Category: Editorials

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Verizon FiOS Customer Posts Video Showing Netflix Throttling

verizon throttling netflixColin Nederkoorn pays for a 75Mbps Verizon FiOS connection. That should be screamingly fast for streaming HD video, yet he often finds his video buffering and the quality regularly scales back to a mess of 8-Bit impressionism.

Connecting to Netflix directly, even a 320 x 240 resolution video at a meager bitrate of 235Kbps  will often stutter. It’s an insanely frustrating situation to pay for that level of service and not be able to watch even the bare minimum quality video without interruption.

The funny thing is, when Colin connects to Netflix through a VPN, his video SCREAMS, chewing through 720p streams at 3Mbps without issue.

To over-simplify, the VPN masks the final destination for Colin’s web traffic, which means Verizon can’t see that he’s pulling info from Netflix. Suddenly that “Network Congestion” evaporates.

This is of course one person’s experience, so we shouldn’t extrapolate this as a company-wide business practice without more evidence, but it certainly doesn’t paint Verizon in a positive light, especially after their recent feuds with Netflix over who is to blame for streaming interruptions.

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House GOP Attack FCC and Local Tax Payer Funded Internet Access

GOP rep marsha blackburnIf a community of people vote to approve tax payer funded internet access, should they be allowed to build their own network?

House Conservatives say “no”, that people at the state and local level should not be allowed the right to decide for themselves how to improve their internet access. Why? Because free market, competition, taxes, reasons.

In a frustrating example of political double-speak, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced an amendment to the 2015 Financial Services Appropriations Bill which would “prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from trampling on the rights of states when it comes to municipal broadband“. How does it protect states rights? By making it illegal for states and municipalities to petition the FCC for permission to build tax payer funded data networks. This amendment was of course approved by a vote of 223-200.

Continue reading “House GOP Attack FCC and Local Tax Payer Funded Internet Access”

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Don’t Tease Me Google – Will Android FINALLY Get Proper USB Audio Support?

google IO 2014 android L USB Audio Support somegadgetguyA long time ago (about two and a half years), and on a completely different blog, I bemoaned the lack of USB Audio support on Android. There were little hints of it buried in Ice Cream Sandwich, some proprietary solutions surfaced, and a few developers on XDA managed to get some forms of it working on certain devices running certain kernels with certain apps.

It wasn’t looking good.

USB Audio has long been one of the few features iOS could handily beat Android at. Plug a USB mic into an iPad. It worked. Plug a Headphone amp into an iPhone. It worked. Plug an iOS device into a car with USB support. It worked. I happen to be a recording professional, and drooled over mixing consoles which supported the iPad, but the benefits for general consumers were pretty clear too. You can even plug USB mics into Windows Tablets, USB Headphone Amps too.

During the Google I/O 2014 Keynote, we got yet another tease at a feature that many have been looking forward to since the platform’s inception. Buried in the list of updates projected on the wall were mentions of low latency audio recording and USB Audio. Be still my beating heart. Continue reading “Don’t Tease Me Google – Will Android FINALLY Get Proper USB Audio Support?”

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The Problem With Android Wear Watch Screens

Wearable tech will be hot. The smartphone market is maturing and starting to plateau, so manufacturers are pushing into new territories to expand on our relationships with data and services. Google’s Android Wear platform is an excellent step in the right direction to legitimize this new market segment.

It does suffer from one fatal flaw however: Battery life. 

pebble smartwatch review somegadgetguy direct sunlightPlaying with several different solutions for wrist computing, my favorite so far are the watches that can best replicate the experience found on traditional time pieces. Namely a screen that can always be referenced for small pieces of information no matter what orientation it’s worn, not depending on any gestures to activate it. I mentioned as much in my last FFC VLOG.

Of course in technology land, compromises have to be made. If you want crazy new features, you have to accept some new limitations.  Continue reading “The Problem With Android Wear Watch Screens”

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Can a Corporation Commit Homicide?

gm-logo_100168934_mI try not to get too political on this blog, when I do I try to focus on the tech industry. Recently however, an interesting case made a little noise, and I’m curious how my readers feel about it.

You’ve no doubt heard of General Motors recent issues with faulty ignition switches installed in GM cars which have caused at least 54 accidents and 13 deaths. It was a difficult case for the courts to sort as the GM we have today didn’t technically carry the liability of the company which existed before the auto bailouts. The NHTSA determined that GM delayed reporting the problem and ordered the company to pay out a $35 Million civil penalty.

However, prior to this penalty, individual accidents have already been judged. In 2004 Candice Anderson was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide after a collision which took the life of her fiance. Though she had no drugs or alcohol in her system, she was determined to be at fault. She plead guilty to the charges to get a reduced sentence, thankfully not serving any jail time, but she has a felony conviction on her record.

With GM in the news, she recently discovered that GM counted her fiance’s death as one of the 13 lives lost due to these faulty ignition switches.

Continue reading “Can a Corporation Commit Homicide?”

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FFC VLOG: Viewer Question – Will Samsung bring Image Stabilization to UHD Video?

This VLOG comes from a viewer question.
Paul F. asks:

“Will Samsung fix the Galaxy S5’s 4K video stabilization with a software update in the future?”

Well Paul, let’s take a look at the GS5, and whether Samsung will be able to do that!

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Netflix to End “Network Congestion” Warnings Following Verizon Cease and Desist

netflix-logoNo company has been working harder to illustrate streaming performance on different ISP’s networks than Netflix, and they’ve collected years worth of data on which companies are actually living up to their “high speed” claims.

This month’s speed report from the video service is chock full of all kinds of inside baseball info on what the relationship is like between companies like Netflix and ISP’s like Verizon. Following a controversial deal in which Netflix agreed to pay Verizon for more stable streaming service, we’ve actually seen speeds on Verizon’s networks dip, with their FiOS service now slotting in behind two DSL carriers. What exactly is Netflix getting here for their “Fastlane” money?

netflix congestion warning

Starting out as a test platform, Netflix started broadcasting “congestion” warnings, alerting customers that Verizon’s network was having difficulty streaming high quality video. This prompted a cease and desist from Verizon, and Netflix countered with this letter.

To ensure that these customers get the level of service they pay you for, it is your responsibility to make sure your network, including your interconnection points, have sufficient capacity to accommodate the data requests made by those customers. To try to shift the blame to us for performance issues arising from interconnection congestion is like blaming drivers on a bridge for traffic jams when you’re the one who decided to leave three lanes closed during rush hour.

Continue reading “Netflix to End “Network Congestion” Warnings Following Verizon Cease and Desist”

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When Web “Myths” Become “Real” – Two Girls Stab Classmate Over Slenderman

slender-man-600This is sad, tragic, and horrific. My heart goes out to all of the families involved. I hope my comments regarding this situation don’t read as insensitive, but it’s also a fascinating example of our relationship with media.

By now you’ve likely seen the headlines that two twelve year old girls plotted to kill a classmate, stabbing the victim nineteen times. What wasn’t immediately clear was the motive for this heinous act. Today we’ve heard word that the two girls who committed this crime did so as a tribute to Slenderman.

sl-65For those unfamiliar, Slenderman is an internet scary story initially created as part of a photo editing contest on the Something Awful forums in 2009. Readers of the forum were impressed by this impossibly tall and thin figure wearing a suit, and plaguing children. Others quickly added to the fictional mythos. The popularity of the figure exploded, and early in the viral phase of sharing, many sites purported to have the “True Story” of this mysterious figure, adding to the reality of the creation. Some sites even went as far as creating historical backstories, linking Slenderman to ancient wood carvings and Dark Age superstitions.  Continue reading “When Web “Myths” Become “Real” – Two Girls Stab Classmate Over Slenderman”

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