OVERNIGHT TECH: LightSquared blames GPS makers for interference

{mosads}Judge says Google could be liable for Wi-Spy incident under Wiretap Act: A federal judge found Thursday that Google could be liable for
intercepting data from public WiFi networks as part of last year’s
Street View controversy. Google has acknowledged downloading payload data including emails,
passwords and URLs but argued it did nothing illegal because the
networks were unsecured.

Northern District Court of California Judge James Ware rejected
that argument and refused to dismiss several class action lawsuits,
finding that wireless communications are protected under the Wiretap Act
in the same manner as cellphone conversations. The ruling could have broader implications for the security of public WiFi networks.

House Republican wants new retrans rules this year: Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) wrote to Federal Communications Commission
Chairman Julius Genachowski on Wednesday urging the agency to issue new
rules ahead of this year’s retransmission negotiations. King notes more than a thousand carriage agreements are set to expire
by the end of 2011 and said Pay-TV providers are looking for certainty
in the form of final rules that will govern this year’s negotiations
between themselves and broadcasters.

Smartphones are majority of new cell purchases: Fifty-five percent of people surveyed by Nielsen in May reported
buying a smartphone instead of a standard cell phone, up from 34 percent
a year ago. Android remains the most popular smartphone platform with 38 percent of
the market, followed by Apple at 27 percent and RIM’s BlackBerry with 21
percent.

White House to host Twitter townhall on July 6th: Users will be able to ask the President questions using the hashtag “#AskObama”

White House called MSNBC over Halperin remark: White House press secretary Jay Carney said he called officials
at MSNBC to convey to the cable station the administration’s anger
toward a remark made by an analyst Thursday morning. Washington
was abuzz Thursday after journalist Mark Halperin
used a profane term to describe President Obama’s tone during
Wednesday’s press conference.

200 Million. The number of Tweets sent per day as of June 30, according to the Twitter Blog.

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Happy Independence Day and enjoy the long weekend.