Wow, this is pretty strange behavior for a company that is hemorrhaging access lines.

AT&T (T) has unveiled plans to raise landline phone rates by more than 20 percent in California, according to both the San Jose Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle.

The company plans to start telling customers next week that charges for basic phone service will jump to $16.45 from $13.50 effective January 2.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

From behind their bedroom doors, more than 1 out of every 10 teenagers has posted a nude or seminude picture of themselves or others online–a “digital tattoo” that could haunt them for the rest of their lives, according to a poll being released today.

Aside from the nudity, the survey also found that at least a quarter of the young people polled had posted something they later regretted, made fun of others or created a false identity online.

While teens are spending more and more time on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace–with 22 percent saying they check their sites more than 10 times a day–they don’t seem to be aware of the long-term personal havoc they could create with a click of a button.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Verizon Wireless (VZ) is reportedly in the final stages of negotiating a five-year, multi-million dollar deal for the naming rights to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the decrepit home of the Oakland A’s and the Oakland Raiders. The report, by the San Francisco Chronicle columnists Philip Matier and Andrew Ross, notes that the stadium has been without a naming deal since the expiration of a 10-year naming agreement with McAfee (MFE) in 2007.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

The answer to almost any question is available within seconds, courtesy of the invention that has altered how we discover knowledge–the search engine. Materializing answers from the air turns out to be the easy part–the part a machine can do.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Over the past few weeks, the U.S. newspaper industry has entered a new period of decline. The parent of the papers in Philadelphia declared bankruptcy, as did the Journal Register chain. The Rocky Mountain News closed, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, owned by Hearst, will almost certainly close or only publish online. Hearst has said it will also close the San Francisco Chronicle if it cannot make massive cuts. The most recent rumor is that the company will lay off half the editorial staff. Still, that action may not be enough to make the property profitable.

24/7 Wall St. has created a list of the 10 major daily papers that are most likely to fold or shutter their print operations and only publish online. The properties were chosen on the basis of the financial strength of their parent companies, the amount of direct competition they face in their markets and industry information on how much money they are losing. Based on this analysis, it’s possible that 8 of the nation’s 50 largest daily newspapers could cease publication in the next 18 months.

Read the rest of this post

Hearst Corp. this afternoon said it may sell or close the San Francisco Chronicle if a new round of cost-saving measures cannot be accomplished in the coming weeks. Hearst said it will undertake “critical cost-saving measures including a significant reduction in the number of its unionized and non-union employees.”

Hearst said the Chron lost more than $50 million last year and that “this year’s losses to date are worse.” The company said the paper has had “major losses” each year since 2001.

The statement is basically a warning to the Chronicle’s unions that they can either play ball or watch the paper go up in flames.

Read the rest of this post

First, the Vatican went online, the late Pope John Paul II became the first pope to send an e-mail, and the Holy See approved an iPhone application that delivers daily prayers to your handset.

Now, Pope Benedict XVI–who himself has been known to text message–is getting his own YouTube channel that will broadcast his speeches and news of the pontiff, according to the Vatican press office. The Vatican TV and radio outfits are coordinating with Google (GOOG) on the project.

More information is expected to be revealed this weekend, when the pope sets out his agenda for this year’s World Day of Social Communications. (It so happens that Saturday is the feast day of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists–who knew?)

Read the rest of this post

Steve Jobs didn’t show up to the first Macworld Expo, which was held in San Francisco in January 1985, one year after the introduction of the Macintosh. He was in the city, but he spent most of his time holed up at the Union Square Hyatt Hotel with his strikingly beautiful blond girlfriend, whom I only knew as Tina. I know this because Jobs and Tina came to the Macworld magazine dinner party I put together at the Sutter 500 restaurant to celebrate the success of the first expo, and of the first year of the Mac itself.

There were about 20 of us at the dinner, including the late, great Chronicle columnist Herb Caen; Will Hearst, then editor and publisher of the competing San Francisco Examiner; John Sculley, CEO of Apple (AAPL); John Warnock, founder of the software company Adobe (ADBE); and Ted Leonsis, the AOL executive, who these days owns the Washington Wizards basketball team and the Washington Capitals hockey team.

Read the rest of this post

A disgruntled city computer engineer has virtually commandeered San Francisco’s new multimillion-dollar computer network, altering it to deny access to top administrators even as he sits in jail on $5 million bail, authorities said Monday.

Read the rest of this post

Four years ago, Geri Rebstock started using Yelp, a popular site for consumers to review local businesses and services. She critiqued her favorite veterinarian, a neighborhood print shop and an acupuncturist who took care of her bad wrist.

But Rebstock’s reviews and personal account vanished from the site recently after Yelp accused Rebstock, who owns a small interior decorating business called Geraldine Rebstock Interior Design, of trading glowing reviews with other business owners.

“It’s Orwellian,” Rebstock said. “I had reviews of my business from several years back and they kind of erased my identity.”

Read the rest of this post