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Verizon will cut you off if you “abuse” an unlimited plan. “Abuse” is an arbitrary term defined by them whenever they want, but I can tell you if you’re using significantly more than 5GB/month on a regular basis, you’ll start hearing from them.

Verizon’s LTE is very nice, almost definitely faster than your 5MB connection. I wouldn’t try to use it as a primary internet connection however.

You could potentially check out their LTE Home service though… it’s called HomeFusion. Check to see if you’re eligible for that in your area.

about 11 hours ago on How fast do you think VWZ LTE would be in a town of 2500 people?

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…not sure buzz is as desirable in the streaming world though, at least compared to traditional broadcast TV.

Traditional TV you want buzz to get people to watch (so they watch your ads, lots of audience means advertisers want those spots, pay more for them, etc).

Netflix and Amazon don’t do ads, they want paid subscriptions. Netflix is betting on people that don’t already have Netflix to be sucked in via original content (Arrested Development being the main show they know and love). They’ll give Netflix a try to see it and hopefully stick around because their service and content is good. They’re trying to sell themselves, not ad space.

With Amazon Prime you buy in for a year, Amazon is trying to suck you in with original content and keep you shopping at Amazon with free shipping since their instant video catalog isn’t all that strong when compared to other services (like Netflix).

I don’t think they dismiss “buzz” but I doubt it’s has the same importance as broadcast TV does. I don’t know, interesting discussion…

about 13 hours ago on Amazon rejects Netflix's model, won't release all episodes of original shows simultaneously 1 reply

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Current:
Phone: Nexus 4
Tablet: Nexus 7
Laptop: Apple Macbook (older Black plastic thing)
Desktop: Ivy Bridge build

Next:
Phone: Next Nexus most likely, although with the pure Android devices that’s not set in stone.
Tablet: I don’t know, N7 is the clear performance loser of my bunch, but I don’t really use it for anything “important”.
Laptop: I’d love to upgrade to a retina Macbook, but my current just keeps working and it’s a big expense. Also would like a Chromebook, but am not interested in what is currently offered at current prices.
Desktop: Nothing anytime soon. Very happy with my current build, probably won’t even start looking for at least another year. Might get a bigger SSD though.

about 14 hours ago on What's your phone/tablet/PC combo, and what's next?

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You can’t buy Amazon Prime month to month though, so does it really matter for Amazon?

about 14 hours ago on Amazon rejects Netflix's model, won't release all episodes of original shows simultaneously 1 reply 1 recommend

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The Pixel. has one of the best screen available for anything, let alone Chromebooks. It’s a pretty penny though…

1 day ago on Chromebooks are coming to three times as many stores, including Walmart, Staples, and more 1 recommend

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I really want a Chromebook, but they basically only have two options right now: really low end and really high end. The really high end is overpriced, the low end is cheaply made. There’s no middle ground.

1 day ago on Chromebooks are coming to three times as many stores, including Walmart, Staples, and more 3 replies

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This is one of those things I’d hate to be in charge of simply because the BS involved.

7 days ago on Yahoo will reset inactive accounts this July to free up the user ID you've 'always wanted' 3 recommends

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Wasn’t complaining, merely pointing it out. Overall we do have some of the highest taxes in the US though, right along with California and a few other states. Even without a state income tax.

8 days ago on Xbox at E3 2013: everything you need to know

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Here in Washington State standard sales tax is 6.5%, but local taxes can add on to of that up to 9.5% total. It’s rare to see much less than 9% on the western half of the state. I think California is pretty similar but tops out at 10%.

9 days ago on Xbox at E3 2013: everything you need to know 1 reply

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Smaller, quieter XBox 360… maybe it gets a price drop? Might get an extender or two…

9 days ago on Xbox at E3 2013: everything you need to know

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I think I disagree with you on the basis that the internet is “basically wide open”.

I quickly just tried Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail and all forced SSL. I think Google forces SSL for everything actually. Twitter is secure. I don’t use Facebook so I can’t comment there…

Many of the other services I assume you’re talking about have the ability for a secure connection, but people simply don’t use it. It’s a burden to type out “https” all the time. Then there’s certificates (cost for provider, understanding them for the user). Using SSL ensures that your data is encrypted between endpoints (in other words your computer to the server is defined as safe).

I personally don’t believe that having secure transmissions is the problem. Secure connections exists, they’re easy and they’re available. People using them (or service providers forcing them is another story, but it appears to me that sensitive data usually has a secure connection associated with it). One of the larger offenders in my opinion would be internet forums (The Verge for example, but most simple forums do not require secure connections). I guess you’d have to make a judgement call on if you think your forum activity is sensitive or not. Login info, personal info, etc is usually sent in the clear on these…

The problem is when all these services store their information on servers that are accessible by people other than you, and without your knowledge. That’s a much bigger deal than enabling a secure connection, IMO.

9 days ago on Phone spying and PRISM internet surveillance: what's the difference?

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Nexus 4: 4.7’’
Nexus 7: 7’’

16 days ago on What's your screen size?

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Sorry, TLDR:

1. Shit we gotta do something!
2. Joke: Huge ad
3. Alcohol, Sex
4. Fuck it (I suppose this could get lumped in the previous point though)
5. Profit?

16 days ago on Really, guys? This Samsung Ad? What is this? 7 recommends

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Life of the party right here.

Not necessarily death, it can be beaten, but if it takes off, there’s really no going back.

16 days ago on Bell Labs creates a lensless camera that's always in focus 1 recommend

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An underling in the ad department is tasked with exploring new ways to integrate advertisements in order to increase revenue. Sitting quietly in a meeting with a handful of peers, a few “superiors” and a self-proclaimed “money man”, our underling contemplates the best way he can, quietly.

The meeting is full of the usual corporate bullshit that any typical business meeting is faced with. Our underling doesn’t really pay much attention to it. He already knows the problem, it’s the solution that’s been evading advertisers since advertising became a “thing”. Only bosses sit around and actually talk about it like they know what the next best thing is. Truth is, they have absolutely no better idea than anyone else. You know the type. They talk. They’re not really saying anything, but they talk. People listen like there’s some kind of useful content hidden in the endless stream of babble that spews from the mouth like vomit after the first kegger of the semester. Wait are we still in college? Is this a dream? Where am I?

In a strange way the babble doesn’t have the same negative impact as vomit. It actually sounds halfway legitimate. That’s how you get to sit in the “boss” chair. Dress vomit up in a dress. Make people believe vomit isn’t as bad as it really is. Just for a split second make people believe they actually want vomit.

What a grotesque thought that is.

The meeting has turned to a slight lull. The groundbreaking ideas flowing from various orifices around the room have slowed. The sweat of the talkers has settled, creating a still, uncomfortable heat in the room. Our underling looks at the windows of the high rise building he is occupying. If it weren’t for the amount of people that would try to jump, those windows would open making this room not nearly as unbearable as it had become.

This meeting needed an ending. Desperately. An idea that would resonate with the talkers, but just far-fetched enough to not be taken seriously.

“We could just make an ad so big it covers the screen”, our underling blurts out.

The room falls silent. The talkers are suddenly focused on our fine underling. In a split second all the awkwardness that exists, used to exist and ever will exist rests on the shoulders of our quiet, contemplative underling.

Then it passes. The awkwardness is broken with a simple laugh. Followed by a few more from the various people in the room that are just there to follow the laughs of others. Everyone gets a good laugh at the obviously absurd idea.

The meeting needed just this moment to finally end. The seed had been planted, and it will be watered with time, apathy, and just a hint of that dank sweat now hovering in the quaint meeting room. Once the boss-man gets back to his cushy corner office and realizes it’s just as good as any other idea they’ve had in the past few months, then it will actually grow.

Three weeks later our underling, while sitting at the plain desk situated perfectly square in his spartan cubicle, gets a phone call. It’s the boss-man.

“We’re going to roll with an ad that’s so big it fills the screen” he says as if he’d stumbled upon it while furiously working throughout the night in an effort to save the company he cares so much about, when in reality he went out drinking last night, hooked up with a regular from a corner bar and was currently somewhere between full on drunk, hungover, and a forced orgasm. You know that daze where everything seems like it could be real, but could also be a dream after a long night of drinking strong rum and cokes during happy hour? Everyone knows well drinks suck, but they get the job done and only cost a buck a shot. That’s another topic though.

Our underling opens a few random applications on the computer sitting in front of him, types gibberish with weighted fingers in an effort to make the clicks and clacks of the cheap keyboard audible through the phones microphone and noticed by the boss-man.

“You realize we’re going to hear about this later right?” he questions the boss-man.

“Yeah, well the people in charge want to experiment. We want to see exactly how far we can go. They’re making the call, not me.” boss-man replies with a terrific dodge of responsibility, an effort to get our underling on board with his own shitty idea.

Yep, this is how it goes. Our underling quickly rationalizes it to himself and wonders what the worst thing is that could happen. Would he be responsible if this was a complete failure?

With a blur of his eyes and a few poorly placed clicks of the mouse nestled in his right hand, “Fuck it, let’s go!”

16 days ago on Really, guys? This Samsung Ad? What is this? 3 replies 2 recommends

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Newspaper industry isn’t doing so well these days…

16 days ago on Really, guys? This Samsung Ad? What is this? 3 replies 13 recommends

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So this is basically a cancer diagnosis for Mr. Blurrycam?

16 days ago on Bell Labs creates a lensless camera that's always in focus 1 reply

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(I’m not interested in the Android/Apple debate, just FYI)

When you say you’d have to lose your phone for this to be a risk, I don’t think that’s exactly true.

How many USB ports are starting to popup in airports, coffee shops, and other public places where charging a phone is a regular thing? This device could be hidden. Unsuspecting victim drops by to top off their phone between flights and they pick up whatever software the attacker wants… tracking, personal information mining, etc.

The comment made by the author about the device being large accurately predicts that it will eventually be small enough to fit inside a standard Apple looking USB adapter. Then an attacker could simply take a few low cost plugs, “forget” them at popular charge points where inevitably people will use them. That makes it a pretty real threat, even if you keep tabs on your phone.

16 days ago on Any iOS device can be hacked within one minute with modified charger, say researchers 3 recommends

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I kinda think it is… for some strange reason I remember reading about the ET game and how not many were sold since the rumor of it’s epic suckiness spread quickly. There were also lots of returns, and undoubtedly a lot of people simply threw it away because it was so bad.

I think that led to not many of them surviving and ET now being a somewhat rare game to actually own.

Dunno about a dollar figure though… no hits on eBay either…

Edit: bah never mind, wrong search query for ebay… it’s not worth any more than a few bucks

18 days ago on Were truckloads of 'E.T.' Atari cartridges buried in New Mexico? A film crew is about to find out

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I kinda thought at the time that the Motorola watch had some promise, but it was priced too high and to be honest I’m not even sure if they’re still being made. I don’t even remember what it was/is called right at the moment. Active or something right?

I don’t think any of the existing designs, proposals, or current products has gotten it even close yet though. They’re experimenting.

I think the idea at this point is to get something on the market that’s good enough for lots of people to tinker with, and when one enthusiasts figures it out, hopefully the company can steal the idea before either the enthusiast competes themselves or gets snatched up by the company themselves. Kinda a bad perspective, but that’s really how I view this “smartwatch” thing going on right now.

19 days ago on Nexus movement: what smartwatches can learn from Seiko 1 reply

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In terms of the end user/customer/consumer/whatever you want to call it, yes.

I was wondering about in terms of the manufacturer. Sony in this case.

A subsidy is a carrier thing, the manufacturer gets paid in both cases. With a subsidy, they may get more devices sold though. That’s more of an effect than a reason why though I think.

I dunno.

19 days ago on Sony Xperia Z to launch on US carrier in 'coming weeks'

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Or of course you could realize that, you know, everyone doesn’t have the same idea of a home.

19 days ago on NHTSA calls on states to legalize self-driving car testing 1 recommend

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Pretty sure I wouldn’t need a house if I had a self driving RV.

That would really be too badass.

19 days ago on NHTSA calls on states to legalize self-driving car testing 1 reply

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I get that, but it makes me think something else somewhat related: support… if Sony sells a phone directly to consumers they’ll have people asking them for help when something doesn’t work. Maybe they just don’t want to be in the support business.

19 days ago on Sony Xperia Z to launch on US carrier in 'coming weeks' 1 reply

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So I know it’s not popular to sell phones in the US not via a carrier, but are companies somehow discouraged from doing so? The wording here makes it seem like, while they’re selling it free of a carrier, it’s legitimate now that it’s with a carrier…

I get that it’s probably much more lucrative for them to setup a deal with a carrier and make more money, but is there some kind of stigma or something?

19 days ago on Sony Xperia Z to launch on US carrier in 'coming weeks' 2 replies

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Part of me can’t wait until I can sleep on the way to work in my own private car.

The other part of me hopes I simply won’t have to travel for work as it’s pointless already, or better yet not have to work.

In all honesty, I like driving, but I don’t like the mindless A to B crap.

Good move to at least be somewhat proactive.

20 days ago on NHTSA calls on states to legalize self-driving car testing 2 replies 10 recommends

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I want process information to come to these little cards. I’m so tired to the ever changing plethora of sketchy websites that come up for these kind of searches.

20 days ago on Google adds nutrition info for over 1,000 foods to search results

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Precision and accuracy are definitely not synonymous.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accuracy_and_precision

I was never saying anything about ease of converting between units.

20 days ago on Construction on world's tallest building to begin next month and end this year 1 reply

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American here, if I say your name wrong, just correct me. It’s not offensive to me if you correct your own foreign name if I’m in the wrong. On the plus side, I’ll actually remember your name much better than if we just met and you told me your name is Mike, which I would more than likely forget in 10 minutes.

If you want to be called by your name, stick it to people that do it wrong. Speak up the first time and don’t let people butcher it. It’s YOUR name.

If you’re writing it on a paper or whatever and it’s informal, just put the pronunciation in parenthesis

20 days ago on Americans, how would you pronounce my name? 1 recommend