ARTS & FARCES internet

Business

Apple’s net income in the last three months of 2010 rose an absolutely stunning 78 percent—to an astonishing US$6 billion—on revenues of US$24.5 billion from the same period a year earlier. Most surprisingly, desktop Mac sales were up 22 percent (4.1 million Macs sold in the last quarter of 2010) and MacBook sales were up 37 percent. iPhone sales (including the two I purchased) were up 86 percent over the prior year (16.24 million iPhones sold). Apple also sold 7.3 million iPads (including the one I bought), which was 75 percent more from the third quarter of 2010. A total of 14.8 million iPads were sold in 2010 (the iPad wasn’t available during the fourth quarter of 2009). Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, told analysts in a conference call that demand for the company’s iPhone and iPad products continues to exceed supply. The only bad news? Apple’s gross margins dropped from 40.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 38.5 percent for the same period of 2010.

Paying for incidental purchases with a mobile phone instead of a credit card or cash has long been predicted and anticipated. Now it’s coming true as Starbucks announces that its US customers will be able to pay using an iPhone, an iPod Touch, or a Blackberry. Users will have to download a Starbucks Card app and load it with money from a credit card or PayPal.

Back when Newsweek was still relevant, it ran excerpts of an interview with Steve Jobs a week after he left Apple in 1985. It’s a fascinating interview and Jobs is remarkably candid. What’s really interesting is to think how much further along Apple would be now if Jobs (and NeXT) had stayed and Sculley and his bonehead successors didn’t.

Censorship

Common Cause has filed a petition with the US Department of Justice requesting an investigation of conflicts of interest of US Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas with regard to campaign finance cases. Common Cause is also seeking to have Scalia and Thomas disqualified from the Citizens United case, granting corporations First Amendment rights. The action comes on the heels of right-wing financier Charles Koch‘s political retreat invitation that references past appearances by the two justices. As Eric Lichtblau, writing for the New York Times, notes, Charles Koch and his brother, David Koch, “were among the main beneficiaries of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case and became a favorite target of liberal groups, which accused them of effectively trying to buy the election.”

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants mobile phone carriers to provide alerts to their customers when usage gets close to plan limits and again when those limits are reached. Pretty simple, really, and pretty necessary with the carriers dropping their all-you-can-eat plans. Predictably, the wireless carriers are opposed to anything that even remotely smells like regulation, including any requirement to notify customers of anything other than their bill is due. Randall Stross, writing for the New York Times, reports that “the carriers and their allied trade groups have filed formal objections to the FCC’s proposed alerts.” The basis for the carrier’s objection? The FCC alerts proposal “violates carriers’ First Amendment protections” because mandatory alerts are “compelled speech,” according to its lobbyist.

The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act—designed to protect US government employees when exposing illegality—enjoyed what seemed to be unanimous bipartisan support in the US Senate. The proposed legislation was stopped dead when an unnamed senator put an anonymous hold on the bill. The proposed legislation had already passed the Senate once, had passed the US House of Representatives, but was subject to the hold just before the Senate vote on the reconciled bill. National Public Radio’s On the Media and the Government Accountability Project are working to determine which senator put the anonymous hold on the bill.

ESRD

“A government takeover of healthcare” is PolitiFact‘s lie of the year. Spawned by right-winger Frank Luntz, describing President Obama’s healthcare reform as “a government takeover of healthcare,” first reared its head in the spring of 2009. The legislation passed in March 2010, but the public option had been discarded and while there were new regulations—including mandatory universal health insurance—there was no government takeover. As PolitiFact‘s Bill Adair and Angie Drobnic Holan write, “But as Republicans smelled serious opportunity in the midterm elections, they didn’t let facts get in the way of a great punchline.” And now that the US Congress is back in session, the updated Republican refrain is “healthcare reform kills jobs.” Except according to Marian Wang, writing for ProPublica, that one’s also a lie.

Medica and United Healthcare released their doctor ratings this week, but it’s pretty much useless. One star for meeting quality criteria and one star for cost efficiency criteria for a maximum of two stars. Everything I looked up had two stars (except for my nephrologist who had one star because there’s not enough data available). This is a really good idea, but a sadly failed implementation. (Disclosure: Medica is my current health insurance provider.)

Internet

Verizon has asked the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to set aside the US Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) network neutrality order (.pdf; 1MB). Verizon’s lead attorney? Why it’s Helgi Walker, of course. Walker was Comcast’s lawyer in its lawsuit against the FCC, before the same court. Verizon, like Comcast, argues that the FCC had exceeded its authority. It’s puzzling that Verizon is doing this. It was, after all, Verizon, that cut the back room deal with Google in the autumn of 2010 to produce a legislative framework (.pdf; 66KB) that is contained—almost verbatim—in the FCC order. The sole difference is that Google-Verizon wanted its framework passed by the US Congress and the FCC stripped of any regulatory authority.

Media

In a vote of 4-to-1, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the US Department of Justice have approved the purchase of NBC Universal by Comcast. The lone dissenter, predictably, was FCC commissioner Michael Copps. “The Comcast-NBCU joint venture opens the door to the cable-ization of the open internet,” wrote Copps in a statement released after the vote. “The potential for walled gardens, toll booths, content prioritization, access fees to reach end users, and a stake in the heart of independent content production is now very real.” That’s not hyperbole. As part of the deal, Comcast was specifically not required to open its network to competitors at wholesale rates.

The same week, NBC Universal business unit MSNBC canned lefty pundit Keith Olbermann. This happened, of course, on a Friday evening so as to avoid media scrutiny. Neither MSNBC nor Olbermann have disclosed the circumstances. Comcast told Sam Gustin, writing for Wired, that it had nothing to do with Olbermann’s exit, citing federal law prohibiting it from influencing the company it’s buying until the deal closes. As Gustin reports, “Olbermann had been an outspoken critic of the merger and in general a liberal lightning rod, getting into daily spats with Fox News (which he often called ‘Fox Noise’) and conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.” In an earlier version of the article, Gustin cites Marvin Ammori of the University of Nebraska law school in an email, writing, “Keith Olbermann’s announcement tonight, the very same week that the government blessed the Comcast-NBC merger, raises serious concern for anyone who cares about free speech. Comcast proved expert in shaking down the government to approve its merger. Comcast’s shakedown of NBC has just begun.” Bill Carter’s updated account for the New York Times carries Ammori’s quotes in full. Dave Winer wisely advises Olbermann to take his schtick to the net. As evidence of NBC’s absolute cluelessness, it has reportedly contractually constrained Olbermann from doing a television show, he’s apparently free to do whatever he wants in other media.

Politics

President Obama’s pledge to stop the revolving door between Wall Street and the executive branch sure didn’t last long. Obama’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has hired Eileen Rominger, the global chief investment officer at Goldman Sachs, to be its director of investment management. A primary function of the SEC’s director of investment management is to regulate asset managers. One has to wonder how Rominger will square her new job with Obama’s ethics pledge. Especially the revolving door ban: “I will not for a period of two years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts.” In 2010, Goldman paid US$550 million to settle an SEC mortgage investment lawsuit. Rominger’s appointment makes at least three former Goldman Sachs executives in the Obama administration.

Privacy

Late last Friday in a typical news dump, just before a three-day weekend, Facebook decided to release its users’ address and telephone number information to third-party developers in yet another affront to personal privacy. Use of the information will have to be approved by the individual user, Facebook announced, and developers will have to agree to follow Facebook’s policies. Facebook’s third-party developers have already been found to be collecting and selling Facebook user data. Early this week, Facebook reversed its decision due to “useful feedback” from its users. Always remember, never forget: If you’re not paying for the service, you’re the product.

Email between an attorney and her client are not private if the client writes from a work email account. So says a 3-to-0 ruling from the Sacramento Third Appellate District Court (.pdf; 250KB).

The US Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that government contractors are subject to the same intrusive background checks as federal employees. A group of 28 Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) employees brought a lawsuit, claiming that the background checks violate their constitutional right to “informational privacy.” In 2008, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found in favor of the JPL employees (.pdf; 127KB). Justice Samuel Alito Jr., in the Supreme Court opinion, acknowledged that a constitutional right to avoiding disclosure of personal information exists but failed to identify which part of the Constitution provided the protection or what kind of information was specifically protected. The Supremes found that the information sought in the background checks did not violate the right. “The contention that a right deeply rooted in our history and tradition bars the government from ensuring that the Hubble telescope is not used by recovering drug addicts is farcical,” wrote Justice Antonin Scalia in his concurrence, adding that he would have taken a much blunter approach to the case: “I would simply hold that there is not constitutional right to ‘informational privacy.’”

While our individual privacy rights are encroached upon on an almost daily basis, the US Supreme Court will decide whether or not corporations enjoy personal privacy rights. Last year the Supremes mistakenly decided that corporations have First Amendment rights, so this is the logical next step in fully expanding corporate personhood. The US Congress exempted some files from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (.pdf 82KB) and AT&T has invoked the congressional exemption in a lawsuit against it brought by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC investigated AT&T for overcharging schools and the telecom giant now claims that documents it provided in its defense “could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” As Adam Liptak, writing for the New York Times, reports, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, “ruled for the company, relying in part on a definition of ‘person’ in the law that included corporations.”

Publishing

Google—better late than never—has finally woken up to the content farm problem in polluted search results. The search giant is acknowledging criticism of the quality of its search results, maintains its search results have actually gotten better, and still refuses to outline how it intends to effectively deal with the problem. Matt Cutts, Google’s principal lead on search quality, told Tom Krazit writing for CNET, “that the company will employ crowd-sourced feedback and other metrics in hopes of penalizing content scrapers and obviously low-content sites within its index.” Sorry Google, but adding an extension to your Chrome browser and having us do your work for you isn’t going to cut it. The timing is interesting; Demand Media—the biggest purveyor of farmed content on the web—is planning an initial public offering.

Flipboard, the news-reading app for the iPad is adding publisher feeds from eight publishers—ABC News, All Things Digital, Bon Appetit, Lonely Planet, SB Nation, SFGate, Uncrate, and the Washington Post magazine—that will be accompanied by full-page advertising. Flipboard will “import partner publisher content and lay it out automatically,” according to Liz Gannes, writing for All Things Digital. But Flipboard won’t be using RSS (the most frequently requested feature from Flipboard users) because—wait for it—“Flipboard is dedicated to the social aspect and beautiful design of content, and RSS contains neither of these things,” according to Flipboard chief executive Mike McCue. Wait, what? This is a singularly perfect application for RSS.

Sustainability

The Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M has released its 2010 Urban Mobility Report and it’s not good news. The demand for roads in the Twin Cities is growing more than 30 percent faster than supply resulting in some of the worst congestion in the nation. In 1982, the year I moved to Minnesota, the average citizen wasted six hours per year in traffic jams. By 2009 that number had grown to 43 hours per year, and perhaps more alarmingly a shocking 604,410 gallons of wasted fuel. The report claims that the Twin Cities leads with congestion remedies including freeway incident management, freeway ramp metering, high occupancy vehicle lanes, and arterial street signal coordination. When I first moved to the Twin Cities I was quite impressed with street signal coordination, and several streets posted signs indicating that if you drove 28 miles-per-hour in the 30 mile-per-hour zone, the signals were metered for you. And they were. Contrary to the report, that’s absolutely no longer the case. The Twin Cities now has the absolute worst arterial street signal coordination of anywhere I’ve experienced.

User experience

The Thibodeaus at Contentini have launched the Content Strategy Design Pattern Library, a collaborative project wiki where content strategy practitioners can collectively document commonly used solutions to content strategy problems.

Ann Rockley has written an accessible overview of intelligent content—“content that is structurally rich and semantically aware, and is therefore discoverable, reusable, reconfigurable, and adaptable.”

Theresa Putkey launches a 12-part series on usability and information architecture and how they relate to content strategy. The first article in the series, “Integrating Usability & Content Strategy,” begins by noting that practitioners are still having to spend an inordinate amount of time educating clients about user-centered design.