Hasta La Gadget!

Verizon has confirmed the details of its iPhone data pricing: $30 per month for unlimited data — and the offer’s only valid for a limited time.

The news comes from Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, who told The Wall Street Journal that if Verizon offered only a limited data plan, it would be a roadblock for AT&T customers thinking about switching to Verizon.

“I’m not going to shoot myself in the foot,” McAdam told WSJ.

AT&T originally offered an unlimited data plan to iPhone customers for $30 a month, but later the company switched to a tiered pricing structure. The biggest AT&T data plan you can buy is 2 GB for $25 per month; more data will cost $10 for each extra gigabyte.

An unlimited data plan on Verizon offers an incentive for AT&T customers to defect. However, McAdams added that an iPhone unlimited plan will be a temporary offer and Verizon will eventually transition to tiered data pricing like AT&T.

While we wait for a Verizon iPhone to hit stores on Feb. 10, Bloomberg is already reporting a rumor about the next-generation iPhone. Citing a consultant who claims he has connections with Apple engineers, Bloomberg says the iPhone 5 will have near-field communication technology that can be used for over-the-air payments. Corroborating the rumor, Apple recently hired an NFC expert as a product manager for mobile commerce.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

See Also:

• AT&T Sees No Threat in a Verizon iPhone
• Verizon Signals the End of the Unlimited Data Plan
• Verizon Wireless Finally Gets Apple's iPhone
• Many iPhone Customers Want to Hop to Verizon, But They Probably …

Ever been freaked out by an online ad that seemed to know you that little bit too well? It’s the result of good old advertisers tracking your net-navigating habits and delivering targeted commercials to your eyeballs, but it can be prevented. Both Google and Mozilla have stepped up (or perhaps been pushed by the FTC) to try and tackle this issue of pernicious tracking cookies, but they’ve gone about it in different ways. The Chrome solution is a Keep My Opt-Outs browser extension that remembers the sites you don’t want personalized information from, while Firefox will start beaming out a Do Not Track HTTP header that should be respected by advertisers and result in you receiving generic, repetitive ads. The important commonality between the two is that they don’t rely on you preparing a cookie file with all your anti-advertiser bile contained within it (which was the FTC’s original, somewhat impractical idea). Google intends to open-source its extension and bring it to other browsers as well, though obviously it’s taking care of Chrome first, which can benefit from the add-on right now.

Chrome and Firefox adding new opt-out features to prevent third-party advertisers from tracking you originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We all know AT&T just loves its tiered pricing models, so it’s no surprise to hear that the carrier intends to turn its forthcoming LTE service into a tier-vana of great new sophistication. BGR has come across an internal document detailing how AT&T plans to segment its 4G pricing on the basis of both speed and data allowance, meaning that your price will reflect both the amount of data you consume and the rate at which you gobble it down. To add further complexity flexibility, Top Ups will be available that’ll allow users to amp up their connection speed for a limited time or increase their allowance on a per-month basis. We’re hearing trials of this new offering will commence in May, which fits in neatly with the currently planned LTE rollout in the second half of this year. So it’s not all set in stone yet, but irrespective of the number of data options AT&T throws our way, the paramount question will always be the same: how much?

Mobile broadband shocker: AT&T looking at tiered data pricing and speeds for upcoming LTE service originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Two arrests have been made connected to the security breach that exposed thousands of iPad users’ email addresses and other info last year. Daniel Spitler and Andrew Auernheimer (yeah, that guy again) have been taken into custody and charged with conspiracy to access a computer without authorization and fraud, for allegedly using a custom script (built by Spitler) called iPad 3G Account Slurper to access AT&T’s servers, mimic an iPad 3G, and try out random ICC identifiers. Once a valid ICC was found, one could harvest the user’s name and email address. Of course, the hackers maintain that this was all done to force AT&T to close a major security flaw, and we’ll be interested to see what exactly the company does to make things right.

Two arrested for iPad security breach originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 14:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look, if you buy a carrier-branded Android handset, you should know good and well that you may never see the first Android update. It ain’t easy to hear, but as mama always said, the truth ain’t always painless. That said, there’s still some research you should do before picking a phone and carrier, and ComputerWorld has seemingly done just that for you. The methodology is all explained down in the source link, but the long and short of it is this: in the last half of 2010, Verizon upgraded 33 percent of its sub-2.2 phones to Froyo, while Sprint updated just 28.6 percent of its stable and T-Mobile blessed only 12.5 percent of its phones with the new digs. AT&T bashers should take note, as Ma Bell didn’t update a single one of its nine Android phones during the June-December 2010 time period. Yeah, ouch. Over on the handset side, we’ve got HTC gifting half of its devices with Froyo, while Motorola comes in second with 15.4 percent and Samsung third with 11.1 percent. No matter how you slice it, it’s a depressing study to look at, and it probably makes your decision to skip over a Nexus One seem all the more idiotic in retrospect. But hey, at least there’s the Nexus S to console you… if you’re willing to sign up with T-Mob, that is.

Study: Verizon Wireless and HTC most eager to provide Android 2.2 updates originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Jan 2011 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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