TechBlog

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that federal agencies have made 700 seizures of counterfeit Cisco hardware worth more than $143 million in the last five years. The investigations resulted in the conviction of 30 people in an initiative targeting the illegal distribution of counterfeit network hardware manufactured in China. Nine other individuals are awaiting trial and eight are awaiting sentencing. The agencies involved in the investigations include the FBI’s Cyber Division U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. ...

The University of California, Berkeley, has found that more than half young adults have become more aware of Internet privacy issues than they were five years ago. That number is similar to Internet users their parents’ age or older. “In its telephone survey of 1,000 people, the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at the University of California found that 88 percent of the 18- to 24-year-olds it surveyed last July said there should be a law that requires Web sites to delete stored information. And 62 percent said they wanted a law that gave people the right to know everything a Web site knows about them.” ...

It was speculative before given the lack of independent confirmation, but now apparently Apple has gone on record to confirm that the original deal signed with AT&T for iPhone exclusivity back in 2007 was a five-year deal. That means at least some legal hoops would need jumping through if we’re ever going to see that oft-rumored Verizon iPhone before 2012. Engadget reports that court documents filed by Apple in a California class-action suit confirm the original AT&T exclusivity deal had a five-year duration. The suit, ongoing since 2007, claims that Apple and AT&T were exerting a monopoly over iPhone service by surreptitiously locking iPhone buyers into renewing contracts with AT&T once their initial two years was up. ...

Although Google announced only last month that Sprint would carry its Nexus One phone, the carrier has since retracted from that plan. Gizmodo reports that the carrier will instead focus its efforts on the upcoming HTC EVO 4G it will be launching this summer. Both devices are Android phones, but the EVO is arguably more full-featured and will take advantage of Sprint’s 4G network — the next-generation cellular service that will be more akin to true mobile broadband with faster speeds than current 3G networks. ...

With Congress’ dance card already overflowing with major social and policy reforms, including in the financial sector, the likelihood that it could pass a major reform to the Telecommunications Act for Internet regulation during the Obama Administration (however long it lasts) is quite low. Faced with a pair of no-win scenarios, the FCC last week opted to propose a “Third Way” for broadband regulation that could at least get its foot back in the door — a way that literally asks judges and attorneys-general to substitute “telephone” for “broadband” in various clauses of existing law, except for those sections where doing so wouldn’t make any sense. ...

Last week, we took a look at Mint’s new app for Android, which lets users track their finances and budget on their mobile device in a safe, read-only app. Mint.com was acquired by Intuit Software in late 2009, meshing the free, Web-based personal finance service with Intuit’s portfolio of financial, accounting, and budgeting services. Today, Intuit announced it is expanding further into online healthcare services with its acquisition of North Carolina company Medfusion for an estimated $91 million in cash. ...

Premium cable TV channel Showtime plans to launch a service that will stream episodes of original series like Weeds, The Tudors and Californication to subscribers, a source told Bloomberg Businessweek. Details about the new service are scarce, but the network is reportedly discussing the plans with the cable operators that distribute its channels, who are undoubtedly concerned that an online service will cut into revenues for traditional cable TV distribution. ...

As Skype prepares to roll out five-way video calling this week — an addition the company plans to charge for at a later date — it’s also thinking of monetizing the now free user-to-user web calling serving with advertisements. In an interview with The Telegraph, CEO Josh Silverman explains that the company — once again its own entity — is challenged by its desire to keep Skype-to-Skype calls free and to maintain the quality of service. As a result, the Skype team is “seriously considering” including ads from third parties in order to continue to operate the service free of charge. ...

If you’ve ever struggled to make sense of terms like “semantic web,” we’ve got a fascinating, entertaining and informative video for you. The Internet currently holds about as much information as 1,700 Libraries of Congress. Some of the leading minds on the web are exploring new ways to sort this data and how to understand not just what data is about, but also how data is linked. For example, a picture on Flickr is more than just a number of pixels and a file size. It was uploaded by a person and might contain images of other people. It might have been taken in a specific place or be about a specific moment in time. Those bits of information link that photograph to other entities: people, places, things and events. When we know how data is linked and we use that information to determine relevancy across media and sources, we’re using the semantic web. ...

According to Australian Macworld, a new version of the MacBook Air may show up in the Apple Online Store tomorrow morning. The same source who correctly predicted the MacBook Pro refresh last month alerted Australian Macworld of a new Apple product number in the Apple database. The product number, MC516LL/A K87 BETTER BTR-USA, suggests that it is a Mac product (the “BETTER” nomenclature is the big clue there, as it often refers to the different tiers of Mac products). As AppleInsider also notes, it is possible that the number could refer to a new Apple Cinema Display, one that is 27″ and matches that of the 27″ iMac, but we’d place our bets on a new MacBook Air. ...