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AT&T will cap DSL and U-Verse internet, impose overage fees (update)
Ladies and gentlemen, the days of unlimited broadband may be numbered in the United States, and we're not talking wireless this time -- AT&T says it will implement a 150GB monthly cap on landline DSL customers and a 250GB cap on subscribers to U-Verse high speed internet starting on May 2nd. AT&T will also charge overage fees of $10 for every additional 50GB of data, with two grace periods to start out -- in other words, the third month you go over the cap is when you'll get charged. DSLReports says it has confirmation from AT&T that these rates are legitimate, and that letters will go out to customers starting March 18th. How does AT&T defend the move? The company explains it will only impact two percent of consumers who use "a disproportionate amount of bandwidth," and poses the caps as an alternative to throttling transfer speeds or disconnecting excessive users from the service completely. Customers will be able to check their usage with an online tool, and get notifications when they reach 65 percent, 90 percent and 100 percent of their monthly rates. We just spoke with AT&T representative Seth Bloom and confirmed the whole thing -- rates are exactly as described above, and the company will actually begin notifying customers this week. He also told us that those customers who don't yet have access to the bandwidth usage tool won't get charged until they do, and that AT&T U-Verse TV service won't count towards the GB cap. Update: What prompted this change to begin with? That's what we just asked AT&T. Read the company's statement after the break.
New Era Cap releases Epic Mickey, Tron hats
New Era Cap, which makes the official Major League Baseball hats, has released its first hat design based on a video game: a fitted cap featuring Epic Mickey imagery. The $37 hat came out on November 30 alongside the Wii game, and is available from the company's website or its Flagship stores. It's a nice design, but a Disney hat with no plastic ears on either side seems ... wrong, somehow. It disrupts the natural order of the universe. Maybe you could staple some ears onto it yourself if you get one of these -- otherwise, you know, it would be weird. The company also has a line of sort-of game-inspired hats, based on Tron Legacy.%Gallery-108607%
EVO 4G loses 30fps limit thanks to devoted community (video)
Whatever the reason HTC instituted that 30fps cap on the EVO's graphical output, the issue has just been remedied by -- surprise, surprise -- coders over at xda-developers. We've come across video evidence of the EVO 4G rolling along at a swift 54fps average clip, and another motion picture reel shows the positive effect this has had on the touch-tracking of the handset. Check them both out after the break and hit the source to get educated on how to make this happen on your own EVO. You should be warned that there are still some issues to resolve before the whole thing's buttery smooth, but hey, it's still a lot better than waiting for HTC to do it. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Graduation cap modded with LED array, steals show (video)
Yomo Gaocho, an enterprising young man about to graduate from Northwestern University, has put together pretty much the coolest grad cap mod we've seen. Not that we're experts on the subject or anything, but the array of 256 LED lights adorning his cap surely makes for one of the geekiest ways to bid adieu to one's undergraduate studies. He's taking it one step further too, by programming animation patterns into the white LED arrangement and offering advertising space -- we're not kidding -- for any unorthodox companies that may wish to have him as a walking billboard. See Yomo's creation on video after the break, or hit the source for a guide on how to make your own light-fantastic grad cap.
The Mog Log: Each answer I give you will only lead to more questions
This column may or may not contain any real answers. But it will contain a lot of emotionally satisfying climaxes, and maybe even bring back parts from columns that we've already finished. Unfortunately, there's no way to continue the analogy without making it sound like I was disappointed with the end of a certain well-known television show, which I wasn't. So let's move straightaway to the newest collection of questions and answers about Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV. (And if we could get an island in the latter? That'd be awesome. Just saying.) Kaio asked: "What purpose does it serve to jump on top of roofs or jump off mountians with no consequence?" I've got to say that I do tend to fall with the camp that allows jumping. It's not a deal-breaker if I can't, but it's similar to people complaining about the pretty-line maps found in Mass Effect 2 and Final Fantasy XIII. Sure, it's not like it restricts much of your practical movement, but the fact that the choice is there makes you feel as if you could go anywhere you want. That having been said, it sure seems odd that every single character in most games is able to leap to Mario-like heights without even a warm-up stretch, right?
Persona 3 Portable pre-order includes Junpei hat
Don't you wish you were as cool as Junpei, one of the playable characters of the upcoming Persona 3 Portable? Well, you'll be able to inch closer with a real-life replica of his hat, included with retail copies of the upcoming PSP RPG. According to a press release, the hat is "only available as a pre-order bonus ... while supplies last." If you want to add the cap to your cosplay wardrobe, you'll have to order the game from either Amazon or GameStop stores in the US or Canada. To get a look at what the hat looks like in real life, click past the break.
Apple, Inc. market cap now exceeds Walmart
Apple and Walmart have been playing stock market tag over the past few weeks to see which company's market capitalization would be higher. At the time of this writing, Apple's market capitalization of $213.98 billion exceeds Walmart's market cap of $211.14 billion -- a difference of $2.84 billion. Currently, Microsoft and Exxon are the only US companies whose market caps exceed Apple's, with Microsoft at $255.75 billion and Exxon at $319.21 billion. The overly simplified way of looking at it: Apple as a company is now worth more than Walmart, the world's largest retailer. Granted, market cap is only one way of gauging a company's financial worth, but considering the pile of cash Apple is sitting on right now, it doesn't seem like a huge stretch to say that Apple's economic worth is at least very closely represented by its position in the market cap rankings. Some firms are predicting that Apple will eventually catch up to or surpass Microsoft's market cap. While there's currently a $41.77 billion dollar difference between the two companies' market caps, that's not a completely insurmountable gap. Get a load of this batch of perspective: ten years ago, Microsoft was worth in excess of $586 billion, while Apple was worth a relatively paltry $17 billion. In the same amount of time it took for Microsoft to lose almost $330 billion in worth, Apple's market cap rose by nearly $200 billion. No wonder Fortune named Steve Jobs "CEO of the Decade."
The Queue: Waterfalls
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. There's a bunch of good questions in today's Queue: gold cap (including a little extrapolation by yours truly), boss level hit cap design, and voicing of a certain King of Stormwind.(In my Casey Kasem voice) As for today's reading music, take a listen to the 1990's classic by TLC, Don't Go Chasin' Waterfalls. They totally turn into water elementals too, around 3:40 in the video.Outdps asked..."Is the gold cap per character or per account? Is there a gold cap for guild banks?" Bonus question: "What should the gold cap be?"
The Queue: Hodgepodge
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. Lots of good questions this week, and like yesterday's Queue, we have a full set of them today as well.Boreddruid asked..."Is there any particular time that my guild should start 10-man Ulduar hard modes?"
Phat Loot Phriday: Black Ice
Today's item comes to us from the wild and strange land of Twitter, where Jezriyah suggested this might be the prettiest item in the game. Maybe -- but only if you don't count characters, as my Night Elf Hunter is pretty hot. Also, if you're not following WoW Insider on Twitter yet, now's the chance to do so -- you get to suggest items like this!Name: Black Ice (Wowhead, Thottbot, Wowdigger)Type: Epic PolearmDamage/Speed: 570 - 856 / 3.50 (203.7 DPS)Attributes: +108 Agility, +88 Stamina 2084 Feral Attack Power, if you're into that sort of thing, and you probably are -- this is one of the best cat DPS weapons for Feral Druids %Gallery-33600%
Netbook buyer blows by 5GB limit on AT&T data plan, sues
Nothing quite like a four- or five-figure phone bill to break your spirit, and in many circumstances, we can understand why your first reaction after opening such a bill might be "I'll sue the pants off of these people." Of course, contracts are pretty well ironclad thanks to the generations of overpaid lawyers that have perfected them over the years, and generally speaking, you've got to lie in the bed you've made -- but occasionally, a situation develops that's genuinely bogus. This one has been brewing for a while, actually, ever since AT&T and others decided to drop their unlimited data plans down to a 5GB cap: unexpected overage. A buyer of one of those $99 Aspire Ones bundled with an AT&T contract at Radio Shack got a shock of a bill after blowing past her 5GB cap, and while the individual should've certainly done a better job of understanding that the cap existed, shouldn't the carriers be shutting off data by default when you hit 5GB, or after just a very small amount of overage has developed? At any rate, she's suing AT&T and Radio Shack for her troubles -- and it looks like she's seeking class-action status -- so we'd love to see this spur companies into more proactively preventing nasty bills from developing in the first place.
iCap MP3 player can save your hearing / life, not your dignity
No, seriously -- you have to digest this quote. According to Gesten Technologies President Jeffrey Gesten: "If you listen to loud music through earbuds, then you are risking long term hearing damage; if you listen while you are jogging or bicycle riding, then you are risking your hearing... and your life!" Hear that kids? If you use any product other than the ridiculous looking iCap, you're practically playing Russian Roulette with Dr. Death. Speaking of the cap at hand, said wearable packs a 1GB MP3 player, an FM tuner, a voice recorder (really?) and a microSD slot for carrying around even more Boyz II Men tracks on your dome. It also touts external speakers, which should totally freak out any other jogger you happen to pass by. Those with enough fundage to buy something purely for comedic purposes can hand over $119.95 and begin to chuckle right now.
AT&T joins the herd, looks to trial bandwidth capping in Reno, NV
During an age where unlimited bandwidth has never been more useful for perfectly legal and entertaining reasons, carriers everywhere are looking to harsh our collective mellow. Following in the frowned-upon footsteps of Comcast, AT&T is gearing up to trial monthly bandwidth caps in Nevada. Starting this month, Reno-area subscribers using the carrier's least expensive DSL service (768k) will be forced to download less than 20GB in a month; the cap amount increases with the speed of the service, topping out at 150GB for the 10Mbps level of service. A USA Today report on the matter even admits that "streaming video services like the one Netflix offers" could indeed push users over the limit without any illegal transfers to speak of. Of note, customers involved in the trial will be able to track their usage via the web, and AT&T will contact them if they surpass 80% of their limit. Should they exceed the threshold even after a grace period, they'll be dinged $1 per gigabyte in overage charges. Awesome.
T-Mobile kills the 1GB data cap, takes a more friendly approach
It looks like T-Mobile is listening folks -- and they appear to be responding. In a statement we've just received from the company, they tell us that they're killing the hard-line approach to data capping, saying instead they'll reserve the right to cap a "small fraction" of users who abuse the network. In their words:"Our goal, when the T-Mobile G1 becomes available in October, is to provide affordable, high-speed data service allowing customers to experience the full data capabilities of the device and our 3G network. At the same time, we have a responsibility to provide the best network experience for all of our customers so we reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service to all of our customers.We removed the 1GB soft limit from our policy statement, and we are confident that T-Mobile G1 customers will enjoy the high speed of data access over our 3G network. The specific terms for our new data plans are still being reviewed and once they are final we will be certain to share this broadly with current customers and potential new customers."
T-Mobile soft capping 3G data at 1GB per month
Caps are nothing new to the world's 3G networks, but T-Mobile's being particularly stingy with the bytes -- 1GB is all you get. Well, technically you can get more than that, but our friends in magenta are reserving the right to throttle you back to a stifling 50Kbps -- virtually useless by smartphone standards, and less than what even a good EDGE network is capable of providing. That's going to be sour news to heavy G1 users, especially as Android touts its stellar connectivity, world-class browser, and a full suite of data-gorging apps. For now, we're going to cut T-Mob some slack on this since the threat is purely theoretical, but if they start enforcing this little stipulation with a heavy hand, the G1 is going to have to stay in the pocket a little more than we'd like.[Thanks, Emmanuel C.]
EverQuest 2 leveling from 20 - 70 to become significantly faster
The designers of EverQuest II are planning to make radical alterations in Game Update 49 to the leveling curve for characters between levels 20 and 70. A post by Design Supervisor Noel Walling on the official forums details the changes. Whereas it currently takes on average around 164 hours for a player to advance from 20 to 70, it will soon only take around 100. To compensate for this change, Adept I spell drops will increase.Walling says these changes are intended to "get new players into the game faster." They're also a response to a low number of people in those level ranges. 1 - 20 and 70 - 80 are unchanged, but experience gains in the mentoring system are getting a boost to encourage higher level players to help new folks and alts level up. The benefits scale based on level, but players who are mentoring will gain between 50% and 300% extra XP from combat.This is an answer to a big problem in these types of games; they become top-heavy, and an insurmountable barrier to entry goes up. At this point, though, does it even make sense for it to take 100 hours to reach 70? Why not just 50? If it's not fun for 164 hours, it's probably not for 100 either, right?
The Daily Grind: How long should it take to reach the level cap?
Yesterday Blizzard revealed that World of Warcraft's recruit-a-friend program will undergo some big changes. One of those changes: if you group with a friend whose account was signed up because you invited him or her to play, you'll both receive experience at 300% the normal rate.Blizzard has already decreased the amount of XP needed to reach level 60. When Wrath of the Lich King launches, word has it that an even bigger slash will occur in the 60 - 70 range. How long will it take to 60, 70, or 80 now, we wonder? That probably depends on your personal playstyle. But the question of how long it ought to take to reach the endgame in an EverQuest/World of Warcraft-style MMO has been on our minds ever since Funcom made a statement about how many hours it wants people to invest to reach level 80 in Age of Conan.What's the sweet spot for you? Do you want to get there as fast as possible, or is the journey to the top the real attraction?
Rural carriers fight for return of spectrum cap
What started as a hard 45MHz limit enacted back in 1994 to ensure that there was enough spectrum to go around in every market was first raised, then eliminated, then later changed to a somewhat more toothless guideline used for analyzing proposed mergers, and rural carriers are pretty fired up about it. Following an absolutely dominating performance by the big boys in this year's 700MHz auction, the nation's back-country providers are more concerned than ever that license distribution in some markets is making it virtually impossible to compete. The solution? Bring the ol' cap back into play, but plug it at 110MHz instead of the 45 they started with nearly a decade and a half ago, a reflection of the RF-saturated, heavily licensed world we now inhabit. They've managed to pique the interest of some congresspeople, too, so there's a fighting chance this could go through; if it does, the Verizon-Alltel merger could turn into a fire sale of freed spectrum, which we imagine these little guys would be just delighted to scoop up in bulk.[Via Phone Scoop]
Sprint falls in line, caps "unlimited" data at 5GB
We guess we all knew this was coming, granted, but it's still a sad day whenever you see another carrier fall to the dreaded "unlimited" ambiguity syndrome. Following Verizon's and AT&T's leads, Sprint is the latest to declare that unlimited does not, in fact, mean unlimited when it comes to data card usage -- it turns out that 5GB should be quite enough for you, apparently. Taking a page out of their rivals' books, Sprint "reserves the right to limit throughput speeds or amount of data transferred and to deny, terminate, modify, or suspend service" if that soft cap is violated (or you exceed 300MB of data while roaming) once their Terms of Service are modified on July 13. TOS modifications are famously ripe opportunities for escaping out of contracts, so if this leaves a bad taste in your mouth, feel free to try to get out in a couple months -- not to say there's hardly any carrier out there that's friendlier to heavy data users at this point.[Thanks, Croft]
Researchers cram bio-signal monitoring system inside baseball cap
Never before has headgear been so intrinsically linked with actual brain waves. Thanks to a team of researchers looking to create a method for "continuously monitoring high-temporal resolution brain dynamics without requiring conductive gels applied to the scalp," a new baseball cap has been created to do the trick. Said hat conceals five embedded dry electrodes which contact the wearer's forehead, while a single electrode behind the left ear acquires EEG signals. From there, the data is transferred wirelessly and can be processed in real-time to determine a driver's level of drowsiness, for instance. The gurus behind the invention have high hopes for its future, and they've already envisioned it being used in a plethora of medical scenarios and for controlling home electronics. To those about to rock this -- prepare for some serious hat-hair.
