The Iranian regime has developed, with the assistance of European telecommunications companies, one of the world’s most sophisticated mechanisms for controlling and censoring the Internet, allowing it to examine the content of individual online communications on a massive scale, reports the WSJ.

Interviews with technology experts in Iran and outside the country say Iranian efforts at monitoring Internet information go well beyond blocking access to Web sites or severing Internet connections.

The Iranian government appears to be engaging in a practice often called deep packet inspection, says the WSJ, which enables authorities to not only block communication but to monitor it to gather information about individuals, as well as alter it for disinformation purposes, according to these experts.

The monitoring capability was provided, at least in part, by a joint venture of Siemens AG, and Nokia, the Finnish cellphone company, in the second half of 2008, Ben Roome, a spokesman for the joint venture, confirmed.

The “monitoring center,” installed within the government’s telecom monopoly, was part of a larger contract with Iran that included mobile-phone networking technology, Mr. Roome said. “If you sell networks, you also, intrinsically, sell the capability to intercept any communication that runs over them,” said Mr. Roome.

Nokia denies any help with Deep Packet Inspection:

Nokia Siemens Networks has provided Lawful Intercept capability solely for the monitoring of local voice calls in Iran. Nokia Siemens Networks has not provided any deep packet inspection, web censorship or Internet filtering capability to Iran.

Robb Topolski (above), a network engineer in Portland, Ore., determined that Comcast used DPI technology to identify packets coming from peer-to-peer applications, then secretly blocked those packets (pdf).

According to Tim Berners-Lee, “The Internet in general has and deserves the same protection as paper mail and telephone. In fact, you could argue that it needs it more, as it carries more or our lives and is more revealing than our phone calls or our mail”.

In other news, Raytheon announced it will use speech technologies provider Loquendo to integrate their Voice Security Library (LVSL) into the company’s Redwolf Collection System. Raytheon’s Redwolf provides government intelligence agencies with a one-stop solution that collects, stores and analyzes digital audio telecommunications, Internet traffic and VoIP communications.

The Loquendo Voice Security Library filters data and identifies voices, languages and the gender of the speaker so that intelligence agencies no longer need to take a number of recordings to uncover data. Loquendo Automatic Speaker Verification interfaces with any kind of DB architecture.

Redwolf supports post-processing operations such as call data analysis, call content playback, call mapping, geo location, link analysis, and pen register database functions which turn information into actionable intelligence.

Narus, “the leader in real-time traffic intelligence”, protects and manages the largest service provider and government IP networks around the world including KDDI (Japan), Raytheon, Telecom Egypt, Reliance (India), Saudi Telecom, US Cellular, Pakistan Telecom Authority and many more, according to their website. The NSA’s “secret room“, at major switching points, allegedly uses Narus gear to intercept and analyze IP traffic from a variety of networks.

The Baltimore Sun thinks expanded wiretap powers should be rejected. The House intelligence committee late Thursday approved measures to strengthen oversight of the National Security Agency. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said that as far as she knows, the NSA has not committed flagrant violations of the rules governing surveillance of American e-mails and phone calls.

“You don’t have to look far into history to know that when the government, any government, is given secret authorities, that those authorities are ultimately abused,” said Mike German, a former FBI agent who is now policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. “You don’t even have to attribute bad motives to anyone. In an intelligence officer’s zeal to protect the country, they often will overstep their bounds.”

Related Dailywireless articles include; SMS: Revolution Now, Shape Shifters in Paris, Geosync Spies, Senate Investigates Ad Tracking , Domestic Spying Bill Approved, Tankman Goeth and Deep Packet Inspection Explained.

T-Mobile has announced the MyTouch, their second Googlephone. T-Mobiles $200 MyTouch, essentially a rebadged HTC Magic, eliminates the popout keyboard and comes with a 4GB microSD card, 512MB internal memory, and the same processor (a Qualcomm MSM7200A, 528 MHz processor). It’s slimmer, lighter and said to use less juice.

Previous customers will be able to get the MyTouch on July 8. New customers will have to wait until August to sign up for their two-year contract.

Android 1.5 software, previously known as “Cupcake,” brought on-screen virtual keyboard with vibration feedback, plus video recording, playback, and sharing via YouTube to the G-phone. The soft keyboard one-ups the Palm Pre, says Wired, with predictive text (the Pre has neither prediction nor correction to help you use its tiny buttons), and it vibrates when you touch it. The camera is the same 3.2MP camera found in the G1, and the headphone socket still requires an adapter.

The hugegest problem with the G1 was the terrible battery life, says Wired, and I agree. The multi-tasking applications meant that the power would be sucked dry in a matter of hours. A new 1340mAh battery may help somewhat over the old 1150mAh battery.

Google’s Android mobile operating system could be running on 18 to 20 devices by the end of 2009, according to Andy Rubin, Google’s senior director for mobile platforms. The Android OS is also expected to be on netbooks, soon, reports E-Week.

ARM-based devices — both Netbooks and handhelds — lack a Windows operating system and can’t run PC applications. Freescale and others are looking to Google’s Android OS to counter the marquee draw that Windows has for Netbooks and handheld MIDs. Strategy Analytics forecast global Android smartphone shipments to grow 900 percent annually during 2009. Analysts have previously suggested that Android, which originally rolled out in August 2008, will be running on about 12 percent of global smartphones by 2012.

Finally, T-Mobile has unveiled its second Google Phone now to be known as the T-Mobile myTouch 3G. Just like its predecessor, the t-Mobile myTouch 3G will also run on the Android platform. Featuring a sleek design, myTouch 3G boasts features almost similar to the G1 phone, topped by a touch-screen display and virtual keyboard. Design-wise, myTouch 3G is slim, smooth, lightweight and sleeker looking than the G1.

Like the G1, myTouch 3G was also designed by HTC and boasts of a 3.2-inch HVGA touch screen display with portrait and landscape mode, a 3.2MP camera, music player, 4GB microSD memory card, enhanced video capabilities, Wi-Fi and T-Mobile’s 3G network.

myTouch 3G would also feature quick access to various Google services including direct video upload to YouTube and Picasa, easy access to Google Search by voice, and Google Maps with Street View. For its email features, myTouch 3G supports corporate e-mail running on Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, and other Pop3 and iMAP email client. Synchronization to Google Contacts and Calendars is also a breeze with myTouch 3G.

For its instant messaging feature, the phone supports Windows Live Messenger, AOL, Google Talk and Yahoo! Messenger.

myTouch 3G would also feature new applications including Sherpa which is a learning engine for customizing the phone based on user preferences – such as likes and dislikes, favorite retailes, restaurants and other attractions. The app also features a customization engine and location relevant information.

myTouch 3G will be available in on July 8, 2009 for $199.99 with a 2 year service agreement with T-Mobile. It will be available in three colors – red, white and black.

Samsung has launched its latest smartphone – the Samsung Jet. This smartphone is smarter than a smartphone, Samsung claims. The Samsung Jet boasts not only of features common among smartphones available in the market today, but also of features that you would normally find in traditional non-smartphones.Among the many smartphone features supported by Samsung Jet is Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and Multi-Task manager. It also gives you user-friendly menu navigations as well as a sleek and compact form factor and design.

Another notable feature of the Samsung Jet is a 3.-1-inch WVGA AMOLED display that gives vivid and colorful full touch mobile features. This type of mobile phone display produces a resolution which is said to be four times higher than a WQVGA screen.

The Samsung Jet also features TouchWiz 2.0 user interface. This provides outstanding touch capability as well as powerful and responsive reaction.

In addition the Samsung Jet’s processor is noteworthy as well at 800MHZ which can provide faster speed and performance.

Other specs and features of the Samsung Jet include – 5.0MP Auto Focus camera plus dual power LED, face detection, smile shot, panorama shot, blink detection, geo-tagging, and photo editor, video playback and capture at 30fps, music player, Dolfin Browser, Wap 2.0, one-finger zoom, share pix and mobile widget, A-GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, 2GB/8GB microSD slot. The Samsung Jet gives you up to 300 minutes talk time and 406 hours standby time on 3G connectivity.

Nokia has just added a new model to its Xpress Music phone series – the Nokia 5530. Featuring a touch interface, the Nokia 5530 boasts of an efficient homescreen with a scrolling contacts bar that gives you access to 20 people and their latest conversation and media updates. Said homescreen also provides one touch shortcuts to content as well as popular social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.Design-wise, the Nokia 5530 follows the same steel frame finish and vivid colors of the 5800 XpressMusic phone. And like the 5800, the Nokia 5530 is also a music phone that gives you quick access to a huge selection of media. It features a music player with good audio quality. It also supports up to 4GB of memory card storage for music you purchased from the Nokia Music Store.  It is also loaded with Nokia Music desktop application which allows you to sync the phone with your PC.

Other features and specs of the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic phone include 2.9-inch display, people carousel which lets you upload thumbnail images of 20 contacts. You can easily access information about these contacts including their emails, phone calls, photos and even their social media updates.

The Nokia 5530 features a 3.2 MP camera with autofocus and LED flash, proximity sensor, accelerometer, widescreen video playback, Bluetooth, WiFi, stereo speakers with surround sound and responsive touchscreen with tactile feedback.

The Nokia 5530 is a GSM/EDGE phone with integrated WIFI as well.  It will be available in Q3 with an estimated price of around 199 EURO.

The chairman of a Senate panel on antitrust issues last Tuesday called on the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department to scrutinize competitiveness in the cellphone industry, pointing to a 100% increase in some text messaging charges by four companies that control most of the market. The LA Times reports.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) said that from 2006 to 2008, the price charged by the four hugegest carriers for sending and receiving such messages rose from 10 cents to 20 cents.

And the increases seemed to occur in “lock step” — first from 10 cents to 15 cents and then from 15 cents to 20 cents, with each set of increases occurring within a period of months or even weeks, said Kohl, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights.

“Are these price increases the result of a lack of competition in a highly concentrated market?” Kohl asked.

Read full article.

Previously: – Lawmakers Question Increased Text Messaging Costs

According to a report in Online Media Daily, an appellate court ruled Friday that book publisher Simon & Schuster might have violated federal law in 2006 by allegedly sending unsolicited text messages promoting Stephen King’s “Cell.”

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals held that sending SMS messages potentially violates the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits companies from using automatic telephone dialing systems to make calls to cell phones unless the owners have consented.

The decision appears to mark the first time that a federal appellate court has said that the telephone law applies to text messages. The ruling could have far-reaching effects on mobile marketers who send SMS ads.

A huge thank you to MacAndStuff who explains the simplest way to get an iTunes iPhone App URL, something I’m embarrassed to say, that has had me stumped for months.

Simply “Ctrl-Click” on the apps name and a dialogue box pops us: “Copy iTunes Store URL”. This copies the URL to the clipboard. And, from there you can paste it.

Where to start with this one! I’ve been on a health kick lately and I’ve heard all the hype about Resveratrol, but I had no idea what supplement to go with. I definitely knew that I wanted to try it out though. Here is a supplement I have been using for the past week, and it’s amazing. All the studies, all the hoopla, nothing compares to actually trying this and feeling the results for yourself. I feel fantastic. A big plus for me is that I seem to have more energy. As I get older I just notice that it seems to get harder and harder to wake up each morning and the day seems to drag on, sure didn’t have that problem when I was younger though. I figured that I should tell my readers about this one because you will want to get some of this stuff as soon as possible. I think that it should be added to foods naturally or to our vitamins or something because it seems to have more benefits than anything else I have ever heard of before.  For those that have no idea, here’s a little background:

“Resveratrol is naturally created by certain vines, pine trees, peanuts, grapes, and other plants. One of these plants (Polygonnum cuspidatum) is an ingredient in traditional Asian medicines that are prescribed for liver and heart conditions. Resveratrol is classified as a polyphenol because of its chemical structure. Polyphenols make up a huge group of plant compounds that are further broken down into other classifications such as flavonoids, proanthocyanidins, and the like.

In the early ‘90s, after wine was pinpointed as the probable answer to the “French paradox,” researchers realized that the resveratrol content of wine might be the secret ingredient behind the healthy heart effects attributed to it and the traditional Asian heart medicines containing Polygonnum. Research began in earnest, and just over a decade later, the accolades are enormous: “marked antioxidant activity,” “shows great promise for preventing cardiovascular disease,” “remarkable inhibitor,” “chemotherapeutic, little or no toxic effects in healthy cells,” “high efficacy against multiple sites.” Dozens of studies were published in this past year alone. Research has uncovered a diverse range of activities that may make resveratrol one of the most useful agents ever discovered for a wide range of human health problems.”
No, it’s not hype, it works. Easy Eternal RezV has more active Resveratrol than other products and is easy to take. Let me know what you think of it, I’d like to collect some testimonials. Get your free trial here.

The Oregonian’s Brad Schmidt reports that one municipal fiber network, plagued by loose planning and oversight, exemplifies the risks and challenges of government-funded Internet projects now running in a handful of Oregon communities.

Sherwood Broadband has been subsidized by $1.55 million in taxpayer money. It has missed revenue projections by nearly one-third while expenses have been more than one-quarter over budget. It serves about two dozen business locations — nearly half of them outside city limits — and about 50 wireless users each day. One elected official publicly called it a “significant money loser.”

In March, the City Council transferred $950,000 from the general fund to rectify Sherwood Broadband’s budget problems. The transfer cut the city’s general fund reserves by almost half. But officials say they are developing a new strategy and insist that the 60-mile network could eventually lead to new jobs and economic development.

Experts estimate about 100 governments nationwide have invested public money to create wireless networks, with an additional 50 providing high-speed fiber connections to homes and businesses.

• Ashland Fiber, in southern Oregon, launched a triple-play cable network including Internet, TV and telephone. Initial expenses jumped to about $15 million — four times higher than expected — and payback won’t happen until 2024. “This is the only service we run where we’re in direct competition with the private sector in a high-tech business,” says Martha Bennett, Ashland city administrator. “It’s just not what governments do.”
• Monmouth Independence Networks, in the central Willamette Valley, is considered Oregon’s top government-funded Internet service. The partnership between Monmouth and Independence is backed by about $14 million in state loans. Offering triple-play options through a fiber connection, it serves about 3,200 homes and businesses. “We are a shining star,” says Phil Garrett, general manager for the municipal owned nonprofit.
• qLife, in The Dalles, Oregon (pop: 12,175), is a municipally built 17 mile fiber optic loop around the City. Built in 2003, the fiber network was a huge factor in bringing the Googleplex to The Dallas.

The City of Portland, meanwhile, continues to explore the possibility of its own $450,000 city-backed fiber network. But the idea is on hold indefinitely, says the Oregonian’s Mike Rogoway, with the credit markets still largely shut down and city commissioners lukewarm on the concept.

PersonalTelco’s president Michael Weinberg and secretary Russell Senior, expressed strong support of the city’s fiber initiative. PersonalTelco’s Mississippi Neighborhood Project was seen as a good grass roots wireless community model. It provided businesses and some homes along a ten block section of North Portland with free WiFi and was funded with a $14,000 grant from the Fred Meyer Memorial Trust.

Will FTTH pay for itself? Some skeptics are saying it may not.

ConnectKentucky is funded 90% by the state and 10% by private businesses and foundations. The Wall Street Journal praised the initiative, saying “it shows how public-private partnerships, as well as a willingness by local governments to work with less-established telecommunications providers, can drive increased access to high-speed Internet service and spur economic development”. ConnectKentucky’s interactive maps show broadband coverage along with population density, allowing providers to spot gaps in service in areas.

Related Fiber Optic stories on DailyWireless include; The Dallas Wired, Municipal Fiber: Fits and Starts, Muni Fiber for Portland?, Broadband 2.0, City Fiber Networks, Free MAN in Hood River, Oregon MuniFiber: the Bad & the Good, GoogleNet?, Oregon Fiber for Google, DailyWireless Testifies for Muni Broadband, Universal Access to All Human Knowledge – at 100Mbps – Free, Bill to Free 2155-2180 Mhz, Free 2155-2175 MHz!, Seattle: Fiber For All.