Links for Thursday, April 30 2009:

• CEA study finds serious consumer interest in Internet-enabled TVs, cool bands like Radiohead and Coldplay [feedproxy.google.com]
• More Than 1 Million Households in California Now Have Access to Verizon’s All-Fiber-Optic FiOS TV Service [newscenter.verizon.com]
• Finally: Disney, Hulu Deal Announced (John Paczkowski/Digital Daily) [www.techmeme.com]
• Google on How to Change the Internet: You Should Own Your Broadband Pipes [Internet] [feeds.gawker.com]
• Apple Is Serious About Gaming: Steals Xbox Senior Director of Strategy (Matt Buchanan/Gizmodo) [www.techmeme.com]

These links were generated by the the etilities.com Wire, and they can be filtered based on your personal technology profile. For more information, sign up at http://assistant.etilities.com/signup

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Welcome to Etilities.Com, the home of Personal Technology Services!

Etilities.Com is to Etilities as Cars.Com is to Cars or Flowers.Com is to Flowers. As obvious as that statement is, in order for it to be helpful to you we need to define what Etilities are

Etilities.Com defines an Etility as “a service exchanging or facilitating the passage of data from one system to another”.

Not so long ago, making a travel reservation was a complicated and tedious process. Booking planes, trains, cars, hotels and coordinating it all was a cumbersome task that we all feared.  This drove the birth of travel agents which often took exorbitant fees.  Eventually, consumer-friendly businesses such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz allowed the same access to what was previously limited to a select few individuals or businesses.  That’s exactly what Etilities.Com intends to do only replacing travel with Personal Technology Services which we call Etilities.

Etilities.Com breaks the market down in four broad categories:

• Internet Connectivity:  Services providing the backbone of the communication from dial-up to broadband providers.
• Voice Services:  Services enabling the exchange of voice information from one point to another including both fixed and mobile phones.
• Entertainment Services:  Services providing information and entertainment such as music, movies, television and radio.
• Internet Applications:  Services providing value to computer systems or their users such as backup services, anti-virus services, anti-spam services or even e-mail.

By breaking the market down in these logical blocks, Etilities.Com can analyze each industry and bring the best of each service together to serve individual consumers.  As part of this launch, Etilities.Com released several services to bring either value or savings to everyday users.

The Etilities.Com Assistant is now released in Beta form to the public.  Through the Assistant, users will be able to not only stay up-to-date on changes within the industry but also to personalize alerts based on their current use.

Additionally, users may select to receive recommendations through the Etilities Advisor based on active research by Etilities.Com.  Through the Advisor program, users will automatically receive suggestions for possible savings or improvements.

In addition to ongoing optimization, Etilities.Com offers a relocation package aimed to facilitate the identification of optimum technology services bundle at your new destination.

Finally, for our clients desiring a more hands-on approach, Etilities.Com also released its Concierge service with a more personal touch and dedicated account team.

Of course, Etilities.com will continue to report news through its blog and offer a means for users to discuss Etilities and build a community through its forums.

We hope you enjoy our new site and look forward to receiving your feedback.

The Etilities.Com Staff

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

Ars Technica reported two excellent stories about Time Warner Cable and bandwidth caps this past week.  After several complaints and a few senators’ involvement, TWC finally abandoned the use of explicit bandwidth caps last week.  Though the move was applauded by many including consumers, Senator Chuck Schumer and the the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, some users still face issues.  Though the cap was removed, the company still maintains its “Acceptable Use Policy” which has led to frustrated user Ryan Howard seeing his internet connectivity shut down.  In this case, Ryan was explained that he download 44Gb of data in one week which apparently causes a trigger within TWC’s systems.  Though the full story goes into further details but we certainly feel that ghost caps that consumers are penalized for certainly is a turn for the wrong direction.  Though we will keep following bandwidth cap issues here, a blog recently started about that very topic should you wish to learn more about that specific issue, check out StoptheCap.com.

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.

VOIP service Skype (Etilities Forum) made headlines everywhere earlier this week when it finally released its iPhone application. The reception was overwhelmingly positive with great reviews and millions of downloads. Wireless providers, however, were not so pleased: AT&T (Etilities Forum) quickly responded by changing its terms of use to restrict the use of third party apps like Sling and Skype on its network. For example, Skype can only work with a wi-fi connection. AT&T does not allow it to work over its 3G network. This of course generated much negative media coverage, with talks of already instigating FCC probes into whether these practices are anti-competitive.

Of course it’s understandable that wireless providers are scared of the prospect of a competitor offering a cheaper service than they offer on their own network. But why stop at VOIP and video streaming? Why not start banning e-mail from the AT&T network? After all, it constitutes free transmission of text that could otherwise be done via SMS, which directly profits the wireless providers. Why not shut down all web browsers, all third party apps, and lock down that phone nice and tight? That way it’ll be just like being back in the 90s!

©2008-2009, Gallop Services, Inc. All rights reserved.