Facebook to Offer Email?

Facebook’s Project Titan has been building a web-based email client, and some believe a launch is coming within days. If Facebook adds an email client, do you care? How would you use it, and do you trust it?

Facebook Jumping Into Email Game

iPad Users and Intenders More Likely to “Cut the Cord”

People who own iPads, and those who say they will buy an iPad, are more likely to cancel their multichannel video entertainment subscriptions, says Michael Greeson, The Diffusion Group founding partner and director of research.

About 34 percent of iPad owners surveyed by TDG say they might cancel their multichannel video entertainment service in the next six months, more than twice the rate among respondents who say they intend to buy an iPad (14 percent) and three times the rate among average adult broadband users (10 percent).

The study suggests 13 percent of iPad owners are "highly likely" to cancel their multichannel video service in the next six months, twice the rate among respondents who say they want to buy an iPad (six percent) and three times the rate among average adult broadband users (four percent).

About 36 percent iPad owners and 30 percent of respondents who say they want to buy an iPad are likely to downgrade their multichannel video service in the next six months, compared with 21 percent of average adult broadband users.

Some 27 percent of iPad owners say they are "highly likely" to downgrade their multichannel video service in the next six months, compared with 14 percent of respondents who want to buy an iPad 10 percent of average adult broadband users.

Though the typical caveats apply (users don't always do what they say they will), one might draw any number of conclusions from the survey data. Some users might value their iPad experience enough, and derive low enough value from multichannel TV, that they are shifting spending from TV subscriptions to device purchases.

It might be that iPad ownership and demand for multichannel video services are correlated behaviors, but that the iPad purchase decision is not directly related to the lower evaluation of TV subscriptions. In other words, most iPad owners might be people who for other reasons have a lower view of the value of multichannel video.

Or, one might conclude that the iPad is having a real impact on the linear video market, allowing people to more easily drop their multichannel TV service and consume their video online. No matter which scenario makes most sense, all the potential explanations would seem to be negative for linear video.

iPad Users and Intenders More Likely to “Cut the Cord”

Charter to Levy Usage Caps

It appears Charter Communications broadband access customers will start seeing usage caps in December 2010. Subscribers to Charter Communications "Lite" and "Express" services will be capped at 100 GBytes of usage per month.

Subscribers to the "Plus" and "Max" services will be capped at 250 GBytes per month.
Subscribers to the "Ultra60" service will be capped at 500 GBytes per month.

Charter will not charge overage fees for those who exceed the caps, but their accounts may be suspended.

Charter Follows Comcast With Broadband Usage Caps: Tech News

Yahoo: 20% Layoff Rumors

Yahoo is rumored to be preparing for a lay off of 20 percent of its total staff.

Yahoos Freaking Out Over 20% Layoff Rumors

Mossberg on Samsung Galaxy Tab

Internet Commerce Seems to Boost TV Shopping

Rather than hurting home shopping channels, the Internet has actually helped make consumers more willing to buy merchandise without first seeing or touching it in a store, says Barton Crockett, senior analyst at Lazard Capital Markets, who covers the space. 'If you're comfortable buying online, you'll be comfortable buying stuff delivered to you by a TV shopping network,' says Mr. Crockett.

We might have predicted the reverse state of affairs, with Internet shopping cannibalizing TV-based shopping activity.

The Golden Age of TV Shopping - WSJ.com (subscription required)

Broadband Access is About More Than "Home"

It's always difficult to assess the state of broadband access, in the United States or anywhere else, when multiple forms of access are available. In Austria, for example, wireless increasingly seems to be preferred for broadband access. In the United States, it might be worth noting that people access the Internet, using broadband, in all sorts of ways beyond the connections they use at home.

Fully 74 percent of respondents to a survey conducted by Connect South Carolina indicate they use broadband at home. But an additional 33 percent also report they use it at work, while 16 percent say they use broadband provided by a public library.

About 12 percent say they use broadband at someone else's home, seven percent, five percent at schools, three percent at hotels, two percent at airports and two percent at community centers.

More broadband use at home, virtually everybody would agree, is a good thing. The point is that people already seem to be using broadband in a variety of ways that suggest a narrow focus only on at-home broadband does not tell the whole story. About 54 percent of respondents say they use broadband at some location other the home.

About four percent of respondents say they use mobile broadband for their notebook computers or PCs, about 20 percent say they have mobile broadband on their smartphones, while five percent say they have both smartphone broadband and a separate PC access subscription.

view the full results here