EU Commissioner teases net neutrality rules: no throttling, easy switching

The European Union has only taken baby steps toward proper net neutrality legislation so far. Today, however, the European Commission's Neelie Kroes just gave the first glimpse of what those continent-wide rules could look like. Her proposals would let companies prioritize traffic, but not block or throttle it. The measures would also prevent gotchas once customers have signed on the dotted line: internet providers would not only have to offer clear terms of service, but make it easier to jump ship for something better. There are concerns that the proposals would let providers favor their own services, but Kroes also makes no arbitrary distinctions (and thus exemptions) between wired and wireless networks, like we've seen in the US -- can we get these rules elsewhere, please?

NFL, Verizon Wireless agreement will add Sunday afternoon streaming games in 2014 HD

Verizon Wireless has had an agreement with the NFL providing streaming access to games since 2010, but a new extension will bring more of the sport than ever to its phones and tablets. Not only will its exclusive access continue, but an updated NFL Mobile app is coming this season with more news, video on-demand and behind the scenes info. In 2014, Verizon will expand streaming beyond the current Thursday, Sunday and Monday night games, adding Sunday afternoon CBS and Fox broadcasts, plus playoffs and the Super Bowl. The NFL held back streaming rights in its recent deals with the networks enabling this new agreement, which along with its partnerships with ESPN and Microsoft should keep the game going whether fans come to the stadium or not. According to the Wall Street Journalthe new deal is worth as much as $1 billion, up from the last four year pact which was reported to cost Verizon $720 million.

Obama administration announces initiative to target patent trolls, protect consumers

The White House announced an initiative today to curb the use of patents by patent holders as a tool for "frivolous litigation," and to protect "Main Street retailers, consumers and other end-users of productions containing patented technology." The initiative's inception is composed of legislative recommendations to Congress and a handful of executive actions being carried out directly by the White House -- it's essentially an initiative targeting patent trolls. Administration officials wouldn't say which congressional representatives might propose bills carrying the White House's recommendations; they characterized today's announcement as part of the administration's ongoing effort to reform patent law.

Though the terms are broad, a senior Obama administration official told Engadget that today's announcement is "specifically designed to deal with abusive patent legislation" rather than sweeping patent reform, and is, "not designed in any way to pursue legit patent rights holders."

The executive actions (five in total) range from making sure that patent holders are clearly identified -- meant to target patent trolls that intentionally confuse litigation with myriad "shell" companies -- to providing more clear information on patent use to consumers who may be targeted by patent trolls. The legislative recommendations list includes many of the same provisions as the executive actions, and adds even more protections for individual consumers (a stay in suits that target consumers when "an infringement suit has also been brought against a vendor, retailer, or manufacturer," for instance).

In 2011, the US Senate passed a patent legislation bill that President Obama later signed into law -- the America Invents Act. It's unclear how, if at all, support has changed for patent reform in the Senate since, but it's a hopeful sign that some of today's announcement may actually become law.

Michael Gorman contributed to this report.

Lenovo Reach cloud service opens in beta, official launch coming 'later this year'

Lenovo's getting into the cloud storage game, but rather than dive straight in, the company's taking a tiptoe approach. Starting today, curious consumers can sign up to preview the company's cloud service, dubbed Reach, which offers exactly what you'd expect: remote access to stored files and applications from any device, be it Android, iOS or Windows. The actual beta won't be open until June 22nd, at which point only a select few will be able to test drive the new service and provide Lenovo with feedback. Depending on how smoothly things go, an official launch for all comers should be announced sometime "later this year." But with so many other free cloud storage options already available and so many consumers already tethered to those clouds, Reach could find itself overextended.