Inside Todays Bytes:

•Around the Industry:

Despite expanding services, cable can't shake evil rep

G-VoIP, Gphone, Google phone service rumor

Two faces of eBay: Fighting Phishers and spam while hosting the sale of email lists and mass-mailing tools

BT chief's broadband warning

Wireless power recharging nears fruition?

Mixed legacy for FCC's Powell

•SecurityBits:

Hackers eavesdropping on phone networks to steal data

Virus writer tests limits in cell phones•Get more news from around the industry and SecurityBits, plus Hardware, Software, and other Tidbytes... inside!... .

Around The Industry:

•Despite expanding services, cable can't shake evil rep:

Despite aggressively rolling out new services such as VoD and DVR's, the cable industry continues to struggle with an image problem, scoring at or near the bottom in consumer satisfaction surveys. A J.D. Power and Associates survey found that satellite subscribers are more satisfied with their service than cable subscribers are with theirs. The cable industry also ranked near the bottom of the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index, even lower than the IRS.

•G-VoIP... Gphone... Google phone service rumor:

Google may be looking to launch a free Internet telephone service. A recent job advert by Google’s on its website calls for a “strategic negotiator” to help the company to provide a “global backbone network” — a high-capacity international infrastructure. The logical use of such a network would be to help to support a new telephone service. By investing in capacity, Google could circumvent the problems of quality and reliability and guarantee better service.

•Two faces of eBay: Fighting Phishers and spam while hosting the sale of email lists and mass-mailing tools:

eBay has been talking this week of its efforts to crack down on email phishing and last week addressed the problem of spam for its users, so it may come as a surprise that the auction site is playing a role in facilitating both problems. Anybody surfing eBay can buy millions of email addresses as well as the tools to send them out, leading anti-spam campaigners to accuse the auction site of profiting from the spam epidemic.

•BT chief's broadband warning:

The chief executive of BT Group has warned that 60% of British homes and businesses will be denied the benefits of the broadband revolution unless Ofcom, the industry regulator, changes its approach. The BT CEO said Ofcom’s method of encouraging more competition in high-speed internet services — known as local loop unbundling or LLU — would not work outside large urban centres.

•Wireless power recharging nears fruition?:

Never again carry a charger with you when you travel, whether it's an airport lounge in Tokyo, a coffee shop in NYC or a hotel in Stockholm. Simply pick up your cell phone, your MP3 player, or your PDA, drop it on a pad, and it'll automatically charge. Wireless power recharging of mobile devices may become commercially available by the end of this year. Various recently filed patents by Splashpower Ltd. indicate how close the company is in realizing this technology.

•Mixed legacy for FCC's Powell:

The unrepentant, hands-off views on broadband of outgoing FCC Chairman Michael Powell have set in motion a high-stakes battle over the future of the U.S. telecom industry. Powell leaves behind a booming, substantially deregulated marketplace that has embraced high-speed Internet connections, wireless and VoIP in ways that were nearly unimaginable in the 1990s.

•Blame the Sun for that screwy WiFi and phone reception...:

Helpdesk people for mobile phone companies will probably be blaming the Sun for poor service over the next few days, rather than user incompetence. Apparently the Sun, which was worshipped by medieval Aztecs with human sacrifices, has belted out its largest emission of radiation in 15 years. Britain's Royal Astronomical Society says that the radiation could disrupt mobile telephone communications as well as television and radio reception.

•Nintendo's next console to go broadband, touchy-feely?:

Rumor mill: According to apparently leaked info, Nintendo's next gen console will feature dual processors and built-in broadband (assuming Ethernet, but maybe also WiFi?). The Revolution will have four controller ports, a hard drive, and support for high-resolution displays and Dolby Digital 5.1 channel surround sound. Its drive will use HD-DVD, rather than Blu-ray, discs. The tipster also claims that his source told him that “touching is good but feeling is better.”

•Watchdog eyes 3G sport:

The Aussie national competition watchdog is to clamp down on deals that would allow telecos such as Telstra to exclusively distribute content from major sporting events. The ACCC's chairman said he was concerned Australia's largest telco could shut competitors out of the marketplace. As more companies entered the 3G mobile phone spectrum – which allows live video streaming of content – and consumers used broadband internet for sports viewing, there was far greater potential for this to occur, he said.

•Music Industry boss defends file-sharing lawsuits:

7,000 people were sued in 2004 for sharing music illegally online, including one case of a 12-year-old girl. "None of this makes us feel wonderful," John Kennedy, chairman and CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, said. "Anyone who claims you're going to win the war on piracy is a very foolish person. But if you don't fight the war, it gets worse." Sounds vaguely familiar...

•WiMAX delay shakes investor confidence:

The news that the 802.16-2004 certification process was delayed by about six months was not a surprise. The main negative impact will be on investor confidence and overall perception of WiMAX. The delay will prompt scepticism about the program, and this will be far more serious if it has a knock-on effect on the upcoming mobile standard, 802.16e. It is essential that, from now on, the WiMAX Forum sets realistic deadlines and does not allow further risk of backlash against its technologies.

•Supreme Court to probe P2P in March:

The US Supreme Court will begin hearing spoken testimonies from the movie industry and the P2P world in March in order to help it decide whether P2P software providers are responsible for the actions of their users. The hearings will mark the latest step in the music and movie industries' attempts to have P2P software nobbled in order to prevent massive-scale copyright infringement, and to have P2P companies make good the revenue the business claims to have lost to that infringement.

SecurityBits:

•Hackers eavesdropping on phone networks to steal data:

Computer hackers have taken to stealing data the easy way—by eavesdropping on phone and e-mail conversations to find the keys to seemingly impregnable networks, security experts say. Security experts at Intrusic Inc. captured 4,466 passwords and 103 master passwords allowing global access to corporate databases while monitoring one ISP for a 24-hour period. "It's like stealing candy from a baby."

•Virus writer tests limits in cell phones:

Whether anyone beyond AV researchers has downloaded Marcos Velasco's 'Lasco' virus program is an unanswered question. But Velasco's virus, which appears to do little harm, points not just to the inevitability of more virulent ones aimed at cell phones and other mobile devices, but also to a virus-writing subculture unfazed by multimillion-dollar bounties, international prosecution and an official inclination to characterize virus writers as terrorists.

Hardware, Software, and other TidBytes:

•Satellite TV snubbing Microsoft

•Sony eyes wireless PSP connections

•Is President Bush good for tech?

•WebEx to offer free remote PC access

•Schoolchildren to be e-tagged in UK safety trial

•Tsunami fund hack is probed

•Text message record smashed again OMGLOLWTFBBQ!!1!1!!