Sony says Whitney Houston iTunes price hike was a 'mistake'

17th February, 2012

Weekly News Round – Up

13/02/12
Google violated IPhone users’ privacy

Google violated users’ privacy on Apple’s Safari Web browser, Stanford University research found, adding to mounting criticism from consumer groups over how the search giant tracks people online.

Using its DoubleClick ad network, Google has been dodging a privacy setting in Safari, the primary Web browser on the iPhone and iPad, according to a report Friday by Stanford’s Security Lab and the Center for Internet and Society. The study named three other companies — Vibrant Media, Media Innovation Group and PointRoll — that also evaded privacy settings. “Apple’s Safari Web browser is configured to block third-party cookies by default,” Stanford graduate student Jonathan Mayer said in the report. “Google and Vibrant Media intentionally circumvent Safari’s privacy feature.”

Google, the world’s biggest Internet-search company, has drawn regulatory scrutiny and pressure from consumer advocates for the way it handles personal information. Last year it agreed to settle claims with the Federal Trade Commission that Google used deceptive tactics and violated its own privacy policies when it introduced its Buzz social-networking service in 2010. In the Stanford study, Mayer said Google’s software employed cookies, or small pieces of code, that can be used to follow users’ activities on the Web. Blocking them is supposed to prevent the cookies from tracking behavior. The actions potentially affected millions of users, Mayer said. Safari is the top browser for mobile devices, with 55 percent of the market, according to January data from Net Applications.

The findings of the Stanford study were reported earlier Friday by the Wall Street Journal. Reacting to the report, three lawmakers asked the FTC whether Google has violated its settlement with the agency. “Google’s practices could have a wide sweeping impact because Safari is a major web browser used by millions of Americans,” said the letter by Reps. Edward J. Markey Joe Barton and Cliff Stearns. “As members of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, we are interested in any actions the FTC has taken or plans to take to investigate whether Google has violated the terms of its consent agreement.”

Google’s actions also prompted Consumer Watchdog to send a letter to the FTC and demand action against Google. “Safari users with the browser set to block third-party cookies thought they were not being tracked,” John Simpson, privacy project director of Consumer Watchdog, said in the letter. “Nonetheless, because of an element invisible to the user, but designed to mimic a form, DoubleClick was able to set tracking cookies in an obvious violation of the set preference.”
Google has started removing the advertising cookies from Safari browsers, Rachel Whetstone, senior vice president of communications and public policy at the Mountain View, Calif.-based company, said in an e-mailed statement. “It’s important to stress that, just as on other browsers, these advertising cookies do not collect personal information,” Whetstone said. Google said it began to use the functions in the Safari browser last year to enable its “+1” feature, which lets surfers easily identify content that interests them. Google created a temporary communication link between its servers and Safari’s, so the company could know whether a user had signed up for +1, she said.
“But we designed this so that the information passing between the user’s Safari browser and Google’s servers was anonymous — effectively creating a barrier between their personal information and the Web content they browse,” she said. “However, the Safari browser contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser. We didn’t anticipate that this would happen.” Tom Neumayr, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

14/02/12
HTC loses patent infringement suit to Apple

HTC Corp. has failed in its first attempt to sue Apple Inc. for patent infringement, after the United States International Trade Commission ruled against the Taiwanese smartphone maker Friday. In the previous ruling on Oct. 17 last year, the ITC said Apple had not infringed on four HTC patents related to portable electronic devices, including the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

HTC appealed the ruling on Oct. 31, but the ITC agreed to review only one of the patents in the dispute, U.S. patent No. 6,999,800, a method for power management of a smartphone that experts thought was too weak to use to attack Apple. On Friday, the ITC rejected HTC's claim, supporting Apple's contention that its products had not infringed the patent in question.

Taoyuan-based HTC expressed regret over the ruling. "We are disappointed by the Commission's ruling, and look forward to reading the full opinion to understand its reasoning. We'll explore all options, including appeal," HTC General Counsel Grace Lei said in a statement.

Friday's ruling was the first of three patent-infringement cases HTC has lodged against Apple since May 2010, all of which have sought to ban U.S. imports of Apple's mobile devices, which are produced abroad. HTC, the second largest provider of smartphones and tablet computers running on Google Inc.'s Android operating system, initiated the lawsuits after being sued a number of times by the iPhone maker for patent infringements.

In one patent complaint filed by Apple in March 2010 against HTC, the Taiwanese vendor suffered a setback on Dec. 19 when an ITC panel partially upheld its preliminary findings of a patent violation. The panel said the world's No. 4 smartphone maker had infringed on one of Apple's four patents related to portable electronic devices, or the "647" patent. The 647 patent describes a "system and method for performing an action on a structure in a computer," which is related to the core of Google's open-source Android operating system and is widely used in HTC smartphones.

HTC, however, described the decision as a "win" because the company said the 647 patent is a small user interface experience and HTC will completely remove it from all of its phones soon. In a separate ruling in a related case, the ITC said on Nov. 22 that Apple's Mac OS X system had not infringed on texture compression patents held by S3 Graphics Co., a subsidiary of HTC.

This forced HTC to review the US$300 million acquisition of the U.S. graphic chipset designer that took place in July 2011. After back-to-back losses to Apple with Android-powered devices, analysts believed that HTC may turn to other mobile platforms, such as Windows, to diversify risk.

"Android makers require a high level of research and development ability to differentiate their smartphones from others," Herbert Ho, a Taipei-based analyst at the Topology Research Institute (TRI), told CNA by telephone. "We think cell phone vendors will not count on the Android system only," he said. "Given that Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software has an edge in user interface and patent portfolio, we think all cell phone vendors will move a certain amount of research resources to the Windows platform."

Ho predicted that Windows phones will account for 13-15 percent of the global smartphone market in 2012, more than double last year's 5-6 percent, and suggested that HTC should hedge against risk by making more new products with it. Joey Yen, a senior International Data Corp. (IDC) analyst, said HTC might not enjoy a good position when it turns to Windows due to the partnership formed between Microsoft and mobile phone vendor Nokia Corp. in early 2011.

"Microsoft is actually supporting Nokia in more ways, including research and development and marketing resources. It has top priority on the list," she said. Even though HTC has recently launched two Windows Mango phones, the Titan and the Radar, Yen viewed the move as the company simply maintaining a minimal presence in the Windows camp while continuing to devote most of its effort to the Android platform.

15/02/12
RIM Blackberry Playbook won’t support ad-powered Android apps

When Research in Motion’s Playbook tablet first began to show signs of struggling, analysts suggested one of the only ways to rise from the grave would be to offer some way of bringing Android apps to the platform. The Blackberry App World marketplace simply wasn’t attractive to developers, and consumers were not impressed by the limited selection. So RIM has managed to fulfil that call to action, but there are increasing limitations that lead to more questions about whether the Playbook is sustainable.
In the latest development, RIM has revealed that Android apps carried over to the Playbook will not be able to contain advertising. This means developers who made a free app on Android and collect the advertising revenue that it generates will have absolutely no monetary incentive to offer those apps to the Playbook. And in a society where free apps are of significant importance, that is quite a blow. This may be something that can be altered in the future, but it won’t be ready when the Playbook 2.0 software launches later this month.
The Playbook has become so crushed that it is now being offered to app developers for free. There is a serious lack of interest, even though RIM continues to try to peddle it as a good enterprise-level iPad alternative. Playbook 2.0 may help ignite new interest in the device, especially among those who were turned off by the fact that in its original state, the Playbook couldn’t even access Blackberry Messenger or things like a calendar app unless it was tethered to a Blackberry phone. More details are sure to be revealed at the Mobile World Congress.

16/02/12
Sony says Whitney Houston iTunes price hike was a 'mistake'

Sony Music UK has apologised for raising the price of Whitney Houston albums following the singer's death on Saturday night. A spokesperson for the company called the move an "internal mistake due to an employee error", insisting the elevated prices remained in place for only a few hours.

"Whitney Houston product was mistakenly mispriced on the UK iTunes store on Sunday," Sony told Billboard, the US music industry newspaper. "When discovered, the mistake was immediately corrected. We apologise for any offence caused." As previously reported, iTunes' price for Houston's The Ultimate Collection ballooned from £4.99 to £7.99 early on Sunday morning. According to Billboard, another compilation, Whitney: The Greatest Hits, increased from £7.99 to £9.99. Although some accused Sony of taking advantage of the situation, exploiting fans' grief, industry sources defended the move, claiming that the albums' wholesale costs had previously been listed incorrectly. Still, both LPs reverted to their earlier, lower prices on Sunday night.

On Tuesday, a Sony representative denied the company reconsiders album pricing following an artist's death. Such changes happen only periodically, they said, based on supply and demand. Sony also denied any outlets besides iTunes had been affected by the costing "mistake". However, according to Billboard, a HMV representative "seemed to imply, but would not confirm" that the retailer had also been instructed to raise the cost of Houston's albums.

17/02/12
HTC Phones Getting Android Upgrades Boost

HTC Corporation just announced that HTC smartphone users is going to get what they wished for...an Android 4.0 update, better known as Ice Cream Sandwich! On their Facebook page, the company announced that the first round of ICS upgrades will roll out by the end of March 2012 for the HTC Sensation and HTC Sensation XE, followed soon thereafter by the HTC Sensation XL.

In addition, the company confirmed that Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades will be coming later in 2012 to the HTC EVO 3D, HTC Incredible S, HTC Desire S and HTC Desire HD. HTC had asked customers to stay tuned for more updates on Ice Cream Sandwich releases in the coming weeks. It is evident that the company tries to regain momentum on their marketing efforts as its phone sales appears to have experienced a downturn in recent months.