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Today’s topics include T-Mobile’s decision to dump mobile device preorders, Intel’s efforts to develop technologies for big data analytics and the Internet of things, the FCC’s fining Smart City $750K for blocking private user WiFi hotspots, and Google’s reportedly closing express delivery hubs in the San Francisco Bay area.
John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile, is not known for docilely following marketing convention in the wireless industry. So it is no shock that Leger this week posted several tweets on Twitter announcing that his company is dumping the traditional idea of device preorders before Samsung officially releases its Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Note 5 mobile devices and moving directly to accepting final orders for customers that will ship out as soon as T-Mobile can get the new devices.
At the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2015 (held Aug. 18-21 in San Francisco), company officials expanded on Intel’s efforts to create a platform that enables software developers and device makers to create and manage products for the Internet of things.
During the first two days of IDF, Intel executives talked about everything from enhancing the company’s IoT Developer program to creating a collaboration cloud designed to give hospitals better tools for battling cancer in patients.
The challenge for Intel and its partners is developing the big data technology to gather and analyze that data produced by the billions of devices connected to the IoT to produce accurate information that businesses, researchers and professionals of all kinds can act on.
Convention center WiFi and telecommunications vendor Smart City will pay a $750,000 fine to the U.S. government for blocking private WiFi hotspots in multiple convention halls across the nation in an attempt to force users to pay for the company’s connectivity services.
In a consent decree announced by the Federal Communications Commission on Aug. 18, the company agreed to the $750,000 settlement and to halt its practice of blocking private WiFi systems, according to the FCC.
The Google Express same-day delivery service began as a pilot program in the San Francisco Bay Area in March 2013. The idea was to help the company develop delivery systems that might compete with Amazon and its well-established delivery services for a wide array of consumer products.
Now Google is re-evaluating those efforts and apparently closing two Google Express delivery hubs in San Francisco and Mountain View in an effort to slash the costs of the service, which is provided by local drivers and vehicles.
Instead, Google plans to switch to less costly third-party startups to make the deliveries and streamline operations. The closing of the two hubs was reported in an Aug. 19 story by VentureBeat.