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unlimited

Cutting the cord for all-you-can-eat wireless plans

Wireless operators hope all-you-can-eat pricing will prove appetizing to consumers still using their landlines.

The new pricing model could also help them in the protracted battle for customers with the cable industry.

Two weeks ago, Verizon Wireless was the first major U.S. wireless operator to announce a $99.99 unlimited voice plan. Within days, AT&T and T-Mobile followed with their own plans. And last week, Sprint Nextel announced its plan, which also includes unlimited data and a slew of premium wireless services.

These new plans naturally appeal to today's heaviest cell phone users. Road warriors who … Read more

Sprint raises stakes in the $99.99 unlimited battle

Sprint Nextel upped the ante in the $99.99 all-you-can-eat rate plan battle Thursday by introducing a service that includes unlimited voice as well as unlimited data and slew of premium services.

Called "Simply Everything," the plan will give customers unlimited voice as well as unlimited data, text, e-mail, Web-surfing, Sprint TV, Sprint Music, GPS Navigation, and push-to-talk service for $99.99 a month. The company made the announcement during its fourth-quarter earnings call, in which the company also announced heavy financial and customer losses.

The new pricing plan is available to existing and new customers on both … Read more

Where Bakalar isn't just his name...he's actually Back-a-lar

EPISODE 39

Today, we actually get it right! We sucker in Tom Merritt to talk about Amy Winehouse's drunken badness, a guy gets denied an all-star game marriage proposal, unlimited cell phone minutes, and N+, like stick figure lemmings...but for Xbox 360, and Pimp My Ride for Wii. Listen in on the fun!

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile implement unlimited calling plans

It's official: As of today, all four major national carriers now offer unlimited calling plans. Two weeks ago, Sprint announced a $119.99 a month Unlimited Access Pack available in select markets, but today Verizon, AT&T, and now T-Mobile have all matched it with an astounding triple-whammy announcement that all three will offer nationwide unlimited calling plans for only $99.99 a month. Verizon kicked it off this morning with its unlimited plan announcement, followed by AT&T a few hours later, and T-Mobile finishing it off a few hours after that. We won't be … Read more

Microsoft gives away 85 million PCs...on a subscription basis

I hadn't heard of Microsoft's Unlimited Potential program, but Microsoft is using it to seed the Russian and adjacent markets with subscription-based PCs that customers can use. It's a clever way for Microsoft to seed developing markets with its Vista operating system, at a compelling price.

Microsoft paints the Unlimited Potential program as part of Bill Gates' "creative capitalism" policy whereby developing nations can benefit from advanced technology without paying out their entire GDP to get it. As suggested above, however, the program also offers Microsoft a way to club Linux's growth in these markets:… Read more

Where we're not crying, it's just raining on our faces

EPISODE 31

Today we joke with Natali Del Conte about Valentine's Day, why Facebook is helping people know what's going on with Tennessee tornadoes, the Arrested Development movie in early talks, and unlimited phone plans.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Yahoo axes music service, strikes deal with Rhapsody

It's been a tumultuous few days for Yahoo--you know, with that takeover bid from Microsoft--but the company continues to shake things up internally, too.

On Monday, the company announced that it will discontinue its Yahoo Music Unlimited subscription service and will transfer its customers to RealNetworks' Rhapsody service.

In mid-2008, Yahoo Music Unlimited subscribers will be guided through an in-browser process to convert their music libraries to Rhapsody's service. For a limited time (length unknown), they'll be able to keep paying Yahoo's subscription fees, which cap out at $8.99 per month, before being required … Read more

Shortwave infrared: Next-generation night vision

The next generation in night vision for the U.S. military may be something that is already a commercial success in such applications as noninvasive medical examinations and silicon wafer inspection.

DARPA is betting on an indium gallium arsenide crystal and shortwave infrared (SWIR) sensor technology developed by Sensors Unlimited (SUI) that works in a wavelength somewhere between the visible and thermal bands. SUI, a subsidiary of Goodrich, has signed a three-year contract with DARPA to develop prototypes of lightweight helmet- and vehicle-mounted cameras based on SWIR technology.

Incorporating advanced materials and circuitry, the cameras detect reflected light at wavelengths … Read more

Yahoo's unlimited storage still not enough

Yesterday Yahoo announced they would begin offering Yahoo Mail users unlimited storage. The company will start with U.S. accounts and continue to roll out the upgrade to most of the world by the end of June. The only other major company to offer unlimited Web e-mail storage is AOL, starting in 2005 for paid members.

Despite the big upgrade, something that bugs me is that attachment sizes are still limited to 10MB for free accounts. Both MSN and Yahoo have premium e-mail services that double the mostly standard 10MB attachment size (at a price). This can be really handy … Read more