Tag: transition

AT&T’s ‘next-gen’ TV platform rollout will start on DirecTV Now

Later this year, AT&T’s launching an ambitious plan to revamp and unify its disparate video services. In a move that chief marketing officer David Christopher called “going from a hardware-centric model to a software-centric model.” Similar to Comcast’s X1 platform launch a few years ago , the plan is to have a single base for how its video services — whether internet-served like DirecTV Now , satellite-provided DirecTV , U-verse IPTV or NFL Sunday Ticket — look and feel across every device. Where AT&T pushes things further is that it already offers a national internet TV platform, and that’s where customers will see the new technology first when beta tests start later this year. AT&T executive VP & CTO Enrique Rodriguez spoke to Engadget about the rollout, saying that “if you look at the work we’ve done on DirecTV Now, it’s been very successful on Apple TV and so you can think of this as a continuation of that transition.” Invited DirecTV Now customers will be the first ones using the new technology, as shown above running on iOS, when the beta testing starts ahead of a rollout across more services and hardware over the “coming years.” The next-generation platform will bring everything we’ve seen from modernized TV setups over the last few years, with recommendations and profiles, backed by all the content AT&T/DirecTV provides subscribers. When the beta starts, there will be a cloud DVR feature and other new features already up and running. Features on deck for later this year include live TV pausing and parental controls, while other key elements like profiles, download-and-go and 4K Ultra HD with HDR are scheduled to launch in 2018. It won’t come all at once, but AT&T is turning its various video services, both “monolithic” as Christopher called them, and streaming into something built for the modern era. So far, the rollout of DirecTV Now has weathered some glitches and criticism that it hasn’t offered much new . But now that it’s had some time to roll out and expand its content offerings , the time is right for an upgrade. A frustrating aspect of the TV business since the dawn of high definition has been the slow pace of upgrades — digital TV, DVR, video-on-demand, internet streaming and cloud recordings have taken so many years to roll out — but maybe this transition can pull everything together. Of course, since AT&T owns so many pathways to customers including wireless, it has more incentive to push new technology, as reports suggested it expects to have a primarily streaming video service within the next few years. Source: AT&T

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AT&T’s ‘next-gen’ TV platform rollout will start on DirecTV Now

France plans to ban fossil-fuel-powered cars by 2040

France’s ecology minister has laid out an ambitious plan that would see the nation effectively ban the sale of fossil-fuel-powered vehicles by 2040. Nicolas Hulot, as quoted by the Financial Times , claims that France is announcing the “end of the sale of gasoline and diesel cars” by the deadline. As Le Figaro adds, it’s not clear how the country will enforce the transition, but Hulot says that the “conditions are there.” France doesn’t have a bottomless sovereign wealth fund like Norway , for example, that it can use to finance a transition to cleaner energy. But, what France does have in its favor is a sizable stake in both PSA, the owner of Peugeot and Citroen, and Renault. As a consequence, it can exert plenty of pressure on some of the world’s largest auto manufacturers to help accelerate the process. In addition, Hulot is planning some sort of financial incentive as a lever to push buyers toward hybrid or electric vehicles. That could take the form of an extra pollution tax on older vehicles, or a tax break (or other subsidy) to encourage the purchase of newer, cleaner cars. Although the details are still hazy, France will also establish itself at the forefront of the fight against climate change by instituting a carbon tax , which would be upward of 100 euros per tonne of carbon. In addition, the country will stop issuing new licenses for oil exploration and make a bigger push for renewable energy. Right now, all of this is just a plan, but given that France’s current government was given a huge mandate by voters, it’s hard to see where any opposition would come from. It’s not the first piece of good news this week for folks who don’t want the Earth to boil away in the next few years. Volvo has pledged to stop producing vehicles with entirely gasoline or diesel-powered motors by 2019. Instead, each new car, from that point, will be hybrid or entirely electric and, in addition, Volkswagen believes that it can sell three million EVs by 2025. Source: Le Figaro , Financial Times

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France plans to ban fossil-fuel-powered cars by 2040

US officially reduces its internet oversight

After lengthy delays and no small amount of political opposition , it’s official: the US has given up a key aspect of internet oversight. As of October 1st , the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (the outfit that manages the domain name system) is no longer under the watch of the US’ National Telecommunications and Information Administration. ICANN is now a private, non-profit organization that will take its input from academics, companies, governments and the public. While the American government didn’t really wield its influence, it no longer has that option. The handover follows an unsuccessful last-minute attempt by four states’ Republican attorneys general to block the transition . A federal judge shot down their temporary injunction request, which centered around the notion that the US was “giving away government property” and required Congressional approval to give up ICANN. The attorneys echoed their party’s worry that reducing US control would open the internet to greater censorship by countries like China and Russia. They were also concerned that the shift could threaten US government domains like .gov and .mil. Proponents of the transition argue that the move is not only harmless, but might avert a far worse outcome. They say that censorship-heavy countries don’t have any more power over the internet than they did before, especially since ICANN will still operate out of Los Angeles. If anything, a privately-managed domain system reduces the pressure to relinquish control to the United Nations, where China and Russia would have some influence. There’s also a fear that continued American oversight would encourage countries to set up their own domain systems and fragment the internet. In practice? Barring surprises, you shouldn’t notice a difference at all. The NTIA did little more than rubber-stamp ICANN’s actions — this is more of a formality than a practical change, at least in the near term. It’s an acknowledgment that the internet has been decentralized for decades, and that no one country has a claim to it. Via: BBC Source: ICANN

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US officially reduces its internet oversight