Category Archives: General

AT&T Axes Unlimited Data for iPhone Users

AT&T will no longer be providing the already overpriced $30/month unlimited data plan to new customers. Their new plans are $15/month for 250MB of data, and $25 for 2GB. Tethering is $20/month extra, and is only available for the $25 plan. (So you’ll have to give up your existing unlimited plan if you want to tether your iPhone when OS 4.0 is available.) The good news is that there isn’t a cap. If you want to use more than 2GB you’re more than welcome. You will just have to pay $10 for every additional gigabyte of data you use.

Wow. If you think about it, you’re paying $10-12.50 per gigabyte. Pricing like that is just…unreal.

I find the tethering charge outrageous as well, perhaps more so than the steep data prices. A $20 monthly “convenience fee” for the pleasure of having a feature built into the phone activated. You don’t get any more data out of it, just the same 2GB plan you’re already paying for. There is absolutely no reason for AT&T to charge for something that costs them absolutely nothing to provide, and something that may very well cause you to reach your quota sooner. You get nothing for your $20, except for an Apple-provided feature that AT&T decided you shouldn’t be able to use without forking over an Andrew Jackson.

AT&T’s argument for their axing of the unlimited plan is that 98% of their customers use less than 2GB monthly. If that’s the case, why is it necessary to get rid of the unlimited plan? If only a tiny percentage of users, probably the most loyal customers, are using more, what difference will it make to stop them from using five gigabytes? (I doubt anyone is using much more than that on a phone yet, though it’s certainly possible with streaming video.) It will stifle innovation, just for a bit more profit.

Here’s an idea. If you can download at 100 kilobits per second, your “cap” should be 32.4 gigabytes. If I did my math correctly, that should be how much data you can use if you were downloading 24/7 for an entire 30-day month.

Apple, Amazon, Napster, Netflix Sued Over Online Music Distribution Patent

Ars Technica is reporting on a new development in the tech patent lawsuit war. Apple, along with Amazon, Netflix, Napster, Microsoft, Rhapsody and a few others, is being sued by Sharing Sound LLC over their infringement of the patent “Distribution of musical products by…

New Envato Site “Mobiletuts+” Launches

I have made some comments on Twitter about there being a shortage of good tutorial blogs for iPhone app development. Envato has answered my wishes with a new Tuts+ site: Mobiletuts+. It launched on the 13th of May, with a nice long introductory tutorial…

How OpenID Could Be More User-Friendly

OpenID is a good idea. While it may not be something you would want to use for financial sites or anything else requiring a higher level of security than your average web forum or social media site, it could potentially save a lot of…

Blockbuster to Still Get New Releases, While Netflix and Redbox Have to Wait

Back in January I mentioned that Warner Brothers was pushing Netflix and Redbox into deals where they would not receive new DVDs until 28 days after the release date. (WB being under the impression that making it more difficult to rent films will cause…

Viacom Uploads Their Content to YouTube While Suing Them for it Being There

For the last couple years, there has been an ongoing legal battle between YouTube and Viacom. Viacom has been protesting their content’s presence on YouTube, demanding that they do more to prevent clips from being uploaded, and referring to the site as a bastion…

Did Facebook Just Patent Twitter?

Facebook was just granted a patent for something that should prove to be controversial. Patent #7,669,123, which was filed for in 2006, is for “A method for displaying a news feed in a social network environment…” The abstract reads: A method for displaying a…

30 Gorgeous iPhone App Interfaces & Icons

If you want to see some amazingly creative user interfaces, look no further than the iPhone. iPhone AppStorm has rounded up 30 iPhone apps with interesting interfaces and icons, providing you with some good inspiration for your web/iPhone/etc design needs. They have the usual…

The iPad Will Find its Niche: My Thoughts on Apple’s Tablet

Unless you’ve been living in a cave somewhere, you’ve almost certainly heard about Apple’s new iPad tablet. The $499 device is essentially a giant iPod Touch, but with a few additional features. The integrated ebook store (or iBooks, as Apple prefers to call them…)…

The History of the Emoticon

Have you ever wondered where the ASCII “smiley face,” and the later emoticons, came from? It was first used on a Carnegie Mellon bulletin board in the early 1980s, September 19, 1982 to be exact. The motivation behind the symbol was to devise a…