More Media Inaccuracies About A La Carte [Cable Tech Talk]
CableTechTalk takes up the issue of the cost of cable versus a kind of a-la-carte programming proposed by a Washington Post columnist. The columnist proposes turning online video into your own TV service to replace cable. "But would you get the same programming at a cheaper cost?" asks CableTechTalk.
At the $1.99 that Amazon Unbox and Apple iTunes charge for a program, the average TV viewer could run up a bill of over $500 if they try to match their viewing habits with cable television according to CableTechTalk.
I've written about why the a-la-carte programming model is not a good deal for consumers or the diversity of programming currently available. And now, even the online video version of a-la-carte has a hard time living up to the value of cable.
AT&T Kills Off $20 Unlimited Pre-Paid Data [Broadband Reports]
AT&T has announced that the data plans for its GoPhone are going to be capped next month at 5 GB. The $19.99 service could be used by AT&T customers to provide an Internet connection for their laptop. The company has announced that the price for a 5 GB capped plan will be going up to $60 in November.
2012: Embedded wi-fi in one billion devices? [Mobile and Wireless]
The number of consumer electronics devices with wi-fi are growing by leaps and bounds. Wireless networking for laptop computers is a popular feature, but the real growth is coming from cell phones with built-in wi-fi and televisions with wi-fi for streaming video. By 2012, one market researcher is predicting that one billion devices will be wi-fi enabled.
I think it's great that television manufacturers are moving to equip TVs with wi-fi. The day is not far off when the television becomes a device on your home network - allowing you to surf the web for streaming video.
Google launches Mail Goggles to save you from yourself [CNET News]
Do the people at Google have too much spare time? After reading about the newest feature in their Gmail web mail application, I'm starting to wonder. Google's Gmail team have developed a system designed to prevent users from sending those late-night emails that they might later regret. Basically, the "Mail Goggles" system is active during the evening hours on weekends, and when a user sends an email the system asks if you really want to send the email. It then asks the user to answer some math problems, presumably to make sure the user is of "sound mind" to send the email.
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