9:34 AM
The New S and P: Sony’s Tablet Plays
By Cheng Herng Shinn and Kenneth Maxwell This post originally appeared in Japan Real Time Another day, another tablet. In fact, make that another four of the portable devices now being cranked out as electronics makers rush to tap into the fast-growing market for mobile computer use.
Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
While HTC Corp. of Taiwan and Korea
Danny Moloshok/Reuters
AT&T, T-Mobile: Now What? Everyone notes that yesterday’s DOJ suit against the AT&T, T-Mobile merger falls in line with a more aggressive antitrust stance taken by the current administration. So is it game over?
The Wall Street Journal says that there could be an out of court settlement. “Our door is open,” the DOJ’s antitrust chief told the WSJ. “If they want to resolve those concerns, we can certainly do that.” But another DOJ official tells the WSJ not to expect any deals.
The reason for government intransigence, as explained to the WSJ by Mark Ostrau, a partner at Fenwick & West LLP., is that whereas companies used to ease government concerns by selling off business in local markets, the DOJ is looking at this deal…
On today’s digits: details on why the DOJ is suing to block the $39 billion AT&T, T-Mobile merger; Samsung unveils a line of Galaxy S II phones in the U.S.; days after killing its iPad rival, H-P is bringing TouchPad back; the Financial Times pulls its App from iTunes, MoviePass is an all-you-can-watch pass to theaters, and, are classical music mix tapes the future of the music industry?
Citing T-Mobile’s role as a mobile technology innovator, the Justice Department, in a filing with the U.S. District Court for theDistrict of Columbia
On today’s digits: details on why the DOJ is suing to block the $39 billion AT&T, T-Mobile merger; Samsung unveils a line of Galaxy S II phones in the U.S.; days after killing its iPad rival, H-P is bringing TouchPad back; the Financial Times pulls its App from iTunes, MoviePass is an all-you-can-watch pass to theaters, and, are classical music mix tapes the future of the music industry?
Citing T-Mobile’s role as a mobile technology innovator, the Justice Department, in a filing with the U.S. District Court for the
Stephen Yang/Bloomberg
Contrary to AT&T claims that a merger with T-Mobile would accelerate innovation, the Justice Department said that the opposite would occur, reducing the “competitive incentive to invest in wireless networks to attract and retain customers.” AT&T, the number two mobile carrier, with 98.6 million connections, has said that the merger would improve use of the spectrum, a driver for innovation. In its complaint the Justice Department cites the indispensability of mobile wireless communication, citing its role in creating jobs, increasing productivity. As such, the complaint says, “Vigorous competition is essential to ensuring continued innovation and maintaining low prices.”
Pearson PLC
The publisher on Wednesday confirmed it had removed its apps from iTunes and is directing readers to a recently launched Web app that allows the FT to work around Apple’s newly restrictive terms. “iTunes will remain an important channel for new and existing advertising based apps,” a spokeswoman for the FT said.
Apple earlier this year laid out new terms for companies wanting to sell digital content via its devices. Among the new rules: all content in the app store had to be sold through Apple, meaning companies that had been offering links in their apps that sent customers to external websites to buy content had to take down those links. Apple set a June 30 deadline to comply.
Paul Sakuma / AP Photo
Paul Sakuma / AP Photo
Oracle’s Dealings in Africa Investigated: Oracle is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Dept. and the SEC for violating federal antibribery laws in its business abroad. One prong of the investigation is looking at Oracle’s sales program in Western and Central African countries, particularly whether Oracle employees or agents made improper payments in order to close sales.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Russia Asia .
The investigation has been underway for at least a year. [WSJ]
6:13 PM
By Don Clark
Many techniques are used to reduce Internet traffic jams. But one of most popular ones sometimes runs into a bottleneck, which Google and other Internet companies are announcing plans to tackle.
Where communication carriers can expand the Net’s underlying capacity–think of adding more lanes to a freeway–another approach is to reduce the number of long-distance trips data has to travel. So companies called CDNs, for content delivery networks, have long operated data centers near major cities to store duplicate copies of videos and other files that customers call up frequently.
The other key piece of plumbing to keep in mind is the Domain Name System, which is often described as the phone book of the Internet. Companies operate what are called DNS servers, translating user requests to call up dot.com sites into specific sets of numbers–known as Internet protocol numbers–that computers use to recognize each other.
Most DNS servers that carry out this translation are operated by big Internet service providers. But some other companies, including Google and startups such as San Francisco-based OpenDNS, maintain alternative DNS services.
By Mia Lamar
Samsung Electronics continued to dominate the
Paul Sakuma/AP Photo
The results of comScore’s survey of more than 30,000 U.S.
Samsung’s lead as of the latest period rose to 25.5% from 24.5% in the three months ended in April. Apple maintained its position in the No. 4 spot, dominating Research in Motion with a 9.5% share. In the No. 5 spot, Research in Motion saw its share decline 0.6 percentage points to 7.6%.
Aug 30, 2011
4:51 PM
4:51 PM
Digits Live Show: RIM, Nokia Seek Lost Mojo
By WSJ Staff
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Digits live show
Research in Motion
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BlackBerry Maker RIM’s Stock Set in Motion: While the broader market has been volatile this past month, Research in Motion, maker of the iconic BlackBerry, has made gains on new handset launches and a little bit of improving sentiment on Wall Street. Dan Gallagher reports on Digits.
Aug 30, 2011
3:07 PM
3:07 PM
Java Icon Gosling Joins Sea-Robot Startup
By Ben Worthen
The father of the widely-used Java programming language is leaving Google for a startup that makes sea-faring robots.
Charlotte Fiorito/Mast Photography
James Gosling, the former Sun Microsystems engineer who went to Google after Sun was acquired by Oracle, has joined Liquid Robotics as chief software architect, he said Tuesday. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company–profiled in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year–makes “wave gliders” that ride ocean currents and collect and transmit data such as water temperature, wave heights, whale songs and chemical levels.
Liquid Robotics CEO, Bill Vass, another Sun alumnus, has big plans for the company. Mr. Vass says that there’s almost no limit to the type of information the gliders could collect, and that ultimately there could be thousands of them in the ocean at a time, giving the company unprecedented insight into what’s happening at sea. Liquid Robotics plans to operate a fleet of gliders and collect and sell access to useful data, according to Mr. Vass.
