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Verizon renews criticism of Net neutrality regulations

ASPEN, Colo. -- Verizon today renewed its criticisms of the Obama administration's Net neutrality rules, saying its lawsuit seeking to overturn them will rein in an out-of-control federal agency.

The company's lawsuit is about "the importance of restraint on the regulatory authority in the Internet space," said Tom Tauke, Verizon's executive vice president for public affairs. "We believe that is critical -- and this battle is really a battle about that kind of restraint."

In September 2011, Verizon filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the Federal Communication Commission's Net neutrality rules. The … Read more

Developers slam Twitter's new restrictions on access

Twitter's decision to slap new restrictions on developers is a little like a marriage splintering asunder. It's not that things were always this bad, but, well, our needs have changed, and we want different things than we did six years ago.

The divorce papers arrived Thursday afternoon in the form of an announcement saying that certain app developers -- some of the folks who contributed to Twitter's rapid ascent in the first place -- should no longer feel welcome in the Twitterverse. Tweetbot and Echofon were singled out by name, prompting other programmers in Silicon Valley's … Read more

App.net: A social network made possible by Facebook and Twitter

SAN FRANCISCO -- Starting a new social network is a terrible idea, right? Facebook's stock debut has been the worst in history, and even Twitter's growth is slowing.

The problem with this theory is that it entirely fails to explain the early success that Dalton Caldwell, a San Francisco entrepreneur, has enjoyed in launching a would-be rival social network called App.net.

"I'm really burnt out on the rampant cynicism," Caldwell told a standing-room-only crowd of over 200 developers at AirBnB's headquarters here this week. Instead of complaining about other services' flaws, he said, … Read more

Top five Wi-Fi routers with built-in network storage

Generally, for network storage needs, I would recommend getting a dedicated NAS server, such as the Synology DiskStation DS1511+. However, if your needs are limited to casual usage, such as sharing documents and streaming music and photos, then a router with built-in network storage capability -- one that comes with internal storage or can host an external storage device and shares that with the rest of the network -- fits the bill better.

While much inferior to a NAS server in terms of features and especially performance, some routers actually have more to offer, in terms of storage, than one might expect and may just be what you need. In any case, getting a router of this type plus an external hard drive is a lot cheaper than a dedicated NAS server.

Following is a list of five top routers with built-in support for network storage that I've reviewed in recent years. … Read more

App.net: 'Plumbing' for social apps, not Twitter rival (podcast)

App.net founder Dalton Caldwell was impressed by Twitter in its "early days" when third-party developers were using it as a platform to "build really strange and amazing software, which is not what the people at Twitter necessarily intended." At that point, said Caldwell, "they had an open platform and you could build any kind of business on it in."

But, he added, "there's been a number of business moves made by Twitter to restrict third-party access to the data and discourage third-party clients being built." He said Twitter's "… Read more

Building apps for Facebook: A dance with the devil

Dalton Caldwell caused a stir recently when he posted an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg, accusing top Facebook execs of threatening his latest startup with the Luca Brasi treatment: Sell out to us or we'll crush you.

"I had explicit approval from Facebook to build what I was building," says Caldwell, a software developer who unexpectedly found himself in the crosshairs because an app he was building to run atop Facebook was similar to Facebook's recently unveiled App Center. "They said, 'Sorry, we just need the revenue.'"

Caldwell's public dust-up with Facebook -- … Read more

App.net hits $500K funding goal nearly two days early

App.net's goal of creating an alternative social network took a big step forward with the announcement that it had achieved the goal of raising $500,000 in a crowd-funding campaign.

The project, which seeks to build an open API framework for developers, achieved its pledge goal with almost two days to spare before its deadline, thanks mostly to a last-minute push for new sponsors.

More than 7,800 sponsors have pledged funds for varying membership privileges. A $50 basic membership gives donors an annual membership, while a $1,000 donation gives members access to the developer tools and … Read more

E-mail lists, encrypted passwords stolen in Battle.net hack

Game maker Blizzard Entertainment's internal network security has been breached, the company informed customers today.

While the company behind World of Warcraft and Diablo believes no sensitive financial information was compromised, it said e-mail addresses for non-China Battle.net players and scrambled passwords were stolen, Blizzard President Michael Morhaime said in a company blog post:

This week, our security team found an unauthorized and illegal access into our internal network here at Blizzard. We quickly took steps to close off this access and began working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened. At this time, we'… Read more

Samsung Galaxy Proclaim is prepaid Android with a curve

The Samsung Galaxy Proclaim is proof that Samsung hasn't forgotten about the lesser-known prepaid carriers like StraightTalk and Net10. The Android 2.3 Gingerbread handset offers entry-level smartphone features for a reasonable price -- $179.99 in Net10's case.

A slightly curved screen a la the Samsung Nexus S and Samsung Galaxy Nexus is one design hallmark for the Proclaim; an aggressively contoured backing with a grippy soft-touch finish is another.

The handset has a 3.5-inch touch screen, which is small for 2012. It has a 3-megapixel camera lens and is powered by a 1GHz single-core processor. … Read more

Verizon to pay $1.25M FCC fine; forced to allow tethering apps

Verizon Wireless is no longer allowed to block apps that allow people to use their 4G LTE smartphones as Wi-Fi hotspots. And the carrier will pay the Federal Communications Commission a $1.25 million fine, the government agency said Tuesday.

The FCC has been investigating Verizon's business practices for the last 10 months to make sure that its 4G LTE service complies with so-called open access rules that were established as part of the 700 MHz spectrum auction in 2008. Verizon is using this spectrum to offer its 4G LTE service.

During its investigation, the FCC found that Verizon … Read more