Verizon Throttled Firefighter Data during California Wildfire

Verizon recently throttled the data connection that firefighters were relying on during an emergency fire response effort in Santa Clara, about an hour outside of San Francisco. Anthony Bowden, the Santa Clara County Fire Chief, expressed his disappointment in Verizon in an official statement: “This throttling has had a significant impact on our ability to […]

Time to Speak Out Against the Plan to Destroy Net Neutrality

Even before John Oliver took to ranting about the necessity of net neutrality regulations, mobile app developers were passionate supporters of the open internet. We thought the fight for net neutrality was over after the unified outcry from various internet communities back in 2014, but then along came Trump and his new FCC chairman, former […]

Senate Dismantles Obama-Era Internet Privacy Protections

For app developers concerned with privacy, yesterday was a dark day. Senate Republicans passed a bill eliminating privacy regulations imposed on broadband providers by the FCC during the final months of the Obama presidency. Those protections would have required ISPs to get consent from the consumer before selling off personal information to a third party. […]

Smartphone “Kill Switch” to Deter Cell Phone Theft?

There was a time when you could really be in for a major headache if your credit card was stolen. The thief could theoretically tally up hundreds or thousands of dollars in unauthorized purchases, leaving you on the hook for the bill. Then, credit card companies made it possible for customers to cancel stolen cards […]

This Week in Mobile – Headline from Across the Tech World

Samsung Loses Patent Judgement in their Own Backyard Apple and Samsung are duking it out in courtrooms across the globe. In the latest battle in the mobile patent wars, Samsung was dealt a hefty blow in their own backyard. What makes this particular case unique was that it played out Samsung’s home country of South […]

American Internet Connection Speeds Lag Western World

Being slow, falling behind, and lacking innovation may be traits commonly reserved for failed states in Sub-Saharan Africa, yet in a shocking report on global internet speeds, the United States ranked at an embarrassingly low 28th place in the developed world. According to a news article published by USA Today, “A recent analysis by the […]