Please deposit your funniest, most insightful and intelligent commentary into the receptacle provided below.

• FCC Chair Julius Genachowski steps down today, but what will he leave behind? [theverge.com]
• Who Should Be Scared Of Samsung's 1Gb+ Wireless Technology? [forbes.com]
• FCC Nominee to Divest AT&T, Verizon to Avoid Conflict [bloomberg.com]
• Concerns Arise on U.S. Effort to Allow Internet ‘Wiretaps’ [nytimes.com]
• How Google beat Apple to a streaming music service while iRadio is still mired in licensing talks and not ready for WWDC [theverge.com]
• Apple Mobile Devices Cleared for Use on U.S. Military Networks [bloomberg.com]
• Truly unlimited mobile data plans are a rarity in Western Europe [fiercewireless.com]
• Android-powered gaming console Nvidia Shield pre-orders ($349) start today - 3 days earlier than expected; shipping in June [theverge.com]
• Launching the Internet of Everything One Startup at a Time [huffingtonpost.com]
• Driverless Car Could Be Hacked By '14-Year-Old From Indonesia,' Senator Warns [huffingtonpost.com]
• Google Glass testing prescription prototypes [cnet.com]

Amtrak has been offering Wi-Fi on board some of their trains for several years (a full list is here), though historically the quality of the connections have been ridiculed. Since earlier this year the company has been promising upgrades.

Earlier this week the government came under fire for hoovering up the personal call logs of more than twenty lines belonging to the Associated Press. Initially Uncle Same claimed the snooping and violation of press rights was due to an immediate and pressing life-risking investigation, but as the week rolled on it became clear the government was simply embarrassed by internal leaks and annoyed an AP story stole some public relations thunder.

For much of the last year, Verizon Wireless has been blocking Google Wallet, claiming that its use of a device's "secure element" is what has prohibited them from letting consumers use the app. Numerous people have explained in great detail (including the lawyer that filed the original complaint with the FCC) that this excuse is simply being used to keep Google Wallet permanently stuck in approval purgatory, while the wireless industry's own, competing Isis platform sees no such restrictions.

It is very quickly becoming clear that if you want the FCC to avoid enforcing their network neutrality rules, all you have to do is throw some half-assed, vague-sounding technical jargon at the agency to bog them down in inactivity indefinitely. With yesterday's news that AT&T is blocking yet another video chat application in order to drive users to more expensive data plans, it's rather clear that the FCC lacks the stomach to actually enforce the rules they designed.

In late 2011 after several delays, ViaSat finally launched their new KA-band satellite ViaSat 1, which allowed the company to finally start offering consumers some faster residential bandwidth speeds via the Exede brand. Now the company has announced that they're hard at work on ViaSat 2, with plans to launch it sometime in the middle of 2016 (in satellite launch parlance, that means probably around 2018). According to ViaSat, the launch of ViaSat 2 will double their existing bandwidth capacity and expand coverage across much of North and Central America. While satellite broadband is still considered the black sheep of the broadband industry because of high prices, high latency and low caps, the faster speeds made availability by this added capacity has clearly been reflected in our user Exede reviews.

Canadian wireless operator Telus today announced that the company would be buying smaller wireless competitor Mobilicity for $380 Million, the first of what's expected to be several similar deals. According to the Globe and Mail, while Telus is looking for quick regulatory approval, the government has suggested they're not entirely thrilled with the erosion of competition and the accumulation of floundering upstart spectrum by incumbents. As for Mobilicity, they insist they looked high and low for other options before sleeping with the enemy. "We beat the bushes as far as they could possibly be beaten and as hard as they could possibly be beaten ... There was not a deal to be found with the other new entrants," said the company.

• Innovator: Greg Raleigh's Zact, Pay-as-You-Go Custom Wireless [businessweek.com]
• How four wireless players are manoeuvring for advantage in Canada [theglobeandmail.com]
• Wireless charging still has strings attached - Which wireless charging standard will emerge the winner? One side now appears to have momentum thanks to backing from AT&T [cnet.com]
• Lawmakers fear privacy risks from Google Glass [thehill.com]
• Intel May Have Lost the iPhone Battle, But It Could Still Win the Mobile War [theatlantic.com]
• Australia's net filter sneaks into operation through back door - Regulator's ban on dodgy shares site wipes out hundreds, exposes censorship mechanism [theregister.co.uk]
• Half of youngsters would swap privacy for... cheaper insurance [theregister.co.uk]
• Copyright Owners Can't Sue YouTube As A Group, Judge Rules [huffingtonpost.com]

• ViaSat announces next-gen broadband satellite, will support fast-growing Exede Internet services [prnewswire.com]
• Wireless companies warm to unlimited streaming of some apps [washingtonpost.com]
• Canada's Telus Buys Smaller Wireless Rival Mobilicity for $380 Million [hollywoodreporter.com]
• New World Record in Wireless Data Transmission [pddnet.com]
• Verizon boosts data allottments in prepaid plans [fiercewireless.com]
• Pirate Bay cofounder to run for European Parliament [theregister.co.uk]
• AT&T Continues To Mock The Concept Of Net Neutrality; This Time With Google Hangouts Video Chat Block [techdirt.com]
• As iPhone Sleeve delays drag on, FreedomPop offers Photon and free 2 GB as consolation [fiercewireless.com]
• No one wants to be a Glasshole: Only 10% of U.S. smartphone users would buy Google Glass if they could afford it [huffingtonpost.com]
• London Olympics site to become digital mega-hub [theregister.co.uk]

As part of many announcements at Google's I/O Conference this week, Google announced that they would now be integrating video chat within Google Hangouts across platforms and devices. Well, unless you use AT&T.

Verizon today announced that they're increasing the usage allotments on the company's prepaid wireless offerings. According to the Verizon statement, Verizon's $60 prepaid plan will offer users unlimited voice, texting and 2 GB of data per month -- up from the previous cap of 500 MB per month. Verizon's $70 plan will now provide users with unlimited voice, texting and 4 GB of data per month -- up from the previous cap or 2 GB per month. As noted previously, these plans are for EVDO connectivity, not LTE. According to Verizon Wireless this new pricing is available to existing customers now, and to new customers starting on June 6.

While there's absolutely no doubt that Google Fiber has been a positive thing for the industry, critics have singled out two problems with Google's ultra-fast offering. One, the company backed off of open access promises that would have allowed multiple companies to come in and truly compete over the infrastructure.

ISPs which in the past had historically improved in Netflix performance because of faster speeds, are now finding themselves falling in Netflix's new monthly streaming ISP rankings because they're not signing up for Netflix's CDN network. As noted recently, Netflix stated they'd start offering users "Super HD" and 3D streams -- if their ISP signed up for Netflix's new Open Connect Content Delivery Network.

Last week reports emerged that ESPN has at least been in talks to take AT&T up on their idea of cap-exempt content contracts. In short, AT&T has been pitching content companies on the idea of paying AT&T a toll that would allow users of their specific content to bypass user caps.

Canipre is a Canadian company that helps runs anti-piracy campaigns, and is helping Voltage Pictures in their efforts to extort money out of pirates using settlement-o-matic mass lawsuits. They've most recently been helping Voltage target easier marks like Canadian ISP TekSavvy. As such, it's interesting to note that this week a company so concerned about propriety has been accused of using other people's photos on their website without proper attribution. "Our collective goal is not to sue everybody...but to change the sense of entitlement that people have, regarding Internet-based theft of property," Canipre Director Barry Logan stated in a recent interview.

• Outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Writes The NY Times: Faster Broadband Speeds: The View From the F.C.C. [nytimes.com]
• Is It Wrong to Use Data From the World’s First ‘Nice’ Botnet? [wired.com]
• Kiwis Want To Spy On All Communications, VPNs, And Be Able To Use Secret Evidence Against You [techdirt.com]
• VP Joe Biden Believes There's 'No Legal Reason' The Government Can't Slap A Sin Tax On 'Violent Media' [techdirt.com]
• Cablevision shelves mobile phone plan; CFO: 'I'm not a big believer in the quad play' [fiercecable.com]
• Grading the top 10 U.S. carriers in the first quarter of 2013 [fiercewireless.com]
• Windows Phone steals third place from BlackBerry in IDC smartphone ranking [engadget.com]
• Syria Internet Access Down: Troubled Country Suffers Another Communications Blackout [huffingtonpost.com]
• Wireless Carriers Privacy Failure Revealed In Associated Press Phone Record Controversy [huffingtonpost.com]

• Verizon, Comcast Broadband Drop To 6th And 8th In Netflix Speed Rankings, Cablevision Is 1st [mediapost.com]
• AT&T CEO: Innovation coming in data plan pricing [investors.com]
• Internet Transforming Television [contactmusic.com]
• France to soften or kill Hadopi Internet 'three strikes' law?: French copyright enforcement activities should focus on commercial pirates, not file-sharers, says gov't report [techworld.com.au]
• The future of in-flight Wi-Fi [economist.com]
• T-Mobile to expand MetroPCS footprint by 100M POPs [fiercewireless.com]
• For wireless carriers, the smartphone party is ending [fiercewireless.com]
• Vehicle manufacturers embrace wireless charging in cars [geek.com]
• T-Mobile's Success With No-Contract Plans Could Spur Industry Shift [forbes.com]
• Wi-Fi Equipped Small Cells Set to Revolutionize Wireless Communications [tmcnet.com]
• Turning Off IPhone Critical to Pilots Citing Interference [bloomberg.com]
• TV Networks Finally Discover Live Streaming; Still Get It Really, Really Wrong [techdirt.com]

Time Warner today announced that the company's TBS and TNT channels would offer subscribers the option to stream live television on their tablets and iPads -- but only if you subscribe to traditional cable TV. The news comes on the heels of a similar announcement from ABC that they'd be trialing live streaming in New York City and Philadelphia. All of these announcements are of course in response to Aereo, who the broadcasters are trying to sue into oblivion. By offering their own streaming options -- even if tying them to existing cable subscriptions makes them immensely less appealing -- the studios can claim they're giving consumers what they want, even if with the other hand they're suing innovators out of existence.

Back in February, after more than a year of delays, the entertainment and most major ISPs launched their "six strikes" anti-piracy initiative. The program integrates warning letters with graduated response punishments that range from being temporarily blocked off from the Internet to having your connection throttled.