Verizon Wireless CEO: We don't warehouse spectrum

Dan Mead takes an opportunity at CTIA to tell the audience that Verizon needs more spectrum and defend his company's plan to buy it from cable companies.

by Marguerite Reardon  May 8, 2012 3:20 PM PDT

CEO of Verizon Wireless, Dan Mead, during his keynote speech at CTIA 2012.

(Credit: Lynn La/CNET)

NEW ORLEANS -- Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead defended his company's plan to buy wireless spectrum from cable operators during a keynote here Tuesday.

Mead emphasized the need for more wireless spectrum in the market to keep up with growing demand for wireless data services among consumers. He said it will take years for the Federal Communications Commission to auction off additional spectrum. And he said Verizon can't wait: his company will need additional spectrum in some markets by 2013, and it will need even more by 2015.

Verizon has been deploying new technology to get more efficient use out of its existing spectrum, but he said that isn't enough, either. So the company has turned to the secondary markets to buy additional spectrum.

But Verizon's Mead said that isn't the case at all.In December, Verizon struck a deal with a consortium of four major cable operators to buy their AWS wireless spectrum. Verizon plans to use this spectrum to augment its 4G LTE network. But other carriers, such as T-Mobile USA, have criticized the deal. T-Mobile says Verizon is already one of the largest owners of wireless spectrum. And it is accusing Verizon of "warehousing" this valuable spectrum to keep it away from competitors.

"We will put this spectrum to use quickly to expand our LTE network," he said. "We are confident that the FCC and Department of Justice will understand that this deal is good for Verizon customers and good for the broadband economy."

He noted that the company also plans to sell some of its 700MHz spectrum that it doesn't plan to use right away.

"This clearly indicates [that] we aren't interested in warehousing spectrum," he said. "We think these initiatives show we are responsible stewards of spectrum."

Nokia commuter app drives to make Windows Phone more personal

At CTIA 2012, Nokia shows off an understated but useful new feature in its mapping software that could help you get to work in time.

by Jessica Dolcourt  May 8, 2012 3:10 PM PDT

The forthcoming Nokia Commute will make use of Windows Phone's dynamic live tiles.

(Credit: Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

NEW ORLEANS--What if there were an accurate way for your phone to help you time your commute on a given morning? "Take Highway 280 today instead of 101; there's an accident" for instance, or "It will take you 10 minutes longer than usual today, so you'd better leave by 7:30 in order to make that 8:30 meeting."

Unfortunately, our phones aren't quite up to being quite so helpful just yet, at least not the way I envision it in my daydreams. However, Nokia is planing an update to its Nokia Drive app that's a step in the right direction.

At CTIA 2012, Christof Hellmis, vice president of the Map Platform, showed off a commute feature that makes use of Windows Phone's dynamic live tiles on the start screen.

Called MyCommute, the feature learns how long it takes to get between the starting and ending points that you program into your phone. As the app learns your patterns and collects data on how long it typically takes to get from door to door, it will update the live start screen tile with the latest estimate, like 41 minutes to complete your commute.

The update, currently in beta, will come to Nokia Drive slated for an indeterminate time before the end of June.Drill down into the tile to see optional routes. Of course, the app begins recording your route when you go, and it both sends and receives live traffic data to more accurately estimate transit times.

Nokia Drive uses Navteq, which the Finnish company owns, for its data traffic, which is available both online and offline as a stored map.

Nokia Drive's commuter feature is only one way that the company is trying to make its apps more personal. "Being able to create compelling services," Hellmis said, "this is how we gain leverage."

Augmented reality comes into full focus with Nokia's CityLens app for Windows Phone.

(Credit: Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)

CityLens is another feature that tries to get you interacting with your phone. The augmented reality app, like many others of its ilk, pops up nearby businesses when you turn it on and hold the phone in any direction. Selecting the business shows you more details.

Did Apple settle on Plan B for the third-generation iPad?

Apple may have had designs on a thinner tablet for what arrived as the new iPad. If only it could have gotten hold of the display technology that it really wanted.

by Brooke Crothers  May 6, 2012 2:37 PM PDT

Gen 3 iPad on top; iPad 2 on bottom.

(Credit: Brooke Crothers)

As great as the third-generation -- aka "new" -- iPad is, I've always wondered whether the design was compromised.

Of course that statement alone is enough to incur the everlasting wrath of the Apple crowd. So let me say that I use the gen 3 iPad pretty much every day and have relegated my older iPad 2 to backup duty. In other words, I like the new iPad and love the 2048x1536-pixel, 264-pixels-per-inch (ppi) Retina display. (Not to mention the 4G LTE.)

Still, the fact that the newer version is thicker and heavier than the older one strikes me as being at odds with Jobsian philosophy, as I've written before. (And it has given me newfound appreciation for my 10-inch Motorola Xyboard tablet, which is easier to hold for long periods of time than the new iPad.)

Some analysts are now saying that the gen 3 iPad design that made it out the door earlier this year was Plan B for Apple. Plan A was an iPad that didn't have the additional heft. While the Apple tablet's height and width remained the same, the thickness of the new iPad swelled slightly to 0.37 inch and the weight edged up to 1.44 pounds.

That's what Raymond Soneira, the founder, president and CEO of DisplayMate Technologies, is saying, and he knows a lot more than me about the ins and outs of the newest iPad.

"The plan was to use this new technology called IGZO from Sharp -- a lot higher electron mobility that allows them to make the transistors a lot smaller and the circuit elements a lot smaller," he said.

There was one problem, though. Sharp didn't have its IGZO display tech ready in time. So, Apple had to fall back on more conventional amorphous silicon technology.In short, smaller transistors and circuit elements allow more light through and reduce the number of backlights needed, resulting in a thinner display assembly.

"There's no question that the iPad 3 is Plan B. They pushed amorphous silicon to a higher [pixels per inch] than anybody else. But the light throughput is not good. So it has roughly twice as many LEDs, and they had to get a 70 percent larger battery," Soneira said, referring to today's third-generation iPad.

Richard Shim, an analyst at DisplaySearch, agrees with that assessment. "The idea was that IGZO would enable a brighter display and you could use less LEDs and you wouldn't need as big a battery compared to amorphous silicon," Shim said.

My takeaway from listening to both is that Apple, in typical fashion, made (a) impossible and (b) almost-impossible demands on its display partners -- Sharp and Samsung, respectively. It settled for the almost-impossible, amorphous-silicon Retina display that we have today.

And based on my own experience with new iPad, that's not a bad backup plan.

Mac OS X login passwords put at risk

An apparent programming mistake in an update to the Apple operating system, tied to FileVault encryption tech, could expose passwords in clear text.

by Jonathan E. Skillings  May 6, 2012 11:22 AM PDT

Last update: 1:20 p.m. PT

Users of the Lion version of Mac OS X will probably want to update their login passwords.

Security researcher David Emery warns of a new vulnerability involving the FileVault feature in Mac OS X Lion, version 10.7.3, which allows for encryption of certain directories. He writes:

 Someone, for some unknown reason, turned on a debug switch (DEBUGLOG) in the current released version of MacOS Lion 10.7.3 that causes the authorizationhost process's HomeDirMounter DIHLFVMount to log in *PLAIN TEXT* in a system wide logfile readible by anyone with root or admin access the login password of the user of an encrypted home directory tree ("legacy Filevault").

The log in question is kept by default for several weeks...

Thus anyone who can read files accessible to group admin can discover the login passwords of any users of legacy (pre LION) Filevault home directories who have logged in since the upgrade to 10.7.3 in early February 2012.

As Emil Protalinski points out at CNET sister site ZDNet, echoing Emery, this vulnerability is not to be taken lightly:

 Anyone with administrator or root access can grab the user credentials for an encrypted home directory tree. They can also access the files by connecting the drive via FireWire. Having done that, they can then not only read the encrypted files that are meant to be hidden from prying eyes, but they can also access anything else meant to be protected by that user name and password.

The breach could also affect Time Machine backups to external drives, Protalinski says.

And even after a patch becomes available, he writes, it could be hard to know for sure if the compromised log file has been expunged, meaning that an exposed password could still be discoverable -- adding to the urgency in changing the password.

We've reached out to Apple for comment and will update this story when we hear back.

Update 1:20 p.m. PT: Writing for CNET's MacFixIt blog, Topher Kessler offers details on how you can address the vulnerability on your Mac if you're someone still using theolder legacy FileVault data encryption technology

Via ZDNet.

Hey, want to online date an inmate?

Meet-An-Inmate.com is adorned with often alluring pictures of those in jail who would really like to meet someone nice. Some might find this faintly chilling.

by Chris Matyszczyk  May 6, 2012 10:47 AM PDT

(Credit: Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Americans like to love, but also like to incarcerate.

Indeed, despite only enjoying 5 percent of the world's human beings, the United States seems to be home to almost a quarter of all the world's prisoners.

Who could not have imagined, then, that some hardy, enterprising soul would see in this population a market gap?

Please greet, therefore, Meet-An-Inmate.com. Actually, this site claims to have been "serving inmates since 1998," yet the service had somehow passed me by until today's Daily Mailbrought its full glory to my attention.

Meet-An-Inmate allows you to peruse not merely profiles, but pictures of those who may or may not have been locked up for a long time. It categorizes lady inmates, males, and even has a special section for newbies.

A random detail from the site.

(Credit: Screenshot: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)

Clearly the concept of dating an inmate has its handcuffs. You can't actually go out with them to dinner and "Nightmare on Elm Street Part VII." However, the site says that all they're looking for are penpals.

It explains: "He/She will get excited when their name is called to receive a letter from you. Just think how lonely it must feel at mail call to never hear your name being called, especially after being locked up for several years and family and friends have deserted you."

It even offers the phrase: "Don't be shy, give it a try!"

I know that some people find criminals enticing. The harder the time, the better. However, others might wonder what they might be getting themselves into.

Anyone who has attempted to date online knows that even those not in cells tend to sell themselves with copious amounts of dubious information -- and vast amounts of highly deceptive PhotoShop.

Some might, therefore, reach the conclusion that those who might have transgressed society's strictures might also be tempted to transgress the lesser mores of dating morality.

The Huffington Post does helpfully offer, though, that one can check at least some of the information. For there is a Free Inmate Locator, which purports to offer official details of the incarcerated from 42 states.Oddly enough, the creators of Meet-An-Inmate.com seem aware of this possibility. For a disclaimer at the bottom of the home page begins: "We (meet-an-inmate.com) accept no responsibility for the accuracy of any content found within these pages."

You might be wondering, though, how the inmates present themselves.

Well, here is what 30-year-old alleged Texas inmate Liliana Hernandez offers: "Hello, I am happy to tell you that this will be the last profile you will need to read. Why? Because I am your girl. I have been incarcerated since 2003. I am currently working on my case. I hope this won't affect your interest in me. I want to get to know you."

Hernandez says she's both "blunt" and "erotic." (No, the word "blunt" was not followed by "instrument.")

Samuel Sikes also say he is a Texas inmate. He's 34 and he entices like this: "I'm a determined, dedicated, honorable, loyal, respected, and respectful person. I am outgoing, compassionate, and ambitious too!"

In essence, then, it seems that the approach is no different from that on, say, Match.com.

Some might say, indeed, that Meet-An-Inmate is more honest. At least there, you know about some of the bad things the hopeful lovers have done in their lives.