Saturday, 26 January 2013

"For the record, your father didn't leave ME, he left YOU" // draft

An open letter to my mother, Karen CON. 

From: ELyssaD™ 
Date: January 25, 2013, 11:17:28 EST
To: ELyssaD 
Subject: Fwd: "For the record, your father didn't leave ME, he left YOU" // draft

You're going to be famous. I saved all your letters, including the one you sent Grandma in 1995 wishing her dead too. 

Now that I have signed with a book publisher, we decided about six months ago to publish all your disgusting, hateful letters to, well, pretty much everyone. 

Well, the whole world is, and has been watching since you disconnected my phone and sold my car for a whole month (in August) while you and your charming new husband were busy remodeling the house Grandpa bought you and throwing every last memory of me, Lauren and Marty since you "don't want a single item or memory" of any of us. 

So, after reading your VICIOUS texts and emails that I have saved since 1995 I decided to go ahead with the book since so many people want me to publish it. 

I *WAS* waiting until you were either too old or dead to spare you the pain and embarrassment that you would be feeling if you had a conscience. 

All I asked yesterday was that you take Lauren instead of your loser husband to Atlanta. Just because YOU have disowned both your children and every other blood relative, it is cruel and childish to get forbid (us) from speaking with one another. That is what you failed to realize after all these years. Your attempts to create tension by intercepting commutation between my sister, my father, your mother, my uncles and any one who dares to speak to someone you have -- 

Begin forwarded message:

From: ELyssaD™ 
Date: January 21, 2013, 5:24:49 EST
To: ELyssaD 
Subject: Fwd: "For the record, your father didn't leave ME, he left YOU"

Wow. Just, wow. 

No one to send it to. Not yet. She never even read it. 

Wow.

^ed


Begin forwarded message:

From: "ELyssa D. Durant"
Date: September 30, 2012, 2:17:19 AM EDT
Subject: "For the record, your father didn't leave ME, he left YOU"

Thanks for the email after I finally decided to go for a walk and enjoy some peace and quiet in my new home.

Here is what I have to say:

It started with one condition, "Don't tell your father or sister."

Now we have a problem because you won't shut the fuck up.

Why do still care what my father says if he was as miserable as you say?

You would not allow me to use the telephone or play music for 22 days. Now that I had time to process the information and speak with reliable, informed and honest individuals, here is what they had to say:

"She is clearly hiding something. It sounds very fishy. Doesn't she know that's public record?" -Auntie

"Don't even go near her." -Daddy

"Again??" Witness 1996-2010

Documented case file:

"Ms. Durant's mother has history of accessing her health care records and calls my office weekly to discuss HIPAA protected information.  I told Ms. Weisbart to stop calling my office, and advised her to seek psychiatric help." 1999-2002 (they consulted to discuss YOUR unnatural need to gain access to MY records.

"Your daughter is right. She is over 18, and without her consent I can discuss the results with you." -Endocrinology 1995   

"Elyssa's emotional and physical health clearly decline in the presence of her mother. Relevant medical history reveals a pattern of neglect and abuse that continues into adulthood."

"As Elyssa's doctor for over eleven years, I am fully aware of her condition and have reviewed the results of a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation.  It is my professional medical opinion that Elyssa should be in full control of her own benefits since her parent's involvement prevent her from obtaining proper medical treatment and complicates her ability to  coordinate benefits." 2010

Well, now you've done it again. So here we go!

9/30/12 1:24am

Totally derailed my progress by sending email accusing me of "vicious assaults" so let's set the record straight.


EXACTLY.

You made me choose less than 48 hours ago between my cat, my passport, birth certificate, PC, and medication or food which were inside the apartment and literally dangled the keys in front of my face like I was some sort of animal begging for treats.

That is SICK. I told you, that I needed to get inside to get my phone, food and medicine. You said, "No. You can not go inside. You may have in the car until 10pm or maybe find your own transportation on Monday."

I had to choose. My health and sanity or my cat. I chose a stray cat over you and your precious "things" because that is how little I value your approval or judgment.

I told you in no uncertain terms you were endangering my physical health by denying access to food, medicine, and exposed me to toxins that caused a severe reaction.

Your response? "Oh well. I guess you'll just have to decide which is more important."

What the fuck is wrong with you?

I was playing nicely, and you just had to start bitching at 9:18 pm on a Saturday night after the hell you put me through less than 12 hours earlier?

"This is what you get. Nothing. You're on your own." Karen Kahn 9/29/12

Go away.

I'm not afraid of you or your militant husband.

I have you on video forcing me to sign a lease under false pretenses.

You will NOT like to see me any more disgusted and determined than I am right now to expose you for the fraud that you are.

Since you don't respond to any of the urgent messages or emails I have sent  since 9/13/12 I won't bother to send it to you. I'll send to all your friends instead. The same way you sent naked pictures YOU took of my body to everyone when I got destroyed the body YOU gave me when I was in college.

I still have a copy somewhere. I have ALL my medical records on PASSWORD protected CD in case you try to use this to accuse me of lying or your favorite excuse,  "being mean."

DO NOT TEST ME.

I have never hit a single person in my life and have never hit you back when you have psychotic fits of rage that have included sharp objects.

YOU are the problem.

And don't try another one of your "suicide" watches and call your friends to come check on me.

I would never consider suicide despite what you told me at Grandpa Al's funeral, "I would understand if you committed suicide since you are such a financial burden to me and society."

Well, fuck you!

I may not have the life YOU dreamed of, but I have what I need.

A purpose.  

Just to make it crystal clear, if for no other reason, I would never hurt or kill myself even if I wanted to because I would never give you the satisfaction.

You are stuck. This is what you get when you do the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Insanity. And you can keep it. You are 65 years old and you care more about a pair of JEANS than your own flesh and blood.

Bat shit fucking crazy.  

You have two children, four brothers, a mother and father who found  you SO vile and toxic, no one wants anything to do with you.

-ALL my doctors concur. YOU are the problem. If you don't like how I turned out, perhaps it is a reflection of your poor parenting skills. You failed.

Touché.

After the Yom Kippur incident, someone asked,  "Is there any way you can do an intervention for your mother? She obviously needs help."

I responded, "No. She has alienated every member of her family and nobody cares anymore. She is not worth it."

I later justified that statement by saying that since you get suicidal or "sick" every time you see or don't see me, I am clearly a threat to your sanity.

You claim that I made you and your "poor husband" sick and blame me for your suicidal ideations as well as ruining your marriages and your life.

Have it your way. I will gladly give you exactly what you want. And for those who "know" the whole story realize the best gift I could give you or to myself  is goodbye.

So that is where we stand. I have less than standard hotel accommodations, "here are two towels. You can only have one."

No problem. I would rather have nothing than have you're tattooed make up and liposuctioned ass outside anywhere near me or my property.

You get what you give. Nothing.

Now go away and don't come back unless you have three independent psychiatric evaluations for me to review and a straight jacket on.

You are VIOLENT and vicious and I don't trust you or anyone who is crazy or stupid enough to buy the "poor Karen" act and put up with your bullshit.

Listen to me! It's not worth it. Save your time, money and any shred of self respect you pretend to have. I am done.

Like everybody else.

Remember the "DO NOT CONTACT ORDER" from 1995?

It is on my records that you are NOT to  be contacted or have ANY say in my life or death or medical decisions.

It was filed when I lost my home and you turned off my phone because I didn't call you back during a REAL emergency.

It was filed with the federal government  to prevent exactly this. My benefits were cancelled the day after you forced me to sign a makeshift lease under duress against legal and medical advice.

November 1, 2010. The same month you filed a claim for all the "stuff" you blamed me for ruining in a few short weeks, and the same items you said your renters damaged last season.

Go fuck yourself.

That's a duplication of benefits and it is illegal.

You got the most expensive estimates for insurance adjusters and went with cheapest, quickest subcontractors you could find.

I'm not stupid. At least I read contracts (and taxes) before I sign them.

Learn from your mistakes.

Quit while you're ahead.

You bought your "not so secret" property and received a claim check 11/1/2010 for renovations.

Marble
Cabinetry
Sliding glass doors
Door Knobs
Cabinetry
Trimwork
MBR
Tiles
Doors

I don't have an MBR. Obviously your "to do list"  is for YOU.

The claim paid the exact same items  you filed as damaged when I WATCHED you remove them from YOUR condo and put them into mine so you could double dip and upgrade another one of your bourgeois pig lifestyle. It was no sacrifice. It was fraud.

"Non negotiable?"

"Non refundable?"

"Labor Day sale"

"Gift"

"Basics"

BULLSHIT!

Enough is enough.

You cannot stalk, "hover" or inspect my litter box or my patio for smoke three times a day OR week just waiting for the first opportunity to force or lock me out (again) or play some psycho game like you did yesterday forcing me to chose between MY property, my cat, or my medicine.

"Good faith?" No such thing.

Not with your history.

You are already harassing me, violating the lease and property mgmt rules and were talking about forfeiture before I even moved in.

Fancy legal term for somebody who doesn't even realize that property transfers are public record. Already available to ANYONE on the Internet.

The "Deed" is already done.

So. Are. We.

Only so many claims you can make in any policy year.

SO, I documented move in conditions for MY protection since you are already violating my rights by refusing to hand over keys and are not responding to calls from your tenant who was approved by on 9/20/12 and filed with the Circuit Court since you told Management I was moving in on the 22nd of September.

I am in, and I have no intention of leaving so you can forget about that.

Don't push me.

"You're on your own." -Karen Kahn 2:18pm

I sent MULTIPLE emergency texts regarding MAINTENANCE questions.

Is that what I can expect from an experienced Landlord who has more than one property in the exclusive, members only PGA Cuntry Club?

"I'm going to give to give her a taste of her own medicine." -Karen Kahn minutes before you nearly killed both of us trying to smack me and drive at the same time.

Don't you realize it is UNACCEPTABLE to allow YOUR husband to threaten physical violence against your own children?

It was unacceptable when I was five, it is UNACCEPTABLE now.

"I'm going to smack you in the fucking head if you come out here." That was overhead and recorded by someone local. That makes four witnesses.

Now, if you hadn't just sent me that email at 9:19pm after refusing to answer URGENT questions regarding the property and CONTRACT issues, I would not have just spent over an hour on YOUR bullshit.

This is what you get when you constantly threaten, insult and LIE to everyone. You force me to assert MY rights under the law.

I don't care HOW "vicious" or "mean" you think I am. All I did was just a old trick from Nazi scientists!

All I did was repeat, out loud, every sentence to point out how ridiculous you sound.

It worked. You lost it!

How's that as a taste of your own medicine?

That is what YOU sound like.

Besides, don't you have more important things to do respond to the  State before they send deputies to inspect? You should reconcile your failure to pay any taxes for the income from your renters before you try to rent another property such as the one I am living in.

I signed a twelve month lease, and I will be REALLY pissed if I have to move because you can't comply with simple state and federal requirements because you used MY social security number (again) for material gain. UNACCEPTABLE.

Pretty sure you only have ten days to respond and the letter was dated 9/19/2012. You better get that fixed.

You should really learn not to enter into contracts since you don't even read them.

Now go send this to ALL your friends and tell them what horrible children you have. NOBODY cares except your "best husband ever" who you allowed to threaten and cause physical damage to me and MY property.

Maybe someone should tell him you already picked out his replacement.

How many of Adrienne's exes are you going to "land?"

You are no Adrienne, and you are no mother.

Enjoy your renovations. Again.

Your parental rights were terminated for a reason.

You were unfit then, and you are unfit now.

This is strictly a business contract, nothing more.

Your tenant,

Elyssa Durant

Photo



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Google: Government Requests for User Data Continue to Rise

Google: Government Requests for User Data Continue to Rise

Google's biannual Transparency Report now also includes details on the legal steps which the U.S. government uses to request the...

Published: Yesterday

http://www.eweek.com/cloud/google-government-requests-for-user-data-continue-to-rise/

This article was sent from the eWEEK App.

Google's biannual Transparency Report now also includes details on the legal steps which the U.S. government uses to request the information.

Google since 2009 has seen a more than 70 percent increase in requests from governments worldwide for information about its users and their possible criminal activities, according to Google's latest biannual "Transparency Report" on such requests.

For the six-month period ending Dec. 31, 2012, Google received 21,389 government requests for information about 33,634 users, including 8,438 requests involving 14,791 users by the United States government, according to a Jan. 23 post by Richard Salgado, legal director of Google's Law Enforcement and Information Security unit, on the Google Public Policy blog.

"Today we're releasing new data for the Transparency Report, showing that the steady increase in government requests for our users' data continued in the second half of 2012, as usage of our services continued to grow," wrote Salgado.

Google has been compiling and releasing the reports since 2010 to keep the process transparent for users of its services so they can have insights into what is done with the data stored by Google. "We've shared figures like this since 2010 because it's important for people to understand how government actions affect them," wrote Salgado.

In the United States, the number of government requests is up since the last Transparency Report that detailed January through June of 2012. In that report, there were 7,969 total requests involving 16,281 users.

Google complied with 88 percent of the government inquiries in the second half of the year and 90 percent of the inquiries in the first half of the year, the report states.

The latest biannual report includes more information than past versions, wrote Salgado. The reports will now include a breakdown detailing what legal procedures U.S. government agencies took to seek the information, whether it is through subpoenas, search warrants or court orders.

For the period from July through December 2012, 68 percent of the requests Google received from U.S. government entities were through subpoenas, wrote Salgado. "These are requests for user-identifying information, issued under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), and are the easiest to get because they typically don't involve judges."

Another 22 percent were through ECPA search warrants, which are typically ordered by judges,based on probable cause that a crime has been committed, he wrote.

The remaining 10 percent mostly involved other court orders.

This was the sixth biannual transparency report issued by Google. No specific requests or information are presented in the reports.

Jeffrey Child, a privacy expert and associate professor of communications studies at Kent State University, said the reports are illuminating and should give pause to Internet users who believe that what they do online is private and will not come back to haunt them.

"I think that a lot of people don't know about the extent of the inquiries here, about just how many requests that they get," said Child. "Litigators seek the information as they try to make a case that people communicate in every possible way as they seek information, through the Internet and Google searches. If they can have this information, they can make better decisions and they can make sure that they are prosecuting people in the right way."

That's a good thing, he said, but at the same time, "more people need to take note of it because it will cause more people to be cautious about what they do or say or search online. They may be think that that is private information and based on these reports, it is not and that information can be handed over" to law enforcement agencies when warranted.

"This is a great example of seeing the difference between people's expectations of privacy and the legal or the behavioral [side] where people might think that some of this information could never be turned over. If they knew that it could be turned over, perhaps they wouldn't do it."

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AT&T to Buy Wireless Spectrum From Verizon for $1.9 Billion

AT&T to Buy Wireless Spectrum From Verizon for $1.9 Billion

The deal comes just days after spectrum-hungry AT&T announces a deal to buy Alltel's assets for $780 million.

Published: Yesterday

http://www.eweek.com/networking/att-to-buy-wireless-spectrum-from-verizon-for-1.9-billion/

This article was sent from the eWEEK App.

The deal comes just days after spectrum-hungry AT&T announces a deal to buy Alltel's assets for $780 million.

AT&T, which has aggressively been buying up spectrum over the past year following its failed attempt to acquire smaller rival T-Mobile, is spending $1.9 billion for spectrum from top competitor Verizon Wireless.

The two wireless carriers announced the deal Jan. 25, saying that the $1.9 billion will buy AT&T spectrum in the 700 MHz B band as well as Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum licenses in a number of markets, including Phoenix, Los Angeles, Fresno, Calif., and Portland, Ore. The licenses acquired by AT&T cover 42 million people in 18 states throughout the country, according to AT&T officials.

The deal will enable AT&T to add to its existing spectrum holdings in the 700 MHz B band and to more quickly deploy its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) services to more of the country. The carrier has a goal of reaching 300 million people in the United States with its LTE network by the end of 2014; it currently covers more than 285 million, the company said in December 2012, when it made its LTE service available in Hartford, Conn.

The Verizon deal also comes just three days after AT&T announced it was buying the Alltel brand from Atlantic Tele-Network for $780 million, a move that included spectrum in the 700MHz, 850MHz and 1900MHz bands, as well as Alltel's licenses, network assets, retail stores and about 585,000 subscribers.

Spectrum—and getting more of it—has become the key issue in the wireless industry, as the carriers compete to grow their 4G LTE networks as quickly as possible to meet the demand from an increasingly insatiable public and business sector. It also is an important driver for the country as well, with the Obama Administration making broadband expansion an issue for improving the United States’ competitiveness. In a Jan. 25 blog post regarding the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming Incentive Auction, Joan March, AT&T’s vice president of federal regulatory, said that “freeing up more spectrum is critical to U.S. economic growth and technological leadership.”

AT&T has been aggressive in acquiring spectrum and got a boost from the FCC in December when regulators approved AT&T's request to buy licenses on the Wireless Communications Service (WCS) and Advanced Wireless Services (AWS-1) spectrum bands from Comcast, Horizon, NextWave and San Diego Gas & Electric. In a Dec. 18 blog post, Marsh said that the “long era of dispute and uncertainty surrounding the WCS spectrum band is finally over,” and that with the FCC’s approval, “AT&T will be able to complete acquisitions that will give it a path to robust commercial LTE deployment in the WCS ban.”

However, not everyone views AT&T’s spectrum buying spree as a good thing. Harold Feld, senior vice president of the open Internet advocacy group Public Knowledge, said AT&T efforts will hurt competition in the wireless industry. In a blog post Jan. 25, between the Allnet deal and AT&T’s acquisition of the Verizon spectrum, “this was exactly the anti-competitive scenario many of us predicted when Verizon made the offer to sell off its 700 MHz licenses in order to bulk up on its AWS footprint. Nevertheless, the FCC refused to impose a condition prohibiting the sale of the licenses to AT&T on the grounds that it could wait to see who purchased the licenses before acting. Well, now we know, and the FCC has the ‘hypothetical’ transaction it did not want to consider last summer squarely before it today.”

Feld characterized the deal as being AT&T daring the FCC to stand up to it, and as a test to the FCC’s commitment to a more competitive wireless market.

Both the FCC and Department of Justice will need to approve the deal, and both AT&T and Verizon expect it to close quickly after the necessary approvals are received, according to Robin Nichol, executive director of corporate communications at Verizon.

The spectrum licenses acquired from Verizon touch on regions through the country, including the West (California, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Washington), the South (Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia), the Southwest (New Mexico and Texas), Midwest (Illinois, Montana, Ohio, South Dakota and Oklahoma), and Northeast (New York), according to AT&T officials.

Along with that spectrum, the deal also includes Grain Management acquiring a single AWS license from AT&T, and AT&T leasing 700 MHz spectrum from Grain in three markets. In addition, Verizon will lease from Grain the AWS license that Grain is acquiring from AT&T. That license covers Dallas, according to Verizon.

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RIM BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 Now Available for Download

RIM BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 Now Available for Download

With BlackBerry 10 a week away, RIM is offering its Enterprise Mobility Management solution, BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, for download.

Published: Wednesday

http://www.eweek.com/mobile/rim-blackberry-enterprise-service-10-now-available-for-download/

This article was sent from the eWEEK App.

With BlackBerry 10 a week away, RIM is offering its Enterprise Mobility Management solution, BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, for download.

Research In Motion continues to ready its customers and the world for its long-awaited BlackBerry 10 platform. A week ahead of BlackBerry 10's planned Jan. 30 unveiling, RIM made its new Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) product, BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, available for download.

In a Jan. 23 statement, RIM said the new service "reinvents BlackBerry EMM" by bringing together device management, security protocols and mobile applications management for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, including the BlackBerry 10 devices it will show off Jan. 30. The platform also features a single console for managing BlackBerry, iOS and Android-running devices.

In addition to mixed-device environments, it also supports personal- and corporate-owned device deployments as well as BlackBerry Balance, RIM's new technology for separating and securing work content from personal content.

BlackBerry 10 smartphones with BlackBerry Balance will also feature seamless and secure access to content behind corporate firewalls, according to RIM. The new models will offer access to BlackBerry World for Work, RIM's new corporate app storefront that administrations can use to push and install mandatory apps to employees. Management controls for securing and managing work profiles include hierarchical group management, support for customizable administrative roles, employee self-service and the centralized control of assignable profiles.

Select RIM customers have had advanced access to the service.

"The redesigned [user interface] is excellent, providing a smooth experience that enables you to seamlessly switch between applications and content across both the personal and work profiles," said Craig Allcock, head of Networks, Group Technology at the UK-based Co-operative Group, which was one such group with early access, in a statement.

The software is now available for download, and RIM is offering a free 60-day trial that includes device licenses.

In recent weeks, RIM's preparatory efforts have included receiving Visa's approval for a Secure Element Manager (SEM) platform that will enable carriers to support mobile payment services based on near-field communication (NFC) technology, whether on a BlackBerry 10 handset or any other NFC-equipped device. The company has also announced upcoming changes to its service fees and hosted days-long Port-A-Thon parties to pack its apps store in time for the new devices.

An initial Port-A-Thon resulted in 15,000 apps in 37.5 hours, and the second, which included $2 million in incentive prizes, brought in 19,000 more applications.

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless have all said they will back the new phones, and RIM has promised that on Jan. 30 it will show at least one device with a dedicated QWERTY keyboard and one without and will share availability information the same day.

While business-savvy BlackBerry smartphones once led the industry, RIM has had a tough time competing against the consumer-geared Apple iPhone and Android-running devices. With BlackBerry 10 and its new smartphones, RIM has promised a device that does it all, offering the security and business-minded capabilities BlackBerry is know for, the fun consumer experience that users have made clear they want, and an easy method for separating and managing the two.

Highlighting just how close RIM is to showtime, Alec Saunders, RIM's vice president of developer relations, tweeted midday on Jan. 22 that he was attending a "final issues meeting before launch."

Follow Michelle Maisto on Twitter.

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Unlocking Smartphones to Become Illegal Jan. 26

Unlocking Smartphones to Become Illegal Jan. 26

The unauthorized unlocking of smartphones will go from tricky to illegal Jan. 26 as a Library of Congress ruling goes into effect.

Published: Today at 11:00

http://www.eweek.com/mobile/unlocking-smartphones-to-become-illegal-jan.-26/

This article was sent from the eWEEK App.

The unauthorized unlocking of smartphones will go from tricky to illegal Jan. 26 as a Library of Congress ruling goes into effect.

Smartphone owners wanting to unlock their devices will need to do it quickly. As of Jan. 26, the practice will become illegal.

On Oct. 26, 2012, the Library of Congress ruled on a prohibition to circumvent copyright protection systems—systems that enable a phone to run on only the network of the carrier that sold it—as outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The 1998 DMC Act states, "No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title," but goes on to say that during "each succeeding three-year period, the Librarian of Congress will consult with the appropriate groups and "report or comment on his or her views."

The consequent, 69-page Library of Congress document states:

The Register concluded after a review of the statutory factors that an exemption to the prohibition on circumvention of mobile phone computer programs to permit users to unlock “legacy” phones is both warranted and unlikely to harm the market for such programs. At the same time, in light of carriers’ current unlocking policies and the ready availability of new unlocked phones in the marketplace, the record did not support an exemption for newly purchased phones. Looking to precedents in copyright law, the Register recommended that the class designated by the Librarian include a 90-day transitional period to allow unlocking by those who may acquire phones shortly after the new exemption goes into effect.

In more clear terms: If you don't want a locked phone, don't buy one—you have options—but it's not legitimate for phones to stay locked forever. Also, that 90-day transitional period expires Jan. 26.

The Library of Congress document also quotes the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which stated that it "does not support the notion that it is an appropriate alternative for a current device owner to be required to purchase another device to switch carriers."

The practice of locking devices has been tied to the popular carrier business model of offering subsidized devices with two-year service contracts—a practice that, to the benefit of carriers and consumers, may be falling out of vogue.

Subsiding the Apple iPhone, in particular, has been a financial burden on the carriers—Sprint had to take on tremendous new debt in order to begin offering the device. But T-Mobile, announcing that it, too, will soon begin selling the iPhone, has said that it instead plans to offer it with the option of a low monthly financing plan.

Such a plan would save T-Mobile from the upfront investment of subsidizing millions of the devices, and would offer subscribers the freedom of avoiding a two-year contract but also the high cost of buying the device outright. Apple sells the iPhone unlocked (contract free) for a starting price of $649.

AT&T executives, during a Jan. 24 earnings call, said they will be watching with interest T-Mobile's success with the strategy.

Nokia has long offered its phones unlocked, and Google, in entering the hardware game, has also circumvented the locked-phone issue, offering its Nexus 4 unlocked for $300.

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RIM Releases BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10 with Support for iOS and Android Devices

RIM Releases BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10 with Support for iOS and Android Devices

by Tris Hussey, iphonehacks.com
January 23rd 2013

One of the main selling points for BlackBerry in the enterprise has been BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server). BES allowed administrators manage the entire company’s pool of BlackBerry devices through one central panel. Ahead of the official launch of the BlackBerry 10 in a week, RIM has taken the wraps off the next version of BES, BES 10 which includes continued support for Android and iOS devices.

While RIM is still fighting for its corporate life, and all bets are on the BlackBerry 10 as part of that plan, one of the core components of the BlackBerry ecosystems has been updated for the new devices and with new features.

RIM announced BES 10 with a standard press release, but also a couple blog posts and a video demo:

See Video:

According to the two blog posts (Business and the official BlackBerry blog), the key features of BES 10 are:

  •  A cost-efficient, secure, reliable, and scalable solution, BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 offers a robust feature set to help you get your employees up and running on their, or your, devices. Here are some of the new features, and there’s much more.
  • Manage all BlackBerry, iOS, and Android devices, including the new BlackBerry 10 smartphones
  • Application management for internal corporate apps or public apps from BlackBerry World (formerly BlackBerry App World) through BlackBerry World for Work
  • Easy over-the-air activation for end users
  • Enhanced IT policies

The key feature I think, and essential to the BYOD trend, is that BES can manage Android and iOS devices along side BlackBerrys. The PDF data sheet from RIM on BES 10 lists everything from controlling the browser to camera to cloud connections to (of course) social media. Reading the PDF you might think that admins are out to get iOS (the Android list of things that can be managed is a quarter as long as the iOS one), but I take this to mean that iOS could be better suited to a business environment if for no other reason because devices can be locked down (through BES or other admin tools).

How companies react to BES or if they will upgrade in droves will remain to be seen. Likewise, I wonder if RIM will reach out to non-BES/BlackBerry companies who have mostly iOS devices as an option to manage those devices through BES 10.

Original Page: http://pocket.co/sGTyu

Shared from Pocket

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Examining the wireless spectrum crunch

The wireless spectrum crunch, illustrated

by Sebastian Anthony, extremetech.com
January 23rd 2013 2:18 PM

Unless you’ve been locked away in an isolated Montana cabin for the last few years, you’ll have noticed that radio frequency allocations are serious business. A few kilohertz here or a few megahertz there  can cost billions of dollars to acquire, make or break a mobile carrier, or render the Global Positioning System — and the US military’s ability to use targeted munitions — null and void. What you probably don’t know, though, is why it’s so hard to get your hands on a block of radio spectrum.

The two images below should give you a better idea. The first chart shows you the frequency allocations in the US; below that is the UK. Note that both have very different color keys, but otherwise they’re the same format, starting with the lowest frequencies in the top left. I strongly suggest you open the original PDFs [US / UK], so that you can make out all of the detail.

Beyond the huge blocks of spectrum dedicated to broadcast radio, TV, and satellite, the first thing you’ll notice is just how many different allocations there are. If you zoom in, you’ll notice that these aren’t even specific allocations for companies or institutions — merely categories, such as mobile, fixed, and broadcast. Within each block, the US (FCC) and UK (Ofcom) might manage dozens or hundreds of individual licensees.

Next you should look at the thin, colored bars beneath the larger blocks that indicate whether the spectrum is allocated for civilian, governmental (military), or mixed use. On both charts, red indicates government-only use — and as you can see, both the US and UK governments have an awful lot of reserved spectrum.

It’s also interesting to see just how many categories there are. Not only are large blocks reserved for amateur radio (ham), but also for amateur satellites. There are blocks allocated for space research (astronomy), space operations (communicating with ISS, Curiosity, etc.), and inter-satellite comms. For some reason (probably historical), huge swathes of the lowest frequencies are reserved for maritime mobile comms. In both the US and UK, allocations start to get really crazy around the 1GHz mark — a sweet spot where signals can penetrate obstacles, but where there’s also enough bandwidth for large amounts of data.

We’ve spoken a lot about the spectrum crunch on ExtremeTech, but after looking at these charts it’s clear that there is a lot of spare spectrum out there, and a ton of bandwidth — the blocks and allocations just need to be moved around a bit. The problem, of course, is that most of these allocations have existed for decades, and updating or replacing the relevant software and hardware just isn’t feasible. As mobile communications continue to grow, though, I suspect the FCC, Ofcom, and other regulatory bodies around the world will finally get around to cleaning our radio frequencies up.

Now read: The secret world of submarine cables

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