Kenneth Corbin

What’s old is new again at the FCC, it seems. The commission has tipped its hand that the forthcoming national broadband plan will suggest the idea of allocating a swath of spectrum for a free or low-cost wireless broadband network to spur adoption of high-speed service. Of course, that sounds very similar to a proposal […]

The already convoluted standoff between Google and China just took on a new layer of mystery. Reports coming out of the annual parliamentary session in Beijing cite Chinese officials giving conflicting accounts of whether Google is engaged in negotiations with the government about keeping its search engine up and running in that country. Datamation has […]

The debate over the massive economic stimulus bill seems like a long time ago, but many of the partisan arguments over the broadband provisions returned in full form at a Thursday House hearing. As lawmakers heard updates from the officials overseeing the funding disbursements, Republicans gave them an earful about the prioritization of certain areas […]

Federal government Web sites will soon begin allowing users to sign in with their account credentials furnished by Google, PayPal and Equifax. The [Open Identity Exchange](http://www.openidentityexchange.org/) (OIX) debuted today as the certification body to authorize private firms offering Web credentials that meet the security and privacy standards to qualify for use on government sites. The […]

It’s one thing to lose a file or even several files. But what happens when you lose your customers’ trust? eSecurity Planet takes a look at new report that finds that financial services firms have a long way to go to protect both their customers’ assets and their own reputations. Sloppy operating practices across the […]

The popular online video portal Hulu said that licensing talks with Viacom’s Comedy Central have broken down and that the channel’s content, including “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” will disappear from the site next week. The removal of the political satire shows will be a significant loss for Hulu, where they had attracted […]

Dick Durbin had harsh words for all but a handful of tech companies at a hearing of the Senate judiciary subcommittee he chairs. The assistant Senate majority leader blasted Facebook, Twitter and others, both for their reluctance to join a global cooperative devoted to Internet freedom and their unwillingness to testify at the hearing. In […]

The Federal Communications Commission outlined more details of the comprehensive broadband plan it plans to deliver to Congress later this month, laying out a series of recommendations for using Web-based technology to drive civic engagement with the government. The commission will call on all branches of government to continue the early efforts underway in the […]

And oft-heard refrain from opponents of government meddling in highly technical fields such as IT goes that bureaucrats lack the engineering chops to make informed decisions about the industries they regulate, so they’re best advised to take a hands-off approach. Perhaps in no agency has this friction been more evident than the Federal Communications Commission, […]

More Americans turn to the Internet for news than any other platform save for television, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s projects on journalism and the Internet. Local television remains the most popular vehicle for news, with 78 percent of respondents to a recent survey saying that they typically tune into […]

Social networking giant Facebook has won a patent for its news feed feature, locking in the intellectual property rights to one of its most popular features. The patent describes “a method for displaying a news feed in a social network environment,” detailing the flow and filtering of information about people’s activities across the site. “The […]

Apple’s popular online music store iTunes has hit a major milestone, with the 10 billionth song downloaded sometime on Wednesday. The landmark download was Johnny Cash’s “Guess Things Happen That Way,” Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) said. The 10 billion mark comes a little more than a year and a half after iTunes sold its 5 billionth […]