Android Wear smartphone owners will soon be able to control music from the iHeartRadio streaming app from their wrists, iHeartMedia said Thursday. Users who sync an Android Wear smartphone -- including the Samsung Gear Live, Moto 360 and LG G Watch -- with a compatible Android phone will be able to access the iHeartRadio app via voice activation, iHeartMedia said. Features that will be available through Android Wear integration, effective Oct. 15, include voice search, access to favorites, customized recommendations and a thumbs up/thumbs down feature, the company said. IHeartRadio also has announced integrations with Amazon’s Fire Phone, Amazon’s Fire TV, Android Auto, Apple’s CarPlay, Chromecast, Qualcomm’s AllPlay, Samsung’s Gear 2 Smartwatch and auto partnerships with AT&T Drive, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Subaru and Volvo, iHeartMedia said.
The FCC has been implementing recommendations from its report on process reform to reduce the number of pending items and move incoming items through the FCC system faster, said Diane Cornell, special counsel to the Chairman’s Office, in a blog post Thursday (http://fcc.us/1oVdirW). Efforts to streamline processing have led the Enforcement Bureau to “largely complete” its review of pending complaints, which in turn led to the Media Bureau granting “almost 700 license renewals this week,” Cornell said. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau has closed more than 760 dockets and sought comment on another 750 dockets that could be eligible for closing by the end of 2014, Cornell said. Between May and September 2014, the Wireless Bureau resolved 2,046 applications older than 6 months, creating a 26 percent reduction in its applications backlog, Cornell said. The process improvements responsible for the enhanced efficiency include the FCC’s consent agenda, Bureau specific backlog reduction plans and best practices, said Cornell. These have led to the Media Bureau issuing effective competition rulings in omnibus form, the International Bureau eliminating the effective competitive opportunities test for submarine cable landing licenses and 214 applications, and the Wireline Bureau streamlining USF appeals, the report said. Further process reforms will come in the months ahead, and will be accompanied by periodic updates, Cornell said.
The Commerce Department is revising the Export Administration Regulations to make changes to controls on read-out integrated circuits, helicopter landing systems' radar and some infrared conversion devices, as well as related software and technology for those products. The interim final rule is effective Oct. 14, but Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security is tapping the public for comments, which are due on Dec. 15.
The FCC has been implementing recommendations from its report on process reform to reduce the number of pending items and move incoming items through the FCC system faster, said Diane Cornell, special counsel to the Chairman’s Office, in a blog post Thursday (http://fcc.us/1oVdirW). Efforts to streamline processing have led the Enforcement Bureau to “largely complete” its review of pending complaints, which in turn led to the Media Bureau granting “almost 700 license renewals this week,” Cornell said. The Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau has closed more than 760 dockets and sought comment on another 750 dockets that could be eligible for closing by the end of 2014, Cornell said. Between May and September 2014, the Wireless Bureau resolved 2,046 applications older than 6 months, creating a 26 percent reduction in its applications backlog, Cornell said. The process improvements responsible for the enhanced efficiency include the FCC’s consent agenda, Bureau specific backlog reduction plans and best practices, said Cornell. These have led to the Media Bureau issuing effective competition rulings in omnibus form, the International Bureau eliminating the effective competitive opportunities test for submarine cable landing licenses and 214 applications, and the Wireline Bureau streamlining USF appeals, the report said. Further process reforms will come in the months ahead, and will be accompanied by periodic updates, Cornell said.
Android Wear smartphone owners will soon be able to control music from the iHeartRadio streaming app from their wrists, iHeartMedia said Thursday. Users who sync an Android Wear smartphone -- including the Samsung Gear Live, Moto 360 and LG G Watch -- with a compatible Android phone will be able to access the iHeartRadio app via voice activation, iHeartMedia said. Features that will be available through Android Wear integration, effective Oct. 15, include voice search, access to favorites, customized recommendations and a thumbs up/thumbs down feature, the company said. IHeartRadio also has announced integrations with Amazon’s Fire Phone, Amazon’s Fire TV, Android Auto, Apple’s CarPlay, Chromecast, Qualcomm’s AllPlay, Samsung’s Gear 2 Smartwatch and auto partnerships with AT&T Drive, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Subaru and Volvo, iHeartMedia said.
Android Wear smartphone owners will soon be able to control music from the iHeartRadio streaming app from their wrists, iHeartMedia said Thursday. Users who sync an Android Wear smartphone -- including the Samsung Gear Live, Moto 360 and LG G Watch -- with a compatible Android phone will be able to access the iHeartRadio app via voice activation, iHeartMedia said. Features that will be available through Android Wear integration, effective Oct. 15, include voice search, access to favorites, customized recommendations and a thumbs up/thumbs down feature, the company said. IHeartRadio also has announced integrations with Amazon’s Fire Phone, Amazon’s Fire TV, Android Auto, Apple’s CarPlay, Chromecast, Qualcomm’s AllPlay, Samsung’s Gear 2 Smartwatch and auto partnerships with AT&T Drive, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Subaru and Volvo, iHeartMedia said.
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai was the lone dissenter from an order (http://bit.ly/1yNJzdY) denying a January 2013 application for review of a 2012 Freedom of Information Act request from telecom provider OpenBand, said an order released Wednesday. The commission affirmed an Office of General Counsel decision to redact and withhold documents containing “communications between Wiltshire & Grannis and the Commission” on OpenBand v. Lansdowne, a case OpenBand lost last year in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (CD April 9/13 p21) the order said. The case concerned an arrangement between a Virginia land developer and OpenBand that made the company the exclusive video provider for a residential subdivision, and though the FCC wasn’t a party in the case, it did file an amicus brief against the arrangement, which means communications between it and Wiltshire Grannis are privileged, intra-agency communication, the order said. That’s “a bridge too far,” said Pai’s dissent. Wiltshire Grannis is not part of the FCC, Pai said. “Its attorneys certainly are not compensated pursuant to the GS scale. And when they come to lobby the Commission, its attorneys must comply with our ex parte rules.” The commission’s intra-agency argument might apply if Wiltshire Grannis had been representing the FCC, but it was representing Landsdowne, Pai pointed out. “In its communications with the Commission, Wiltshire Grannis was pressing its client’s interest, not the government’s.” Though OpenBand had argued that a former FCC general counsel at Wiltshire Grannis had induced the FCC to file the amicus brief, the agency said there’s “no support” for OpenBand’s argument that there was a criminal conflict of interest. “The 2007 Exclusivity Order proceeding that promulgated the bar on exclusive arrangements at issue in the OpenBand litigation was conducted long after the former FCC General Counsel’s departure from the agency in 2001,” said the order. Wiltshire Grannis attorney Christopher Wright, the referenced former FCC general counsel, said it’s important for the agency and private parties on the same side to be able to communicate in legal proceedings.
As demand for wireless data and capacity grows, industry and government must work together to let service providers innovate and deploy infrastructure to meet that demand, said government officials and wireless executives Tuesday at an FCBA event. An order that will be taken up by the FCC at its meeting this month will be a critical step, they said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
Third place behind Apple and Samsung in the tablet wars is “up for grabs” among Amazon, Asus, Lenovo and other emerging vendors, ABI Research said Wednesday (http://bit.ly/10lBnlY). Lenovo in particular “is working to gain ground in the market,” and in 2019 is expected to ship 21 million tablets, or 7.3 percent of the global market, ABI said. This “would land it solidly in third place,” it said. Lenovo remains the world’s biggest PC supplier, but now sells more smartphones and tablets than it does PCs, and is the world’s third-largest tablet supplier, Lenovo itself said in the runup to the IFA show last month in Berlin. During 2013, the tablet market “exploded with new devices overwhelming consumers,” ABI said. “Leading tablet vendors quickly dominated the market, but are now feeling the squeeze and quickly losing market share control,” creating a “stall” in more advanced and mature markets like North America and Western Europe, it said. “This stall is giving other vendors the opportunity to close the prominent gap and claim third place. The dent emerging vendors are creating in the market is impressive, but continuing that success is going to be the real challenge.”