Archive for January 25th, 2008

YouTube goes fully mobile — too bad it doesn’t work

Just one month after launching its full complement of content on the Helio network, YouTube took its new mobile platform worldwide. Thursday it brought its whole video catalog to the mobile device, allowing anyone to access any video from the mobile Web site, m.youtube.com or, from some phones, a downloadable Java client. It’s allowing people to log in and access personalized setting, and enabling sharing, ratings and comments. And what’s more, YouTube is supporting the upload of video directly from the mobile phone. I probably don’t need to emphasize the importance of this. No content sharing service or social networking site has yet extended all of its content and functionality to its mobile portal. It’s quite simply a boon to the industry. Or it would have been. Unfortunately the service doesn’t appear to work. (more…)

700 MHz Auction: Round 3

The new bids are in, and the D-block public safety band has yet to attract another bid since the opening round. Its opening bid of $472 million is still far below the $1.3 billion reserve price set by the FCC. The auction is still far from over, but the more rounds go by without the license being bid, the more worried the FCC and the public safety community may become that their long-dreamed of national emergency network won’t have a commercial backer. As Current Analysis’ Bill Ho told us for an earlier post, such a predicament could be awfully embarassing for the public safety community. (more…)