U.S. cable television companies wooed home Internet users from rivals in the second quarter, helping offset a trend that has seen their television customers flee to top satellite player DirecTV Group(DTV.O).
Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC.N) and Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC.N) reported on Thursday, like Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) last week, that they successfully added Internet subscribers in what is now a key focus for companies that were originally built on the back of cable TV programming.
Time Warner Cable Chief Executive Glenn Britt said on a conference call that successfully marketing Internet access is as important, if not more so, as selling bundles of TV shows.
"Broadband is still growing nicely and becoming a more important part of people's every day lives and we're seeing tangible evidence the consumers are willing to pay more for the speed and reliability," Britt said.
Time Warner Cable added 85,000 broadband subscribers during the quarter, while Cablevision added 27,000. Comcast, the No.1 U.S. cable company added 118,000.
With rising programming costs in their video businesses, cable companies see broadband, with its relatively fixed costs, as a more profitable business to grow.
Cablevision for instance said it plans to offer more video applications to customers who use Internet-enabled devices at home and free Wi-Fi connections to its customers around major spots in its local area.
"Broadband is increasingly important for cable companies," said Collins Stewart analyst Thomas Eagan. "It has become the strategic focus, with TV following."
The top two cable companies both lost video subscribers during the quarter: Comcast lost 265,000, while Time Warner Cable lost 111,000. Cablevision which has been competing aggressively with Verizon Communications (VZ.N) in its New York area managed to buck that trend in the quarter by adding 2,900.
DirecTV Group added 100,000 U.S. subscribers, beating the forecasts of most analysts, some of which had worried the company might lose customers due to the slow economy and competition from cable and newcomers to the pay-TV market like Verizon's FiOS and AT&T Inc's U-Verse.
"For years, questions have swirled about DirecTV's ability to sustain subscriber growth in the U.S. Not to worry. Today's results suggest that subscriber growth is just fine, thank you," said Bernstein Research analyst Craig Moffett in a client note.
PROFITS
Both Time Warner Cable and Cablevision posted financial results ahead or in line with expectations.
Time Warner Cable's net income rose to 95 cents a share, beating average Wall Street forecasts for 93 cents. While its revenue rose 5.8 percent to $4.73 billion, ahead of average forecasts of $4.68 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
"Overall they struck a good balance between customer and financial growth," said Eagan of Collins Stewart.
Cablevision's net income was 20 cents a share sharply missing an average Wall Street forecast of 40 cents, mainly due to the one-time loss on extinguishment of debt. Bernstein Research said excluding that loss, Cablevision's profit was in line with consensus.
Revenue rose 5.8 percent to $1.802 billion ahead a forecast of $1.769 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Bernstein's Moffett said Cablevision's second quarter had shown "almost no discernible weak points".
DirecTV, which also added 415,000 subscribers in Latin America, posted an adjusted profit of 60 cents a share, in line with expectations. Its revenue rose 12 percent to $5.85 billion.
Shares in Time Warner Cable and Cablevision have risen more than 40 percent and 30 percent respectively since the start of the year as investors have bet that cable will be a leader in future communications thanks to its broadband strength.
U.S. regulators halted closed-door negotiations about net neutrality rules with phone, cable and Internet companies on Thursday after reports of a side deal between two participants, Verizon Communications Inc(VZ.N) and Google Inc(GOOG.O), surfaced.
"We have called off this round of stakeholder discussions," said Edward Lazarus, chief of staff for Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski.
The collapse means Genachowski may have to decide how to regulate Internet access without further input from the industry. His decision will likely be challenged in court.
"It has been productive on several fronts, but has not generated a robust framework to preserve the openness and freedom of the Internet," Lazarus said of the meetings in a statement. "All options remain on the table."
An analyst warned that the series of private meetings among industry stakeholders could implode due to the deal between Verizon and Google over a set of Internet traffic principles, called net neutrality.
"Any outcome, any deal that doesn't preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet for consumers and entrepreneurs will be unacceptable," Genachowski told reporters.
His comments and the decision to halt the meetings were lauded by public interest groups.
"We're relieved to see that the FCC now apparently finds dangerous side deals from companies like Verizon and Google to be distasteful and unproductive," Derek Turner, research director at the public interest group Free Press, said.
Under the deal, Verizon would not block or slow Internet traffic over land lines, but could do so to wireless devices, one source told Reuters on Wednesday.
A Verizon spokesman on Thursday denied that the deal represents a business arrangement between the two companies.
The agreement was reached while the private FCC meetings involving the two companies, AT&T Inc (T.N) and oth er Internet companies to set rules for the industry were taking place.
According to several people who have been briefed on the FCC meetings, no consensus was imminent and it would have been unlikely for Congress to pass any such agreed-upon framework in a bill in this session, especially with the looming elections.
CLASSIFYING BROADBAND
The FCC voted in June to collect public comments on whether the agency should reclassify broadband regulation under existing phone rules -- typically considered a stricter regulatory regime.
Any compromise on net neutrality could have staved off reclassification, a move aimed at giving the FCC more power over broadband access after a stinging court loss.
Earlier this year, a U.S. appeals court ruled that the FCC lacked authority to stop cable television company Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) from blocking bandwidth-hogging applications.
The deal between Verizon and Google was not a complete surprise for the industry because the two companies have worked closely in the wireless device area.
Verizon Wireless, a venture between Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L), depends heavily on phones based on Google's Android software for growth.
It is not known if the other stakeholders would find the deal an acceptable framework for their businesses but AT&T said it is not a party to the deal.
Charging Up Electric Car Batteries in Environmentally-Friendly Way
ScienceDaily — Electromobility makes sense only if car batteries are charged using electricity from renewable energy sources. But the supply of green electricity is not always adequate. An intelligent charging station can help, by adapting the recharging times to suit energy supply and network capacity.
Germany aims to have one million electric vehicles -- powered by energy from renewable sources -on the road by 2020. And, within ten years, the German environment ministry expects "green electricity" to make up 30 percent of all power consumed. Arithmetically speaking, it would be possible to achieve CO2-neutral electromobility. But, in reality, it is a difficult goal to attain. As more and more solar and wind energy is incorporated in the power grid, the proportion of electricity that cannot be controlled by simply pressing a button is on the increase. In addition, there is a growing risk that the rising number of electric vehicles will trigger extreme surges in demand during rush hour.
"What we need is a smart grid that carries information in addition to power," says Dominik Noeren of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. The structure of the grid has to change from a push system based on energy demand to a pull system based on production output. In Noeren's opinion, "electric cars are best equipped to meet this challenge." Introduced in large numbers, they have the capacity to store a lot of energy. On average, a car is parked for at least 20 hours out of 24. That is more than enough time to recharge them when the wind picks up or the demand for electricity is low.
Developed by Fraunhofer researchers, the "smart" charging station is a device that enables electric vehicles to recharge when the system load is low and the share of energy from renewable resources is high. In this way, load peaks can be avoided and the contribution of solar and wind power fully exploited. "For us, it is important that end consumers are completely free to decide when they want to recharge. We do not want them to suffer any disadvantages from the controlled recharging of their vehicles' batteries," Noeren emphasizes. That's why he favors electricity rates that adapt to the prevailing situation in the power grid -- ones that are more expensive in periods of peak demand and particularly cheap when there is a surfeit of renewable energy.
The person using the "smart" charging station could then choose between recharging immediately or opting for a cheaper, possibly longer, recharging time. If they go for the second option, all they need to do is enter the time when their vehicle has to be ready to drive again. The charging station takes care of everything else, calculating the costs and controlling the recharging process. Via the display the user can track the progress of recharging and also see the costs incurred and the amount of energy used.
The experts will be presenting their charging device at the Hannover Messe from April 19 through 23.
MUNICH: Web browsers are the key to the internet. Without them the internet is an impenetrable black box.
Browsers may be among the most commonly used applications, but they also offer the greatest number of attack options for dangerous content on the net. To keep viruses, worms and other malware away from your computer when surfing, it's crucial to configure your browser for security.
The firewall on a DSL router is a good first step for protecting the computer during surfing, says Marco Rinne from the computer portal chip.de. But that doesn't hold true if your browser is out of date: “Internet Explorer 6 and 7 or Firefox 2 no longer satisfy current security standards,” he says. For optimal protection, he therefore urges users to keep their browsers updated.
There are numerous security tools already present in Firefox and Internet Explorer. The pop-up blocker, for example, prevents more than just annoying ads. It also throttles other windows that can be used to sneak malicious software onto PCs. Phishing filters protect personal data against theft.
Firefox offers additional configuration options under the Settings item in the Security tab of the Options dialog box: this includes the ability to block risky or forged websites. It's also a good idea to prohibit websites from installing add-ons on their own. Similar settings are possible under Internet Explorer in the Security tab of the Internet Options dialog box, accessible from the Tools menu.
Computer owners should also activate all options for warning against attacks, advises Markus Linnemann, managing director of the Institute for Internet Security (ifis) at the Polytechnic University of Gelsenkirchen in Germany. This applies in particular to warnings about suspicious content to be displayed using ActiveX, Flash, or JavaScript.
Yet the warning mechanism on most browsers alone isn't usually enough, Linnemann says. Those who wish to be especially careful can, for example, use the Firefox add-on 'No Script,' which blocks all active content of a website by default and allows the user to decide which should be permitted. The problem is that most users are unable to determine which content represents a threat to their computer, Rinne msays.
Mumbai: Videocon has unveiled a new range of handsets that include the Qruz V1425, V1424, and V1430. The latest array of handsets takes Videocon's count of mobiles to 25.
The Qruz V1425 is a 100W PMPO Music Output phone. It is a dual SIM phone with extra large boom speaker with back cover Mesh Grill, VGA Camera, Bluetooth, long 1200 mAH battery, MP3 player, high resolution 2 inch TFT screen, expandable memory up to 4GB, 1000 Phonebook/500 SMS memory and LED torch with Mobile Tracker.
The USP of the V1430 is that it is a long battery phone. It is also a dual sim phone and has a VGA Camera with Video Recorder, 1800 mAH battery (up to 600minutes talk/20days standby time), and 1.8 inch TFT screen, MP3 player with dedicated key, Bluetooth and expandable memory up to 4GB.
Completing the range is the V1424, a phone that scores more in the looks area with Gun Metal Linings. This dual SIM phone also comes with VGA Camera, MP3 Player, expandable memory up to 2GB, a 2 inch TFT screen, Bluetooth and Mobile Tracker.
Rahul Goel, COO, Videocon Mobile, said, "Features and functionality desired by customers are our key targets. Long battery life; Music device; and Stylish looks are steps in this direction. With multiple solutions for interconnected life, we are providing customers with device that helps them manage their tasks easily."
Yahoo hosted 24-hour 'hacking' event in India's tech hub
Bangalore: Global search engine Yahoo hosted a non-stop 24-hour "hacking" event on Saturday noon in this tech hub where about 300 whiz-kids used its web tools and services to develop new applications, a company official said Friday.
"About 300 developers across India participated in the 24-hour hacking event, which involved using our web tools, services and application programming interfaces (APIs) to innovate new solutions for our global netizens," Yahoo India Research and Development Head Shouvick Mukherjee said.
Being held for the third consecutive year, the "Open Hack Day" aimed at nurturing the open innovation ecosystem in India and drive domain expertise in the internet space.
"Open Hack Days enable talented developers to create better, more relevant and more social experiences on our network. The spirit is to leverage our open APIs and developer tools to create newer applications," Mukherjee said.
Clarifying that the web portal's hacking concept was different from the popular perception of gaining illegal entry into computers and network resources with a malicious intent, Mukherjee said the developers would get a lifetime opportunity to play with Yahoo! Query Language (YQL).
"Our type of hackers will use the YQL to create and use their own table definitions, enabling the language to bind to any data source through the SQL-like syntax and fetch data," Mukherjee noted.
The language platform also enables developers to query, filter, update and combine data across the web.
Developers can also write new applications using the Yahoo Application Platform (YAP) in an open, self service web applications environment.
"Participants allowed to write applications front-end in HTML (hyper text markup language, CSS (cascading styling sheets), Java Script and in the language of their choice," Mukherjee pointed out.
With YAP, a developer can get in front of the largest daily audience on the web.
Yahoo began Hack Days as an internal event 12 years ago to bring its developers together and expanded into regular events in its offices the world over.
The annual event was also held in Sunnyvale in the U.S., London, Brazil and Taiwan during the last decade.
"Bangalore has the distinction of hosting for the third time consecutively," Mukherjee added.
London: A 15-year-old boy managed to dupe Apple by creating an iPhone application that connects to the Internet for free but it is no longer available.
To access the web through the iPhone costs around 13 pounds a month.
Nick Lee designed a application which at first glance appears to allow users to change the colour of their screen. It was charged at less than a dollar to upload from the Apple iTunes online music store.
However, the application contains a hidden code that allows people to use their iPhone as a modem and access the Internet without paying, the Telegraph reported.
The application was removed as soon as news of its true nature appeared online. Those who downloaded it, however, can keep enjoying its benefits.
"I'm going to use this little gem of an application to my heart's content. I'm typing on it now, and I'm going to see just how much data I can use all afternoon. I was able to get download speeds of roughly 2.5 Mbps," an online user who downloaded the application before it was removed said.