Unlimited data will soon be a thing of the past for all AT&T customers, as the company confirms it will put a cap on data usage for its DSL and U-verse broadband services.
The blog Broadband Reports confirmed over the weekend that AT&T will introduce a data cap for its broadband services. Customers who exceed a monthly limit of 150GB of data in three separate months will be charged $10 extra for every additional 50GB of data they consume. Customers subscribing to AT&T's faster U-verse broadband service will have a limit of 250GB. … Read more
Ten eastern states in a greenhouse gas reduction program have invested more than half of their carbon permit auction proceeds, or about $404 million, in energy efficiency, the group said today.
New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, and seven other states on the East Coast belong to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, which aims to trim carbon dioxide output from the area's power plants 10 percent by the end of 2018.
To meet that goal, RGGI holds quarterly auctions of permits that let the plants emit carbon dioxide. Some investors also buy the credits in the cap-and-trade program, believing … Read more
If you, on your lesser days, could reach for a thinking cap to make you a little brainier, what would you expect?
Would you expect to solve math problems quicker? Would you imagine that complex scientific puzzlers would suddenly seem like simple amusements? Or would you expect to be able to paint a convincing forgery of the Sistine Chapel ceiling in your three-bedroom ranch house?
I ask because a professor in Sydney, Australia, has created a "thinking cap" and thinks he has the answers to the above questions.
A U.K. consumers group known as Which? is criticizing T-Mobile's decision to reduce its "fair-use" limit for smartphone data usage, asserting that the move may break the operator's own terms and conditions.
In a blog post today, the group said T-Mobile is selling smartphones built for video streaming and downloading, but then telling its customers they should not use the devices for these purposes. The group also pointed out that T-Mobile had given "little notice" of the changes in its terms and that some customers had received no notification at all, "which … Read more
SAN FRANCISCO--California unveiled its final draft of a market system to curb greenhouse gases, relaxing expected rules in the face of a weak economy in a measure that could set the tone for the nation's climate policy.
By agreeing to give away virtually all necessary permits to factories and power plants when the scheme starts in 2012 rather than sell them at auction, the state with the biggest economy and population is acknowledging the challenges of double-digit unemployment--and the reality that pollution decreases as the economy slows.
California aims to cap total emissions of gases linked to global warming and let factories and power plants trade for an ever-decreasing number of permits to emit gases. In theory, market forces will drive efficiency in the system, known as cap and trade.
There is still a debate about the economic merits of the plan, which planners in the Friday draft (PDF) estimate will shave about 0.1 percent from annual state growth.
Many Californians see such environmental regulation as positive for the economy by spurring "green" jobs. Voters on Tuesday could put on hold a climate change law, including the emissions market, but polls show the Proposition 23 challenge to the state's climate change law is set to be rebuffed.
After the failure of federal climate legislation, the fate of California's law and the details of its cap-and-trade plan are seen as a U.S. turning point--either away from addressing climate change or toward stronger action.
The state's 2006 law requires it to return to 1990 levels of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and the hobbled economy has produced fewer greenhouse gas emissions than expected, making the goal less onerous.
The state agency planning cap-and-trade has responded in part by ignoring a suggestion by a panel of economists last year to auction off the emissions permits. … Read more
We're down a man this week, as Joey calls in with back problems--but the rest of us are on hand to discuss this week's hot topics. The hottest of which may be Apple's upcoming September 1 press event, and we all weigh in with allegedly thoughtful predictions on what new iPods and other gadgets may show up.
Then it's time for a moment of silence as we mourn the death of the ATI brand, with its corporate parent reportedly planning to tag the company's future graphics cards with the AMD brand name instead.
Among the wackier technology antics we look at this week--a collection of pottery figures inspired by the hit casual game Plants vs. Zombies, and a quick visit to a Chicago coffee shop with a pretty sweet pop culture collectible--a full-size model Delorean car from the "Back to the Future" film series.
SurplusMeter--formerly known as NetTracker--keeps a close eye on your bandwidth use. This utility lets you set a bandwidth limit, a start day of the month, and a connection type (such as PPP Modem or Network Card).
SurplusMeter also calculates a daily allowance and reconfigures that depending on how much you've actually used for the month. The interface is simple and uncluttered, but it also lacks the alarms and graphs found in similar Windows apps. Progress bars help track the days left in the month, the download megabyte count, and the total downloaded and uploaded, and you can easily make … Read more
PopCap Games on Thursday announced that it's bringing a port of its popular Zuma series to social network Facebook.
The game, which is called Zuma Blitz, will follow a similar format to PopCap's other popular Facebook title, Bejeweled Blitz, giving players just a minute to get the highest score possible. Like Bejeweled Blitz, it too will make use of Facebook's credits system with a feature the company is calling "Treasure Chest"--an in-game store that lets players buy power-ups using real-world money. The game will also feature a weekly tournament system, and integration with a … Read more
Update, July 7: This post has been updated to include additional games.
It's time to add a new selection of entries to our list of PC games well-suited for Netbooks. Especially as we expect to see many of these low-cost, low-power laptops in the hands of students during the back-to-school season, it's important to have a little action/RPG/adventure/puzzle break handy when one gets tired of taking lecture notes.
As usual, many of these entries are re-releases of classic games, originally available when even high-end computer hardware was at best comparable with today's entry-level systems. Online services such as Good Old Games and Steam are great resources for these.
One important exception is the new online gaming service OnLive, which takes current high-end PC games, renders the 3D graphics remotely, then streams you the video as you play. It sounds like a crazy idea, but it actually works pretty well, even on Netbooks. Check out our extensive hands-on look at OnLive here.
What's the #1 music streaming-app for iOS? Who wins in an iPhone v. S4 faceoff? We've got it covered with iPhone news, rumors, app recommendations, and more.
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