Michael's Insight

Google makes another round of Android malware removals

Malicious apps removed from Android Market [CNET News]

Google has made a second round of mass application removals from the Android Market. Mobile security firm Lookout reported that Google removed around two dozen apps over the weekend due to concerns that they contained malware that had the ability to compromise personal data.

Lookout indicated that between 30,000 and 120,000 Android users had installed one or more of the apps that were removed.

While Google has yet to respond to the most recent report, earlier this year the company removed 58 malicious apps from the Market in addition to removing them from Android devices that had copies of the apps at issue. Because any developer can upload an app to the Android Market without a review process, Android devices are more vulnerable to malware than Apple's iOS walled garden.

Senators request additional information about AT&T mobile data allegations

Politicians Probe AT&T Over Phantom Mobile Data Charges [Broadband Reports]

I recently wrote about a lawsuit currently pending about AT&T's data usage tracking. One of the key issues in that case is whether AT&T smartphones makedata transfers on AT&T's mobile network even when phone settings have been modified to avoid background data usage.

Now, two U.S. senators have become interested in AT&T's practices and plan to investigate the issue.

Lawyers in the case conducted a study to determine whether or not AT&T is over-charging and , if so, the extent to which AT&T was over-charging for data usage. Engineers hired by the plaintiff attorneys purchased new AT&T smartphones and did not enable any push notifications, location services, or anything that could inadvertently lead to data usage. Afterwards, several data charges appeared on the bill, even during late night hours when the phone's power was off. 

This development obviously changed the tone of the case, which AT&T previously described as "without merit." The lawsuit alleges that AT&T overbills its customers anywhere from 7 to 300% for data usage.

U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar and Herb Kohl have taken an interest in the case and sent a letter to AT&T asking the company to explain the "phantom charges." Senators Klobuchar and Kohl also asked the company to provide a thorough accounting of their billing practices and whether or not they provide safeguards against over-billing data usage and whether or not there are ways for customers to verify their data usage. 

When you mess up, fess up

A Letter from Eugene Mirman, And Some Next Steps [Untangled]

Five years ago, we had a prolonged technical issue affecting thousands of broadband customers.  After a healthy debate about what to say about the problem, we decided it was important to tell it like it was -- to fess up. We used many communications channels to admit we were having a problem, to assure customers we were doing everything we could to fix it as fast as we could and to please be patient. And our customers stuck by us.  

It's a lesson we will never forget.

Earlier this week, Time Warner Cable missed an installation appointment for one of its New York customers.  Unfortunately for the nation's second largest cable operator, the customer was a well known comedian, Eugene Mirman, who decided to post an "open" letter to Time Warner on his website.  If that wasn't bad enough, he also bought a full page ad in a publication called the New York Press to make sure everyone saw the letter.

The letter certainly was humorous but also was pointed.  He wished upon all of Time Warner's board a ring tone that announces their weight whenever they receive a phone call but he also questioned why the company would reschedule his appointment for another day without bothering telling him.

It was a mixup.  A bad one.  And, like all satellite, telephone and cable companies, we've all made similar mistakes. None of us are perfect and we will make mistakes.  What tells you who we are as a company is what we do about it.

Time Warner has a resident blogger, Jeff Simmeron who took up the issue head on.  On the Time Warner blog, "Untangled," Jeff admitted,

We botched his install, and miscommunicated with him about it to boot. I really wish that this hadn’t happened, and I really wish it never happened, but we can’t hide from the truth: this is neither the first nor the last time that we’ve miscommunicated with a customer, inconvenienced them tremendously, and screwed up what appears to be a very simple task. I’m sorry this happened, and I’m sorry every single time it happens.

Good for Jeff and good for Time Warner.  There is something disarmingly human about a big company admitting its mistakes.  It reminds us that companies are simply people and people are imperfect.  He went on to describe all the things Time Warner is doing to minimize these mistakes -- things such as improving their coaching, providing incentives to employees for success, increasing self-service capabilities, and improving the tools available to representatives.

I hope that Insight customers know that if they get caught up in an unsatisfactory experience, they can escalate their issue to supervisors and managers and all the way to the CEO of the company -- me.  My email address is posted on this site (on the left side) and when I receive an email, I do indeed personally see to it that we respond effectively.

And like some of the things Jeff mentioned, we also are focused on learning from our mistakes.  When a customer has an unsatisfactory experience with us, we first focus on solving the problem, then, we analyze what went wrong.  Sometimes it's simply human error and other times we find we should make changes in our processes to avoid similar failures in the future.

Comcast to test, deploy IPTV

Comcast Tests Tech Overhaul [Wall Street Journal]

Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, has announced that they will begin testing a new means of delivering its video product.

You've probably heard of IPTV, which involves sending the television programming that many customers currently receive via digital cable technology over Internet Protocol (IP). In other words, instead of receiving all channels via digital cable, customers receive all programming in much the same way that online streaming video works. 

Comcast is going to test IPTV at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this fall, and they are hoping to have employees test the technology in their homes by year's end. Comcast's goal is to have IPTV as a video delivery option, while continuing to provide traditional digital cable services. 

IPTV has its benefits, including TV viewership on any Internet-connected device, enhanced channel guides, and user interfaces that can incorporate other online features, like Facebook and Twitter.

The real challenge for Comcast and all other providers hoping to move to IPTV, in addition to developing the technology and finding the bandwidth for such a large-scale delivery, is going to be the negotiations with programmers and broadcasters. With every technological advancement related to video distribution, from iPad apps to IPTV, broadcasters and other programmers have been reluctant to get on board.

Mac Defender malware remains a threat after Apple solution

Mac malware authors release a new, more dangerous version [ZDNet] 

The "Mac Defender" malware started showing up on Macs almost a month ago. On Tuesday, Apple released a solution and posted instructions for how users could remove the malware for their computer.

Unfortunately, the solution didn't prove to be successful as within a matter of hours the authors of the malware had developed a work around (under the new name "MacGuard") and the malware was finding new ways to attack Macs.

The new attack is composed of two separate parts. The first is a downloader that installs in the user's Applications folder and opens automatically. MacGuard prompts the user with an installer window and if the user simply clicks "Continue" the malware is off and running on the second part. 

The second part is very similar to the original Mac Defender malware with slight (but significant) variations tailored to work around Mac's security response. Mac's response urged users to not input their administrator password if prompted to do so by the installer. The problem is the new version does not require a password so long as the user is already logged in as the administrator, which most people usually are.

If you receive a pop-up window that prompts you to download Mac Defender or MacGuard onto your Mac, close the window.

 

Looking at average monthly viewership of different video services

Comcast Video-On-Demand Is Keeping Up With Netflix And Hulu [Silicon Alley Insider]

Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, recently released statistics – numbers that compare pretty favorably with the same viewership numbers for Netflix and Hulu.

On a monthly basis, Comcast serves up 350 million VOD programs, and all-time Comcast customers have viewed over 20 billion videos on its VOD service. Comcast has a total of 20 million customers who have on demand access and have been viewing a total of 175 million hours each month. That works out to about 8 hours and 45 minutes of viewing for each customer. 

Netflix customers watch about 10 hours of streaming video on average each month, while Hulu gets around 5 hours and 15 minutes on average. 

While these are all impressive viewership statistics, they still pale in comparison to regular TV viewership. Each month the average viewer watches 150 hours of television. And the viewership of programming recorded on a DVR has more than double Netflix's viewership with over 25 hours average per month.

Google blocks movie rentals for rooted Android devices

Google Won't Let You Rent Movies If You Root Your Device [Techdirt]

Google recently unveiled its movie rental service on YouTube, which started with roughly 3,000 titles. These films can be rented and streamed on any Android device – assuming it hasn't been rooted. 

Rooting an Android device, which is the equivalent of jail-breaking an iOS device, basically means getting to the "root" level of the device which would allow you to set-up permissions on the device that weren't accessible before. Many users root their devices to unlock features that weren't included in unrooted devices, such as Internet tethering, increased speeds, or more advanced apps and widgets. 

The problem that content owners have with rooted devices is that it would be much easier for users to rent a movie from YouTube Movies, circumvent the digital rights management that prevents copying, and begin sharing and transferring the film to other users.

That's why Google has disabled its movie rental service for any rooted devices.

It may seem silly to deny the proper purchase or rental of a film for fear of future DRM violation, but the movie studios which have granted Google the ability to rent their content, understandably don't see it that way and feel much more secure knowing that rooted devices aren't able access to the service.

Firefox 5 beta released

Firefox 5 beta arrives for desktop and Android [Ars Technica] 

Version 5.0 of the Firefox browser is being released by Mozilla in a beta version for Windows, Linux, OS X, and Android. The release is the first in Mozilla's accelerated release schedule which is set to include three additional updates this year with Firefox 7 to be pushed out by year's end.

Much like Google does with its Chrome browser, Mozilla will be setting up new channels for improvements to be sent in before stable updates are released. The Aurora channel, for example, will allow Mozilla to test features between the build stage and the beta release. 

As for Mozilla Firefox 5.0, it features a number of improvements including a CSS animation support feature that Apple had originally created. The Android version of the browser also features a "Do Not Track" feature that utilizes HTTP headers, which is a first for a mobile browser.

Insight offering more than 100 HD channels in Evansville and Bowling Green

100 HD channels are now available in every district we operate! 

This spring, we launched our Digital 6.10 Upgrade in Southern Indiana and Western Kentucky because it would allow us to offer more than 100 HD channels to area customers. 

Today, those efforts have been rewarded and all of the new HD channels – a collection of the most popular HD channels found anywhere - are now available.

And this is only just the beginning. 

In the coming weeks, we will be transitioning the remaining channels still available in analog to 100% digital in both the Evansville and Bowling Green markets. This will allow us offer more HD channels and even faster broadband speeds - faster than our already fastest 50 meg service.  

We're also rolling out our promotion, “100 Days of HD.” This is an interactive  game where customers can learn more about Insight's HD offerings. Also, the first time you play the game, you can enter for a chance to win a 22" or 42" HDTV, free HD/DVR service or a 10 Pack of free HD movies. Prizes will be awarded weekly over 100 days. For more information, please click here.

We’re thrilled to provide our customers with the most advanced and reliable services found anywhere in our service area. For your convenience, a full list of all the new HD channels (A subscription to programming packages or premium networks is required for access to some channels) and their channel placements that have been added to the Insight lineup is copied below:

Evansville

• 909 CNN Headline News HD
• 911 Univision HD
• 913 Cooking Channel (aka Fine Living) HD
• 914 DIY Network HD
• 917 Smithsonian HD
• 919 RedZone HD
• 921 Fox Soccer Channel HD
• 942 CMT HD
• 943 VH1 HD
• 944 MTV HD
• 948 Investigation Discovery HD
• 950 Encore HD
• 956 Fox Movie Channel HD
• 957 Turner Classic Movies HD
• 958 Starz Edge HD
• 959 Starz Kids & Family HD
• 960 HBO Family HD
• 961 HBO Signature HD
• 962 ActionMAX HD
• 963 The Movie Channel HD
• 964 Showtime Too HD
• 965 MoreMAX HD
• 966 MGM HD HD
• 967 BET HD
• 968 CBS College Sports HD
• 970 Outdoor Channel, The HD
• 971 VERSUS HD
• 973 Tennis Channel HD
• 975 G4 HD
• 977 BIO HD
• 978 Nickelodeon HD
• 980 Disney XD HD
• 986 Lifetime Movie Network HD
• 988 WE: Women's Entertainment HD
• 989 E! Entertainment HD
• 990 Style HD
• 992 BBC America HD
• 993 Planet Green HD
• 995 truTV HD

Bowling Green

• 909 CNN Headline News HD
• 911 Univision HD
• 914 Cooking Ch (FKA Fine Living) HD
• 915 DIY Network HD
• 918 Smithsonian HD
• 919 RedZone HD
• 921 Fox Soccer Channel HD
• 942 CMT HD
• 943 VH1 HD
• 944 MTV HD
• 948 Investigation Discovery HD
• 950 Encore HD
• 956 Fox Movie Channel HD
• 958 Starz Edge HD
• 959 Starz Kids & Family HD
• 960 HBO Family HD
• 961 HBO Signature HD
• 962 ActionMAX HD
• 963 The Movie Channel HD
• 964 Showtime Too HD
• 965 MoreMAX HD
• 966 MGM HD
• 967 BET HD
• 968 CBS College Sports HD
• 970 Outdoor Channel HD
• 973 Tennis Channel HD
• 975 G4 HD
• 977 BIO HD
• 978 Nickelodeon HD
• 988 WE: Women's Entertainment HD
• 990 Style HD
• 992 BBC America HD
• 993 Planet Green HD
• 995 truTV HD

 

iOS devices account for 80 percent of mobile video views

80% of Mobile Video Views Happen on Apple Devices [GigaOM]

In a new report, FreeWheel Video - an online video monetizing startup - has provided a glimpse into mobile video viewing and showed just how dominant Apple devices are in the market.

Mobile video still does not make up a large percentage of overall online video viewership (roughly 1 percent), but of the portion that is mobile, Apple's iPad, iPhone, and iPod account for 80% of all viewership. 

Interestingly, the iPad has the lowest percentage of Apple devices with 20% of the total market, despite its popularity, larger screen, and video-specific apps from the likes of ABC, HBO, Comcast, Time Warner, and Cablevision.  

The iPhone and iPod each account for 30%. Android devices account for the additional 20% of the mobile video market. 

The highest viewership numbers occurred during notable live events. The highest points of online video viewership the year occurred during NCAA March Madness and the Japanese earthquake disaster. 

Apple working on deals with music publishers for cloud music service

Apple's cloud music hang-up [CNET News]

Amazon and Google have both released cloud music services that allow users to upload music they have purchased for playback on a number of devices. But, because neither company could secure rights from music labels, their cloud music services don't allow users to purchase music for inclusion in a user's online music library.

However, Apple is aiming to release its own version of a cloud music service based on iTunes with the ability for users to purchase music for the service. In order to offer that important feature, Apple must work out deals with the companies that own the rights to the music it wishes to offer for sale. In many cases, those rights are owned by both recording labels and music publishers.

Apple has secured deals from three of the largest recording labels for a cloud music service - Universal Music Group, Warner Music and EMI Music. But, it doesn't yet have similar deals with music publishers.

Both sets of deals must be in place before Apple can launch the service. Until terms can be negotiated with publishers - which center on what Apple will pay for the service - users can look forward to continuing to sync their iOS device with iTunes.

Lawsuit accuses AT&T of billing customers for unexplained mobile data usage

 

How a law firm tested "phantom" AT&T smartphone data use [ArsTechnica]

A class action lawsuit is unveiling some questions about the way that AT&T counts their customers' smartphone data usage for billing purposes. The lawsuit asserts that AT&T's data records are as high as three times times the customer's actual usage and that AT&T improperly monitors the usage, often applying usage to the wrong months.

Included in these overly high usage counts are what the plaintiffs in this suit call "phantom charges" that occur when the phone is off and incapable of data usage. 

The law firms involved in the case decided to study this "phantom charges" theory to determine the cause. They hired engineers to test brand new iPhones, monitoring the data usage accrued. The engineers did not set up any email accounts and turned off all push notifications and location services. They had no applications running - essentially ensuring that no data usage should be accruing on the phones. Still, after 10 days of sitting completely idle and offline, AT&T recorded 35 usage instances on the test iPhones at a total of more than 2MB of usage.

For it's part, AT&T says the lawsuit is "without merit," and the mysterious data usage is likely the result of background processes on the iPhone that operate without user intervention and download and upload information to the mobile network.

 

Kindle book sales surpass printed books for Amazon

Amazon Reaches The E-Book Tipping Point: Kindle Sales Blow By Print [All Things D] 

Despite only being on the market for a few years, e-book sales have quickly blown by sales of print books for the biggest online book retailer, Amazon.com.

According to Amazon, for every 100 print copies sold since the beginning of April, they have sold 105 Kindle  titles. These figures combine both hardcover and paperback in its "print copy" definition. Past figures from Amazon have had Kindle book sales higher than paperback or hardback alone, but never more than all print options combined. This figure also leaves out the popular free e-book titles Amazon offers. 

These skyrocketing e-book sales (combined with still strong print sales) have led to Amazon's fastest year-over-year growth in book sales since the company's inception. So far this year Amazon has already tripled its total number of Kindle books sold in 2010.

Amazon is strong overseas as well. In the U.K., two Amazon Kindle books are sold for every hardcover book.  Even so, hardcover sales continuing to grow.

Amazon hasn't released detailed information on actual Kindle device sales recently. Some of this growth is undoubtedly due to Kindle store sales on iPads and other devices, but if Kindle book sales are growing so rapidly, the devices themselves likely are sharing in some of that growth.

Average household would consume 600 GB monthly on Internet-delivered HDTV

Delivering HDTV to Typical Household Entirely Over-the-Top: About 600 Gigabytes Per Month [Bit Rate - Multichannel News] 

I hate the term "Over-the-Top" used in this headline.  It implies that there is some kind of wall to climb over in order to gain access to consumers' TV sets.  In fact, cable operators have embraced Internet TV and continue to build more and more capacity in their broadband networks to accommodate all kinds of programming alternatives.  

But there is a price to pay.

A recent report on Internet video from Morgan Stanley evaluated the issue by looking at the average HD video currently viewed by American households and the Internet usage that would result from that same amount of HDTV being viewed over-the-top.

The results - the average household usage would increase more than 15 times the current average broadband consumption to 600 gigabytes (GB) per month. A transition for the heaviest HDTV viewers to Internet TV (as opposed to simply the current household average) would result in an average consumption of 1.4 terabytes each month. That's a significant amount of data transfer for a single household.

This total is well beyond the usage caps that some providers have implemented. AT&T, for instance, only allows for 150GB over DSL and 250GB over U-verse. 

Todd Spangler puts it well. Trying to deliver this much usage over the broadband networks currently in place is like sending 18 lanes of traffic down a four-lane highway.

So, let's face it.  If this is the way people want to consume television, someone has to pay to widen the road.  Don't get me wrong -- I totally understand the attraction of Internet TV as it gives access to virtually unlimited choices of programs.  I use it all the time.  But the question continues to be, should everyone pay for it or should the cost of the necessary additional resources be allocated to those who are using them?  If everyone pays, the cost would be spread out over all broadband consumers.  But is that fair to light users?  If heavy users pay for their disproportionate usage, the same cost would be borne by fewer people who are consuming heavily.

What do you think?

Cable One introduces DOCSIS 3.0 with cap and overage policy

Cable One Rolls 50-Mbps Tier With Caps And Surcharges [Multichannel News]

The nation's tenth largest cable operator is introducing a DOCSIS 3.0 broadband tier that includes a usage cap and overage charges. Cable One, which is owned by the Washington Post Company, has approximately 720,000 customers across 19 states and is rolling out a 50 Mbps downstream broadband product.

Cable One customers that sign up for 50 Mbps broadband will be subject to a montly usage cap of 50 GB. Customers with Cable One's video and phone product in addition to broadband will receive 100 GB of cap room. After a user goes over the cap, Cable One plans to charge 50 cents for each GB.

Cable One becomes the latest service provider to implement broadband caps after AT&T customers became subject to them earlier this month.

Cable One customers who wish to go cap-free still have that option with a 5 Mbps broadband product that does not have a cap and overage policy.

Senate to take up mobile location gathering issue in a second committee hearing

Apple, Google, Facebook to talk privacy with Senate [CNET News] 

Last week the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the mobile location data collection issue. Both Apple and Google were brought in to discuss how their respective mobile operating systems - iOS and Android - deal with user's location data.

Now a second hearing with the Senate's Commerce Committee has been scheduled, and Facebook has been added to the list of attendees (which includes another round with Apple and Google). Notably, the Department of Justice is not involved in this hearing as it was in the first.

The topic to be discussed is "consumer privacy and protection in the mobile marketplace," including the notifications practices these companies use and how the collected data is stored and/or transferred.

The initial hearing came on the heels of the location data issue and focused primarily on data collected by Apple's iOS devices that was stored on an accessible file on Apple's iPhone and iPad devices. Apple described its data collection policies and its intentions for using the data (essentially a crowd-sourced database). Apple also promised to more thoroughly secure the data, prevent the data from staying on the phone for more than a few days, and delete all the data whenever location services were disabled on the device.

It appears the Senate isn't done with its examination of this issue, which also included Android devices and Windows Phone 7 devices (though Microsoft has not been included in the second hearing).

Netflix usage represents 30 percent of peak downstream Internet traffic

Netflix Represents Nearly 30% Of Peak Downstream Internet Traffic: Study [Multichannel News] 

A new study from traffic management firm Sandvine indicates that Netflix now accounts for 29.7% of all downstream Internet traffic during peak hours, which puts the streaming service atop the list of all sources of Internet traffic. Last October, a similar report from Sandvine had Netflix at 20% of peak hour downstream traffic, a significant increase in just a few months.

Overall real-time entertainment applications, which include Netflix, have seen drastic peak hour increases. After accounting for only 29.5% in 2009 and 42.7% in 2010, this traffic has already reached 49.2% through March of this year. At this rate, real-time entertainment traffic could reach as high as 60% of peak downstream Internet traffic by the end of the year.

When looking at overall Internet traffic, averaged out over a 24-hour period, Netflix grew to 22.2% of all downstream traffic. This is significant because it marks the first time Netflix traffic has passed the P2P service, BitTorrent (21.6%). BitTorrent and other P2P service still dominate the upstream traffic.

Facebook struggles to gain upper hand against spammers

Facebook, spammers are in 'arms race' [CNET News]

Shortly after Facebook unveiled new security updates last week to prevent spam, new attacks had popped up on the social network that had managed to overcome the new safeguards.

Just a few days after releasing the new security features spammers had already exploited them. Facebook seems to be finding it difficult to keep up with the technology behind these spam attacks. Each time a Facebook security update is released, spammers are quickly able to find ways around the new features. 

The latest update from Facebook was supposed to create a warning pop-up that would display whenever a user was about to fall prey to an attack (either a cross-site scripting or clickjacking attack). The update was released last Thursday. 

However, over the weekend an attack was made on Facebook and no warnings were given to users. The attack told users that Facebook had created a "Dislike" button and offered a link for users to allegedly turn on this new feature. The link instead lead users to a spam attack. 

Two other attacks made their way to Facebook warning-free. One attack urged people to click a "Scan Profile" link to determine how popular they were, while the other contained a comment stating that the user was included in a linked video, which of course was linked to spam instead.

All of these attacks resulted in the attack also being posted on the walls of the infected user's friends.

Facebook is using these attacks to learn how spammers are getting around their security features and to create stronger security updates in the ongoing arms race with spammers.

NCTA files comments on RUS broadband loan program

NCTA Says RUS Should Stop Broadband Loans Until Rules Are Fixed [Multichannel News] 

The Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) has instituted interim rules for its distribution of broadband development loans. However, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), the cable industry's trade association, has filed comments with the RUS that these rules do not fix the program's many problems and should be fixed before any more loans are distributed.

The program has received its fair share of criticism for failing to meet the intended purpose of delivering broadband to areas that aren't served by broadband, instead funding a number of applicants to build networks in areas that are already served by other providers, resulting in government-subsidized competitive providers. 

The NCTA proposes that broadband loans should be given to areas that are totally unserved as a top priority. The next tier of broadband loan distributions should be targeted to areas where the unserved make up more than 75% of all area households. The FCC and the NTIA (National Telecommunications & Information Administration) both keep records that better define "unserved," as compared to the RUS's internal records.

The NCTA has also objected to the RUS practice of including Universal Service Fund (USF) disbursements in loan repayment calculations. The FCC has plans to reform the out-dated USF, and there are good questions about whether it makes sense for the RUS to use a system that is admittedly out-dated to determine what these government-subsidized service providers should have to repay.

Netflix inks deal with another movie studio for streaming content

Netflix seals deal to stream Miramax movies, starting in June [EngadgetHD] 

Netflix will be adding more content to its streaming service this June when its recent deal with movie studio Miramax becomes effective.

The agreement is a multi-year deal that will give Netflix access to Miramax's collection of films, including such blockbusters as Good Will Hunting, Shakespeare in Love, and Pulp Fiction. The films will be added dozens at a time on a rotating basis with several hundred total films eventually being made available to Netflix subscribers.

Miramax films have not previously been available through any digital subscription service. A spokesperson from Miramax stated that this move was an important step in their transition to a digital world and a revitalization of the Miramax brand.

The details regarding official length of the deal and the cost to Netflix have not been disclosed.

Networks close to renewing content deal with Hulu

Hulu, Networks Close To New Deal [All Things D] 

Hulu is close to reaching a new deal that would keep NBC, ABC, and FOX programming on the online video service, providing viewers free streaming episodes of network programming.

Hulu and the owners of NBC, ABC, and FOX (NBC Universal, Disney, and News Corp.) signed their original deal two years ago. All Things D reports that an extension of that agreement could be reached within the next week. 

NBC Uninversal was one of Hulu's original owners and would have had a front seat at the negotiating table; however, with the recent purchase by Comcast, NBC Universal had to surrender its seats on the board and will now be forced to accept the terms News Corp and Disney reach with Hulu.

Sources familiar with the negotiations indicate that Hulu will keep running as is without any drastic changes that viewers will recognize. Any changes that do arise in the deal will likely be due to the changing nature of Hulu, which was first launched as a YouTube competitor but has morphed over the years into a subscription service competitor to Netflix.

Sony begins relaunching PlayStation Network

Hiccups dog PlayStation Network restoration [CNET News]

Sony began the long awaited process of restarting the PlayStation Network over the weekend after a hack last month took it offline. But the restart was not without issues as users reported intermittent access to the service.

Nearly a month ago, hackers launched a massive attack against the PlayStation Network, which PlayStation console users can use to download and play games online. The attack brought the network down, which it has remained since. The hackers also managed to make off with some users' personal information including credit card numbers.

Sony announced plans to bring the network back online in a phased approach - starting with users in North and South America first and bringing users in other parts of the world on subsequently. As the first stage of the restart began, CNET reported a number of users were having trouble with consistent access to the service.

Users that were able to access PlayStation Network upon the restart were required to change their passwords and given complimentary access to PlayStation Plus and free identity monitoring.

Netflix releases Android app

Netflix releases Android app for select HTC phones, Samsung Nexus S [Engadget] 

Netflix has finally become available on a few Android devices. It had been available as an app for iOS devices for some time, but Android fragmentation issues presented significant issues for Netflix to develop an app for the platform. On Thursday, the Android Market finally posted a Netflix app.

So far the a number of mobile phones have made the list of compatible devices, but most Android devices aren't officially supported for the app.

The app allows full streaming and management of a user's Netflix queue, browsing of on demand offerings, and will allow users to pick up a program or movie where it was paused on another device.

The app is being limited to these certain phones because, according to Netflix, they all feature the playback support that the app requires. Netflix is hopeful that they will overcome whatever technological barriers currently exist and release the app for more devices in the future.

Senators propose disclosure for cyber attacks

Senators Want Cyberattacks To Be Disclosed [Mashable]

Five senators, including Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, are currently looking to have the Securities and Exchange Commission require a greater level of disclosure from companies regarding cyberattacks.

In particular, these five senators would like the SEC to establish a set of guidelines for properly reporting any attacks on networks or systems. These guidelines should also direct companies to provide specific details relating to what exactly has been compromised during the attack. 

All of this comes on the heels of the significant attack Sony experienced on its PlayStation Network, which compromised thousands of accounts of user data and credit card information. Sony's is the latest example, but other companies including Google, Intel, PayPal, and MasterCard all have recently suffered some form of cyberattack.

Another problem the SEC has with these attacks is that too often a company's investors are not informed enough regarding the implications of cyberattacks. As Sony has shown us, these cyberattacks can significantly impact a company's bottom line as it's reported Sony lost roughly $1.24 billion on the PlayStation Network breach and outage. 

Google accused of anti-competitive behavior in lawsuit

Suit Opens a Window Into Google [New York Times] 

In Massuchusetts, a state court is reviewing a claim by Skyhook Wireless against Google, in which Skyhook, a location-based services provider, claims that Google used its mobile OS Android to improperly squash competition.  They describe some real hardball tactics by the colossal Internet company.

Last year, Motorola had chosen Skyhook as its location services provider. According to Skyhook, Google "went crazy" after that decision by Motorola and threatened that Motorola devices may not fit the compatibility standards that devices must meet in order to operate Android. Soon the decision was reversed and Motorola switched to Google. A similar occurrence happened with a deal reached between Skyhook and Samsung that was quickly reversed in Google's favor. At the time, Google stated publicly that Skyhook was essentially bringing a baseless claim in the hopes of reversing the results of fair competition.

Recently the Skyhook case has led to some very interesting discovery – emails from within Google that illuminate some of Google's operating procedures. The court has now made these emails public.

One of the most troubling emails was from Android manager Dan Morrill stating that the compatibility requirements were being used "as a club to make [the phone makers] do things we want." Other emails paint Skyhook as a hungry start-up with a strong sales base that could hurt Google's ability to grow its own location-based services by limiting the number of devices using Google's services. These emails name the Motorola and Samsung deals directly as significant threats to Google's services. Further emails discuss working with Motorola's PR team after Skyhook issued a press release about the plotting by Google to steal Motorola. 

Many of the emails were redacted from public view, leaving much to the imagination. With the ever-increasing number of lawsuits based on email exchanges, it's interesting to look at one post that followed a long redacted section and simply said "PLEASE DO NOT! Thread-kill and talk to me off-line with any questions."