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Gary Edwards

With faster Chrome browser, Google offers an Android alternative - CNET - 0 views

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    "On mobile devices, the Web hasn't lived up to its promise of a universal programming foundation. Google is trying to change that." Android hogged the spotlight at Google I/O, but performance improvements in Google's Chrome browser show that the company hasn't given up on trying to advance its other programming foundation -- the Web. The mobile version of Chrome has become much more responsive since 2013, said Paul Irish, a developer advocate on the Chrome team, speaking at the San Francisco conference. "We've improved the speed of animation by 75 percent and of scrolling 35 percent," Irish told developers Thursday. "We're committed to getting you 60 frames per second on the mobile Web." That performance is crucial for persuading people to use Web sites rather than native apps for things like posting on social networks, reading news, and playing games. It's also key to getting programmers to take the Web path when so many today focus on native apps written directly for Google's Android operating system and Apple's iOS competitor. The 60 frames-per-second rate refers to how fast the screen redraws when elements are in motion, either during games or when people are doing things like swiping among pages and dragging icons. The 60fps threshold is the minimum that game developers strive for, and to achieve it with no distracting stutters, a device must calculate how to update its entire screen every 16.7 milliseconds. Google, whose Android operating system initially lagged Apple's rival iOS significantly in this domain of responsiveness, has made great strides in improving its OS and its apps. But the mobile Web hasn't kept pace, and that means programmers have been more likely to aim for native apps rather than Web-based apps that can run on any device. ............................ Good review focused on the growing threat that native "paltform specific" apps are replacing Web apps as the developer's best choice. Florian thinks that native apps will win
Paul Merrell

W3C Standards Make Mobile Web Experience More Inviting - 0 views

  • W3C today announced new standards that will make it easier for people to browse the Web on mobile devices. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, published as a W3C Recommendation, condenses the experience of many mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice on creating mobile-friendly content.
  • Until today, content developers faced an additional challenge: a variety of mobile markup languages to choose from. With the publication of the XHTML Basic 1.1 Recommendation today, the preferred format specification of the Best Practices, there is now a full convergence in mobile markup languages, including those developed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). The W3C mobileOK checker (beta), when used with the familiar W3C validator, helps developers test mobile-friendly Web content.
  • W3C is also developing resources to help authors understand how to create content that is both mobile-friendly and accessible to people with disabilities. A draft of Relationship between Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is jointly published by the The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group and WAI's Education & Outreach Working Group (EOWG).
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Paul Merrell

Last Call Working Draft -- W3C Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 - 1 views

  • Examples of authoring tools: ATAG 2.0 applies to a wide variety of web content generating applications, including, but not limited to: web page authoring tools (e.g., WYSIWYG HTML editors) software for directly editing source code (see note below) software for converting to web content technologies (e.g., "Save as HTML" features in office suites) integrated development environments (e.g., for web application development) software that generates web content on the basis of templates, scripts, command-line input or "wizard"-type processes software for rapidly updating portions of web pages (e.g., blogging, wikis, online forums) software for generating/managing entire web sites (e.g., content management systems, courseware tools, content aggregators) email clients that send messages in web content technologies multimedia authoring tools debugging tools for web content software for creating mobile web applications
  • Web-based and non-web-based: ATAG 2.0 applies equally to authoring tools of web content that are web-based, non-web-based or a combination (e.g., a non-web-based markup editor with a web-based help system, a web-based content management system with a non-web-based file uploader client). Real-time publishing: ATAG 2.0 applies to authoring tools with workflows that involve real-time publishing of web content (e.g., some collaborative tools). For these authoring tools, conformance to Part B of ATAG 2.0 may involve some combination of real-time accessibility supports and additional accessibility supports available after the real-time authoring session (e.g., the ability to add captions for audio that was initially published in real-time). For more information, see the Implementing ATAG 2.0 - Appendix E: Real-time content production. Text Editors: ATAG 2.0 is not intended to apply to simple text editors that can be used to edit source content, but that include no support for the production of any particular web content technology. In contrast, ATAG 2.0 can apply to more sophisticated source content editors that support the production of specific web content technologies (e.g., with syntax checking, markup prediction, etc.).
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    Link is the latest version link so page should update when this specification graduates to a W3C recommendation.
Gary Edwards

MS finally to bring Office to the Web, Windows smart phones - NYTimes.com - 0 views

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    Last week, Microsoft reported that revenue from the Microsoft business division (MBD) grew 20% year over year to US$4.95 billion in the most recent quarter. That is more than Microsoft's client division, which makes Windows. Most of MBD's revenue comes from Office, though Microsoft doesn't break out an exact percentage. Windows has 1 billion users. Office has only 500 million. Consumers will be able to subscribe to Office Web and even get it at a discount price, provided they are willing to view Web ads. Business customers seeking "more manageability and control" will be able to buy subscriptions to Office Web similar to the subscription Microsoft offers for a bundle combining Web-based versions of Exchange and SharePoint. That costs $3 per user per month. Enterprises may also get Office Web through conventional volume licensing software contracts, which will allow them to either install Office on desktop and other client PCs, or have Microsoft host it on their server. Unlike non-Microsoft products (Google Docs - ZOHO - BuzzWord), Office Web will guarantee that the "viewing experience is fantastic" and that formatting and meta data from Office documents don't "get munged up,". Office Web will provide a superior "end-to-end solution" by letting users view and edit documents whenever they want to, including browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari and Windows Mobile smart phones. The Office Web focus will be on business productivity according to Chris Capossela. The Office Web experience can be enhanced by Silverlight (Microsoft RiA).
Gonzalo San Gil, PhD.

Do you think Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are open or closed? | Opensource.com - 0 views

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    "A few months ago Google announced a new open source project called Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) that promised to "dramatically improve the performance of the mobile Web," and now Google features AMP content at the top of mobile search results. As the amount of AMP content continues to grow, more questions are being asked about whether or not AMP benefits the open web, and whether AMP is a closed silo."
Paul Merrell

Technology Review: Expanding the Mobile Web - 0 views

  • Today, in an effort to bring more of the Web to mobile devices, Adobe and microchip maker ARM, which powers 90 percent of mobile phones worldwide, have announced a collaboration to ensure that Adobe's software runs well on future ARM devices. Specifically, the companies say that Adobe's Flash Player 10 and AIR (a platform for building complex Web applications) will be compatible and optimized for the ARM chips available in 2009. While ARM is used in a huge number of mobile phones, the announcement has broader implications: the chips are also used in set-top boxes, mobile Internet devices, personal media players, and automotive platforms.
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    Adobe positioning AIR for a move into embedded systems? E.g., from Wikipedia: "Because of their power saving features, ARM CPUs are dominant in the mobile electronics market, where low power consumption is a critical design goal. Today, the ARM family accounts for approximately 75% of all embedded 32-bit RISC CPUs, making it one of the most widely used 32-bit architectures. ARM CPUs are found in most corners of consumer electronics, from portable devices (PDAs, mobile phones, media players, handheld gaming units, and calculators)." Don't miss page two of the linked article.
Gary Edwards

What the Google's Android G1 Launch Means for Web Development | iWeb Blog » - 0 views

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    While every blog and media has been covering native mobile applications, there's one thing: Android's web browser is based on WebKit, the same engine used in the iPhone, Safari 3 (avalaible both on Windows and Mac), the Google Chrome web browser, Adobe AIR, plus other mobile phones such as Nokia's N60 and E series. For me, the Google Phone hails the supremacy of WebKit, and means that Web Developers should from now on add it to their skills. WebKit has many advantages as both a browser engine and, a converged desktop-mobile device- web server application development platform.
Gary Edwards

The uphill battle Microsoft faces with Windows Mobile « jkOnTheRun - 0 views

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    The recent announcements by Microsoft detailing Windows Mobile (WM) 6.5 and to a lesser degree WM 7.0 have left many questioning the continued relevance of Windows Mobile in the future.  The incremental update to WM has been received as expected with some excited for the future and others declaring "too little, too late."  Take the next version of WM as you will, Microsoft faces a great challenge to keep WM relevant in today's smartphone market"...... Good discussion about Microsoft's failure to show at the Barcelona World Mobility Conference with anything worth talking about. Apple doesn't even show up, but the iPhone dominates all discussions! So what's up with Microsoft? Have they finally dropped the ball on the device end of their emerging Web platform? I've posted a lengthy comment about WebKit, the iPhone and the emergence of a next generation visual document model that also works as a Web application.
Gary Edwards

WebKit: The 21st century mobile - desktop application foundation - Software Development... - 0 views

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    Well well well. The experts are finally starting to get it. WebKit is extraordinary, not as a browser, but as the "Open Web" foundation for web application (RiA) development that spans device and desktop.
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    The vastly improved hardware and network throughput are not the primary drivers of this sea change. "The biggest jolt to the mobile Web development experience, in my view, has been the iPhone. Its implementation of mobile Safari, while imperfect, has given handsets the real Internet, rather than a hobbled, niched version that was typical in devices that preceded it." What that means for the future, according to O'Grady, is that the mobile application space "will mirror the development on the client, honestly. It will evolve into a platform barely distinguishable, in many respects, from the traditional desktop browser experience."
Paul Merrell

Digital Web Magazine - HTML5, XHTML2, and the Future of the Web - 0 views

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    The browser-centric view of why HTML5 is better than XHTML2. Notice that the entire discussion does not address the need for interoperable data exchange between different web applications, let alone for their interaction with more traditional desktop or mobile device editors. HTML5 is enormously under-specified for data exchange among anything but web browsers. As only one small example, neither HTML5 nor CSS Selectors have a specified standard element for footnotes and footnote calls, let alone attributes for their numbering style, formatting, and location. And even if CSS Selectors included such elements and attributes, CSS lives in web site page templates, not in the web app editors for site content that use HTML forms. Easy pickings for Microsoft and its proprietary stack that does interoperably integrate the desktop, servers, devices, and the Web.
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Gary Edwards

Microsoft Office whips Google Docs: It's finally game over | Computerworld Blogs - 0 views

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    "If there was ever any doubt about whether Microsoft or Google would win the war of office suites, there should be no longer. Within the last several weeks, Microsoft has pulled so far ahead that it's game over. Here's why. When it comes to which suite is more fully featured, there's never been any real debate: Microsoft Office wins hands down. Whether you're creating entire presentations, creating complicated word-processing documents, or even doing something as simple as handling text attributes, Office is a far better tool. Until the last few weeks, Google Docs had one significant advantage over Microsoft Office: It's available for Android and the iPad as well as PCs because it's Web-based. The same wasn't the case for Office. So if you wanted to use an office suite on all your mobile devices, Google Docs was the way to go. Google Docs lost that advantage when Microsoft released Office for the iPad. There's not yet a native version for Android tablets, but Microsoft is working on that, telling GeekWire, "Let me tell you conclusively: Yes, we are also building Android native applications for tablets for Word, Excel and PowerPoint." Google Docs is still superior to Office's Web-based version, but that's far less important than it used to be. There's no need to go with a Web-based office suite if a superior suite is available as a native apps on all platforms, mobile or otherwise. And Office's collaboration capabilities are quite considerable now. Of course, there's always the question of price. Google Docs is free. Microsoft Office isn't. But at $100 a year for up to five devices, or $70 a year for two, no one will be going broke paying for Microsoft Office. It's worth paying that relatively small price for a much better office suite. Google Docs won't die. It'll be around as second fiddle for a long time. But that's what it will always remain: a second fiddle to the better Microsoft Office."
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    Google acquired "Writely", a small company in Portola Valley that pioneered document editing in a browser. Writely was perhaps the first cloud computing editor to go beyond simple HTML; eventually crafting some really cool CSS-JavaScript-JSON document layout and editing methods. But it can't edit native MSOffice documents. It converts them. There are more than a few problems with the Google Docs approach to editing advanced "compound" documents, but two stick out and are certain to give pause to anyone making the great transition from local workgroup computing, to the highly mobile, always connected, cloud computing. The first problem certain to become a show stopper is that Google converts documents to their native on-line format for editing and collaboration. And then they convert back. To many this isn't a problem. But if the document is part of a workflow or business process, conversion is a killer. There is an old saw affectionately known as "Reuters Law", dating back to the ODF-OXML document wars, that emphatically states; "Conversion breaks documents." The breakage includes both the visual layout of the document, and, the "compound" aspects and data connections that are internal to the document. Think of this way. A business document that is part of a legacy Windows Workgroup workflow is opened up in gDocs. Google converts the document for editing purposes. The data and the workflow internals that bind the document to the local business system are broken on conversion. The look of the document is also visually shredded as the gDocs layout engine is applied. For all practical purposes, no matter what magic editing and collaboration value is added, a broken document means a broken business process. Let me say that again, with the emphasis of having witnessed this first hand during the year long ODF transition trials the Commonwealth of Massachusetts conducted in 2005 and 2006. The business process broke every time a conversion was conducted "on a busines
Gary Edwards

The Future of Mobile Software - RoughlyDrafted Magazine - 0 views

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    The software business is going mobile. That shift will present new challenges but also new opportunities for developers. Appleboy Daniel Eran Dilger explains how the mobile market has evolved into being today's promising next frontier for new software models. This is a good article even though it falls flat and short comparing "desktop-sync" to the emerging "cloud-sync" model. Cloud-sync is vital to workgroup oriented business processes. The problem with desktop-sync being that any kind of conversion-sync process took documents out of the application centric business process. It's a big issue begging for recognition, but given short shrift by Daniel. He also misses the all important role of the Web in the evolution of smartphones. Without 3G-4G Web wireless, there is no such thing as a "smartphone".
Paul Merrell

W3C Helps Authors Go Mobile - 0 views

  • http://www.w3.org/ -- 8 December 2008 -- Today, W3C has made it easier to create content designed to improve people's mobile experience using a broad range of devices. W3C invites the community to try the W3C mobileOK checker, which is based on the newly published standard, the mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 Recommendation. "The new checker builds on the suite of quality assurance tools offered by W3C to help authors and authoring tool developers create clean content," said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. "Clean content offers a number of benefits to authors and users alike. The mobileOK checker does a nice job helping you improve your content one step at a time. Your mobile audience will thank you each time you improve your score."
  • The mobileOK Basic tests are based on the part of the Mobile Web Best Practices that can be verified automatically with software. The checker makes use of the popular W3C validator to help improve content quality. In addition to the mobile-friendliness score, the checker offers tips for meeting the needs of people on the go.
Gary Edwards

Nokia and Google: Too much emphasis on the mobile OS? | ge TalkBack on ZDNet - 0 views

  • Although it appears that the mobile hardware providers are competing through the development of incompatible platforms, i think there's reason to be hopeful. There seems to be movement towards a universal web application model able to join legacy Web with an Open-Web future where devices, desktops, web-stacks, and clouds connect, access, exchange and collaborate with all kinds of information systems. Above the metal, at the web application layer, there is a war between competing runtime engines. The recent Web 2.0 Conference was a showcase for Sun Java FX, Adobe RiA, and Microsoft .NET Silverlight. The exhibitors floor featured a large and prominent Microsoft Silverlight-Mesh island surrounded by Flex RiA providers, with currents of IT and developers asking the same question; Can Adobe run with Microsoft?
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    Interesting discussion about a universal web application layer able to wrok across devices, browsers and web service systems. I reponded with a very lengthy post about WebKit.
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Gary Edwards

New mobile browsers bringing real Web to handhelds - Network World - 0 views

  • All of them have in common powerful, modern rendering engines, which make it possible for the browsers to display Web sites that look like those you see with a desktop browser. Safari and the Nokia browser use the same rendering engine: the open source WebKit. All Firefox projects use the same rendering engine, Gecko. Opera has over a decade invested in its core engine.
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    Mobil Web Browsers are changing the Web for everyone - including the desktop browser market!
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Paul Merrell

Google's web app plans collide with Apple's iPhone, Safari rules - CNET - 0 views

  • Google and Apple, which already battle over mobile operating systems, are opening a new front in their fight. How that plays out may determine the future of the web. Google was born on the web, and its business reflects its origin. The company depends on the web for search and advertising revenue. So it isn't a surprise that Google sees the web as key to the future of software. Front and center are web apps, interactive websites with the same power as conventional apps that run natively on operating systems like Windows, Android, MacOS and iOS.  Apple has a different vision of the future, one that plays to its strengths. The company revolutionized mobile computing with its iPhone line. Its profits depend on those products and the millions of apps that run on them. Apple, unsurprisingly, appears less excited about developments, like web apps, that could cut into its earnings.
Paul Merrell

Verizon Injecting Perma-Cookies to Track Mobile Customers, Bypassing Privacy Controls |... - 0 views

  • Verizon users might want to start looking for another provider. In an effort to better serve advertisers, Verizon Wireless has been silently modifying its users' web traffic on its network to inject a cookie-like tracker. This tracker, included in an HTTP header called X-UIDH, is sent to every unencrypted website a Verizon customer visits from a mobile device. It allows third-party advertisers and websites to assemble a deep, permanent profile of visitors' web browsing habits without their consent.Verizon apparently created this mechanism to expand their advertising programs, but it has privacy implications far beyond those programs. Indeed, while we're concerned about Verizon's own use of the header, we're even more worried about what it allows others to find out about Verizon users. The X-UIDH header effectively reinvents the cookie, but does so in a way that is shockingly insecure and dangerous to your privacy. Worse still, Verizon doesn't let users turn off this "feature." In fact, it functions even if you use a private browsing mode or clear your cookies. You can test whether the header is injected in your traffic by visiting lessonslearned.org/sniff or amibeingtracked.com over a cell data connection.How X-UIDH Works, and Why It's a Problem
  • To compound the problem, the header also affects more than just web browsers. Mobile apps that send HTTP requests will also have the header inserted. This means that users' behavior in apps can be correlated with their behavior on the web, which would be difficult or impossible without the header. Verizon describes this as a key benefit of using their system. But Verizon bypasses the 'Limit Ad Tracking' settings in iOS and Android that are specifically intended to limit abuse of unique identifiers by mobile apps.
  • Because the header is injected at the network level, Verizon can add it to anyone using their towers, even those who aren't Verizon customers.
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  • We're also concerned that Verizon's failure to permit its users to opt out of X-UIDH may be a violation of the federal law that requires phone companies to maintain the confidentiality of their customers' data. Only two months ago, the wireline sector of Verizon's business was hit with a $7.4 million fine by the Federal Communications Commission after it was caught using its "customers' personal information for thousands of marketing campaigns without even giving them the choice to opt out." With this header, it looks like Verizon lets its customers opt out of the marketing side of the program, but not from the disclosure of their browsing habits.
Paul Merrell

How to Encrypt the Entire Web for Free - The Intercept - 0 views

  • If we’ve learned one thing from the Snowden revelations, it’s that what can be spied on will be spied on. Since the advent of what used to be known as the World Wide Web, it has been a relatively simple matter for network attackers—whether it’s the NSA, Chinese intelligence, your employer, your university, abusive partners, or teenage hackers on the same public WiFi as you—to spy on almost everything you do online. HTTPS, the technology that encrypts traffic between browsers and websites, fixes this problem—anyone listening in on that stream of data between you and, say, your Gmail window or bank’s web site would get nothing but useless random characters—but is woefully under-used. The ambitious new non-profit Let’s Encrypt aims to make the process of deploying HTTPS not only fast, simple, and free, but completely automatic. If it succeeds, the project will render vast regions of the internet invisible to prying eyes.
  • Encryption also prevents attackers from tampering with or impersonating legitimate websites. For example, the Chinese government censors specific pages on Wikipedia, the FBI impersonated The Seattle Times to get a suspect to click on a malicious link, and Verizon and AT&T injected tracking tokens into mobile traffic without user consent. HTTPS goes a long way in preventing these sorts of attacks. And of course there’s the NSA, which relies on the limited adoption of HTTPS to continue to spy on the entire internet with impunity. If companies want to do one thing to meaningfully protect their customers from surveillance, it should be enabling encryption on their websites by default.
  • Let’s Encrypt, which was announced this week but won’t be ready to use until the second quarter of 2015, describes itself as “a free, automated, and open certificate authority (CA), run for the public’s benefit.” It’s the product of years of work from engineers at Mozilla, Cisco, Akamai, Electronic Frontier Foundation, IdenTrust, and researchers at the University of Michigan. (Disclosure: I used to work for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and I was aware of Let’s Encrypt while it was being developed.) If Let’s Encrypt works as advertised, deploying HTTPS correctly and using all of the best practices will be one of the simplest parts of running a website. All it will take is running a command. Currently, HTTPS requires jumping through a variety of complicated hoops that certificate authorities insist on in order prove ownership of domain names. Let’s Encrypt automates this task in seconds, without requiring any human intervention, and at no cost.
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  • The benefits of using HTTPS are obvious when you think about protecting secret information you send over the internet, like passwords and credit card numbers. It also helps protect information like what you search for in Google, what articles you read, what prescription medicine you take, and messages you send to colleagues, friends, and family from being monitored by hackers or authorities. But there are less obvious benefits as well. Websites that don’t use HTTPS are vulnerable to “session hijacking,” where attackers can take over your account even if they don’t know your password. When you download software without encryption, sophisticated attackers can secretly replace the download with malware that hacks your computer as soon as you try installing it.
  • The transition to a fully encrypted web won’t be immediate. After Let’s Encrypt is available to the public in 2015, each website will have to actually use it to switch over. And major web hosting companies also need to hop on board for their customers to be able to take advantage of it. If hosting companies start work now to integrate Let’s Encrypt into their services, they could offer HTTPS hosting by default at no extra cost to all their customers by the time it launches.
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    Don't miss the video. And if you have a web site, urge your host service to begin preparing for Let's Encrypt. (See video on why it's good for them.)
Gary Edwards

Convergence of Web, Mobile and Desktop Apps is the Next Phase: AJAX World RIA with Jere... - 0 views

  • For SOA applications, the best way to modernize is to componentize and extend the user experience aspect of the application that will in turn enable the applications composition and mashup.
  • While there are many ways that companies measure productivity, Nexaweb has found that the three key criteria for enabling the productivity driven enterprise are based on 1) cost savings resulting from reduced development time and application maintainability; 2) extending the value of existing applications with a future-proof architecture (adding RIA without breaking existing enterprise architecture); and 3) faster time to market by providing a consistent user experience across the various interfaces available throughout the organization.
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    While the last decade was focused on the Web, the next phase in the evolution of our industry will be on the convergence of Web, mobile and desktop applications and the ability to extend existing applications with these new technologies for a consistent user experience regardless of how and where the information is viewed,' says Nexaweb CTO Jeremy Chone
Paul Merrell

EU looks into telecoms blocking Internet calls - International Herald Tribune - 0 views

  • European Union regulators are looking into whether mobile phone operators who block customers from making inexpensive wireless calls over the Internet are breaking competition rules. The European Commission, the EU antitrust authority, has sent questionnaires to phone companies asking what "tools" they use to "control, manage, block, slow down or otherwise restrict or filter" Internet-based voice calls. The EU deadline for responding to the survey was Tuesday. The questionnaire, obtained by Bloomberg News, does not identify any companies. Some mobile carriers have blocked services that use voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP, which allows users to make calls over the Web. Companies may be seeking to stop customers from accessing applications, like eBay's Skype, to defend voice revenue from the less expensive Internet services, Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner, the research company, said.
    • Paul Merrell
       
      Building a Connected World --- The Role of Antitrust Law and Lawyers.
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    Superficially, this sounds like an application of the principles won by DG Competition in the Court of First Instance's Commission v. Microsoft interoperability decision. But note that here we deal with an investigation into deliberately-created interop barriers rather than those maintained by withholding full communication protocol specifications from competitors. Notice that the investigation encompasses throttling of internet connections for particular uses, an increasingly common practice by Comcast and other ISPs in the U.S., where both VOIP and P2P file-sharing are targeted uses. E.U. and U.S. antitrust law are similar, as efforts to harmonize antitrust law on both sides of The Pond are now decades old; this move does not bode well for bandwidth throttling in the U.S., particularly when aimed at throttling competition. It takes no giant mental leap to apply such principles to big vendor-dominated IT standards bodies that deliberately create or maintain interop barriers in data format standards. Indeed, DG Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes has already served notice that interop barriers in standards-setting is an item of interest.
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