Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on January 17, 2008 by CyberNet.

Back in 1996 when my parents took the plunge and signed-up for  the Internet for the first time, they had three different options for plans. Either they could choose something like 15 or 30 hours per month, or they could pay quite a bit more to get the unlimited hours plan. I was in 7th grade at the time and between my brother and I, we convinced them that we definitely needed the unlimited option – especially with how slow our Internet actually was with our 14.4 kilobits per second modem! Who wants limited hours of Internet anyhow? Several years after we signed-up, it seemed as though every ISP moved to only offering unlimited plans and it’s remained that way up until today. That could be about to change though with Time Warner Cable announcing that they’re going to begin experimenting with a new pricing structure. To sum it up, the more bandwidth you use, the more you pay.

Can you even imagine going from unlimited data downloads to a limited package? I certainly can’t.  While it’s understandable that they feel the people who are downloading large amounts of high definition video content should pay more than someone who only goes online to check email, limited plans just aren’t appealing to anyone.  Being limited to 15 or 30 hours wasn’t appealing back in the mid-90′s, and being limited to a certain amount of bandwidth isn’t appealing now!

Time Warner is the second-largest cable provider in the United States and they will start trying this new system out in Beaumont Texas for new customers sometime in the 2nd quarter of this year. There’s been no word on the download limits each tier would offer, or the pricing of them. For tech savvy individuals, selecting a plan wouldn’t be difficult at all. But, can you imagine your mom or dad signing up for cable Internet and having to decide which tier would work best for them? It would almost be as bad as someone walking into Best Buy with no knowledge of Windows Vista and trying to determine which version they should get. And if the Time Warner sales reps are anything like Best Buy sales reps, people would be signing up for the most expensive plan possible even if they use the Internet to check mail – much like how uninformed individuals can easily walk out of the store with Windows Vista Ultimate.

How would you feel if your ISP ended up following in the footsteps of Time Warner? Would you end up switching to a new provider if yours did something like this? If Time Warner is successful, do you think other ISP’s will follow?

Source: Associated Press

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We’re kind of getting used to Intel setting records with its earnings this year, and it capped off its 2010 with another killer quarter. With $11.5 billion in revenue, and a total of $43.6 billion for the year (up 24 percent from last year), Intel is naturally riding high. There’s danger lurking on the horizon, however, with Microsoft announcing at CES that the next version of Windows will also run on ARM chips, potentially ending a decades-long x86 dominance in the desktop OS space. Naturally, the topic came up in the earnings call, and here’s Intel CEO Paul Otellini’s level-headed statement on the topic:

The plus for Intel is that as they unify their operating systems we now have the ability for the first time, one, to have a designed-from-scratch, touch-enabled operating system for tablets that runs on Intel that we don’t have today; and, secondly, we have the ability to put our lowest-power Intel processors, running Windows 8 or the next generation of Windows, into phones, because it’s the same OS stack. And I look at that as an upside opportunity for us.

On the downside, there’s the potential, given that Office runs on these products, for some creep-up coming into the PC space. I am skeptical of that for two reasons: one, that space has a different set of power and performance requirements where Intel is exceptionally good; and secondly, users of those machines expect legacy support for software and peripherals that has to all be enabled from scratch for those devices.

After careful analysis of Paul’s voice, we couldn’t detect any hints of panic or fear in it, and we buy about 50+ percent of what he’s putting down — a lot better than we expected, to be honest. It’s very interesting that he sees the new version of Windows being a “designed-from-scratch, touch-enabled operating system for tablets,” and the idea of Windows Phone running on regular Windows is also news to us — though it certainly makes plenty of sense in the long run (and perhaps Ballmer has been hinting at it). Still, Intel has just as much of a disadvantage making a phone processor as ARM guys have a disadvantage at making high-powered PC processors, and when it comes to legacy support, they’ll at least be on pretty equal footing when it comes to a “designed-from-scratch” tablet OS. No matter what, Intel certainly has a great roadmap and a ton of cash right now, so we look forward to a fair CPU fight on all sides of the form factor coin.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini addresses Microsoft’s ARM move in the wake of record earnings announcement originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 20:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that AMD’s Fusion is finally real, we’re all sorts of excited to see what kind of numbers the E-350 Zacate APU puts up in honest-to-goodness machines like Fujitsu’s latest. The minty fresh Lifebook PH50/C is just one of the many new lappies unveiled this week by the company, but this particular 11.6-incher has managed to grab our heartstrings and not let go. Boasting a cute, albeit familiar design, the PH50/C is equipped with a 1.6GHz E-350 APU, Radeon HD 6310 graphics, 2GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive, Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) and a 5,800mAh battery good for up to seven hours of life in ideal conditions. For those more interested in Intel’s Sandy Bridge, the like-minded PH74/C gets powered by a Core i3-2310M, and given that it’s a Japanese machine designed for Japanese owners, an in-built WiMAX module is thrown in for good measure. We’re also getting the impression that both of these can be ordered up with Intel’s Wireless Display technology, and considering that Buffalo just introduced a new WiDi adapter for this very market, we’d say things have lined up quite nicely. Pricing remains up in the air, but they should be out in Q1 for under $800 or so.

Fujitsu launches 11.6-inch Lifebook PH50/C, complete with AMD Fusion APU originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As expected, the developers version of iOS 4.3 will bring the hot-spot feature currently found on the Verizon iPhone 4 to AT&T handsets.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

There’s no love lost between between AOL’s tech blogs. There’s a war of words being waged between Engadget and the recently purchased TechCrunch–actually, from the looks of it, it’s primarily TC-founder Michael Arrington taking potshots against the former in some very public forums.

Things started when Arrington derailed a post about Google Ads to talk smack about the blog, writing,

So we’re sad to see our sister blog Engadget doing just that-buying ads to pump up their Comscore rankings. We’ve seen a ridiculous number of ads on Google over the last month or two saying things like “Keep Up With What’s Going On In The Tech World With News From Engadget.”

Oh, and, “Engadget’s editors seem to be spending more time trolling TechCrunch comments than doing any actual work.”

Oh yeah, and also, “I miss the days when Ryan Block ran that site. Almost immediately after he left the sellout began, and Engadget’s rough but smart edginess vaporized into a plasticized caricature of a real blog.”

It was a pretty solid barrage in the space of a meager four paragraphs.

When Business Insider wrote up the odd attack, Arrington took to the site’s comment section to respond (and add fuel to his own bonfire), saying things like “I’m throwing punches at the engadget team and their bullsh*t” and “they’re immensely unethical.”

Engadget editor-inc-chief Joshua Toplosky quickly responded in the aforementioned comment section, writing,

You need to explain this comment and the source of your hatred for our brand and people. You need to tell me how we have been “trolling you.” Explain what we’ve done to you. Explain anything that you’ve said beyond a personal vendetta. I haven’t heard a shred of substance behind your attacks — only the vitriol of a man-child who can’t control himself. “Immensely unethical”? Explain it.

He concluded by telling Arrington to, “grow up.”

And then the comment section kind of breaks down from there.

So, what’s going on? Is AOL gunning for more hits, or is Arrington just setting himself up for the most awkward Christmas party, ever?