Today's Top Stories Apple is in talks to buy Beats Electronics, a maker of headphones and provider of a music streaming service, for a reported $3.2 billion, making it the largest acquisition in Apple's history, the New York Times reports, citing sources familiar with the negotiations. A deal could come as early as next week, according to the Times' sources. Founded by rapper Dr. Dre and music executive Jimmy Iovine, Beats Electronics supplies Beats by Dr. Dre headphones and launched a music streaming service in January as competition for Spotify and Pandora. The acquisition could signal a shift in Apple's music sales strategy away from the iTunes store download model and toward streaming music. "The age of digital downloads is basically over," Aram Sinnreich, a media professor at Rutgers University, tells Bloomberg. Apple has been on an acquisition tear recently, having acquired 24 companies in the last 18 months, CEO Timothy Cook told analysts in the firm's latest earnings call. But none of the earlier deals match the scale of the Beats buy. "We are expanding Apple's products and services into new categories, and we are not going to underinvest in this business," Cook was quoted by the Times as saying during the earnings call. In 2013, private equity firm Carlyle Group invested $500 million in Beats, which valued the company at over $1 billion. The firm's annual sales are estimated to be more than $1.5 billion. Apple's possible purchase of Beats "would have to fit into a much longer, more innovative strategy around perhaps the hardware and the service," Ben Bajarin, a consumer technology analyst for Creative Strategies, tells the newspaper.
For more:
- read the Times' article
- check out the Bloomberg story
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Two federal regulatory agencies have levied stiff penalties on two firms for infractions in the mobility space. In one case, the Federal Communications Commission fined Dialing Services $2.9 million for making robocalls on behalf of political candidates to mobile phones. The FCC said it had previously cited Dialing Services for making more than 4.7 million robocalls to mobile phones without consumer permission during the 2012 election cycle. After receiving that citation, the company continued to make robocalls. "Robocalling cell phones without a consumer's consent is not only annoying, it is unlawful. The FCC is committed to protecting consumers from harassing, intrusive, and unwanted robocalls to cell phones, smart phones, and other mobile devices," says Travis LeBlanc, acting chief of the agency's Enforcement Bureau. In a separate action, the Federal Trade Commission is requiring mobile messaging app developer Snapchat to implement a privacy program that will be monitored by an outside privacy expert for the next 20 years. Snapchat agreed to the monitoring as part of a settlement with the FTC. The agency accused Snapchat of deception by promising that customers could control how long their messages were viewed by recipients. Yet the FTC found that "several methods exist by which a recipient can use tools outside of the application to save both photo and video messages, allowing the recipient to access and view the photos or videos indefinitely." In addition, the FTC also alleged that Snapchat deceived customers about the amount of personal data it collected and retained and the security measures it took to protect that data. For example, Snapchat said in its privacy policy that it did not collect or transmit geolocation information. In actuality, it did transmit such data for users of its Android app. In addition, the FTC says that Snapchat failed to secure its Find Friends feature, which resulted in the data breach that enabled attackers to steal usernames and phone numbers of 4.6 million Snapchat customers. In a blog post, Snapchat admitted that in creating its mobile messaging app "some things didn't get the attention they could have. One of those was being more precise with how we communicated with Snapchat communication." Snapchat said that it had "resolved most of those concerns over the past year by improving the wording of our privacy policy, app description, and in-app just-in-time notifications. And we continue to invest heavily in security and countermeasures to prevent abuse."
For more:
- check out the FCC release and notice
- see the FTC release and complaint
- read the Snapchat blog
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Wireless technology can improve the performance of an organization's physical security system while lowering the cost and complexity of deploying cables connecting security cameras and access control systems throughout a facility. Here are four tips to help enterprises successful deploy wireless security network from Matt Nelson, CEO and president of AvaLAN Wireless Systems, published in SecurityInfoWatch. First, you need to analyze the wireless environment to understand how many Wi-Fi access points and devices are in the same area of deployment as your security system. "Remember that every laptop, phone and headset will be fighting for use of the RF spectrum in any given area," Nelson advises. One approach to lessen interference is to use frequencies other than those being used by these devices, which is often the 2.4 GHz band. Consider using the 900 MHz and 5.8 GHz bands for the security system connections. Second, you should decide between line of sight (LOS) and non-LOS. While LOS is the best for wireless performance, it is not always possible. RF signals using frequencies below 1 GHz can go through walls and objects better than those using frequencies above 1 GHz. Also, narrow bandwidth signals and higher RF power signals go through walls and objects better than wider bandwidth and lower power signals, Nelson explains. Third, you need to determine whether using a mesh network is the best approach. While a mesh network can seem attractive, actual performance can vary. Nelson recommends point-to-point and point-to-multipoint wireless Ethernet installations instead because they are "more predictable, reliable and cost-effective." And fourth, you should keep in mind the need for electrical power sources for cameras and access control systems. Power sources include solar, wind and batteries. "Make sure your wireless networking configuration has a power plan," Nelson stresses.
For more:
- read Nelson's article at SecurityInfoWatch
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