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Archive for August 22nd, 2009

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Apple, AT&T and Google Voice – closed platforms – happen!

Posted by John on 22nd August 2009

Closed platforms – happen.

Analysis: Apple, AT&T and Google Voice – News and Analysis by PC Magazine

excerpted below, please click above link for full article

Analysis: Apple, AT&T and Google Voice

08.21.09

Sascha Segan

Apple has finally made it clear what they have against Google Voice-type apps. Apple doesn’t want anyone messing with their stuff.

By Sascha Segan

Apple on Friday posted its response to the Federal Communications Commission’s Google Voice iPhone app inquiry on their Web site, and the company finally made it clear what they have against Google Voice-type apps: Apple doesn’t want anyone messing with their stuff.

Their argument sounds oddly plaintive: Apple “spent a lot of time and effort” developing their phone interface, so they don’t like that Google “replac[es] the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail.”

A tiny violin plays for Apple. But the line is clear: Apple sees their platform as their house. Software developers are guests, and they can’t rearrange the furniture. The iPhone is not a completely open platform – but only fools ever believed it was.

There’s a lot of fun in Apple and AT&T’s responses to the FCC’s inquiries. For one thing, the FCC made the common error of thinking Google Voice is a VoIP program. It isn’t; it’s a complicated sort of universal messaging system mashed up with a voicemail server and some other stuff.

AT&T declares that “AT&T does not have direct knowledge of the particular features or functionalities of that application,” and that “we look forward to learning more about Google Voice.” Apple chimes in that “Apple does not know if there is a VoIP element in the way the Google Voice application routes calls and messages.”

Ba-dum-ching! It’s practically “Google Voice – what’s that?”

Apple, meanwhile, also runs through a list of VoIP programs they do approve of (such as Skype) as part of their argument that Google Voice isn’t VoIP, it’s a denigration of Apple’s hard work at building a phoneinterface.

Other highlights:

• Yes, AT&T bans using VoIP apps on the iPhone over their cellular network. But as we know, they allow VoIP apps on Windows Mobile to use their cellular network. So what’s going on here? It’s not about network congestion, it’s just about money, AT&T says.

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Microsoft, Yahoo Unite Against Google Book Search — InformationWeek

Posted by John on 22nd August 2009

This will be interesting to watch as it develops.

Microsoft, Yahoo Unite Against Google Book Search — InformationWeek.

excerpt below, click link above for full article

Microsoft, Yahoo Unite Against Google Book Search

A new coalition opposed to Google’s Book Search settlement has been formed.

By Thomas Claburn

InformationWeek

August 21, 2009 04:00 PM

Microsoft and Yahoo have confirmed that they have joined the Open Book Alliance, a newly formed group opposed to the Google Book settlement.

Amazon also reportedly joined the coalition, which is expected to make an announcement next week. Amazon, however, declined to comment.

More Internet Insights

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Companies team to develop computing device and chipset architectures that will combine the performance of powerful computers with high-bandwidth mobile broadband communications and ubiquitous Internet connectivity.

The Open Book Alliance is a distinct organization from the Open Content Alliance, a group with similar goals created by Yahoo, the Internet Archive, and many universities.

Last October, Google reached a settlement with the authors and publishers who brought a lawsuit against Google for scanning books for its search index without permission. The settlement awaits approval from the judge overseeing the case. The U.S. Department of Justice is also weighing whether the settlement merits antitrust action.

A fairness hearing to consider approval of the settlement is scheduled for October 7. The deadline for objections to the settlement is September 4.

The major areas of contention revolve around issues of privacy, exclusivity, and indemnification from liability. Critics of the settlement want Google to commit to: offering online readers the same privacy protection enjoyed by offline readers; an open registry system rather than one controlled by two publishing industry groups; and indemnification from copyright claims for those who want to scan orphaned works — books for which the copyright holder cannot be found — as Google has done.

In May, Google said that it planned “to build and support a digital book ecosystem to allow our partner publishers to make their books available for purchase from any Web-enabled device,” showing that Google Book Search will become a platform for Google book sales. This presumably explains Amazon’s reported decision to join the coalition opposing the settlement.

To Google, Microsoft’s public opposition seems incongruous because the company shuttered its Live Book Search project last year “to focus on search verticals with high commercial intent, such as travel.”

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