The death of roaming charges

For those who travel internationally, there are few things more agonizing than the wait to see how badly your wireless carrier will hose you for calls, messages and data while you were abroad. Roaming charges can't die soon enough. T-Mobile's latest "Uncarrier" move looks to take some of the sting out of international roaming for its subscribers by offering free international low-speed data and unlimited messaging in more than 100 countries, but an Israeli startup is looking to tackle the issue from a different angle.



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Posted in 2013 at 06:45PM, December 13

Apple begins its Retina iPad mini ‘stealth launch’

The quiet launch of the Retina iPad mini left a lot of potential customers out in the cold. Not only has availability been extremely limited, the only way to secure the new iPad mini has been to reserve one online for in-store pickup. It looks like Apple is working on one of those issues, as AppleInsider shares a report from Cantor Fitzgerald's Brian J. White which states that three New York Apple Stores, including the Fifth Avenue location, now have unreserved Retina iPad minis in stock for walk-in customers to purchase.



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Posted in 2013 at 06:45PM, November 22

Yet another study shows American broadband is ridiculously expensive

No, you're not hallucinating if you think you're paying too much for your monthly broadband plan. A new study from the Google-sponsored New America Foundation shows that broadband prices in major American cities are much higher than prices in comparable cities overseas, despite the fact that the more expensive American plans don't deliver any significant speed upgrades.



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Posted in 2013 at 06:45PM, October 28

Microsoft seen folding Windows RT into Windows Phone by 2015

Microsoft may not be planning to perpetually support three different operating systems after all. An unnamed source tells ZDNet that Microsoft will likely fold its tablet-centric Windows RT into its Windows Phone smartphone operating system by 2015, a move that would let Microsoft use the same OS for smartphones and tablets, just as Apple and Google respectively use iOS and Android for both form factors. ZDNet speculates that "because it tends to be easier to take a 'smaller' OS and add to it than to take a larger one and remove features from it, it's likely that the Windows Phone OS is the one on top of which the new operating systems group will build." A move to combine the two operating systems into one makes a lot of sense, especially if Microsoft really does plan on creating a single app store for both Windows and Windows Phone platforms.

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Posted in 2013 at 06:45PM, October 16

Microsoft reassures gamers that Xbox One Kinect will not misuse their private data

When Microsoft first began sharing details of the new Kinect, Xbox users were immediately suspicious of how the next-generation console would make use of a camera that was always powered on. Eventually the negative press forced Microsoft's hand, and the Kinect is now no longer required for the Xbox One to turn on. Despite this concession, gamers were still concerned about an interview earlier this year in which a Microsoft employee suggested that the Kinect might use the data it collects in order to create targeted ads for Xbox One owners. Microsoft Director of Product Planning Albert Pinello took to NeoGAF to deny this claim.



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Posted in 2013 at 06:45PM, October 07