This one really slipped under the radar, and at this cost it's no wonder the (how many times now has it been "new") new AT&T isn't making it public. DSL Lite service with 768kbps/384kbps speeds, with a free DSL Modem (though requiring a 12 month minimum contract) for $10 a month. As in $10. Apparently this was a demand of the FCC for approving it's merger with Bellsouth. Though they have certainly complied with the FCC request, you have to read a Terms And Conditions page buried as a tiny link on the plans page to see it. This must be the cyberspace way of throwing a temper tantrum. The Boston Globe reports...
The DSL, or digital subscriber line, plan introduced Saturday is part of the concessions made by AT&T to the Federal Communications Commission to get its $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. approved last December.
The $10 offer is available to customers in the 22-state AT&T service region, which includes former BellSouth areas, who have never had AT&T or BellSouth broadband, spokesman Michael Coe confirmed Monday. Local phone service and a one-year contract are required. The modem is free.
The impending launch of the iPhone is only weeks away, and yet much of it is still shrouded in mystery. One major issue here in the U.S. is that only one carrier (AT&T/Cingular) will be offering the phone, and that carrier is keeping very tight lipped about what the service and data plan packages will be. We already know, thanks to Apple Insider that existing business plan users will have to wait in line like everyone else with no incentives or deals offered. Tech Blorge has an op/ed piece today covering many of the concerns involved with the product launch, that tend to deflate much of the iPhone hype...
Given that anyone who wants to move over to an iPhone will also need to switch over to AT&T as their carrier, isn’t it about time that Apple and AT&T came clean about how much it’s going to cost to actually own the iPhone? Isn’t about time that the details of the iPhone service plans were released so that consumers can make an informed decision?
Jeremy Horwitz of iLounge speculates that based on AT&T’s existing voice and data plans, a 4GB iPhone plan, with 450 minutes of voice and unlimited data, might have an operating cost of US$2419 over the two years of the service contract — $40 per month for 450 minutes of voice calls, $40 per month for unlimited data, and $499 to “buy” the iPhone in the first place.
If this were to be the case, than the iPhone wouldn’t only be expensive up front, but it would also be expensive to own.
Sure to be a big embarrassment for the Job's crowd, quite literally within hours of release of Apple's Safari Browser for the Windows platform, security researchers found gaping security holes. This just reinforces our assertion that the reason why Mac, Linux, and other alternative platforms are safer are because they are obscure targets and not because they are intrinsically safer. Welcome to the internet! :P Betanews reports...
It took security engineers perhaps less than two hours yesterday to introduce Apple's surprise entry in the field of Windows browsers to the big, cruel world of exploits and vulnerabilities, following its introduction yesterday morning at WWDC. As a result, much of the clout Safari had received as the secure browsing alternative to Internet Explorer and Firefox -- as long as it was on a Macintosh -- was burned off like fire to a flash fuse.
The gaming engine genius that is John Carmack had a key and suprise presentation of iD Software's "Tech 5" game engine technology at this years WWDC 2007 event. This guy just never runs out of steam. The video speaks for itself.
Reading through the voluminous coverage of Computex this week, it's not so much the news that tells a disturbing story, but a lack of it. AMD's been out to lunch on showcasing AM2+ systems and Phenom quad core cpu's. A few show attendee's have seen demonstrations. In private. Behind closed doors. Meanwhile Intel Penryn is everywhere. Computex is a pivotal show for ODM manufacturers, and the overall dearth of news of any kind from AMD and a basic lack of presence relative to it's number one competitor, Intel, is creating whispers of doubt around AMD's ability to execute. The Inquirer reports...
Anyway, the feelings among the crowd vary from the mobo vendors complaints about mainboards for AM2+ and Socket G made ready, but no new chips to insert, to an AMD channel partner feeling stuffed, very literally, with a load of current AM2 chips and no takers for them. Why should there be any, when Phenom was supposed to be the next sales phenomenon and sweep the market off its feet? Luckily, Cray wasn't at the show to shed tears over its grievances.
Whether I asked AMD or partners, the Phenom answer on the availability was - "doing our best" or, more often, "no comment". That is far worse than what I was hearing a few months ago.
At the same time, Intel gloated in a probably deserved show victory, with Penryns in multiple PC, workstation and server configurations shown to all and sundry. No hidden tables or secret rooms there, anyone could play with them. The 3.33GHz/FSB 1333 desktop and 3.2GHz/FSB1600 workstatind and server platforms were out with clear specs. Practically, they could have as well officially launched the CPUs - except that, at the official launch, the speeds may be even higher.
Over at Shacknews today Maarten Goldstein has posted two comparison videos of the upcoming game Crysis. The videos, far more viscerally than screenshots, allow you to observe the visual differences between DirectX9 and DirectX10 versions of the game. Watching them really drives home the difference. ShackNews reports...
Two brief new Crysis movies have been released, showing off the visual differences between the DirectX9 and DirectX10 builds of the game. One clip features an Alien Hunter, the second movie takes place in the jungle.
Today we ran across a column on PCMag by Jim Louderback generally decrying the long term success of the iPhone. Our prediction is similar to Jim's, that the iPhone will have great initial success but wane over time. We however think the reason why is a little simpler. Cellular phones are a market with heated competition among the major players with very frequent new model cycles. We've been hearing about the iPhone for how long now? Unless Apple can get on a six month/twelve month refresh cycle along with releasing a couple of less expensive models, it seems to us that the other reasons bandied about for its success or failure are immaterial. Does Apple have the capability to release designs quickly? The history (and hype) behind the iPhone says no to us. PCMag Reports...
It's too bad Lance Ulanoff isn't a betting man. I could make a lot of money if I took him up on his Apple iPhone guarantee. You see, Lance suggests that the iPhone will be less than successful at first but then rocket to superstardom by the end of next year. I think differently.
I believe that early iPhone results will be quite good. There's a lot of pent-up demand for the overpriced phone, particularly among the urban cognoscenti and techno-elites. My unscientific sampling of random Silicon Valley types shows that just about anyone who can't afford a Tesla Roadster has already preordered an iPhone. I believe it's going to sell out pretty quickly.
Lots of interesting tech is being displayed at Computex this week. Though third party utility companies may frown on this, ECS is showcasing Intel's System Recovery Tool BIOS here. The Inquirer Reports...
ECS is showing Intel's backup utility called the System Recovery Tool.
This utility sits inside the BIOS of a motherboard that of course, sports Intel's latest chipsets.
The application features partition and disk image backup and recovery, just like a lot of third-party applications. However, being built inside the BIOS, it has the advantage of not needing any sort of boot or recovery CDs, rather pressing a function key (F3 in the case of ECS's boards) on a keyboard.
It's no secret that as a communications medium email is a mess. It's because of this that service providers have begun selling "guaranteed delivery services", ostensibly with the idea being that critical communications can more easily wade through the muck that is modern email systems. Of course by offering a pay-service to guarantee delivery spammers can simply pay too. The funny irony is that much of it is still going to get filtered and trashed. Waste of money if you ask me. Yahoo News reports...
With Goodmail, a company can pay a quarter of a penny per message to bypass those filters and reach inboxes directly. Recipients see a blue seal verifying that the message is legitimate; senders get confirmations and can resend messages lost in transit.
Non-profit groups can participate, too, at about a tenth of the commercial rates.
At least half of the fees go to the service provider, Goodmail Chief Executive Richard Gingras said.
For now, Goodmail will approve only companies and organizations in existence for at least a year, to thwart fly-by-night operations. Those that have prompted too many spam complaints will be disqualified.
DailyTech editors Kristopher Kubicki and Gabriel Ikram today published the results of a very suprising 3 month long survey they conducted studying the practice of online "payola." Though there are government regulations and laws regulating this sort of distasteful behavior in traditional media, no such legal remedies exist for solely online publications. This is one of the "dirty little secrets" of this industry that has existed since it's birth, and one we've had to cope with ourselves. DailyTech Reports...
A three-month study of the online technology publication industry uncovers pay-to-review tactics, viral marketing and a few beacons of light
During the 1960s a new term was born into the music industry: Payola. A combination of the words "pay" and "Victrola," payola represented an increasingly large problem in the music industry: record companies paid radio stations to play and promote new records.
