Ars Technica

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft and Google are both out to stifle any device that doesn't have a firm allegiance to either Android or Windows.

The report says that both companies have told Asus to end its dual-OS product lines and that Asus is complying. The WSJ says Asus' newest dual-boot product, the Transformer Book Duet TD300, which we wrote about during CES 2014, will never see the light of day. Asus' all-in-one PCs, the Transformer AiO P1801 and P1802, will be pulled from the market.

The report seems to indicate that Microsoft is unhappy that Android would be packaged with both Windows 8 and Windows Phone, which is interesting given that Microsoft has an upcoming Windows Phone update that supports on-screen buttons, which would mean Android hardware could be reused for Windows Phone. Apparently switching operating systems in the factory is OK, but allowing consumers to do so at will is a step too far.

In a new federal court filing, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has asked for a preservation order similar to one that it already received years ago in one National Security Agency-related case (Jewel v. NSA) to be extended to a second case (First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles et al v. NSA) that the group filed after former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden began leaking NSA documents.

Such an order compels the government to retain everything it collected even after the standard five-year deletion period, so that the plaintiffs can pursue civil discovery and if necessary, prove that their calls were among those swept up.

In the filing to Judge Jeffrey White, the EFF also said that it wants the United States government to “disclose the steps it has taken to preserve evidence and to disclose whether it has destroyed telephone records, Internet metadata records, Internet or telephone content data, or any other evidence potentially relevant to these lawsuits.”

Days after new documents provided by Edward Snowden showed that the National Security Agency was deploying malware allowing it to pose as Facebook and other sites in order to intercept data, the NSA is now denying this characterization and insisting that what it does is legal.

With Turbine, no humans are required to exploit phones, PCs, routers, VPNs. “NSA uses its technical capabilities only to support lawful and appropriate foreign intelligence operations, all of which must be carried out in strict accordance with its authorities,” says the document, which was published on the NSA’s Twitter account. (Yes, the NSA has a Twitter account.)

"Technical capability must be understood within the legal, policy, and operational context within which the capability must be employed. NSA's authorities require that its foreign intelligence operations support valid national security requirements, protect the legitimate privacy interests of all persons, and be as tailored as feasible. NSA does not use its technical capabilities to impersonate US company websites. Nor does NSA target any user of global Internet services without appropriate legal authority. Reports of indiscriminate computer exploitation operations are simply false.”

“On Thursday, the City Council approved a long-term contract with Google Fiber Texas, allowing the tech company to install about 40 so-called 'fiber huts' at San Antonio libraries, fire and police stations, and other city buildings," the San Antonio Express-News reported.

In response to a series of questions posed before his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, National Security Agency director nominee Vice Admiral Michael Rogers said that the NSA is working with the White House to create a process to determine what to do with zero-day vulnerabilities that the agency uncovers.

In his response to the questions, posted on the Armed Services Committee’s website, Adm Rogers acknowledged that some of those bugs are kept secret by the NSA for “purposes of foreign intelligence.” But he added that the NSA always had a process for handling information on flaws it discovers in commercial software and hardware, and more often than not, the agency discloses the vulnerabilities discovered in products to their developers or manufacturers.

Time Warner Cable has been offering customers $5 monthly discounts in exchange for giving up unlimited data for the last couple of years, but almost no one has taken the company up on its offer.

Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus said that only "thousands" of its 11.5 million subscribers have opted for metered billing. Marcus argued that the 30GB product is a good deal even though few people want it.

The good news, Marcus said, is "we plan to offer unlimited for as far out as we can possibly see. I think that the concept of 'use more pay more, use less pay less,' is an important principle to establish. So notwithstanding the low uptake of usage-based tiers, I think it's a very important component of our overall pricing philosophy."

Netflix performance on Comcast, which had been deteriorating for months, finally got a little better in February according to Netflix's latest speed rankings.

The latest Netflix data shows some Internet service providers (ISPs) struggling, while Google Fiber soars. Netflix streamed at an average of 1.68Mbps on Comcast in the US in February, up from 1.51Mbps in January. The average on Comcast was above 2Mbps as recently as September, but it had gone down each month until Netflix decided to pay Comcast for a direct connection to its network.

Netflix requires at least 0.5Mbps to stream video, but it recommends at least 1.5Mbps. 5Mbps is recommended for HD quality and 7Mbps for "Super HD" quality. Netflix on Verizon FiOS continued to decline, going from 1.82Mbps in January to 1.76Mbps in February, while Verizon DSL dropped from 0.97Mbps to 0.93Mbps.

[March 10]

Tennessee is one of 20 states that have restrictions on municipal broadband networks, enacted to protect private Internet service providers from competition.
Bills limiting municipal ISPs in Kansas and Utah continue noble tradition.

Now, though, there are four bills in the Tennessee House and Senate that would "un-do some of the restrictions previous legies put in place several years ago," broadband industry analyst Craig Settles wrote. "This kind of reversal is practically unheard of," he wrote. "What’s more surprising? Republicans lawmakers, typically the party that leads the charge against public-owned networks, are taking the lead on many of these bills in Tennessee!" Internet service providers aren't happy about this, naturally.

"We are particularly concerned about four bills that have been introduced this session," Tennessee Telecommunications Associations chief Levoy Knowles said in an announcement. The TTA claimed to be presenting "concerns of rural consumers" but are more worried about the potential of losing customers. "These bills would allow municipalities to expand beyond their current footprint and offer broadband in our service areas. If this were to happen, municipalities could cherry-pick our more populated areas, leaving the more remote, rural consumers to bear the high cost of delivering broadband to these less populated regions," Knowles said. [March 7]

In a speech before the RightsCon conference in San Francisco, deputy assistant secretary of State Scott Busby expressed official approval for the President’s January 2014 policy that established clearer guidelines about state-driven bulk data collection and surveillance.

Busby said that the US “continues to support strong cybersecurity, including strong encryption protocols.” Busby presented the government’s case as to how, why, and under what conditions American government officials should be allowed to conduct digital surveillance. His speech was approved by all branches of the US government, including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

“US signals intelligence collection follows the principle that surveillance should not be arbitrary. The new Policy Directive states that signals intelligence activities shall be as tailored as feasible,” Busby added. “We prioritize obtaining data through public sources, as opposed to non-public signals intelligence collection. When decisions about surveillance are made, we assess whether the benefits of surveillance outweigh its risks, and whether there are other, less-intrusive alternatives that might accomplish our foreign intelligence requirements.”