Tech at Night: History Eraser Button, Privacy, Skype, Google, Sprint
Hello. So, the big rumor that just started going around is that Microsoft will buy out Skype. This worries me. I’m a paying customer, I’m happy with the service (though not with recent client releases), and I rely on it. If Microsoft ruins it, it will be a problem for me.
Anyway, can somebody please explain to Joe Barton that you can’t take data off of the Internet once it’s on there? The concept of an “eraser button” for the Internet is absurd and shows a fundamental lack of understanding here. The UK tried and failed miserably.
Parents need to take control of their kids, and not expect Government to try to work magic to cover for their own ineptitude in keeping their kids from sharing information. Especially when the proposed solution sounds lifted from Ren and Stimpy.
So Android isn’t actually as open as we were led to believe. While phone manufacturers have plenty of rights to use Android under the various software licenses, Google is apparently using threats to undermine that and take control. “We are using compatibility as a club to make them do things we want,” says Google’s Dan Morrill. A club. How open.
Sprint is getting shameless in its attempts to use government as a club to beat its competitors with socialism, in a way that the company never could in the marketplace. Despite combining with Nextel, Sprint just hasn’t kept up. Sprint hasn’t invested in its network, and Sprint has fallen behind. So Sprint wants AT&T and T-Mobile to suffer as well.
And just as we saw in the Net Neutrality debate, when large, incredibly wealthy firms like Google were painted as the little guy, the scrappy underdogs despite bringing in billions of dollars, now Sprint is supposed to be the little guy. News Flash: Sprint itself spends a billion a year on advertising to maintain and attempt to grow its 50 million user base. That’s a lot of people paying monthly fees. Sprint’s a big boy, too. This is Goliath vs Goliath.
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