Control4 unveiled a Wi-Fi access point for improved wireless network performance Monday. An advanced chipset is said to deliver faster speeds, lower latency and “seamless roaming” across the network as end users add to the number of bandwidth-intensive applications in the home such as 4K video streaming, multiplayer gaming and VoIP calling.
DOJ’s chief information officer should complete an assessment of “all IT investments for suitability for migration to a cloud computing service,” GAO recommended Monday. In a report concluding that cost and savings data need better tracking, GAO provided recommendations for 17 agencies. DOJ’s CIO should also establish “a consistent and repeatable mechanism to track savings and cost avoidances from the migration and deployment of cloud services,” GAO said.
Even the FCC's revised broadband deployment data is potentially relying on inaccurate coverage data, Microsoft emailed us Friday. The agency said revised data still points to a closing digital divide in rural America (see 1905010205). Microsoft said there's "strong evidence" -- including the company's data and FCC subscription data -- that broadband isn't available to millions of people "even though the FCC's data says that it is." It said the agency "didn’t create this data collection problem but [has] an opportunity to fix it." Microsoft has urged changes to Form 477 and use of both availability and actual usage and/or subscription data as a benchmark for progress.
NCTA defended its shapefiles-centric broadband mapping plan Friday, in response to complaints by Broadband Coalition members USTelecom, ITTA and the Wireless ISP Association (see 1904150059). “The heart of NCTA’s proposal is a transition from the current requirement to report a list of census blocks where broadband is available to a new regime where providers would submit shapefiles representing the area where they make service available,” NCTA said in docket 11-10. “Rather than waiting around for a theoretically perfect approach to broadband data collection to materialize, the Commission should move forward with structuring a program that is tolerant of the imperfections that are inherent in any data exercise of this magnitude.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on strengthening the federal government’s cybersecurity workforce. Thursday's EO includes a rotational program for federal employees to “expand” cybersecurity expertise via temporary assignments at other agencies. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency staffers can trade positions with employees in similar roles elsewhere. The President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition will be an annual cybersecurity competition for federal civilian and military employees. Trump's comments here.
Facebook on Thursday banned Louis Farrakhan, Alex Jones, Paul Nehlen, Milo Yiannopoulos, Paul Joseph Watson, Laura Loomer and Infowars from the platform and Instagram, labeling them “dangerous” individuals and organizations, a spokesperson said. Company policy prohibits individuals and organizations that “promote or engage in violence and hate, regardless of ideology,” the spokesperson said. “The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to our decision to remove these accounts today.”
Lawmakers, academia and media often mistakenly suggest that big tech is the only group that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects, Electronic Frontier Foundation Civil Liberties Director David Greene wrote Wednesday. The safe harbor protects a wide variety of internet users and publishers like news media, nonprofits, anyone who maintains a website and those who post to classified sites like Craigslist, he said. The ultimate beneficiaries are everyday internet users, “so that we can post things online without having to code it ourselves, and so that we can read and watch content that others create,” he said.
Comments are due May 31 on a National Institute of Standards and Technology request for information on developing technical standards for artificial intelligence, said Wednesday's Federal Register. A February executive order directs NIST to create a plan for federal engagement in developing technical standards. The agency said it will consult with federal agencies, the private sector, academia, nongovernmental entities and other stakeholders.
U.S. antitrust authorities cleared the way for SoftBank Vision Fund to buy food delivery service Doordash, said an FTC early termination notice dated Monday and released Tuesday.
U.S. home entertainment content spending increased 6.4 percent in Q1 to $6.04 billion, reported the Digital Entertainment Group Tuesday, despite a tough comparison with a year earlier when the Easter holiday fell in March. Easter season is “traditionally a strong sales period,” it said. Subscription streaming was the engine that drove the truck in Q1, rising 20.7 percent to $3.59 billion, it said. Physical media sell-through dropped below the $1 billion mark, falling 22.4 percent to $822.3 million, though Ultra HD Blu-ray player penetration increased 63 percent to 14 million homes. DEG estimates 53.4 million homes in Q1 owned Ultra HD hardware products, a 55 percent increase.