- Sports piracy brings harsh justice, and from on high. The LA Times reports that federal authorities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, have “blitzed” 16 websites illegally streaming sports events, and have brought criminal charges against the owner of nine of them. Police arrested Yonjo Quiroa, 28, of Comstock Park, Mich., and charged him with criminal copyright infringement. Quiroa live-streamed NFL, NBL, NHL and World Wrestling Federation events.
- Google’s talks with House lawmakers over privacy concerns “don’t seem to be going well at all,” reports AllThingsD. Two high-ranking Google officials met with members of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Wednesday, to discuss a new policy that unifies 60 Google services under a single user name. “[Google] danced around actual details, and instead spoke in generalities, highlighting their efforts to ‘enhance the user experience’,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas. The proposed privacy changes would grant Google greater license to share user account information between services, outside of the users’ control.
- More grist for the Apple iOS versus Android mill: comScore reported that the Google Android platform took 47.3% share of the smart-phone platform market in December, versus Apple iOS at 29.6%. comScore believes Android’s popularity is the driving force behind Samsung’s 25.3% smart phone market share. That compared to That compared to Apple’s 12.4% share. Apple gained slightly Q3 to Q4, with a 2.2% bump while Samsung held steady.
- Honda proved cross-media value this week. As AdAge Digital reports, Honda’s Ferris Bueller-themed Super Bowl spot (one of the many leaked beforehand) collected 4.4 million views last week, on outlets led by YouTube. The company Visible Measures charted the top 10 ad views, most of them Super Bowl leaks. Second at 3.09 million views was Volkswagen’s “The Bark Side” ad, in which a bunch of dogs bark the Darth Vader theme from “Star Wars.”
- The Twitter Peek has died, reports Engadget. This toy-like Twitter-and-email-only handset, released by Peek in 2009, never caught fire. Its value proposition was $299 for a bare-bones device with lifelong mobile service. But the devices ceased to work on Monday, complained users. Peek CEO Amol Sarva, confirmed the death, and has no plans to replace the devices: Peek will stick to aftermarket software.