The latest from TechCrunch
- FCC Probes Google, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, And Verizon On Early Termination Fees
- Weebly Deal Gives Hosting Provider Endurance International A Web Editor That Doesn't Stink
- FunMail's Picture Messaging App Launches On Android
- Bill Gates Busts a Move At Sundance
- HipLogic Rolls Out Downloadable Version Of Smartphone Interface For Mass Market Phones
- Come March 30, eBay Listing Fees Will Be Gone Or Lower For Some Sellers
| FCC Probes Google, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, And Verizon On Early Termination Fees | Top |
| The FCC has just sent letters inquiring about Early Termination Fees to each of the major wireless carriers in the United States — AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless — and one outlier: Google. We’ve embedded all five letters below. The inquiry is the first action taken by the FCC’s recently formed Consumer Task Force. The inquiry comes only a few weeks after the FCC questioned Verizon about its high $350 ETF for “advanced devices” and deemed Verizon’s response to be “unsatisfying, and, in some cases, troubling”. The text of the letters to each of the carriers is very similar. But the letter to Google includes some interesting passages explaining why the company is being questioned alongside the carriers: Google's introduction of the Nexus One handset presents consumers with new options for obtaining mobile wireless service, from a new entrant in the wireless phone market. The Commission welcomes new choices for consumers and new entry into the market because it recognizes that robust competition benefits consumers by accommodating the wide variety of consumers' communications needs. At the same time, where new options may subject consumers to substantial ETFs, potentially from more than one entity, the Commission has a special interest in ensuring that consumers have a clear and complete understanding of the rates, terms, and conditions on which the communications services are being offered and the rationale for those rates, terms, and conditions. The combination of ETFs from Google and T-Mobile for the Nexus One is also unique among the four major national carriers. Consumers have been surprised by this policy and by its financial impact. Please let us know your rationale(s) for these combined fees, and whether you have coordinated or will coordinate on these fees and on the disclosure of their combined effect. While the explanations for why each company is being questioned vary, it appears that the questions being asked are identical. Here are the twelve questions each company is being asked: 1. Do your ETFs apply to all service plans or only some? If so, which ones? 2. What is the amount of the ETF for each service plan where ETFs apply? If there are different ETFs for different plans, what is the rationale for those differences? 3. How much of a discount on handset purchase is given in return for a consumer accepting an ETF? Does the amount of the discount differ by device, and if so, how? 4. Does the ETF itself vary by device (e.g., higher ETFs for advanced devices)? If higher ETFs apply to a certain class of devices, exactly how is that class defined? 5. Is it possible for consumers to buy a handset from you at full price to avoid an ETF? If this is possible, can consumers buy unsubsidized handsets online, as well as at brick-and-mortar stores? 6. Do monthly service rates and terms differ: (1) between customers who assume a term commitment and accept an ETF, and those who don't, and (2) between customers who purchase an unsubsidized device (either from your company or a third party), and those who purchase a subsidized device? If so, how do they differ, and what is the rationale for the difference? Can customers easily determine the impacts of their decisions and their rates and terms? 7. Are ETFs prorated so that the customer's liability decreases over time? If so, what is the exact schedule by which they are prorated? 8. If a customer renews his or her contract without buying a new handset, does his or her monthly service fee change in any way? 9. How long is the trial period during which consumers can cancel their service without an ETF penalty? If they cancel, can they return the handset? If they return it, will they receive a full refund, no refund, or a refund minus a restocking and/or refurbishing fee? 10. When do consumers receive their first bill under your service plans? How does the trial period relate, if at all, to receipt of the first bill? 11. Are there consumer fees or charges in addition to ETFs if consumers buy handsets and/or service plans from online phone dealers, such as Amazon, LetsTalk, and Simplexity (d/b/a Wirefly), or from a service provider, if a customer does not complete the contract term? If so, what are they, and what are their levels, terms, and conditions? Do the fees or charges affect the ETFs and if so, how? 12. Press reports and public statements from wireless companies have attributed ETFs to several different factors. What is the rationale for your ETF(s), and how specifically do the structure and level of those ETF(s) relate to that rationale? DA-10-133A1 DA-10-132A1 DA-10-137A1 DA-10-135A1 DA-10-136A1 | |
| Weebly Deal Gives Hosting Provider Endurance International A Web Editor That Doesn't Stink | Top |
| Since mid 2007, Weebly has offered an intuitive and powerful drag-and-drop website building tool that makes it easy to build rich sites websites with no technical know-how required. Up until now, the company has marketed its product directly to consumers, generating revenue by offering some premium features and services. Today, the startup is bringing its technology to a new market: web hosting customers. The company is announcing that it has been integrated with Endurance International Group, a company that owns a number of hosting providers, including BizLand, FatCow, IPOWER, and Globat. Endurance has over 700,000 paid customers across all of its properties, and all of them will get Weebly integration. Weebly has provided Endurance with a dedicated set of servers that will be running the service. By keeping the Weebly machines on site, Endurance will be able to keep access speeds high to its customers, and can better control reliability and data storage. But while Weebly won’t be directly in control of the servers, they’ll still be pushing regular updates as Weebly proper gets updated. Weebly CEO David Rusenko says he can’t disclose details of the deal, but that Weebly will make money through a revenue sharing agreement. Endurance customers will be offered Weebly’s premium features, with pricing tiers set by Endurance. Customers will pay through their Endurance accounts, and Weebly will take a portion of the proceeds. The tool itself will look identical to Weebly.com, but will be accessed through an option in the hosting provider’s control panel. This is a win for both Weebly and Endurance users. Anyone who has recently used a web hosting provider knows that the page building options almost always leave a lot to be desired — sure, you may be able to install WordPress using an automated script, but for building a custom website your options are extremely limited. These integrataed tools typically leave you with something that looks like it was designed in 1999. Weebly is a big step up from these outdated tools, allowing users to build custom sites that can include everything from blogs and rich media to Ecommerce . Rusenko says Weebly is in talks with other hosting providers to launch similar integrations, so it’s likely we’ll be hearing related news in the near future. He also notes that Weebly recently passed 3 million users. CrunchBase Information Weebly Endurance International Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| FunMail's Picture Messaging App Launches On Android | Top |
| FunMobility’s picture messaging app for the iPhone, called FunMail, has a seen a fair amount of traction, with 100,000 downloads since its launch in November. Today, the developers are rolling out a similar app for Android phones. You can access the app here. Similar to the iPhone app, FunMail for Android allows users blasts their text into the application, which then breaks down whatever the user typed for context. FunMail's learning technology "Media Brain” will return a handful of context-related graphics (pulled from Creative Commons sources and their own user-generated library), with your original text. The user picks the graphic they want, and off it goes via SMS, Facebook, or Twitter. In addition, FunMail leverage's Google's voice-recognition and transcription technology, enabling consumers to turn spoken messages into images that can be shared. The service is free to the users but FunMail plans to monetize via partnerships (though its unclear what those partnerships will be). Considering the decent amount of downloads of the iPhone app, the Android app could be popular. And the app’s ability to leverage the phone’s transcription and voice-recognition technologies makes FunMail even more compelling. The iPhone app, which you can download here, has also received an upgrade, with new content and performance enhancements. | |
| Bill Gates Busts a Move At Sundance | Top |
| GuestofaGuest found some pix of Bill Gates rocking out at Robert Redford's party at Sundance. Curious as to what he was dancing to, we ran "ENHANCE" in Windows 7 and were able to pull the audio by sensing the vibrations in each person's hair as well as a reflection of someone's Zune in the blond woman's right eye. Then, by using Windows Movie Maker we grabbed all of the images and interpolated them into one video and then pulled the audio from the metadata. The result? Bill Gates busting a move. Click through for video. | |
| HipLogic Rolls Out Downloadable Version Of Smartphone Interface For Mass Market Phones | Top |
| Mobile application platform HipLogic is rolling out a consumer version of its smartphone interface for non-smartphones. HipLogic Live is a free downloadable application will deliver content—including Facebook, Twitter, CBS news, CBS sports, and weather—to select Windows Mobile or Symbian devices. Founded by three veterans from Sun Microsystems, HipLogic brings sophisticated applications to the simplest cell phones by keeping all the complexity in the network. In essence, HipLogic is trying to bring the quick, easy interface of a BlackBerry to more simple, lightweight phones that are available for the mass market. Consumers can toggle between the original mobile operating system and an always-on smartphone-like interface for instant access to a collection of apps. HipLogic Live features a variety of apps, widgets, realtime notifications (Facebook updates and Twitter), and a search bar. The interface and applications are not as sleek and powerful as those of the iPhone and Android, but draws more similarities to the apps and OS of BlackBerry devices. Behind the curtains, HipLogic's application platform features a lightweight, JavaScript virtual machine connected to the cloud and aggregates info from network operators and the web to create mash-ups on mobile devices. While the consumer offering is the first step towards gaining a loyal userbase, HioLogic will need to partner with retailers and phone developers in the near future to include the application within mobile devices. Formerly known has Numobiq, HipLogic has raised $11.5 in funding, recently adding $7 million to its coffers. | |
| Come March 30, eBay Listing Fees Will Be Gone Or Lower For Some Sellers | Top |
| eBay this morning announced that it will introduce free auction listings and reduced listing fees for fixed-priced items in the U.S., starting March 30. The e-commerce giant says the ’success-based’ pricing is similar to changes implemented by eBay in Europe, changes that have self-reportedly driven strong growth for sellers in markets such as the U.K. and Germany. Beginning March 30, eBay will offer two pricing packages in the United States: "eBay Everyday" rates Auction-style listings with a start price of 99 cents or less will be free (with no insertion fees for up to 100 listings per month). When an item sells, the seller will pay a flat final value fee of 9 percent of the sale price – and never more than $50. If an item doesn't sell, the seller pays nothing. eBay says these listings are typically are the ideal format for people who sell on the site occasionally. "eBay Stores" subscription rates For large volume sellers, eBay is to introduce insertion fees as low as 3 cents per listing for 30 days—a 90 percent reduction over current rates according to the company. Subscription rates offer various pricing options, depending on the size of a seller's business. With the new pricing, a seller with 250 listings per month would save $80 or $960 a year in insertion fees, eBay says. With these changes, eBay's current store inventory format will be discontinued and will no longer have separate search functionality from core fixed-price listings. With the new eBay Stores rate package, all fixed priced inventory on eBay will have exposure through eBay's main search functionality. Update: lower-volume sellers are apparently quite unhappy with the changes. From AuctionBytes , who posted a thorough analysis of the changes and the effects on the marketplace: With the new eBay Stores pricing, it’s much more expensive to list in Stores format for low-volume sellers – you pay the same $15.95/month subscription fee, but rather than paying as low as 3 cents to list, you must pay a 20-cent insertion fee. However, your listings appear in Core search results. Sellers who want to determine which pricing option will work best for their listings when the changes take place in March can use eBay's Fee Illustrator : Along with the pricing changes, eBay announced that, effective today, it is expanding to all buyers its eBay Buyer Protection , which the company has been piloting over the past year. The program was first introduced in October 2009 and helps buyers identify sellers who consistently provide great service (as rated by other buyers). Through the program, buyers will have access to customer support specialists seven days a week, as well as a money-back offer for most purchases should a problem arise and the seller is unable to resolve the issue. eBay Buyer Protection covers items paid with PayPal or any other approved payment method. | |
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