Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Filed under: Meta
Engadget's top posts, 2008 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico regulators have ordered Qwest to restore service to independently owned and operated Internet service provider SkyWi Inc. after it disconnected the provider because of a $1.7 million debt.
The state Public Regulation Commission held an emergency meeting Wednesday and ordered Qwest to immediately begin the process of restoring service to critical SkyWi customers and to report back to the PRC by Friday morning.
Under the order, if Qwest is unable to restore service by Thursday morning, Qwest must show cause why it should not be sanctioned.
The PRC wants SkyWi to give Qwest a list of its customers prioritized by public health and safety and also by economic concerns by 9 a.m. Thursday. The commission also ordered SkyWi to release control of customers' telephone numbers to enable those customers to seek alternative providers.
Albuquerque-based SkyWi buys wholesale Internet services through Qwest before reselling them to its customers. Qwest had asked SkyWi to pay more than $580,000 by Monday to continue the service, said Qwest spokesman Mark Molzen.
Tuesday's disconnection was no surprise to SkyWi, Molzen said.
"We notified SkyWi several months in advance and numerous times," he said.
SkyWi's chief development officer, Don Levy, said it owes money to Qwest, but not $1.7 million. He would not disclose how much SkyWi believes it owes.
He also would not say whether SkyWi customers were notified service was being disconnected.
The decision to disconnect SkyWi affected Eddy County government, which found itself without phone service and scrambled to get hooked back up. The system was provided by One Connect.
Eddy County Manager Steve Massey in Carlsbad said he had not known in advance that Qwest was disconnecting SkyWi. The Eddy County sheriff's 911 emergency line was not affected.
SkyWi sued Qwest in December, alleging anti-competitive behavior.
"We have no issue with Qwest competing with us for the same customers, as that is the nature of healthy competition," Jack Leach, president of SkyWi, said in a news release. "But Qwest has opted to take unfair advantage of their control over the telecom networks in this region to create barriers that destroy the competitiveness of smaller ISPs."
SkyWi acquired One Connect IP and ZiaNet in September, and Levy said SkyWi realized there were problems between the two companies and Qwest.
The lawsuit accuses Qwest of willfully and routinely engaging in practices designed to remove effective competition from its markets, Levy said.
The PRC said it's decision to require Qwest to restore service to critical customers is an interim order pending a decision by the federal court on SkyWi's request for a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit against Qwest.
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
Viacom Threatens To Pull Content Offline - While Time Warner tells us customers will see refunds... This morning we noted how a feud between Time Warner Cable and Viacom could result in Time Warner Cable and BrightHouse customers losing Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 16 other channels.
Time Warner Cable and Viacom’s drawn-out feud over rights fees could result in 13 million Time Warner and Bright House customers losing 19 popular channels, including Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon, on January 1. That’s right, you could be saying sayonara to The Daily Show, The Hills and Spongebob Squarepants as soon as the clock strikes midnight. But that’s not all: Viacom is also threatening to yank online content. Happy New Year, eh?
Viacom’s cable networks are distributed by Time Warner, the fourth largest cable television provider in the U.S. Viacom has posted a message on sites it owns, such as MTV.com and VH1.com, alerting customers that they will lose their favorite shows on TV and online unless they act fast. Time Warner Cable’s director of digital communication (or someone posing as him), posted the following screencap to Twitter, according to DSL Reports, while Time Warner in-house speculation is brewing over whether or not the message is a scare tactic or if Viacom is ballsy enough to follow through with its threats.
“They’re somehow going to block Time Warner Cable / Bright House/ Roadrunner subscribers only from seeing their free video content, probably by blocking a range of IP addresses,” Time Warner theorizes on the site Long Reply (useful when Twitter’s 140 character limit just isn’t enough). That sounds a bit far-fetched and complicated to pull off, if not impossible.
Time Warner doesn’t see why it has to pay Viacom more for content that’s available so readily online, especially since that arguably diminishes the content’s value. Why would customers pay more for cable (an additional $3 a month) during a recession if anyone can watch the shows for free from multiple sources? Those sources include the show’s own website, Hulu and Comcast’s Fancast, as Media Memo points out. However, cable subscription revenues will still trump any money brought in from online advertising. We’ll be hearing the phrase “analog dollars versus digital pennies” for awhile yet, unfortunately.
Viacom’s multi-pronged approach to convincing customers to riot also includes running TV ads asking its viewers to call Time Warner Cable and complain. Unsurprisingly, the ads have already made it to YouTube. Did someone say phone tree?
Finally, I leave you with some emergency rations in case the lovers’ quarrel isn’t settled in time, an outcome that could cost Time Warner Cable valuable customers and Viacom precious advertising revenue. It isn’t quite Nickelodeon favorite Dora the Explorer, but if Viacom’s really taking her off the air and offline, at least you’ll have Maraka and Mittens to comfort you.
Time Warner Cable and Viacom’s drawn-out feud over rights fees could result in 13 million Time Warner and Bright House customers losing 19 popular channels, including Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon, on January 1. That’s right, you could be saying sayonara to The Daily Show, The Hills and Spongebob Squarepants as soon as the clock strikes midnight. But that’s not all: Viacom is also threatening to yank online content. Happy New Year, eh?
Viacom’s cable networks are distributed by Time Warner, the fourth largest cable television provider in the U.S. Viacom has posted a message on sites it owns, such as MTV.com and VH1.com, alerting customers that they will lose their favorite shows on TV and online unless they act fast. Time Warner Cable’s director of digital communication (or someone posing as him), posted the following screencap to Twitter, according to DSL Reports, while Time Warner in-house speculation is brewing over whether or not the message is a scare tactic or if Viacom is ballsy enough to follow through with its threats.
“They’re somehow going to block Time Warner Cable / Bright House/ Roadrunner subscribers only from seeing their free video content, probably by blocking a range of IP addresses,” Time Warner theorizes on the site Long Reply (useful when Twitter’s 140 character limit just isn’t enough). That sounds a bit far-fetched and complicated to pull off, if not impossible.
Time Warner doesn’t see why it has to pay Viacom more for content that’s available so readily online, especially since that arguably diminishes the content’s value. Why would customers pay more for cable (an additional $3 a month) during a recession if anyone can watch the shows for free from multiple sources? Those sources include the show’s own website, Hulu and Comcast’s Fancast, as Media Memo points out. However, cable subscription revenues will still trump any money brought in from online advertising. We’ll be hearing the phrase “analog dollars versus digital pennies” for awhile yet, unfortunately.
Viacom’s multi-pronged approach to convincing customers to riot also includes running TV ads asking its viewers to call Time Warner Cable and complain. Unsurprisingly, the ads have already made it to YouTube. Did someone say phone tree?
Finally, I leave you with some emergency rations in case the lovers’ quarrel isn’t settled in time, an outcome that could cost Time Warner Cable valuable customers and Viacom precious advertising revenue. It isn’t quite Nickelodeon favorite Dora the Explorer, but if Viacom’s really taking her off the air and offline, at least you’ll have Maraka and Mittens to comfort you.
Matt Akers / forums.zune.net:
Official response for Zune 30 Freezing Issue (Zune 30gb stuck at reboot screen) — Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used).
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Reports: 30GB Zunes Failing Everywhere, All At Once — Right, so this is a weird one: we're getting tons of reports—tons—about failing Zune 30s. Apparently, the players began freezing at about midnight last night, becoming totally unresponsive and practically useless.
There’s simply no denying that 2008 was a good year for Apple. Sales of just about everything were up, and market share of went up, but the real gems for the company were the iPhone 3G its accompanying App Store. Our top stories about Apple this year, definitely reflect that — as yes, all of the top ones were about the iPhone or the App Store
This list is mostly based on popularity, but in some cases there were multiple stories on a topic, so we included others in the list.
Counting down:
10) The iPhone outsells that thing I’m using as a paperweight (the RAZR)
At one time, Motorola’s RAZR was the most popular phone in the United States by far. But times have changed, and that device (which yes, I still have but don’t use) looks laughably old compared to devices like any BlackBerry, the G1 and yes, the iPhone. That last device was the first one to displace the RAZR as the top selling mobile phone for U.S. consumers after 12 consecutive quarters of RAZR dominance.
9) About those “rampant” iPhone 2.2 problems
CNET’s iPhone Atlas blog ran a report that made it sound as if the iPhone 2.2 software was a complete disaster — the problem was that no one seemed to agree with them. Of their 17 comments at the time, 15 reported no problems whatsoever. Dozens more did in our comments and on sites this story appears on like Digg. This was pure hyperbole.
8) So much for my time away from the computer — Google Reader for the iPhone improves
I’m addicted to Google Reader, so when Google launched a version that was designed specifically for the iPhone, I was in heaven. This was before the iPhone 3G, so it was all browser-based, but it worked so well that it still actually is browser-based, and I still use it daily.
7) MG’s 10 favorite iPhone apps of 2008
The App Store, in my opinion, was the best thing Apple did in 2008. After the launch of the first iPhone in 2007, Apple tried to make third-party developers create apps that would only work in the device’s Safari web browser, but only a handful made really good one. When Apple opened up its main screen to native third party apps however, development exploded.
6) The real iPhone 3G rip-off: Text messages
While so many people were worried about the “true” cost of the iPhone after Apple announced the price of the iPhone 3G would only be $199, I was surprised that more people weren’t outraged about the real rip-off being pulled by AT&T, it’s text message add-on plan. Previously, with the original iPhone you at least got 200 text messages for free along with your “unlimited” data plan, but they killed those free messages with the iPhone 3G. Now those same 200 message costs you an extra $5 a month — which is a joke. It’s such a small amount of data, and it costs the carriers basically no more to send a lot versus a little.
5) iPhone 3G: You can buy one without a contract, but not on launch day
This story is interesting, because AT&T did indicate just prior to the iPhone 3G launch that it would eventually make the device available to purchase without signing a contract. But six months after the launch, that still hasn’t happened. At the time, the company said it would be $599 for the 8GB version and $699 for the 16GB version with no contract, but by the time AT&T allows for the no-contract purchases (if they ever do), we may well only have 16GB and 32GB versions of the phone. Other countries are selling the device without contracts already, hurry up America.
4) What’s in the iPhone 2.2 software update and beyond
The iPhone software 2.0, which launched with the iPhone 3G hardware, was very buggy to start with. While the 2.1 update fixed many of the issues, the 2.2 update really solidified the experience. It also brought a bunch of new cool features like Google Street View. But the next updates will hopefully include more things that people want — like copy and paste for the love of God!
3) MG’s 10 favorite iPhone games of 2008
Games on the iPhone were huge — it’s the largest category in the App Store. While not everyone was convinced early on that the iPhone could be a legitimate gaming platform, big time developers like EA making making games like SimCity and Namco making I Love Katamari for the iPhone proved it’s a new gaming force — and that you could actually sell games for more than $0.99. The best game though has to be Ngmoco’s Rolando [iTunes Link], which was developed just for the iPhone.
2) Beware, Nintendo DS: video games come of age on the iPhone 3G
Let me repeat myself: Games on the iPhone were huge this year. Even VentureBeat’s own Dean Takahashi, who was skeptical of gaming on the device early on, got on board after trying out some of the games. As he wrote, “But Apple realizes that the iPhone 3G is an outstanding game platform, thanks to the multi-touch display, great sound, good graphics, and the accelerometer-based tilt feature. Nintendo’s DS handheld doesn’t have tilt or multi-touch, and its graphics and sound aren’t outstanding.”
1) iPhone fart app pulls in nearly $10,000 a day
While some might find it inappropriate (pun intended) that this was one of our top Apple stories, I find it very appropriate. It shows not only is the App Store a huge success for all types of developers, but that Apple made the right call in making the app approval process less strict. These fart apps may be crass and silly, but as the saying goes, “the customer is always right.” And sales of this particular farting app, iFart Mobile, actually exploded even further in the days that followed.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Filed under: Cellphones
Dev-Team teases v2.2-compatible iPhone 3G unlock for the New Year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Update: It’s past 9pm Pacific time, meaning that it’s now New Year’s Day on the East Coast … and Evite is still down. I think it’s safe to say that this isn’t planned maintenance, or if it is, it went horribly awry.
No one cool uses Evite anymore. You know this. I know this. Auren Hoffman, chief executive of search startup RapLeaf and an investor in competitor Socializr, wrote a column for us two years ago about why he hates Evite. But it’s still the biggest event website around.
Well, we can add another item to Hoffman’s litany of complaints — Evite is down on New Year’s Eve. That’s right, it’s down on the biggest party night of the year, meaning the event details stored on the site are now inaccessible to partygoers. And according to the site, the down time — which only includes “certain pages” (like, um, the main Evite site) — is due to scheduled maintenance. Now, I’m not really sure what’s going on; I’m guessing that Evite is having trouble dealing with traffic, and the “planned maintenance” message is just the default error page.
But maybe we should take Evite at its word, and assume it really did schedule down time. For 6pm Pacific time on New Year’s Eve. Friends, that was a bad idea.
Meanwhile, if you sent out an Evite invitation to a New Year’s party — say, an invitation to the author of this post — I’d suggest resending it via email. Or maybe it’s time to give in and use Facebook Events.