Good Morning Tech

Jones warns organized crime becoming tech-savvy. Speaking at a security council gather in Sochi, Russia National Security Advisor General James Jones
told the audience that many international organized crime groups have
used technology to extend their activities internationally without
fearing reprisal from domestic authorities. He said industries that rely
on intellectual property such as music, media, and software firms have
the most to lose. http://bit.ly/cjXLmz

FCC asks for more details on Comcast-NBC merger. The FCC asked both parties in the proposed merger of NBC Universal and Comcast on Monday to provide more information on how the new entity could impact competitors in the markets for cable, broadband and media content. A Comcast spokesperson characterized the request as routine and said the company still expects the government to approve the transaction before the end of the year. http://bit.ly/daAQml

Industry notes

A Facebook Redesign Likely Being Unveiled Wednesday. Facebook is holding an event this morning at which they are expected to unveil the latest redesign of the popular social network. Facebook employees have reportedly been working around the clock for months on the new release. http://tcrn.ch/9UZZQL

Laptop Sales Sapped by Tablet Frenzy. The boom in laptop computer sales is losing some steam, and not only because of a still-sluggish economy. Some shoppers are spending their money on Apple’s iPad tablet rather than the low-priced laptops that have fueled sales in recent years. http://bit.ly/bg1xzz

Schedule

9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Institute for Policy Innovation hosts a “communications summit.” More info here: http://www.ipi.org/

Watercooler

LIKE…Facebook engineer Andrew Bosworth revealed in a Quora thread (http://bit.ly/bUystt)
on Tuesday that Facebook’s “like” button was almost labelled the
“awesome” button. He writes that it was in 2007 that “the word ‘like’ is
proposed as a more universal term but receives a lukewarm response.
We’ve become somewhat attached to awesome and, comparatively, like seems
bland.” (h/t TechCrunch http://tcrn.ch/aBckYI).