Ten Senators, led by Dick Durbin (D-IL), Mike Enzi (R-WY), and Lamar Alexander (R-TN), this morning introduced a new Internet sales tax bill called the " Marketplace Fairness Act ." The bill gives states broad authority to require that online sellers like Amazon collect and remit state sales taxes so that online and offline retailers all operate under the same rules. Companies have long been required to collect sales tax in states where they have a physical presence[......]
Meet Scanadu , an innovative health tech startup I daresay you’ll be hearing a lot more from in the future. It’s not the easiest of tasks explaining what the company is building at this point, but let’s call it a personal, mobile, auto-diagnostics product – they refer to it as a Medical Tricorder. Founded in January 2011 by a team of entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds, the roots of Scanadu actually go way back[......]
Amazon's HTML5-based Kindle Cloud Reader lets you read your Kindle books in your Web browser, a neat idea that's hampered by lack of widespread support, including Internet Explorer and Firefox. Well, Amazon is still shunning Internet Explorer (or vice versa), but the Kindle Cloud Reader does now work with Mozilla Firefox, along with existing support for Chrome and Safari (on the iPad and desktop). Mozilla claims there are more than 450 million Firefox users around the globe, and all of them now have the option of reading Kindle books from within the second most popular browser around (in terms of market share). [......]
I think I figured out what the "S" stands for in the iPhone 4S. Now, to be clear, I love my new iPhone 4S [......]
Imagine a world in which any intellectual property holder can, without ever appearing before a judge or setting foot in a courtroom, shut down any website's online advertising programs and block access to credit card payments. The credit card processors and the advertising networks would be required to take quick action against the named website; only the filing of a “counter notification” by the website could get service restored. It's the world envisioned by Rep[......]
It was mid-1971. Ten scientists met at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Tech Square in Cambridge. They had been given a task by the director of the Pentagon's Information Processing Techniques Office . [......]
Congress is trying to wrap its collective head around Amazon's new Silk Web browser . At a privacy hearing yesterday, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) expressed outrage at the way Silk's "split" design can funnel all user browsing data through Amazon's backend servers[......]
Congress is trying to wrap its collective head around Amazon's new Silk Web browser . At a privacy hearing yesterday, Rep[......]
In a request made yesterday to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, Verisign outlined a new “anti-abuse” policy that would allow the company to terminate, lock, or transfer any domain under its registration jurisdiction under a number of circumstances. And one of those circumstances listed was “requests of law enforcement.” The request , submitted through ICANN's Registry Services Evaluation Process on October 10, proposes a new malware scanning service for domains as well as a new Verisign Anti-Abuse Domain Use Policy[......]
CEATEC has always been renowned for its showcasing of new products in the field of robotics and this year was of no exception, with Intel and the CEO of Japanese company Cyberdyne showing off the HAL robot walker and revealing how it will change the world of medicine, gaming and exercise. TechRadar was in Japan to see the demo of HAL where we were told how it works. It essentially links up to the signals the human body gives off and enhances everyday human functions, like walking[......]
Comcast rolled out its Internet Essentials program nationwide today, offering low-income families in its service territory $10/month Internet connections and access to $150 computers. Any family with at least one child who qualifies for the free lunch program at public schools can subscribe to a low-speed (1.5Mbps) Comcast Internet connection for $9.95 a month. [......]
Quick show of hands: which four countries would you most trust to introduce a United Nations-backed “international code of conduct for information security” on the Internet? If your list included China, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, then you'll love the new code of conduct (PDF) introduced at the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week. The proposed code of conduct would be voluntary, but it is clearly aimed at staking out more ground for nation-states when it comes to the Internet[......]
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) has a rejoinder to those who argue copyright laws must be further strengthened: "I think if we were to do nothing on copyright law, we would be getting it just about right." Lofgren, who represents Silicon Valley, spoke this week at a meeting of the Intellectual Property Breakfast Club in Washington, DC. She offered her typically blunt assessments of digital copyright, arguing that "the focus on copyright has almost been an impediment for content owners to really embrace streaming and to really understand how to make money utilizing the Internet." In her view, copyright was partially responsible for a mindset that focused too much on control just as the Internet was offering a different distribution model[......]
All eyes have been on Microsoft ever since its BUILD conference got underway in Anaheim, California on Tuesday. While Redmond is using the new event primarily to acquaint developers with Windows 8, it’s also giving just about everyone else a glimpse of the operating system’s future in the process. [......]
