Category: Uh Oh…

Posted on

From Ars Technica: Verizon’s shared data plans won’t save solo users much money

Verizon’s shared data plans will finally be available to customers starting June 28. Well, not exactly shared data plans—plans that share everything, including data, unlimited texts, and unlimited voice minutes. Currently, there’s no way to get shared data without an otherwise fully unlimited plan.

Verizon and AT&T have been promising shared data on family plans for some time, saying it was a logical evolution of the way phone plans have been offered. Verizon’s new plan charges an “account access” rate based on the size of the shared data bucket, and then a separate fee per device that uses the plan. The least expensive access fee is $10 per tablet, going up to $40 per smartphone. Plans start at $50 to share 1GB, up to $100 for 10GB.

The breakdown of the charges for Verizon’s “share everything” plan.

While families may have endless permutations of device combinations, one of the use cases we expected to be alleviated by shared plans is that of a single user with a smartphone and tablet. Previously, such a person would have had to buy separate data plans for each device.

 

from Ars Technica

Posted on

From Ars Technica: $422,000 to stream a movie? The continued “success” of phone cramming

If you were watching Mulholland Drive on your phone, it probably wasn’t through Streaming Flix.
Aurich Lawson

From July 2009 until December 2010, a Minneapolis-based company called Streaming Flix allegedly hit on a hugely profitable business model—slapping steep monthly fees for its online movie service on the phone bills of 253,269 customers. In total, $9.7 million was billed in that year and a half. How many movies did Americans watch after spending all that cash? 23.

That’s no typo—and it means an average of $422,000 was spent each time someone streamed a film. It also suggests that 99.99 percent of the people paying monthly fees for the service weren’t using it.

Perhaps that’s why the very first Google hit for “Streaming Flix” points to a question from one Barbara G. She wants to know what the company is and why “I am being billed for it with my AT&T bill but did not sign up for it?” The situation grew so bad that the FBI opened a probe of Streaming Flix and its related companies. In December 2010, the Bureau asked the public to send in complaints about the company.

 

from Ars Technica

Posted on

From Morning Edition: ‘Car Talk’ Brothers To Close Up Shop

Sniff… I’m gonna miss my all-time favorite radio show…  🙁

=========================================================

Tom and Ray Magliozzi, aka Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, the comedian mechanics who host NPR’s Car Talk, are retiring this fall. Their weekly call-in series will continue to be distributed by NPR, drawing on material from their 25 years of show archives.

 

from Morning Edition

Posted on

From Discover Magazine: Shining shoes for NASA | Bad Astronomy

FACT: NASA’s total budget is less than 1% of the Federal spending. Way less than 1%.

FACT: The proposed fiscal year 2013 budget out of the White House has huge cuts to NASA. Planetary sciences alone has $300 million slashed from it.

FACT: If this cut stays in the budget, NASA will have to pull back from some big and exciting planetary missions. It’s already made NASA back out of an agreement with the European Space Agency on two ambitious Mars probes.

FACT: This sucks. A lot. America leads the way in scientific planetary missions, and this cut will hurt that, significantly.

It’s unclear if Congress will reinstate that money. So what can we do?

My friend Alan Stern — head of the new Horizons Pluto probe already on its way to the tiny world — decided to try something radical: raise public awareness about all this by holding various “fund raisers” across the nation — bake sales and car washes! Yes, you read that right: planetary scientists will be washing cars and giving away cookies to help save NASA. It’s not really about raising …

 

from Discover Magazine

Posted on

From Gizmodo: The Experimental French Aircraft That Wasn’t

Is it just me or does that aircraft look like a … chicken?! o.O
=============================================================

The Coléoptère was a French experiment from the 1950s which aspired to make a vertical take off and landing aircraft a reality. It looks like something that was an iconic, indelible part of the Atomic Future. The only thing is that it was a complete failure. More »



 

from Gizmodo

Posted on

From Autoblog: Report: Texting Mass teen found guilty of vehicular homicide

Filed under: , ,

Texting while driving court ruling video

If for some reason you still don’t think that texting while driving is a bad idea, here’s a story for you. Aaron Deveau, age 17, was allegedly composing a text message when his car crossed the center line of a Massachusetts street, hitting a car head-on. In that car was Daniel Bowley, Jr. and his girlfriend, Luz Roman. Bowley Jr. suffered massive injuries in the crash, and after spending 18 days in a Boston hospital, died as a result of the injuries.

According to Boston.com, a Haverhill, Massachusetts judge sentenced Deveau to “concurrent sentences of two and a half years on a charge of motor vehicle homicide and two years for a charge of negligent operation of a motor vehicle causing serious injury while texting” earlier this week.

After noting Deveau’s age and lack of any criminal record, the judge later ordered the 17-year-old to serve one year in the Essex County House of Corrections, suspending the other sentences. Deveau was originally arrested in 2011, following the crash that took place in February of that year.

“If I could take it back, I would take it back. I just want to apologize to the family,” Deveau stated during the trial. During his testimony, Deveau reportedly claimed that he was not texting during the time of the crash and could not recall texting while driving.

Luz Roman (pictured above), who survived the crash, spoke out during the hearings, and spoke to Boston.com after the sentencing, which you can see in the video below. “This has been giving me a lot of pain, there are no words to describe,” Roman told Boston.com. Scroll downfor the rest of her commentary, as well as some thoughts from Bowley’s son.

 

from Autoblog