any home with a high speed Internet connection.

Learn more about broadband technology and compare high speed deals http://yourcheapestrate.com

The registry is the place where your computer stores the configuration information about your computer and your installed programs so that your operating system can use them.

Maintaining the registry is an important step in keeping your computer healthy. Registry problems can include slow performance, computer crashing, and the annoyingh Microsoft Windows error messages.

If any of these describes you as a computer user:

- Has old drivers on their system that have not been removed.

- Installs or uninstalls software very often.

- Have third party programs running such as Spyware and Adware (you can’t stop these from being installed)

- Remove software by deleting them from the Program Files folder.

- Installs or Uninstalls hardware.

Then you absolutely need to be repairing your Microsoft Windows registry regularly! All of the above leave traces in your registry that will only hurt your computer in the long run. If you don’t clean your computer to fix your registry than you are going to be in a whole world of trouble.

Make sure that you backup your registry before you try to clean or fix anything. Most registry cleaners have registry backup automatically for you, but be sure to check them out. Remember, don’t try to edit anything in the registry yourself unless you are very computer savvy.

Why do you need a registry cleaner? Registry cleaners are important because it protects your PC from harmful processes. Is your computer slowing down for no apparent reason? Are you having errors that are not solved by your anti-virus or anti-spyware program? Your PC might be affected by applications that are running without your knowledge. Registry cleaners are a must! Registry cleaners ensure that your registry is clean.

Some errors are just a quick registry fix, while others could be more problematic.

If you keep your registry clean, free of viruses and spyware your computer will last much longer. Spend the time or money now for a registry cleaner to save you even more time or money later down the road.

High-speed internet, TV and digital phone on same bill!

Cable and telephone companies, both large and small have been offering discounted bundled services for years. Bundled local and long distance, or cable TV and Internet have saved consumers thousands on elective utilities.

With the outbreak of new broadband Internet technologies, emerges a new market for bundled services. You may have noticed your local cable company offering telephone service, and your telephone company offering satellite TV services in their bundled packages.

These bundled services do in fact provide consumers a reduction in monthly service cost, and the big pitch is you get it all on one bill, and all from the same company. To the average consumer this looks to be the “beat all to end all” deal in bundled services.

The frugal know better. Satellite TV and VoIP are both Independent services one can find and use outside the restrictions of your local cable or telephone companies bundled prices. When you start to figure in your own choice of broadband Internet it takes on a different light.

There are many satellite TV, VoIP, and broadband Internet companies to choose from and you do not have to be bound by the rates of your local providers anymore. Do the research and you’ll find you could be saving a pretty good chunk each month by bundling your own services.

Sure, you won’t get it all on one bill, but if that’s what you want, you are likely over paying for those services. You’re really paying for the convenience of having everything on one bill. Shave ten or fifteen dollars off each service, and it really starts to add up.

Saving twenty five or thirty dollars a month might not sound like much, but try multiplying that figure by twelve months. What you’ll save in a year paints a whole new picture and is probably worth taking 5 extra minutes each month to pay a couple bills separately. That’s an hour a year for those with their calculators out.

Why let the local cable or telephone companies decide what features you get with your bundle ? You’re paying for it. You should choose exactly what you want, and what works best for you. When you self bundle your elective utilities you’ll not only save a few dollars, but get what you want too.