Weekly Wireless Report WEEK ENDING October 16, 2015
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Weekly Wireless Report WEEK ENDING October 16, 2015 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: THIS WEEK’S STORIES This Week’s Stories Uber Gets Boost From London Court Ruling On Taxi Meters Uber Gets Boost From London October 16, 2015 Court Ruling On Taxi Meters Uber Technologies Inc. got a boost from a London judge who said smartphones used by its drivers AT&T Service Will Let Many aren’t the same as taxi meters and don’t require a license from the city’s transport authority. Devices Share One Phone Number Transport for London asked the judge to rule on the status of technology used by the ride-hailing service. Cab driver associations joined the case to argue that Uber should be subject to rules barring PRODUCTS & SERVICES private cars from using meters. Skype Takes On Google The regulations don’t cover “a device that relies on GPS signal in the course of a journey and forwards Hangout With Shareable Chat GPS data to a server,” Judge Duncan Ouseley said. Links Uber is fighting legal battles around the world brought by taxi drivers who say the San Francisco-based New Yahoo Mail App company gets to avoid regulations that bind established competitors. London cabbies -- who require Eliminates Passwords, Links years of training to pass a licensing test -- have clogged roads and threatened criminal complaints To Other Inboxes against four Uber drivers. EMERGING TECHNOLOGY “This is great news for Londoners and a victory for common sense,” said Jo Bertram, a U.K. manager at Uber, in an e-mailed statement. “We hope Transport for London will think again on their bureaucratic Dropbox Announces Paper, A proposals for apps like Uber.” Google Docs Competitor The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, which represents the city’s famous black cabs, intends to NBC’s New Seeso Streaming appeal to the U.K. Supreme Court, according to a post on its Twitter account. The group called the Comedy Service Targets ruling “unbelievable.”’ Millennials Hailo, a company whose phone application hails black cabs, called for a level-playing field for drivers. MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS Red Hat Is Buying IT “London’s rules are there for a reason --- to guarantee world-class standards, and to stop Automation Startup Ansible, discrimination,” its chief executive officer, Andrew Pinnington, said in a statement. Reportedly For Around $100M In September, TFL proposed new rules for taxi services. Under the proposals, drivers of private-hire minicabs face English-language and navigational tests, stricter insurance requirements and limits on Alibaba To Buy Out Chinese bookings. Video Site Youku Tudou In $3.5 Billion Deal bloomberg.com INDUSTRY REPORTS AT&T Service Will Let Many Devices Share One Phone Netflix Q3 Earnings: Number International Expansion Will October 15, 2015 Lead Future Subscriber Growth Having numerous connected devices is supposed to simplify life, but too often it has the opposite Verizon Completes LTE effect. But now AT&T said it has a way to make things easier by enabling someone to use the same Deployments For Rural phone number for all connected devices. The new service, called NumberSync, lets each subscriber America Program assign a primary phone number to wearables and other devices via AT&T’s network. The new service should enable users to make and receive calls and text messages from all their devices, including tablets and smart watches -- even when they’re not within close range of the users' phones. That means those other devices can take the place of users' phones, for example, when they just want to wear smart watches and not have to carry their phones as well. Also, when users call family, friends, and colleagues, those people will recognize the users' phone numbers no matter what devices the callers are using. Connect with Us www.ksrinc.com P a g e | 2 Great Feature? We reached out to Patrick Moorhead, founder and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, who “The new service should told us the feature should help AT&T as well as users. enable users to make and "This feature, I think, could be something that accelerates the use of tablets and wearables on AT&T’s receive calls and text network," said Moorhead. "It enables a tablet or wearable to receive texts and calls from their primary messages from all their smartphone versus needing a separate number for the device. I’m really excited by this." devices, including tablets and By going beyond a legacy numbering system to help subscribers make use of the Internet of Things, smart watches -- even when NumberSync could be useful in a variety of circumstances, such as when users forget their phones at they’re not within close range home but are carrying other devices. Also, not having to rely on Bluetooth pairing to make calls will of the users' phones. That likely prove beneficial to many users. means those other devices By having a single user identity Relevant Products/Services for all of a subscriber’s devices, can take the place of users' NumberSync could make essential services such as Short Message Service and cell calls easier to use phones, for example, when and less locked in to the devices making them. As part of an ongoing revamping of its services, AT&T is also expanding voice calls to Wi-Fi. they just want to wear smart watches and not have to Cell Signal Needed carry their phones as well.” A possible downside? NumberSync isn’t completely novel. Skype, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger can perform many of the same functions over any Internet connection without the need for phone numbers. "It does require the smartphone to support VoLTE (Voice-Over LTE, the standard for communicating over 4G LTE networks)," Moorhead noted. For AT&T, NumberSync will probably be most useful when users out of Wi-Fi range must rely on cellular networks to connect. AT&T doesn’t charge subscribers to connect smart watches or in-car hands-free systems to phones over Bluetooth, but it does charge for connecting an additional device to its own network, even if it’s using the same phone number. AT&T didn’t give a date for rolling out NumberSync, but the company did say it is working with manufacturers to have the service included in upcoming devices. More NumberSync products should be released near the holiday season, the carrier said. mobile-tech-today.com Products & Services New Yahoo Mail App Eliminates Passwords, Links To Other Inboxes October 15, 2015 The new mobile Mail app from Yahoo not only lets users integrate their inboxes with other e-mail “The company is offering an services but also gives them the option of eliminating the use of passwords to sign in. The company is offering an alternative method via Yahoo Account Key, which lets users tap a yes-or-no visual interface alternative method via Yahoo on their smartphones to log in to Mail. Account Key, which lets users Launched in a month that marks Yahoo's 18th birthday, the new Mail app is also designed to be faster, tap a yes-or-no visual more search-savvy and visually appealing. Rather than saddling profile-image-free users with bland interface on their pictures or a generic gray person icon, for instance, the app offers users a choice of "gorgeous" Flickr smartphones to log in to images depicting their initials. Mail.” The new mobile Mail app is available today in iOS or Android via the Apple App Store or Google Play. Desktop support for integrated inboxes is also available today for users in the U.S., and will roll out soon for users elsewhere, Yahoo said. 'More Secure than a Traditional Password' Yahoo's latest move to help users avoid the need for passwords builds on a service it launched in March, which lets users request access via one-time, on-demand passwords sent via SMS to their smartphones. Connect with Us www.ksrinc.com P a g e | 3 "It was the first step toward a password-free future," vice president of product management Dylan Casey said in a blog post today. The new Yahoo Account Key takes another step in that direction, he added. Users who activate the Yahoo Account Key option will receive a push notification on their smartphones that asks, "Are you trying to sign in?" with the choice of tapping either a "yes" or "no" button. With a tap of "yes," users are immediately taken to their Yahoo Mail inboxes. Not only does Yahoo Account Key eliminate the need to remember an e-mail password or worry about password security Relevant Products/Services -- it also provides greater security, Casey said. "It's also more secure than a traditional password because once you activate Account Key -- even if someone gets access to your account info -- they can't sign in," he said, adding that Yahoo also plans to roll out the Account Key option for other mobile apps later this year. Powered by Behind-the-Scenes Tech Investment Yahoo's "fully redesigned" Mail app also features a variety of improvements in design and usability, according to senior vice president of communication products Jeffrey Bonforte. Beyond giving the app a new look, "we've made a significant investment in the technology that powers the app, so it's fast and responsive," he said. Other look-and-feel changes include contact cards that enable users to tap on any messages in their inboxes to get more details on any information that people have shared with them including names, companies, titles, recent tweets and more. The search function has also been improved to offer suggestions on the most likely contact after a user types in just a few letters of a person's name.