Hasta La Gadget!

Sprint’s talking about it, but AT&T’s straight-up doing something about Verizon’s plan adjustments this morning with a series of its own tweaks this afternoon. Starting Monday, January 18 (conveniently the same day that Verizon’s changes go live), unlimited talk will run $69.99 on individual plans, a nice little cut of $30 against the $99.99 the carrier charges today; family unlimited, meanwhile, comes in at $119.99. Unlimited talk and text costs another $20 on top of unlimited talk alone — no change from the current add-on pricing. Similarly, unlimited talk plus smartphone data goes for $99.99, meaning that you’re paying $30 for the data package — exactly the same as you’re paying now, so really, this all boils down to a big adjustment in what carriers across the board are charging for voice. The principles of Econ 101 have us believe that voice isn’t as popular as it used to be — we are now sending billions upon billions of texts, after all — and as we ease off the voice infrastructure, it makes sense that these guys would want to upsell everyone into unlimited plans (remember that we’re living in an “all you can eat” kind of nation) while still banking big on precious kilobytes and characters. Well played, AT&T; you too, Verizon. Well played, indeed.

AT&T messes with plans in wake of Verizon’s moves, slashes unlimited voice pricing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday we heard some rumblings about Verizon making alterations to its calling plans, and wouldn’t you know it, here’s the official PR setting the record straight. Firstly, there’s an Unlimited Talk plan for $69.99 per month, which can be augmented with free text, picture, and video messaging by moving up to the Unlimited Talk & Text plan at $89.99. Family SharePlan varieties — which cover the service costs for the first two lines — are also going to be available, priced at $119.99 for Talk and $149.99 for Talk & Text. Monthly Unlimited Prepaid options complete the new unveilings, costing $5 more than contract-bound subscribers would have to pay — i.e. $74.99 and $94.99. A less happy rumor confirmation is that all but the simplest of phones will require a $9.99 25MB mobile data add-on, while smartphone owners will have to pony up $29.99 for the Unlimited mobile data stuff. All these changes are coming into effect on January 18, as speculated, though current Verizon customers won’t be affected unless they opt to move to one of the new plans. Hit the read link for the full announcement and more details.

Verizon announces Nationwide Unlimited Talk and Talk & Text plans originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ableton and Serato — two of the biggest names in live music production — have been working in stealth mode over the past year to create what they’ve been billing as “the future of digital DJing,” and today that new product has been revealed as The Bridge. Basically, you’ve got a thin layer of software that sits between full versions of both Serato Live (or Itch) and Ableton Live that allows output from both products to flow into the other — DJ sets can be imported into Ableton with full control over effect parameters, tempo, pitch, and so on, and Ableton instruments can sit inside a Serato session. It’s an interesting advancement, and the way the companies are talking, this is just the first in a string of products of the partnership; the good news is that The Bridge will be free to owners of both products, but unfortunately there’s no release date yet, so raves are going to have to soldier on using last year’s technology for at least a while longer. Hang tight, we’re told it’s “coming soon.”

Ableton, Serato announce ‘The Bridge,’ cause DJs to faint en masse originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Don’t get us wrong, enabling the Ovi Store was a pretty sweet add-on in the last update — but the second N900 push in just a single week features a list of fixes and changes that should put smiles on a few owners’ faces, too (and a few devs’ faces, for that matter, while they wait for this payment bug to get patched up). This time around we’ve got full support for Swiss keyboard layouts, better compatibility with 3-branded SIM cards, support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 in the handset’s Mail for Exchange service, and a handful of performance and usability tweaks for Ovi Maps. It’ll be available both over-the-air and via PC download in a phased global rollout over the next day, so keep checking; no need to get all crazy about it if you’ve already installed the first update, though — you’ll be automatically alerted when this one’s ready for you.

Nokia N900 gets its second firmware update this week originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey humans! So Hastings was telling us the truth after all — the Nintendo Wii will be joining the other two game consoles to stream Netflix starting some time in early Spring. Like the PS3, a special Netflix “instant-streaming” disc will be required for the Wii, and it goes without saying that HD’s out of the question since the Wii itself can’t push above 480p. There’ll be no additional fees beyond Netflix’s usual monthly subscription. Time for a game of Mario Kart to celebrate, no?

Update: the Netflix sign-up page is now live! [Via Joystiq]

Wii gets Netflix this Spring, disc required for streaming originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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