For most people (including me), privacy policies fall into the same category as “terms of service” documents–they contain important information, but are usually so long and impenetrably written that they’re not worth the effort of reading.
If you ask Apple or AT&T how much the iPhone 3G S costs, they’ll emphasize two prices: $199 for the 16GB version and $299 for the 32GB one, as Apple does here.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
For many quarters now, telco giants Verizon and AT&T have suffered sharp declines in the residential wireline business, but have been bailed out by the rapid growth of their wireless businesses.
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Qwest plans to announce a new wireless Internet offering that lets broadband customers access AT&T hotspots around the country.
The deal, whose terms are undisclosed, gives Qwest customers free use of some 17,000 wireless areas on AT&T’s network, including locations at Starbucks and McDonald’s.
by Marisa Taylor, Tech Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Mobile gamers, the jig is up–-now we know what you were really up to during that conference call.
In a survey of 1,100 AT&T wireless customers, 57 percent said that they play games on their mobile devices, and half those gamers admitted to playing during work hours.
Apple and Verizon are in talks for the carrier to distribute an “iPhone-lite” device and a “media pad,” with one of the devices to be launched sometime this summer, BusinessWeek is reporting.
by Jason Perlow, Senior Technology Editor, Linux Magazine, Contributor, ZDNet.com, Tech Broiler
At the beginning of the year, I was informed I was no longer able to expense my AT&T CallVantage Voice Over IP service or my monthly broadband charges as part of my employer’s efforts to reduce costs.
AT&T and the union representing its workers are still in contract talks, but workers have published a song, with accompanying ringtone, called “Ready to Strike,” just in case.
The song’s pro-labor lyrics include “Get ready to strike, get ready to walk the line” and “Protect my health care, don’t lower my wages/Realize, recognize, mobilize, stay alive” and even a shout-out to technicians who support U-verse, AT&T’s TV service.
AOL was the top Internet service provider when it came to customer service in 2008, according to a Forrester Research report. The rub: AOL’s top rating based on Forrester’s “customer experience index” translates into a “just OK” mark.
As a group, ISPs grade out with a “poor” rating of 59 percent based on Forrester’s customer experience index.
by Sarah McBride, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
At a digital music panel in Nashville this week, executives from AT&T and Comcast created a furor by saying they were passing along warnings to customers that the RIAA says are illegally uploading music files onto the Internet.
Later, the companies tried to calm the outrage erupting in the blogosphere by harrumphing they weren’t cutting off Internet access to those people–or in the case of Cox, hardly ever cutting it off.
Dell CEO Michael Dell has done little to dispel rumors that his company is working on a mobile computing device. In fact, he all but confirmed them while traveling in Japan on March 24 when he said: “It is true that we are exploring smaller-screen devices.” What form those devices will take remains a matter of heated debate.
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Congress is a tech-savvier place today than it was when Edward Amoroso, AT&T’s chief security officer, started making trips to Washington more than 20 years ago.
Back then, he says, he would discuss virus threats at length before a lawmaker would raise his hand. “You’re expecting some question that might impress you, and they’d ask, ‘Can you tell me what a virus is?’”
As the exclusive U.S. carrier for the Apple iPhone, AT&T has had a lot to celebrate. Rivals hope to crash the party. A growing number of public interest groups want an end to the partnership that forces buyers of Apple’s iPhone to buy their mobile-phone service only from AT&T.
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