Verizon to charge $2 for paying your bill online or over the phone
Ever since online payments really took off, companies have been pushing for you to opt out of paper billing. The excuses were that it cost a lot to do, and wasn’t great for the environment. Then they started charging for paper billing, or at least offering you some form of incentive for not making them post you stuff.
With 2012 about to start, it seems Verizon has decided paying your bill online or over the phone is now worthy of an extra charge. So, from January 15, anyone choosing to pay their monthly bill using either method will incur a $ 2 charge.
PSP outsells PS Vita in Japan
The PS Vita has been available in Japan since December 17, but in only its second week on sale, Sony’s previous generation handheld, the PSP, is outselling it. Not only that, but the 3DS, Wii, and PS3 also sold more units in the run up to Christmas.
A drop off in sales the weekend of Christmas is only natural, but it’s the size of the drop that may have Sony a little bit worried. Where as the launch weekend saw the PS Vita shift 324,859 units, between December 19-25 it only sold 72,479–that’s lower than the 101,121 units the PSP sold for the same period. As a sales drop off comparison, the 3DS shifted 482,200 units during the PS Vita launch week and then only dropped to 357,691 sales last week.
30 days with Republic Wireless
The mobile networks in the US are designed to prevent new competition from entering the market. The US isn’t likely to see a new carrier to deliver a service that functions the same way that the current traditional carriers do. In order to succeed, a radical concept needs to be deployed. Republic Wireless hopes to deliver that radical concept, by offering unlimited everything for $ 20/month. The catch? The service is designed for you to use Voice over IP and your local wireless network whenever you can.
For the last 30 days, I have used Republic Wireless for all of my mobile needs to see whether or not this service is actually ready to enter the carrier wars.
VoIP is encouraged
Amazon: More than 4 million Kindles sold this holiday season
Amazon announced on Thursday that the 2011 vacation season was the very best ever for revenue of its Kindle gadgets. Whilst the on the internet retailer didn’t exclusively say just how a lot of gadgets had been sold by model, it did say Amazon consumers bought “millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle eReaders” and much more than one million devices per week in the course of the month of December. The company also noted that its #1 and #four very best-selling eBooks released this year had been published by independent authors through its Kindle Direct Publishing platform. “We are grateful to our customers throughout the world for generating this the greatest holiday ever for Kindle,” Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos said. “And in a huge milestone for independent publishing, we’d also like to congratulate Darcie Chan, the writer of ‘The Mill River Recluse,’ and Chris Culver, the writer of ‘The Abbey,’ for writing two of the greatest-offering Kindle books of the year.” The Kindle Fire was the most well-known device followed by the Kindle Touch and the Kindle. Amazon also mentioned that gifting of Kindle eBooks jumped 175%, in between Black Friday and Christmas Day, compared to last year. Amazon’s complete press release follows right after the break.
2011 IS THE Best Vacation EVER FOR KINDLE
Looking back at 2011: Google eyes Motorola buy in bid for Android control, patent ammo
2011 was a wild, wild year to follow the technology industry. AT&T failed to buy T-Mobile USA, things got rough for RIM and Apple and Samsung fought legal battles all over the world. Still, one of the biggest stories of the year began when Google announced in August that it planned to purchase Motorola Mobility, a member of the open handset alliance, for $ 12.5 billion. Pundits immediately needed to know one thing: what did Google’s other Android partners think? Surprisingly, HTC, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson all voiced support for the acquisition. But why? At first it appeared that Google just wanted to control the entire Android experience, from software to hardware, but CEO Larry Page soon put a second piece of the puzzle into place: the acquisition could offer Android partners a safe haven against litigation from Apple and Microsoft.
Page explained in detail that Google needed Motorola Mobility’s patents in order to protect itself and its Android partners from patent predators like Apple and Microsoft. Google’s Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond had accused the companies of trying to strangle the success of Android by creating patent lawsuits instead of truly innovating and competing in the smartphone market. While many would argue that Microsoft and Apple are both innovative companies, Drummond had a point. Apple currently has 21 patents-in-suit against Motorola Mobility and Microsoft has already strong armed major Android players, including HTC and Samsung, into patent licensing deals. With Motorola Mobility’s patents under its wing, Google could finally have some firepower of its own in court. But can Google really protect Android by purchasing Motorola Mobility? At least one expert has suggested the company might be buying a lemon.
David Martin, CEO of patent consulting firm M-Cam, argued that Motorola Mobility already sold off all of its valuable patents. “What they bought is crap, because at the end of the day Motorola sold off its good assets,” Martin told Bloomberg in an interview. “Back in the early years, Motorola sold off some MPEG patents to GE in a securitization deal. After that, they took a bunch of the Freescale patents and sold those off.” Martin suggests that Google may have actually now face more patent lawsuits as a result of the acquisition.
Ambient Field Conditioner Is Good At Separating Fools From Their Money
By David Ponce
We believe that there’s a point of diminishing returns when it comes to audio equipment. There is a great distinction amongst a $ 30 set of Pc speakers and a $ 1,000 system. But the difference between that $ 1,000 method and say, one that charges $ 20,000 is that you will be $ 19,000 poorer and immeasurably stupider for it. Of course, audiophiles will disagree and uncover all manners of good reasons to justify the cost we won’t get into an argument right here. Suffice it to say we have been not impressed with the Blackbody, an Ambient Field Conditioner. It’s a box that doesn’t make any sounds. It does not even amplify. Genuinely, all it claims to do is sit there and somehow “enhance audio playback top quality by modifying the interaction of your gear’s circuitry with the ambient electromagnetic field. The Blackbody eliminates sonic smearing of substantial frequencies and lowers the noise floor, hence clarifying the stereo image.” It’s $ one,323. For an audio accessory.