The U.S. Department of Justice is examining cellphone carriers' exclusive deals with handset makers, according to a report this morning by the Wall Street Journal. For those who don't have a online subscription to the Journal, you can get a summary here from Reuters.

The informal probe focuses on agreements such as Apple's exclusive multiyear deal to supply AT&T with iPhones in the U.S.

Consumers have complained that such deals restrict them to a single service provider and offer them little choice. These deals have also triggered complaints from smaller wireless carriers that don't have the wherewithal, such as guarantees to buy large volumes of devices, to strike an exclusive contract with handset manufacturers.

The Justice Department may be looking for guidance in European markets, where phones purchased there can work with any carrier, said Charles Golvin, a telecommunications analyst with Forrester Research. But that would be a mistake, he said. That's because the two markets function differently.

European regulators long ago established a single standard for all carriers, called GSM, so any cellphones purchased in Europe can work for any carrier. But the U.S. has competing standards, including GSM and CDMA. This matters because a GSM phone will not work on CDMA networks. Sprint and Verizon use CDMA, while AT&T and T-Mobile are on GSM.

"We ended up with an alphabet soup of technologies," Golvin said. "So the lessons learned in other markets don’t always apply here."

-- Alex Pham

About 400 TV stations are shutting off their analog broadcasts at midnight tonight as part of the nation's switch to all-digital signals. But the new era hasn't gotten off to a great start for some viewers.

As we noted in a story today, some people are getting fewer channels -- even though they did everything the government and broadcasters told them to do as part of the DTV transition. The problems generally stem from the different technological characteristics of digital signals versus analog.

Many people, including viewers of the major broadcast networks in Los Angeles, have nearly four more months to get ready because Congress allowed stations to delay the switch until June 12. One key to improving your reception during that time appears to be upgrading your antenna.

A few readers have pointed me toward the YouTube video, shown above, on how to make your own digital TV antenna using equipment that would make MacGyver proud: six wire clothes hangers, a piece of wood, a dozen washers and a variety of other household items. Assembly doesn't look too difficult -- about the same level of expertise as required ...

... for building a Pinewood Derby car for Cub Scouts. But I haven't tried it so can't vouch for how well it works.

Though there's a certain Rube Goldberg quality to the device, one thing is undoubtedly true -- it's pretty ugly. Even Ross Voorhees, the guy who made the video, suggests you keep it behind your TV set because, he says, "it isn't the best looking-thing in the world."

Here are some more tips I've compiled:

• Skip the automatic scan: Some converter boxes scan too quickly for digital channels. If you’re having trouble receiving stations you received in analog, try overriding the automatic scan and manually inputting the channel. But be advised: Digital channels are moving. Call the station and find out the correct channel to tune in.


• Focus on the antenna: Move your indoor antenna to find the best location, such as by a window with an unobstructed view. If you have a rooftop antenna, make sure it's pointed in the right direction. AntennaWeb.org can help: Enter your address and it will tell you what direction to aim the antenna for specific stations. If those fail, consider upgrading, if possible, from rabbit ears to an amplified indoor antenna or to a rooftop antenna.


• Wait for the final transition: Some stations will move their digital signal to a new channel after turning off their analog transmissions. The new channels often provide better reception. Also, some stations will be boosting the power of their digital signal at that point as well. Contact the stations you are having trouble receiving to find out what they’re doing.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

President Obama made the digital TV delay official today, signing legislation to put off the switch until June 12, the White House said.

"Millions of Americans, including those in our most vulnerable communities, would have been left in the dark if the conversion had gone on as planned," Obama said in a written statement. "This solution is an important step forward as we work to get the nation ready for digital TV."

Not everyone will get the benefit of that extra time. Though the major TV stations in Los Angeles won't turn off their analog signals until the new deadline, the law allows stations to apply to go ahead on the original date -- at the end of the day next Tuesday -- or anytime between now and June 12.

Nearly 500 stations have applied to pull their analog plug on Tuesday, although the FCC may block some early transitions. The most likely places the FCC will step in are markets where most stations want to make the switch early and many residents are unprepared.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Acting FCC Chairman Michael J. Copps said today that the major broadcast networks -- ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC/Telemundo -- have vowed that their owned-and-operated stations would not turn off their analog signals until that date. Though many local affiliates are independently operated, the networks' pledge puts pressure on station owners to wait.

The legislation, which is awaiting President Obama's expected signature, allows stations to make the digital transition before June 12 with FCC approval.

At least one L.A.-area station, the News Corp.-owned KTTV Fox 11, will keep its analog signal going until June 12. We're still working to figure out the plans of other local broadcasters.

Copps said today that the FCC would set a high hurdle for approving early switches in markets where all stations want to make the transition before June 12. Though the agency may allow individual stations to switch early, commissioners worry that allowing all stations to turn off their analog signals early could leave unprepared viewers with no access to any TV. 

"We reserve the right to deny those requests if we find that it would not serve the public interest or if it would frustrate Congress' goal of giving consumers adequate time to prepare," he said.

The federal agency announced that stations would have to notify the FCC by Monday if they want to turn off their analog broadcast signals on the original date of Feb. 17.

Stations had prepared themselves for that date and face increased costs -- including thousands of dollars a month in electricity bills -- for continuing to transmit their analog signal along with the new digital one most already have been airing for months. So there are strong reasons ...

... for them to try to shut off their analog transmitters in two weeks. Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which owns 39 TV stations across the country, is among those that have said they intend to switch on Feb. 17 regardless of the congressional delay.

A patchwork quilt of signals, with some stations broadcasting only in digital and others in both analog and digital, could create headaches for consumers. Some older converter boxes don't have the ability to handle both types of signals, so some viewers would have to unplug the device to watch one channel broadcast in analog, then plug it back in to watch another in digital.

Copps promised to use the extra four months to improve government outreach efforts, which he said have been inadequate.

"I welcome this delay because it has long been clear to me -- and it has become even more clear in the less than two weeks that I have been acting chairman -- that we were not ready for a nationwide transition on Feb. 17," he said. "We must keep the consumer focus front and center as we proceed."

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Fresh off Wednesday's action by Congress to delay the switch to digital TV until June 12, a top Federal Communications Commission official will be in Los Angeles next week for three town hall meetings on the now even-more-complicated transition.

FCC commissioners have spent the past several months traveling around the country to large cities and markets where at least 15% of the households rely on antennas to watch TV.  Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein drew Los Angeles.

He will be answering questions Monday in three locations: at the West Covina Senior Center from 10 to 11:30 a.m.; the Mt. Moriah Baptist Church from 12:30 to 2 p.m.; and Cal State L.A. from 6 to 8 p.m. More details are available here (PDF).

President Obama is expected to sign the legislation delaying the transition, currently planned for Feb. 17, by nearly four months. Adelstein, a Democrat, has been critical of how the Bush administration handled the transition. He applauded the planned delay for giving the FCC and others more time to help viewers prepare.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Congress this afternoon granted a four-month reprieve to the millions of consumers who are at risk of losing access to TV signals during the switch from over-the-air television to digital broadcasting.

In a 264-158 vote, the House of Representatives approved a bill to push the transition to June 12 from Feb. 17. President Obama has promised to sign the legislation, which passed the Senate last week. The law will require TV stations to keep broadcasting their analog signals until June 12. Consumer advocates say that as many as 10 million viewers currently get their programming solely from over-the-air broadcasts and are unprepared for the digital transition.

"Consumers are confused about where to buy their converter box, about which box to buy, how to hook up their box, what to do if they lose a channel they once got and whether they need a new antenna," said Joel Kelsey, a policy analyst with Consumers Union. "Changing the date allows them more time to grapple with those questions."

But the delay also could make the confusing transition even more perplexing for some viewers.

TV stations are allowed to seek federal approval to turn off their analog signals before the new deadline. So instead of nearly all broadcasters making the switch on Feb. 17, stations now may ...

... make the switch at different times over the next four months.

That could create another hiccup: Some converter boxes don't have the ability to "pass through" analog signals. As a result, in areas where both digital and analog signals are transmitted, viewers with the wrong converter box may have to unplug the device to watch one channel broadcast in analog, then plug it back in to watch another in digital.

While the vast majority of converter boxes manufactured in recent months have the analog pass-through feature, consumers should check before buying. The Commerce Department has a list of such boxes available online (models with a red asterisk beside them allow analog pass-through).

Although the National Assn. of Broadcasters advocated the postponement, some stations have argued that a delay would impose "moderate to significant costs" because they'd have to maintain an analog signal for four extra months, said Stan Statham, president of the California Broadcasters Assn.

"We’ve had a hard date on the books since September of 2005. Every broadcaster in America is ready to go," said Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Texas), who led the opposition to an extension.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) complained that the delay would cost broadcasters in Oregon $500,000 to $1 million in electricity costs to continue running analog transmitters along with the existing digital transmitters, and would increase confusion among viewers. He noted that advertisements are still airing touting the Feb. 17 date. "They’re still being told this is what they should do," he said. "This is why people don’t trust the government."

Although they did not need to notify the FCC if they planned to switch on Feb. 17, 276 stations have, indicating that they may want to make the switch on that date regardless of the congressional delay. But acting FCC Chairman Michael J. Copps said this week that some of those stations may decide to continue broadcasting in analog after the delay is enacted.

The original law that set the Feb. 17 deadline also allowed stations to make the switch early. Some already have -- 143 of the nation’s approximately 1,800 stations have made the transition, and 60 more plan to do it before Feb. 17, according to the FCC.

But supporters said the delay was necessary, particularly to provide more money for the government's subsidy program for consumers who purchase converter boxes. The Commerce Department, which administers a $1.5-billion program to send coupons worth $40 toward the purchase of a converter, ran out of money Jan. 4 and started a waiting list. There are requests for about 3.2 million coupons currently on the list, according to Consumers Union.

"Even if money were provided today for the converter box program, there still would be massive dislocation on Feb. 17," said Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.).

While most TV stations already are broadcasting in digital as well as analog and could make the switch before June 12, competitive pressures in each market could make that difficult. Stations are unlikely to switch unless all their competitors in the market do as well or they'd risk losing viewers to those still broadcasting in analog. In 18 markets, including Los Angeles and Chicago, News Corp. would add to those competitive pressures. The company said the 27 Fox stations it owns and operates in those markets would not switch before June 12.

"The legislation passed by Congress provides more time for Americans to prepare for the DTV transition and will allow more time for the government to fix the coupon program," said NAB President and CEO David Rehr. “America’s broadcasters, which have spent the past decade preparing for this historic transition, are ready to make a successful switch."

-- Jim Puzzanghera and Alex Pham

Photo: FCC outreach advisor Daniel Rumelt explains how to use a digital converter box during the DTV Expo in Wilmington, N.C., in August. Credit: Paul Stephen / For the Times

The Washington Post calls that "a setback for the Obama administration", as does the Associated Press, which says the bill was defeated.

But don't read too much into the move. Supporters of the delay still expect it to pass as soon as next week.

The measure, which the Senate approved Monday, needed a two-thirds majority to pass the House on an expedited basis. Strong Republican opposition prevented the fast-tracking. But normal rules require only a simple majority, and the bill received that and more. The House vote was 258-168 in favor of a delay.

Rep. Rick Boucher, the Virginia Democrat who chairs the House telecommunications subcommittee, told me he was optimistic the chamber would agree to President Obama's request and vote to put off the digital transition until June so about 6.5 million viewers won't lose their TV signals next month.

“The likelihood is we’ll come back next week” and pass it, he said.

A spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat, said she was looking for a way to hold the vote soon.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo credit: Valerie Everett via Flickr

Google pulled out of its controversial advertising agreement with Yahoo this morning because of fears of a "protracted legal battle" with federal and state antitrust regulators concerned about the deal's impact on the online market.

The decision ends a four-month quest to get regulatory approval and a broader attempt to keep Yahoo out of the hands of Google rival Microsoft. The software giant led the charge against the Web advertising deal, stirring up opposition among advertisers and raising worries within the Bush administration and Congress about the potential impact of a partnership between the top two search engines.

With the deal already delayed and then revised in hopes of overcoming strong concerns from the Justice Department, Google announced in a blog post this morning it was pulling the plug because those steps were not enough to ...

... secure regulatory approval. David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer and senior vice president for corporate development, said:

We feel that the agreement would have been good for publishers, advertisers, and users -- as well, of course, for Yahoo and Google. However, after four months of review, including discussions of various possible changes to the agreement, it's clear that government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement. Pressing ahead risked not only a protracted legal battle but also damage to relationships with valued partners. That wouldn't have been in the long term interests of Google or our users, so we have decided to end the agreement.

Yahoo said Google had notified it of the decision to end the proposed agreement, through which Google would have brokered some text ads for Yahoo's search engine, "following indication from the Department of Justice that it would seek to block it, despite Yahoo's proposed revisions to address the DOJ's concerns."

Yahoo downplayed the impact of Google's decision on its future. But Wall Street clearly thinks Microsoft may come back into the picture and revive its bid for part or all of Yahoo. Despite the collapse of a deal that Yahoo said would boost its annual revenue by hundreds of millions of dollars, its stock was trading up more than 4%, around $13.90, in early trading after the announcement. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company said in a statement:

While the implementation of the services agreement with Google would have enabled Yahoo to accelerate its investments in its top business priorities through an infusion of additional operating cash flow, this deal was incremental to Yahoo's product roadmap and does not change Yahoo's commitment to innovation and growth in search. The fundamental building blocks of a stronger Yahoo in both sponsored and algorithmic search were put in place independent of the agreement.

The Justice Department said it had significant concerns about the deal.

"The companies' decision to abandon their agreement eliminates the competitive concerns identified during our investigation and eliminates the need to file an enforcement action," Thomas O. Barnett, who oversees the department's antitrust division, said this morning. "The arrangement likely would have denied consumers the benefits of competition–lower prices, better service and greater innovation."

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: A Yahoo billboard in San Francisco. Credit: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Dubbed "Wi-Fi on steroids" by its supporters in the high-tech industry, the plan promises to offer free wireless Internet service across America and spur new systems for transmitting video and other data seamlessly between devices in their homes. The plan overcame staunch opposition from the entertainment industry, which is worried about the signals interfering with TV broadcasts and wireless microphones.

Though expected to be slower and possibly less secure than commercial services from cable and phone companies, the new Internet connections would ride on the highest-quality airwaves, able to carry signals long distances and easily penetrate trees and walls.

For decades, those airwaves have been reserved for TV stations. But, hoping to increase high-speed Internet access, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously approved a plan advocated by public interest groups and technology companies, including Google and Microsoft, to allow the use of the airwaves by new laptops, mobile phones and other gadgets with built-in equipment that's being developed.

The high-tech companies say the white spaces have the potential to provide revolutionary new wireless services that people could use for free, unlike the spectrum leased by the government to cellphone companies, which charge customers to access it. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates personally ...

... lobbied FCC commissioners to open up the white spaces.

These companies will have to build the infrastructure to connect the airwaves to the Internet. Although they charge users for those connections, Google and others are expected to offer them for free, recouping the cost through sales of the special devices and online advertising.

But broadcasters fiercely fought the proposal, warning that the devices could cause some viewers to lose their TV signals because of interference. The issue is of particular concern because broadcasters must switch to all-digital signals in February. With traditional analog TV stations, interference causes static or fuzziness. But broadcasters say digital pictures can freeze or be lost entirely if another signal is broadcast on or near the same channel.

Users of wireless microphones, including sports leagues, musicians and large churches, have also complained about potential interference from the new Internet devices and lobbied against the changes.

Commissioner Michael J. Copps said the white spaces offered great potential for American consumers. At today's meeting in Washington, D.C., he said:

The proponents have argued that we can enable a whole new generation of wireless devices -- bringing new broadband connectivity to our rural and urban communities -- without harming free, over-the-air TV.  Does this seem almost too good to be true?  Of course.  But so did the modern cellular industry, the explosion of Wi-Fi devices and so many other innovations at comparable stages in their development. Even the notion of transmitting high-quality video through the air to millions of TV sets must have seemed pretty fantastical when it was first demonstrated decades ago. This is the history of wireless innovation in a nutshell -- the nearly miraculous becomes commonplace.

The government agency's field tests of early prototype devices provided by Microsoft and other companies produced mixed results, with some of the devices failing to sense and avoid broadcast signals. Broadcasters said those results showed that the technology wasn't ready. But FCC officials said the tests showed that it was possible for devices to use the airwaves without interference, and they believe they have crafted a cautious compromise approach.

The devices will be able to use only channels 21 to 51, where there are fewer TV stations. The FCC will give preference to devices that use global positioning system technology to determine a user's location and then avoid TV channels operating there based on a special database, rather than devices that try  to constantly sense and avoid TV signals. Devices that use sensing technology will have to go through rigorous field testing.

And the FCC will create a safe haven around large sporting and performance venues, such as the Los Angeles Coliseum and New York’s Broadway theater district. The new mobile devices within those safe havens won't have access to channels used by wireless microphones.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: Broadcast tower. Credit: Steve Beger via Flickr

In an agreement hailed as a "breakthrough that will facilitate new ways to offer music to consumers online," groups representing songwriters, music publishers, record labels and digital music websites have ended a seven-year dispute over two types of music royalties.

Unfortunately, neither of those is the controversial performance royalty for Internet radio. That remains the subject of a high-stakes stalemate between SoundExchange, which collects the fees for artists and record companies, and Internet radio sites such as Pandora and Live365.

Today's agreement resolves some contentious issues that were the subject of a six-month trial earlier this year before the Copyright Royalty Board, a group of judges charged by Congress with tackling these disputes. The groups -- the Digital Media Assn., the National Music Publishers' Assn., the Recording Industry Assn. of America, the Nashville Songwriters Assn. International, and the Songwriters Guild of America -- have agreed on so-called "mechanical royalties" for interactive streaming music and limited music downloads.

It's all pretty complicated, but the groups said the deal should help lead to more cutting-edge music services.

"This agreement provides a flexible structure to support innovative business models in the digital music marketplace that will benefit music fans, creators and online services," Mitch Bainwol, chief executive of the RIAA, said in a joint news release the groups issued today. "The agreement demonstrates that our industries can work collaboratively to solve complex issues.”

And there's no doubt this is complex. So here's a quick glossary.

Let's start with the mechanical royalty. It is the fee paid to the songwriters, composers and publishers of the actual music (like the one pictured above) -- not the artists who perform it or the record companies that produce the recording.

Interactive streaming is different than most Internet radio. It involves listeners choosing which specific songs they stream. It's a model that has yet to fully develop, in part because of the royalty concerns.

Limited music downloads are ones with significant restrictions attached, such as the songs disappearing from your device if you don't continue paying a monthly fee. As an example, iTunes downloads are not considered limited because you can listen to them as often as you want (although there are some restrictions on how many computers you can load the songs on to). But Napster To Go, which allows you to listen to songs you transfer to a mobile device as long as you connect to the service once every 30 days, provides limited downloads.

When both those models began emerging in 2001, the music publishers and the RIAA cut a deal to allow them to operate without an agreed royalty rate. According to the agreement announced today, the rate now will be 10.5% of revenue as of Jan. 1, 2008, with a rate of 8.5% of revenue applied retroactively from Dec. 31, 2001, until the end of 2007. The groups agreed that any performance royalties those services pay would be deducted from the mechanical rate.

There still are some big mechanical royalty issues to be resolved by the Copyright Royalty Board, which must rule by Oct. 2. Among them: updating the 9.1 cents paid for each song on each physical CD sold; creating a rate for the first time for regular digital downloads, such as iTunes, which has been using the CD rate; and a rate for certain types of cellphone ringtones.

Everyone may not be so happy after that ruling. But for now, the different industry groups are singing the same happy tune.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Sheet music photo by gl0ri via Flickr

The presidential race between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama is a virtual dead heat in much of the real world. But it's not so close in one virtual world.

Obama leads McCain 43% to 31% among the nearly 100,000 votes cast as of Friday on Xbox Live, according to Microsoft, which runs the online game service. The voting is part of a partnership between Microsoft and Rock the Vote, which allows Xbox 360 users to cast their presidential preferences via their game controllers.

The initiative also allows Xbox Live members to register to vote for real. So far, 55,000 registration forms have been downloaded since the program began on Aug. 25, the first day of the Democratic National Convention. (You've got to be 18 to vote, but there's no age restriction on the Xbox Live poll.)

Rock the Vote, which mobilizes young people to get involved in the political process, wants to register 2 million young voters for this fall's election. The group noted that if XBox Live were a state, its 12 million members would make it the country's 7th largest, with the same number of electoral votes as Ohio.

But Xbox Live isn't a state in play. It's a state of play, where making a presidential choice can be done with a flick of the thumb in about the time it takes to slice up a Jawa in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Casting a real ballot is much harder: You can't do it from the comfort of your home; it often involves more cumbersome technology; and the lines can be long (for gamers who've never voted, think of the wait some people endured to get their hands on the Xbox 360 when it was released).

So although Xbox Live users represent a chunk of the youth demographic, which could swing key states such as Nevada, a big question remains: Will online gamers rip themselves away from the likes of Guitar Hero and Madden NFL 09 to go to the polls Nov. 4?

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: Xbox 360 controller. Credit: Dominic via Flickr

Now, according to new data released this morning by Nielsen, more people are taking the wire completely out of the equation. And the whole concept of a landline appears to be going the way of the bulky rotary phone (pictured at right).

More than 20 million U.S. households -- 17% of all homes with phones -- use only a cellphone, according to Nielsen. That figure has quadrupled since late 2003, when only 4.2% of households were wireless only.

"As wireless network quality improves and unlimited calling becomes increasingly pervasive, we expect the trend toward wireless substitution to continue," Alison LeBreton, vice president of client services for Nielsen Mobile, said in a news release.  "In a tightening economy every dollar counts, and consumers are more and more comfortable with the idea of ditching their landline connection."

Young people are more likely to use only a wireless phone. And the majority of people who have dropped their landline service are in lower income brackets, according to the Nielsen report (you can download a PDF here).

Cutting costs appears to be a big reason for cutting the cord. A landline phone costs an average of $40 a month. But going wireless-only doesn't mean you can pocket all those savings. "Wireless substitutors" use their cellphones more, paying an average of $6.69 a month more than people who also have a land line, Nielsen said.

Those increased wireless charges are one of the reasons people give for returning to landline service. (Not to mention the occasional outrageous bill). About 10% of households with a landline phone in the second quarter of this year relied only on a cellphone before.

Among the reasons for reconnecting the cord: 17% needed it for another service, such as the Internet or TiVo; 12% said it was too expensive to use a cellphone for all their calls; 11% found it was cheaper to buy a bundled package that included TV and and Internet; and 10% just liked the safety and reliability of landline service, which tends to work better during events such as earthquakes.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Telephone photo by jgh_photo via Flickr

When it comes to a politician's role in technological advances, it's probably best not to overstate.

Former Vice President Al Gore learned that the hard way. While in Congress during the 1980s and early 1990s he played a legitimate role in laying the policy groundwork for the modern Internet, but he went a byte too far in 1999 when he told CNN: "During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet." The subsequent ridicule dogged him throughout the 2000 campaign and continues today.

Now, a top adviser to Republican presidential nominee John McCain has done for the BlackBerry what Gore did for the Internet: made it the punchline of a political joke.

Asked by reporters today about McCain's grasp of technological issues, senior policy adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin noted the Arizona senator's tenure as a former chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Then Holtz-Eakin held up his BlackBerry.

"He did this," Holtz-Eakin said. "Telecommunications in the United States, the premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you're looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create. And that's what he did."

The comment quickly spread across the Internet. The reception was similar ...

... to that for Gore's 1999 claim: It was shorthanded by some to McCain's "creating" the BlackBerry, and the mockery began.

Rather than talk about the role McCain played in helping set U.S. wireless policy while in Congress -- a tack that Gore and and others, including a scientist named Vint Cerf who can actually claim to have invented key elements of the Internet, tried in 1999 to justify the Internet comment -- his campaign quickly sought to stomp out the story by saying it was just a bad joke.

"John McCain laughed himself when he heard it," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said. "He would never lay claim to inventing the BlackBerry or anything else of that matter. It was a boneheaded joke from a staffer."

(It wasn't the only tech-related news of the day for the McCain campaign. Former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina, a leading McCain surrogate, said that McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, lacked the experience to run a major company. She later amended her statement to say that it also could apply to McCain, Barack Obama or his running mate Joe Biden, and that "it is a fallacy to suggest that the country is like a company.")

The Obama campaign hit McCain last week for his admitted computer illiteracy. And it quickly jumped on the BlackBerry comment.

"If John McCain hadn't said that 'the fundamentals of our economy are strong' on the day of one of our nation's worst financial crises, the claim that he invented the BlackBerry would have been the most preposterous thing said all week," Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said.

McCain told the New York Times in July that he uses a BlackBerry. And there's apparent visual proof that he has one here (and in the picture above, talking on what looks like a BlackBerry).

"He keeps a phone that's a BlackBerry," Bounds said. "He checks e-mail through a staffer who is with him, and that's on a BlackBerry."

But Bounds would not comment on whether McCain's injuries from his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam prevented him from using a keyboard -- large or small -- as was noted in a 2000 Boston Globe profile.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: Sen. John McCain talks on his cellphone on his campaign plane in July. Credit: Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press

A study released today by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows that 69% of people online in the United States have used some form of "cloud computing" -- Web mail, online photo/video storage, or Web-based applications that store their data in the growing "cloud" of servers instead of on their personal computers.

But while people like the convenience and the ability to easily access content stored online and share it with others, they are concerned about how that personal information could be misused, the study found. (Download a PDF here.) And that makes it a challenge for Washington policymakers.

"People are very obviously making trade-offs in privacy," John Horrigan, the project's associate director, said in unveiling the study at Google's Washington, D.C., offices today. "There are high-levels of use of the cloud and high-levels of concern about ... possible secondary uses of the data."

Nine in 10 people who used online services to store personal information said they would be very worried if companies that provided the services sold their data to third parties. Eight in 10 would be very concerned if their photos were used in marketing campaigns (as happened to one Baltimore woman), and 49% would be very concerned if companies storing their files gave them to law enforcement when requested to do so.

It was no surprise that Google ...

... hosted the event entitled "Cloud Computing: Navigating the Next Frontier" at its slick new Washington digs. Google is trying to lure computer users to its suite of Web-based applications, such as Gmail and Google Docs. In addition to hosting Horrigan, Google put together a panel of policy experts to discuss the findings and the policy implications of the shift to cloud computing.

"I think cloud computing is the hot topic over the next year in Washington," said Dan Burton, senior vice president for global public policy at Salesforce.com.

When technology issues are hot topics in the nation's capital, technology executives get nervous. Washington doesn't have a great track record dealing with industry issues. But Ari Schwartz, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, said it is important that policymakers address privacy laws as cloud computing expands.

He noted that data stored online doesn't have the same Fourth Amendment protections from unreasonable government search and seizure as data stored on a personal computer in your home.

The Pew data on people's concerns about cloud computing show that "consumers expect their information will be treated the same way in the cloud as it would be if that information were stored on their home computer."

The stakes are large as Web-based services expand, said Michael R. Nelson, a visiting professor of communication, culture and technology at Georgetown University who worked on information technology issues in the Clinton administration White House.

He compared cloud computing today with the World Wide Web in 1993 -- the basic technology is in place, there's a vague idea of its importance but nobody knows where it's headed.

"If we do this right, we're going to unleash a whole host of applications," Nelson said.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: Big Fluffy Cloud, by Nanimo via Flickr

It probably was only a matter of time before Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, whose campaign has displayed its tech savvy through tactics such as aggressive online fundraising, use of social networking and texting the news of his running mate selection, hit Republican rival John McCain for his admitted technological difficulties.

Today, the Obama campaign wielded McCain's past comments -- that he doesn't send e-mail and is computer "illiterate" -- like a blunt instrument. A biting new TV ad (pictured above) uses those examples to brand the 72-year-old Arizona senator as out of touch with today's world.

Entitled "Still," the ad starts with the word "1982" -- the year McCain was elected to Congress -- over an image of a disco ball. As music reminiscent of early TV commercials plays, more out-of-date images flash by: a woman using a brick-size cellphone, a record player, an early personal computer and a Rubik's Cube.

"Things have changed in the last 26 years, but McCain hasn't," the announcer says. "He admits he still doesn't know how to use a computer, can't send an e-mail, still doesn't understand the economy and favors $200 billion in new tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class."

It then shows a picture of McCain and George Bush and says, "After one president who was out of touch, we just can't afford more of the same."

Hitting an opponent on economic issues is standard political strategy. But going after a candidate for his skill with computers and e-mail ...

...is a new, 21st century line of attack.

The McCain campaign charged that it's untrue.

"John McCain travels with a laptop," said McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds. "This is a senseless tactic from Obama's campaign because they're struggling with the realization that the American people understand he is not equipped to deliver change because his record has no bipartisanship or significant legislative accomplishment in it."

The issue of McCain's tech skills began when he sat down for an interview with TechCrunch's Michael Arrington in November. Asked, "Are you a Mac or a PC guy?" McCain laughed and said "I am illiterate." (Arrington nonetheless endorsed McCain in the Republican primary, dismissing the candidate's computer illiteracy as common for his generation and not relevant to how he would handle the information economy.)

McCain repeated the "illiterate" comment in an interview with Politico and Yahoo News in January, saying, "I am an illiterate that has to rely on my wife for all of the assistance that I can get."

In July, McCain told the New York Times that he was "becoming computer literate" and learning to go online. But he also said he did not send e-mail.

"I don't e-mail, I've never felt the particular need to e-mail," he said.

Bounds said it was "factually inaccurate" to allege that McCain can't send e-mail. But Bounds would not say whether McCain uses e-mail or how often.

"I'm not going to get into the specifics of John McCain's e-mail correspondence. There couldn't be anything more off topic than that," Bounds said.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Video: Obama campaign's "Still" TV ad, via YouTube

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*UPDATED 12:40 P.M.: Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro said the campaign stood by the ad's assertion about McCain's e-mail ability. In an e-mail statement, Shapiro had the following to say about the relevance of McCain's tech skills:

“The ad goes directly at the fundamental issue in this race: John McCain is out of touch with the American people and unable to address the challenges facing the country in the 21st century. It delivers the message in a light-hearted, humorous way that Americans can relate to. The overwhelming majority of Americans of all ages use computers today. Our economy wouldn’t survive without the Internet, and cyber-security continues to represent one our most serious national security threats. It’s extraordinary that someone who wants to be our President and our Commander in Chief doesn’t know how to send an email."

Most major industries have a dominant trade association to make their case in the nation's capital. Think the Motion Picture Assn. of America for the Hollywood movie studios or the American Petroleum Institute for the oil companies. Those lobbying groups give their industries one powerful voice, making it easier to get their messages heard through the Washington cacophony.

But the high-tech industry often creates its own cacophony.

It has more than two dozen trade associations, with enough similar sounding acronyms -- BSA, CCIA, CEA and CTIA are just a few -- to give lawmakers a headache.

"When it comes to lobbying, everyone else is Snow White and we're the Seven Dwarfs," Phillip J. Bond, the president of the Information Technology Assn. of America told me for a 2006 story about the problem of too many tech industry associations in Washington.

Now, on the theory that size matters, Bond's ITAA and AeA, one of the oldest tech trade groups, announced that they were in merger talks. (Formerly the American Electronics Assn., AeA now follows a trend of using an acronym as its official name, much to the consternation of copy editors everywhere).

The two groups wouldn't discuss the sticking points in their talks, but Bond told me today that a merger would move the groups "two or three steps toward being Snow White." It would create the industry's leading association, he said, positioned "to make it clearer to policy makers on Capitol Hill and in the administration what the general technology industry view is on many issues."

The proliferation of technology trade associations is seen as one reason the industry has had difficulty getting Congress to act on some key issues, such as extending the expired research and development tax credit or expanding a visa program for highly skilled foreign workers. The groups sometimes take different positions based on which member companies are more dominant. And some lawmakers have complained they're not sure who is really speaking for the tech sector.

Bond, a former Commerce Department undersecretary for technology, hasn't been bashful about pushing for association mergers to amplify the technology industry's voice -- and clout -- since joining ITAA in 2006. So far this year, ITAA has merged with the Government Electronics and Information Technology Assn. and the Cyber Security Industry Alliance.

That's two dwarfs down, but a lot more to go.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: A scene from Disney's 1937 classic "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." Credit: Disney Home Video

Although Monday's apparently successful test of the digital TV conversion in Wilmington, N.C., still must be fully analyzed, new data released today indicates one thing: Federal officials are going to get a whole bunch of calls from confused viewers when the rest of the nation makes the switch in February.

The Federal Communications Commission said that 797 Wilmington residents called a special government helpline on Monday after the region's five commercial TV stations permanently turned off their analog signals at noon EDT and began broadcasting only in digital. On Tuesday, the number of calls dropped to 424.

The FCC noted that those first-day calls represented "less than one-half of 1%" of the region's 180,000 TV-viewing households. And combining the second day calls, the figure is still well under 1%.

But translate that to the rest of the country, which has 112.8 million TV-viewing households, and even a call volume of 0.5% would produce approximately 564,000 calls. In the Los Angeles market alone, that would be about 28,000 calls.

And if you figure that many of those calls in Wilmington probably came from people who depend on antennas to watch TV, the national impact could be much higher. About 8% of Wilmington viewers rely on antennas, compared with 12% nationwide. That's 50% more over-the-air-only viewers, which could boost the number of calls from across the country.

The FCC brought in extra staff to answer calls from Wilmington, but a spokesman could not provide an exact number today. Based on the calls, the FCC determined that most viewers ...

...were aware the switch was taking place -- only 23 callers said they hadn't known it was happening or hadn't known the date of the conversion.

"The results of the digital television switch in Wilmington shows that the collective efforts of the commission, the community and industry to inform viewers of the early transition in this local market were effective,  FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said in a news release today. (Download a PDF with the call data here.)

Most of the first-day calls related to technical problems: 232 people were unable to locate the new digital signals of certain stations; 178 callers had difficulties with their antenna or weak signals and 161 had trouble getting a digital-to-analog converter box working (meaning they'd see the message on analog TVs like the one pictured above.)

Wilmington firefighters and other organizations helped people, particularly the elderly, with converter box problems on Monday. The FCC is hoping to duplicate those efforts when the rest of the country makes the government-mandated shift at the end of the day on Feb. 17.

But given that the FCC devoted significant resources to raise awareness in Wilmington before the test, it might need an army of volunteers to go with all those people answering phone calls.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: An analog-only television set displays the message that began broadcasting at noon Monday after Wilmington stations switched to digital-only signals. Credit: Logan Wallace / Associated Press

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*UPDATED 6:01 P.M.: FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said in an interview that the percentage of calls in Wilmington, while low, shows the challenges ahead when the nation makes the change in February.

"If you extrapolate, that's still a lot of people who could end up having problems," he said. Martin noted that the FCC added about 30 to 35 people to its call center for the Wilmington test, and it's seeking an additional $20 million from Congress for digital transition-related efforts in part to pay for more people to answer the phones after the nationwide switch. 

American Airlines flight attendants are worried about something special in the air: passengers surfing porn websites.

As the airline adds on-board Internet service, some travelers might be tempted to visit seedy alleyways off the information superhighway. So the Assn.  of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents 19,000 American Airlines flight attendants, has talked with management about installing filtering software to keep inappropriate Web content grounded, union spokesman David Roscow said today.

"Some passengers and some of the flight attendants have had some concerns about them going to inappropriate sites like porn sites," he said, although he was unaware of any actual incidents.

American is one of several airlines experimenting with Internet service. While some, such as JetBlue, are using filtering software, others, including American, are leaving it up to flight attendants to monitor. American spokesman Tim Smith explained the company's decision this way in an e-mail today:

Our policy is to provide Wi-Fi capabilities the way customers are most familiar using [them] at home, office, coffee shops and on the road -- with unfiltered connections that allow customers to get what they need, when they need it. While it does provide a new access point for information and content, customers viewing inappropriate material on-board a flight is not a new scenario for our crews who have always managed this issue with great success.

Smith noted that American's service, which began Aug. 20, is in a trial period of up to six months. So just like items in the overhead bins, details of the program may shift after takeoff. At the end of the period, American plans to evaluate feedback, including the number of actual incidents. In the meantime, it's up to flight attendants to make sure that Web surfing, like those seat backs during takeoff and landing, remains in an upright position.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: American Airlines passenger Emmaline Allwood gets information on Aircell's in-flight broadband Internet service, Gogo, from Jared Karns in the AA terminal at JFK Airport in New York City last month.  Credit: Jonathan Fickies / American Airlines

Broadcasters and government officials, including Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin, gathered at City Hall in the coastal community to commemorate the conversion. They counted down the last 10 seconds to the noon EDT conversion as if it were a New Year's Eve celebration.

Then Martin and Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo toggled the giant  switch from "Analog" to "Digital." A nearby set tuned to the analog signal of WSFX, the local Fox affiliate, went dark at the same moment, replaced a few seconds later by a message telling viewers the analog signal no longer worked.

"Let's make history. First in flight. First in digital,'' Saffo told the crowd of about 150 people earlier this morning, repeating the slogan the FCC and broadcasters have used for the test in North Carolina, where the Wright brothers made their first flight. "We're daggone proud of it."

The five commercial stations in the region, just the nation's 135th-largest media market, volunteered to serve as the guinea pigs for the switch.

Digital signals offer viewers more channels and clearer pictures. But those benefits come with a potential downside -- people who rely on rooftop antennas or rabbit ears to watch TV must have a digital set or a special converter box to see the broadcasts. The federal government is offering each household two $40 coupons to purchase converter boxes, which generally cost between $40 to $70.

About 8% of Wilmington viewers and 12% nationwide rely on antennas, according to the Nielsen Co. Cable, satellite and phone company TV customers will still be able to see the pictures because those companies either will convert the signal back to analog for all their viewers or provide equipment to do so in the home.

The conversion followed ...

... four months of aggressive public awareness by broadcasters and unprecedented local involvement by the FCC (such as helping residents understand how a converter box works). Although Tropical Storm Hanna threatened to delay the test, switching off the analog signals today and relying only on digital transmissions was the relatively easy part.

The difficult task will be assessing the impact.

"We still have a lot to learn from Wilmington,''  FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps, who came up with the idea of a test market, told the gathering this morning.

The National Assn. of Broadcasters will interview residents on the street and conduct a telephone poll. And the FCC plans to study the results of the test to determine who had problems switching to digital and where the agency might need to focus efforts to ensure a smooth transition when broadcasters in the rest of the country turn off their analog signals at the end of the day on Feb. 17. Lawmakers, along with consumer and civil rights groups, have raised concerns about senior citizens, minorities and low-income residents, who tend to rely more heavily on free, over-the-air TV.

Already today, seniors are looking like a group that needs additional help. The FCC contracted with fire departments and other organizations in the Wilmington area to assist people who have difficulty obtaining or installing digital-to-analog converter boxes. Andrea Good, fire and life safety educator for the city of Wilmington, said she had received about 15 calls this morning.

"It’s mostly elderly people who can’t install their boxes," said Good, who went to a low-income senior citizens apartment building this morning with three firefighters to install converter boxes for two residents.

Officials today praised the cooperation between the government, broadcasters and community organizations.

"The success of Wilmington is not what happens at 12 noon today when we flip the switch," Martin said. "The measure of success ... is what's going to happen next February and what we're going to be able to learn from what occurs here in Wilmington that we can take around the country and implement these lessons to help the process go as smooth as possible."

Martin has said the FCC has already learned lessons from Wilmington. After seeing the benefits of having staff on the ground, working with community organizations and holding events to promote and explain the transition, the agency is dispatching commissioners and staff to Los Angeles and the 79 other markets with the most over-the-air-only households during the next six months to hold town-hall meetings and other gatherings.

But that effort will fall short of the intensive outreach the FCC has done in Wilmington, where a dozen staffers have shuttled back and forth from Washington since May, participating in more than 300 events. That's led Consumers Union to question how representative the Wilmington test will be.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: From left, Wilmington, N.C., Mayor Bill Saffo and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin flip a symbolic switch during a ceremony heralding the transition from analog to digital TV. Credit: Logan Wallace / Associated Press

They're hearty folks along North Carolina's hurricane alley. So although Tropical Storm Hanna hit the Wilmington area with heavy rain and wind Saturday, knocking down some trees and causing scattered power outages, flooding and beach erosion, locals declared the damage minor. (It wasn't even a hurricane, after all.)

With cleanup quickly underway (as shown above in Wilmington on Saturday), the Federal Communications Commission announced this morning that Monday's test of the digital TV transition would take place there as scheduled.

The storm, which made landfall just south of Wilmington early Saturday, had threatened to postpone the test, in which the region's five commercial TV stations are slated to be the first in the country to permanently switch to all-digital signals. Broadcasters in the rest of the nation are making the switch in February, and the FCC sought a test market to identify potential problems.

Along with broadcasters, the FCC has engaged in an aggressive public-awareness campaign in Wilmington to get the approximately 8% of households that depend on over-the-air TV prepared for the switch. Nobody involved with that effort wanted to have to launch a new campaign to advertise a later date caused by a delay.

Based on forecasts for Hanna, which moved quickly up the East Coast, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin was optimistic Friday they would not have to delay the test. But the final decision wasn't made until FCC officials conducted a conference call this morning with Wilmington broadcasters.

The switch takes place at noon EDT Monday. You can watch a webcast here of the event, which will begin at 10:30 a.m. EDT, with speeches by Martin, other government officials and broadcasters.

-- Jim Puzzanghera

Photo: Ricky Midgett of Wilmington Public Service works to remove an oak tree that was downed by Tropical Storm Hanna, crushing a car. Credit: Logan Mock-Bunting / Getty Images