go

AT&T to add new $25 GoPhone prepaid plan

In addition to unveiling three new Windows Phone Mango devices today, AT&T announced that it will offer a new $25-per-month GoPhone prepaid plan.

The plan includes 250 nationwide voice minutes and unlimited nationwide messaging every 30 days, and launches on September 18. On that day, the carrier will also offer GoPhone customers a new international long-distance calling feature that gives 250 minutes of international calls to more than 50 countries for an additional $10 per month.

HTC interested in buying its own mobile OS

HTC is keen on buying its own mobile operating system, a move that could help differentiate the smartphone manufacturer from its competition.

HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang, speaking to the Economic Observer of China in a report picked up by Taiwan's Central News Agency, confirmed the company's interest.

"We have given it thought and we have discussed it internally, but we will not do it on impulse," Wang said in an interview with the Economic Observer.

A recent sequence of events has many wondering whether some of the major handset manufacturers may start looking toward a mobile … Read more

Google to debut Dart, a new language for the Web

Google's at it again with a new programming language, this one called Dart.

In 2009, Google launched Go, a language designed for writing server software and handling other chores often handled today by C or C++. Dart, though, is "a new programming language for structured Web programming," according to the schedule for the Goto conference where Googlers plan to describe it next month.

There are two Dart presenters. First is Gilad Bracha, who created the Newspeak programming language that just reached version 3. He also was co-author of the Java Language Specification and worked at SAP Labs, … Read more

Seagate GoFlex Desk review: Hitting the 4TB mark

It's been a little over a year since Seagate Technology announced the FreeAgent GoFlex Desk, which offered up to 3TB of storage, and today, the company once again broke the storage barrier by introducing its first 4TB single-volume external hard drive, the 4TB GoFlex Desk.

Four terabytes of storage is equivalent to about 160 Blu-ray Discs' worth of storage space. When used to host compressed digital content, the new drive can store about 2,000 HD movies or millions of digital photos.

Other than the substantial increase in capacity, the new GoFlex Desk is very similar to the previous … Read more

MeeGo OS fading fast? Intel says it's 'still committed'

An Asia-based report surfaced today that claims Intel will temporarily halt development of its MeeGo operating system for tablets and smartphones due to lack of interest. Intel, however, says it's still committed.

The DigiTimes report claimed that Intel plans to "temporarily discontinue development of its MeeGo OS due to a lack of enthusiasm for the platform from handset and tablet PC vendors."

Instead, Intel will focus on hardware that is paired with either Android or Windows Phone in 2012, according to the report, citing industry sources.

"We remain committed to MeeGo and open source, and will … Read more

TomTom Go Live 1535M: Has apps, will travel

TomTom's Live connected navigation service gets more useful with the addition of travel-specific apps by Yelp, TripAdvisor, Expedia, and Twitter. The TomTom Go Live 1535M will be the first device to take advantage of the new functionality, with owners of the Go Live 2353M gaining parity through a software update this fall.

The new apps will live in the Services menu and, to be fair, "Services" is a more apt description of the new functions than "Applications," but we shan't split hairs. What most of the apps do is provide access to a wider selection of points of interest (POIs) than could be preinstalled on the unit, along with secondary information about those POIs.… Read more

The 404 891: Where we are total losers (podcast)

Writer Caprice Crane joins us in the studio today to tell us what it's like writing for shows like "90210" (2.0) and "Melrose Place." She also gets life-changing news halfway into today's preshow, so tune into Monday's show to find out how to win a copy of her book, "Little Luck."

Caprice also has a new Web site for self-deprecating stories called I'm A Total Loser, and she sticks around in the second half to give us her take on stories about social networking leading to drug abuse, a peer-to-peer alarm clock that smells like Chatroulette, and how social networking is blowing the cover of covert police officers.

The 404 Digest for Episode 891

Huffington Post named Caprice Crane the top 50 funniest on Twitter. I'm a Total Loser Newsflash: Social networking leads to drug abuse. Social media could render covert policing "impossible." National Lampoon names Caprice Crane " Twitter Queen." Follow Caprice Crane on Twitter.

Episode 891 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Verizon offering Intuit's GoPayment reader for free

Verizon is now selling Intuit's GoPayment credit card reader for free at its retail stores.

Thanks to a new partnership between Verizon Wireless and Intuit, business customers can get the mobile card reader for free after a $30 rebate and the activation of a GoPayment account. The card reader and its app can be found at all of Verizon's retail stores and as well as its business-to-business outlets.

Intuit's GoPayment system is geared toward small and midsize businesses that need to process credit cards on the go. The reader itself plugs into a smartphone or tablet. After customers swipe their credit or debit card through the reader, the payment is processed automatically and the funds sent to the merchant's bank account within a few days.… Read more

Can PostgreSQL pickup where MySQL left off?

EnterpriseDB, a provider of enterprise-class products and services based on PostgreSQL, today announced Postgres Plus Cloud Server, which the company has billed as "a full-featured, Oracle-compatible, enterprise-class PostgreSQL database-as-a-service for public and private clouds with support for Amazon EC2, Eucalyptus, Rackspace, and GoGrid."

We've seen other database-as-a-service offerings come on the scene from the likes of Salesforce.com's Database.com, Amazon RDS, as well as from startup Xeround. But they're not based on PostgreSQL, which has had years of hardening and development by a committed community. The other databases are not "Oracle compatible," … Read more

Digital City 139: TouchPad fever, Fox's online piracy oops, and the NFL on the PS3

While Dan's changing his newborn's diapers, Scott invites his college buddy, David Tze, over to discuss how a discontinued tablet with no current support gets to be the most popular tablet on the market right now. Fox's announcement to delay its program streams on Hulu causes an online piracy upsurge. The NFL Sunday Ticket comes to the PS3 for a price higher than the current price of the console. Lastly, will backward-compatibility on gaming consoles be missed? … Read more