Home Office ‘colluded with Phorm’ BBC
The [UK] Home Office has been accused of colluding with online ad firm Phorm on “informal guidance” to the public on whether the company’s service is legal. E-mails between the ministry and Phorm show the department asking if the firm would be “comforted” by its position. The messages show Phorm making changes to the guidance sought by the ministry. Lib Dem Home Affairs spokeswoman Baroness Sue Miller, who has questioned the Home Office about Phorm, said the e-mails were “jaw dropping”. A Home Office spokesperson said the suggestion of “collusion” was totally unfounded. “We have repeatedly said since these documents were released a year ago that the Government has not endorsed Phorm or its technology. “We are committed to protecting the privacy of UK consumers and will ensure any new technology of this sort is applied in an appropriate and transparent manner, in full accordance with the law and with proper regulation from the appropriate authority.” [Also see Phorm boss Ertugrul attacks Alex Hanff.]

Cablevision: 101Mbps For $99.95 dslreports
Confirming our earlier reports that Cablevision was cooking up a speedier new DOCSIS 3.0 offering, Cablevision tells us this morning that the company will be launching a new “Ultra” tier on May 11. The new tier features speeds of 101Mbps downstream and 15Mbps upstream for $99.95 a month. That’s an unprecedented amount of speed at an unprecedented price, suggesting that Cablevision just took the gloves off in their fight against Verizon FiOS. While we know that Verizon is testing 100Mbps FiOS connectivity in employee homes, no U.S. incumbent is currently offering 100Mbps, whether FTTH or cable. Several cable operators have started offering 50Mbps or 60Mbps connectivity, but pricing for these services usually start around $140 — after bundled discount. Cablevision’s pricing and the lack of a cap highlights how seriously they have to take the FiOS competitive threat. Did we mention we love competition?

Malaysia: The New Infomation & Communications Minister makes good with bloggers Global Voices
Newly-minted Information, Communications and Culture Minister, Dr Rais Yatim, has called on Malaysian bloggers to help inculcate the 1Malaysia concept, as espoused by new Prime Minister, Mr. Najib Razak. He has also sought cyber citizens to make the concept a success. Dr Rais was reported to have said that this genre of writing, which has become increasingly popular, could spur members of society to work with sincerity and forge unity through responsible blogging. Besides being critical of the nation’s governance, Dr Rais hoped that bloggers could also be positive of the right things being done by the government. Dr Rais called a meeting with popular local bloggers on the night of 21 April 2009. Among the notable absentees was popular Malaysian blogger, Raja Petra Kamaruddin (RPK), who has now gone into hiding. According to reports, the dinner was an extension of friendship, and not a means to cause difficulty to any group that could help develop a thinking society. Dr Rais, who has been in the Cabinet of five Malaysian Prime Ministers, said that that the young generation were becoming less interested in the print media but turning more to the blogs and Facebook through the Internet.

Best-selling Swedish author uploads audio book to the Pirate Bay to protest court verdict P2P Blog
The well-known Swedish author Unni Drougge was so upset by the court verdict against the Pirate Bay that she uploaded a home-made audio book version of her best-selling new novel Boven i Mitt Drama Kallas Kärlek (The villan in my drama is called love) to the site, complete with a manifesto for free file sharing and a link to her Paypal account.

U.S. top court upholds TV profanity crackdown Reuters
The Supreme Court upheld on Tuesday a U.S. government crackdown on profanity on television, a policy that subjects broadcasters to fines for airing a single expletive blurted out on a live show. In its first ruling on broadcast indecency standards in more than 30 years, the high court handed a victory to the Federal Communications Commission, which adopted the crackdown against the one-time use of profanity on live television when children are likely to be watching.

Loophole Left Student Records Exposed to Unauthorized Users at Texas Woman’s U Wired Campus
Texas Woman`s University was forced on Saturday to shut down a student-records system after a student discovered a loophole that allowed him to view the grades and adviser reports of any student at the university, a local newspaper reported. The Degree Audit Report System, a portal for students curious about their academic progress, was supposed to be restricted to 803 authorized users. But after a junior at the university found he had access to the files, university officials discovered that more than 12,000 people could get into the system.

Microsoft’s “Pink” smartphone could rival iPhone on Verizon engadget
It’s crazy, we know. Just hours after hearing shockingly believable whispers that Apple’s white-hot iPhone 3G could be sashaying over to Verizon Wireless, in flies a Wall Street Journal report asserting that the suits in Redmond are (also?) in talks with America’s largest carrier. ‘Course, we’ve heard rumors that Microsoft was banging out a smartphone behind closed doors for centuries now, but much to our chagrin, there’s no mention of “Zune” in “Project Pink.” Instead, we’re told that said handset in a touchscreen-based multimedia phone that will aim to extend the Windows Mobile OS while “adding new software capabilities.”

Microsoft debuts Vine in Seattle: Twitter+Facebook on steroids Seattle Times
It’s been awhile since Microsoft introduced a game-changing social Web application, but Vine — a service that’s debuting today with a beta test in Seattle — could be a contender. Vine is a hyperlocal, personalized message and alert system. It’s intended to be a dashboard that people can use to keep tabs of their family, friends, activities and major events in their community. The dashboard — which appears as a widget on a PC screen — displays a map of the user’s community and the status of their contacts. It also has buttons to send alerts or reports, which can be sent and received on the PC or as text messages on a cellphone.

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

April, 2009