Items tagged with plan
T-Mobile recently revealed new Value plans that claim to give users unlimited data, but there's a catch: after you reach your allotment, you'll surf the Web at reduced speeds for the rest of the billing cycle. The good news however, is that you won't be limited to the amount of surfing you can do (provided you have enough patience) and you won't have to worry about overage charges. The new Value plans offer single-line and multiline options. There are also various data packages to choose from including unlimited data with 2 GB, 5 GB or 10 GB of high-speed data. T-Mobile says the new plans are designed to help customers save money. What do you think? Will you sign up for one of the new plans on...
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It's the talk that every parent hates to even consider having. No, we're not referring to "that talk," referring to "this talk." It's the talk that goes something like this: "Son, did you utilize your cellphone's data connection to download gobs of data from Internet last month?" "Yeah, um, I think I did dad--I thought no one would notice or care." "Well, turns out that [insert carrier here] cares, and they're demanding every dime that I was saving for your future education. Hopefully you can nab yourself a student loan or two." Needless to say, that's a pretty awful conversation to have, but we're guessing that a father/son tandem in California had a similar discussion after a 13-year old ran...
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In a somewhat similar flap to that over Wikipedia and pictures of the prophet Muhammad, Sony has delayed the hotly-anticipated PS3 game LittleBigPlanet due to the discovery of background music tracks containing two expressions found in the Quran. The game had been scheduled for North American release Tuesday. Instead, Sony says it will start shipping LittleBigPlanet to N.A. retailers on October 27. Copies of the game that have already shipped elsewhere in the world will be recalled from retailers and replaced, according to Sony. It was a post by one user, solid_08, has seemingly brought the release to a halt. Part of his post said: We Muslims consider the mixing of music and words from our Holy...
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The launch of the Google's first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, was both widely anticipated and highly covered. Of course, one big negative, one frequently pointed out as a real problem for the iPhone as well, is the associated carrier with the device. T-Mobile has the smallest 3G footprint of any major carrier, and additionally --- well, the devil is in the details.T-Mobile's advertised data plan for the $179 phone are $25 for unlimited data and voice and 400 text messages, or $35 for unlimited everything. Well, that's when you really, really need to take out your magnifying glass, and take a look at their 3G details page (as linked to this story). Look at the very bottom...
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WD ANNOUNCES WD VELOCIRAPTOR SATA HARD DRIVE WITH BACKPLANE COMPATIBILITY FOR SERVERS, DESKTOPS AND WORKSTATIONS World’s Fastest 10,000 RPM, 2.5–inch, 300 GB SATA Hard Drive Just Gets Better LAKE FOREST, CALIF. – August 12, 2008 – WD (NYSE: WDC) announced today that it is now shipping the new backplane-compatible WD VelociRaptor hard drive, the latest generation of its popular 10,000 RPM SATA WD VelociRaptor series of drives. The new backplane version of the WD VelociRaptor is specifically designed for 3.5-inch drive-based servers, PC and Mac computer enthusiasts and professional workstations that require the need for a backplane structure. A favorite among enthusiasts, the WD VelociRaptor comes...
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AMD announced plans today to provide full support for Microsoft DirectX 11 and OpenCL to enable increased C/C++ cross platform programming efficiency, see the full press release below. Over the next 18-months, AMD plans to make a series of extensive upgrades to its Stream Software Development Kit, which are specifically designed to reduce the time and effort needed to produce GPU accelerated applications that can run on multiple platforms. AMD Drives Adoption of Industry Standards in GPGPU Software Development - Plans full support of Microsoft DirectX 11 and OpenCL to enable increased C/C++ cross-platform programming efficiency - Sunnyvale, Calif. — August 6, 2008 — AMD (NYSE: AMD) today...
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Everyone's read something or other about the next version of Windows that will replace Vista, usually referred to as Windows 7. But it's all still Windows. David Worthington, over at SDTimes, says he's gotten a look at internal Microsoft documents that outline their development plan for Midori, a non-Windows Operating System. Microsoft understands that Windows is essentially a pre-Web product, and sees that the Google-led march toward virtualization and Software as a Service will eventually make Microsoft the black-and-white television of the Internet. Midori, built from the ground up as a non-Windows OS, would make them as big a king of the Internet as they were of the desktop. The Midori documents...
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Id Software has had minimal success developing games for cell phones. It ported its popular Doom title over to the cell phone platform with Doom RPG, as well as developing two original Orcs and Elves games for phones. Ultimately, the three titles sold only a combined two million copies. The problem, at least up to now, is that cell phones have been less than ideal gaming platforms. They typically have small screens, limited processing power and memory, and awkward controls. But according to an article on Forbes.com, Id's co-founder, John Carmack is eyeing the iPhone as the mobile platform that can successfully address at least some of these issues:"One of the biggest appeals of the iPhone, says...
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Nine days and counting until the Apple iPhone 3G goes on sale in the U.S... Many plan on buying their first iPhone, while existing iPhone users ponder whether to upgrade to the new phone or not. Rumors and speculation abound as to how much AT&T will charge for its service plans and what features will come with those plans. We've taken it upon ourselves to address some of the rumors and issues below...1) Rumor: AT&T will charge iPhone 3G customers more than it charges other AT&T non-iPhone customers.False: AT&T offers four different individual calling plans for its phones, and the same rates and features apply to all of them, whether they are iPhones or not. The only difference...
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Intel has been tinkering around with DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) cells, reducing their size and getting rid of the capacitors that were necessary components of their tiny integrated circuit. In doing so, they may have demonstrated a way to remove the SRAM (Static Random Access Memory)cells from the processor and replace them with the simplified DRAM, greatly improving bandwith. Intel said that it was able to fine tune its DRAM design and hit a physical clock of 2 GHz using a 65 nm manufacturing process. The resulting 2T-DRAM offers a stunning bandwidth of 128 GB/s. If Intel is successful to take the clock speed up to the level of its QX9770/9775 processors, the bandwidth would climb to...
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Starting today, a select few United Airlines customers will be able to plug their iPods and iPhones into their flight's in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems and watch the content from their own devices on the seatback's 15.4-inch displays--and their iPods and iPhones will also charge while doing it. Using IFE systems developed by Panasonic Avionics, "United is the first U.S. carrier to offer iPod and iPhone connectivity to its in-flight entertainment system." As we reported last month, Singapore Airlines was the first air carrier to offer iPod and iPhone connectivity on five of its Airbus A340-500 planes. Singapore Airlines is also using IFE systems from Panasonic Avionics. The IFE systems connect...
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ASUS Unveils Plans for Mobile WiMAX 802.16e CPE Solutions ASUS Eee PC and WM series CPE Incorporates Intel Mobile WiMAX Technology for High coverage, High speed and Affordable Last Mile Solutions ASUS has announced its plans to exhibit Mobile WiMAX CPE solutions at the WiMAX Summit Taipei 2008. On inaugural display is the new ASUS WiMAX Eee PC 901, along with the ASUS WMV25E1+, WMNV25E2+, WUSB25E2V2 and WEXP25E2V2 – which all support this latest technology, and guarantee fast WiMAX connectivity and compatibility. These top-notch products provide extremely high speeds and exceptional last mile usage; supplying a wireless broadband device solution to enable portable and mobile network access, and...
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The word on the streets of Taipei is that Intel is planning what could very well be the pre-Nehalem price cuts on existing and upcoming Core 2-based products. The current plan is to reduce prices in the third quarter and add a few more CPUs just to firm-up the low and mid-range. This could very well be a sign that we can expect a very strong launch from Nehalem, but we’ll continue to keep our fingers crossed just in case. “The Core 2 Quad 9450, currently priced at US$316, will be phased out of the market to be replaced by the Core 2 Quad 9400 at 2.66GHz and a price of US$266. The Core 2 Quad Q9300 and Q6700 will both be phased out at the same time too, leaving the Q6600 as the...
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AMD has announced a management shakeup. They're struggling mightily to compete with industry leader Intel right now. AMD COO Dirk Meyer is reshuffling his executive personnel deck by moving some people sideways, some people up the ladder -- and some were given an empty printer paper box to clean their desk into before being escorted to the door. Oops, I meant they've: "...left the company to pursue other opportunities...""AMD is in a precarious situation right now from a business standpoint and it has to take some drastic measures," said Brian Matus, vice president of market research at IC Insights. "I am surprised there haven't been more moves. I think AMD had to take some cost-cutting measures...
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On Monday Skype, announced new subscription plans that allow flat-rate unlimited calling to 34 countries. It should be noted that for Skype defines unlimited as 10,000 minutes / month; after that standard fees apply. Of course, 10,000 minutes equates to about 5 hours a day, so what the heck?The company said it was offering unlimited calls to landline and cell phones in the U.S. and Canada for $2.95 a month.It also offers unlimited calls to phones in 34 countries including Australia, China, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, for $9.95 per month, it said.Skype users in Europe can choose from unlimited plans ranging from 2.95 euros to 8.95 euros a month depending on the destination of...
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Using an old browser? If you're planning to use PayPal, you might consider updating.PayPal, one of the brands most spoofed in phishing attacks, is working on a plan to block its users from making transactions from Web browsers that don't provide anti-phishing protection.The eBay-owned company, which runs a Web-based payment system that allows the transfer of funds between bank accounts and credit cards, said browsers that do not have support for blocking identity theft-related Web sites or for EV SSL (Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer) certificates are considered "unsafe" for financial transactions.Honestly, although some may consider PayPal's "threat" draconian, it's in your own...
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Despite many programs still struggling to take full advantage of 2 or more cores, AMD appears to be planning on jumping past 8 cores and going straight for 12! AMD has dropped more than a few clues that something like this was coming:"The first breadcrumb comes with a new "native six-core" Shanghai derivative, currently codenamed Istanbul. This processor is clearly targeted at Intel's recently announced six-core, 45nm Dunnington processor."The second clue was when AMD execs and engineers began to stop referring derisively to Intel’s practice of putting two chips on a single die, and began to examine using that approach themselves.There are no early performance estimates worth reporting at this...
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Comscore measures paid clicks for US users of all the major search engines. Google has recently been on a fairly big slide in paid clicks. Google investors were hoping to see some improvement in January's 0 percent increase in year-over-year performance. The good news? Paid clicks were up 3% in February. The bad news? There were 3% more days in February this year.Google had 515mm US paid clicks in February, which is up only 3% year over year. At first glance, this appears to be a slight--slight--improvement from the horrific January report, which was flat y/y at 532mm clicks. However, Comscore did not adjust for the Leap Year (29 days vs 28), so this likely accounted for the entire increase.*...
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There is no official report from AMD on the wires, but multiple news outlets are reporting that chipmaker AMD will show 5 percent of its workforce the door. AMD is slated to begin shipping quad-core Phenom 9850, 9750, 9650, 9550, and 9150 processors in the coming weeks, according to sources close to the company. The "50" branding scheme indicates that the processors are the B3 version of the Phenom that fixes the "TLB" bug. This was first reported in DigiTimes.Later, AMD will also ship updated triple-core processors, including the 8750 and 8560. Updated triple-core processors will not necessarily be B3 versions, however, according to sources.Maybe more importantly, AMD is in the midst of handing...
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Put this in your rumor bucket for now, but the Financial Times says Apple is in discussion with the music industry over a possible "all you can eat" music plan for iTunes.Apple is in discussions with the big music companies about a radical new business model that would give customers free access to its entire iTunes music library in exchange for paying a premium for its iPod and iPhone devices.The “all you can eat” model, a replica of Nokia’s “comes with music” deal with Universal Music last December, could provide the struggling recorded music industry with a much-needed fillip, and drive demand for a new generation of Apple’s hardware. It very much seems out of character for Apple. Apple...
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Verizon Wireless started a price war on Tuesday by announcing a $99.99 unlimited calling plan across the United States. The ink barely had time to dry on the press release before AT&T matched the offer.Verizon Wireless introduced an unlimited calling plan for $99.99 a month on Tuesday, a move that was quickly matched by AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA and weighed down stock prices for all U.S. mobile carriers.Verizon Wireless was apparently the first major carrier to make an "unlimited" plan available nationwide with no domestic roaming or long-distance fees. Its announcement was all but five hours old when AT&T announced its own unlimited plan.Three hours later, T-Mobile followed...
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eBay sellers haven't been shy about indicating their feelings over the new policies that eBay is planning. Then plan to show their displeasure with a boycott, starting Monday.Activists opposed to eBay's upcoming fee and policy changes are readying for a weeklong site boycott starting on Monday, with buyers and sellers waiting to see if this strike will succeed where past protests have failed.The boycott, planned to run Feb. 19 - 25, is scheduled to overlap eBay's Feb. 20 rollout of significant changes announced last month.Dang, and we expected to see a ton of HD-DVD players hit eBay after today's news....
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