Today in international tech news: A European Parliament committee wants to mandate uniform electronic chargers -- or, put differently, it wants Apple to cooperate. Also: Portugal could be next to block The Pirate Bay; the UN releases an exhaustive report on global broadband and Internet use; and the Hong Kong financial community laments losing Alibaba's stock offering. ManageEngine OpManager, a powerful NMS for monitoring your network, physical & virtual (VMware/ HyperV) servers, apps & other IT devices. Deploy and start monitoring in less than an hour. Trusted by over a million admins worldwide. Try it for free. Members of the European Parliament's internal market and consumer protection committee voted unanimously Thursday in favor of a new law mandating universal chargers for mobile devices. In addition to convenience -- German parliamentarian Barbara Weiler called the current situation "cable chaos" -- the measure is motivated by a desire to curb electronic waste. While the measure is not necessarily targeted at Apple, the company is an obvious outlier. Apple chargers are notoriously incompatible with other devices (and vice versa). In 2009, the European Commission partnered with the International Telecommunications Union and mobile phone manufacturers to create a voluntary agreement around the micro USB connector. Apple signed up for the agreement but has yet to adopt such a charger. Despite the committee's vote, the single-charger measure must still make it through the European Council and European Parliament. [Source: MacWorld via CNet] Portugal to Pursue 'Pirate' Blockade In Portugal, a coalition of copyright trade groups will file an injunction to force Internet service providers to block The Pirate Bay and other file-sharing sites. The Pirate Bay, the 29th most-visited website in Portugal, has been similarly blocked in other European nations, including the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium. The group filing the injunction, reportedly backed by major movie studios, says it will deliver the injunction by the end of the year. If successful, it would mark the first time that Portuguese ISPs would be required to block a website because of copyright concerns. [Source: TorrentFreak] UN Report Details Global Broadband Growth The United Nations Broadband Commission released a report on broadband and Internet use around the world. By the end of the year, the total number of mobile broadband connections will hit 2.1 billion, the report says -- about three times more than fixed-line subscriptions. Singapore and Japan lead the world in per-capital mobile broadband use, with 123 and 113 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants, respectively. Perhaps surprisingly, Oman and Kazakhstan, of all places, have higher broadband penetration than some European countries, including Germany and Switzerland. Meanwhile, Europe is tops in fixed-line broadband connections, with Switzerland leading the way at 41.9 subscriptions per 100 residents. Europe is also tops in overall Internet use. Iceland -- which used the Internet to help draft its constitution -- is No. 1 at 96 percent. [Source: United Nations via The New York Times] Hong Kong Laments Losing Alibaba The Hong Kong financial community is calling for reforms after the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rejected Alibaba Group's plans to list shares. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange denied Alibaba's planned Hong Kong offering because of the group's ownership structure: 28 partners want to keep control of the company, even though they own but one-tenth of the company. This ran afoul of the Exchange's policies, and that was that. Alibaba is a Chinese e-commerce giant whose net worth is estimated at US$80 billion. The company's stock offering is expected to be one of the biggest in years. Thus is Hong Kong's business community bemoaning the regulations that cause the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to spurn Alibaba, which is now coveted by the NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq OMX Group. Reuters cites bankers, lawyers and advisers in Hong Kong who wonder whether regulators should have done more to let Alibaba slide despite the bizarre ownership structure.

There's general agreement that standardization of app development for connected cars would be a good thing, but other manufacturers might not like letting Ford have control. "Why doesn't Ford work with the Car Connectivity Consortium, which has many OEMs and suppliers coming together and discussing guidelines and is an industry-led consortium?" asked Frost & Sullivan analyst Praveen Chandrasekar.

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Ford on Thursday announced the acquisition of Livio Connect, a 5-year-old Michigan company that wields influence in the car connectivity field out of proportion to its size.

That's partly because Livio's technology is used by some major players, including General Motors, and partly because Livio's Keys marketplace is a B2B exchange where automakers can execute and manage business deals with content and app partners.

"I believe this is an indication that Ford wants to really own as much of the API connectivity real estate in the car that they can," Roger Lanctot, an associate director at Strategy Analytics, told the E-Commerce Times.
Ford paints the acquisition as a step in its goal to help create an industry standard for in-car connectivity.
"Standardizing in-vehicle connectivity helps ease the burden on content developers who currently have to create applications using different vehicle interface methods [that add] complexity, time and costs to a project," said Ford spokesperson Craig Daitch.
However, the acquisition news is "pretty inconsequential," contended Praveen Chandrasekar, infotainment program manager at Frost & Sullivan.
Although standardization would be a boon, "why doesn't Ford work with the Car Connectivity Consortium, which has many OEMs and suppliers coming together and discussing guidelines and is an industry-led consortium?" asked Chandrasekar.

Looking at Livio

Livio began as Livio Radio in 2008 and later changed its name to "Livio Connect."
It builds products and software tools that support smartphone connectivity to cars and hardware devices including head units and consumer electronics.
The Livio Connect protocol is installed on hardware devices as well as on third-party apps to enable the latter to communicate with enabled devices. The apps receive an unlock key through Livio's authentication server.
Livio's Keys marketplace lets app developers and content owners market their product to car manufacturers. Manufacturers can use it to manage the technology and business models for content and apps going into cars around the world, regardless of the connect technology used. Consumers get promotions, premium upgrades, and free trials of apps and content, which they can purchase at the site.
"The impetus behind the acquisition was threefold," Ford's Daitch told the E-Commerce Times. "It allowed us to bring top-tier local talent to Ford to help us work on our connectivity solutions; gave Ford access to valuable intellectual property; and will help Ford in promoting SmartDeviceLink and other product and technology innovation."
"SmartDeviceLink" is the name Ford gave to its AppLink technology, which it contributed to the Genivi Alliance as an open source project.
Ford "would benefit from Livio's knowledge of what other car companies were working on or trying to do," Lanctot said.

Competition and Other Issues

The problem with Ford's vision of standardization is that "everybody has their own solution," Chandrasekar said.
"GM has 2,500 to 3,000 developers registered who are developing some cool stuff," he continued. "BMW is working with developers in Munich, San Francisco and China. So why would somebody embrace Ford even after they donated their code to Genivi? There has been absolutely no expression of interest."
Further, the CCC has its own protocol, Mirrorlink, which "is now in version 1.1," Chandrasekar pointed out.
Other car manufacturers might not like letting Ford have control over a standard.
"I've heard from a leading OEM who said if they adopt something Ford develops, they will have to rely on Ford to give updates to the system, and Ford will ultimately control the way things are done," Chandrasekar explained.
On the other hand, "this acquisition is simply a great example of our ability to accelerate innovation by scouting new technology and partners," Ford's Daitch maintained, "where these new innovations will drive purchase consideration for Ford and support vehicle profitability through demand for in-car technologies.