i blame short term stock/share trading...

Yeah, I would agree. Too many "get rich quickers" messing with people's minds. It's one of the reasons I hate greed so much. It does nothing but ruin people's lives, especially those who are greedy.

Well, next week, T-Mobile USA is going to have a press event that is supposed to talk about their rate plans. Maybe we'll see better rates across the board (including better rates for unlimited). I'd love to see their $50/mo unlimited voice plan, that is currently only for 2 year+ customers, made into a standard plan.

To be certain on revenue indeed.

I don't like it for the same reasons, but also because it feels like paying something on a loan/debt.

However you can resell such a contract. It is also not possible to keep your number if you go prepaid.

If they lack service as described in contract you can sue them and/or quit the contract.

And if they change contract (which some ISPs here have done since march 31 or april 1) they have to 1) tell this 1 month in advance 2) allow you to quit the contract.

At least, that is how it works here and AFAIK also in EU.

Overbooking, you mean. Yes, it saves them costs. But else your monthly fee for the connectivity & subscription would be more expensive. Then you might as well buy a T1 or E1 instead. If you read carefully -at least here- it says 'max speed X MB/sec'. If you're lucky it also shows a minimum. This is all nicely configured with some QoS rules at the DSLAM which is the bottleneck. The advertising of 'unlimited' referring to FUP I find more shady, and rather disgusting. Although understandable I rather know my data limit.

This is also why consumers don't have broadband. A 8/1 DSL connection is not broadband because of overbooking which is -at least here- typically between 1:25 and 1:40 on consumer DSL connections. So the heavy users are allowed to use their connection unless they start to compete w/the other. And each subscription gets a guaranteed speed. Those who pay more get more guaranteed. If you want better you get more expensive consumer subscription, business DSL, or SDSL (or FIOS) but you pay for it. You'll also get a SLA with some of those.

Those heavy users get kicked off because they breach 'more than 10 times as much as the average'. So they can kick those out if they use a FUP. Commercially, this makes sense. This is what Vodafone NL does, alhough they also provide uncapped/full speed 3G. Another example is T-Mobile NL. After 2 GB on mobile (smartphone) 3G you get capped to 384/64 kbit (it was 1024/384). IIRC their business subscription is unlimited (not even FUP; I know a journalist who easily uses 10+ GB each month). KPN, the third major 3G provider, provides all kind of packages; some optimized for static price every month, some optimized for full speed with variable price, some optimized for data limit. Each w/their own price and +/-. So I'd say there is competition, and there is choice provided for your interests.

Compare all this to the price of a 24/7 64/64 kbit ISDN connection and its heaven. Those went for like (converted from old currency) 750 EUR a month ~10 years ago when cable and DSL were still on the rise. And you had to get ISDN. This is nothing compared to T1 or E1! So the prices have really lowered a lot, and without overbooking, this would not have been possible. However, some ISPs provide a better/more sane overbooking than others. Even then, you probably pay for that. I know I do pay for that.

we're WAY off the topic of this thread ;-)

But, re contracts, T-Mobile and AT&T both have non-contract service. (I don't mean the "pay as you go" type pay-per-minute or pay-per-day type services, I mean monthly type service)

T-Mobile's is called Flex-Pay, and has almost all of the options that their contract based service has ... but no cheaper than being on contract (so you're basically paying for a phone subsidy price, but without getting the subsidized phone).

AT&T's is called "Pick Your Plan", and is a little cheaper than their contract rates, I think. But, it doesn't have all of the options/services. (much lower data caps, for example).

It is... ALIVE !

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/info.htm

Initial Shipment Expected July 2009

If you are in the market for a highly portable second computer, good news! We intend to start shipping the Touch Book next month, in July 2009. Our first batch of Touch Books is already in production.


Hardware specifications

We are publishing the final specifications and we are glad to say that we are extremely close from what we initially announced back in March:

• Texas Instruments OMAP3530 with Micron 256MB (RAM) + 256MB (NAND) Memory
• 8.9 inches 1024x600 A+ screen
• Main storage: 8GB SD card — we decided to change from Micro SD to standard SD, so that you can easily upgrade it
• USB wifi 802.11 b/g/n dongle powered by a Ralink 3070 chipset
  USB bluetooth class 2.1
• FCC, CE, UL-certified, 5V, 3.5A power adapter
• 8.9 inches pressure sensitive touch screen
• US Qwerty 24cm-large keyboard — around 95% of the size of a standard keyboard
• Cirque Touchpad
• Two Owolff high-quality internal stereo speakers
• 3D accelerometer
• Two internal batteries 6000 and 12000mAh — it can be replaced with a screw driver
• 7 USB ports: three external, four internal, three of them may be reserved for wifi, bluetooth and keyboard
• Bi-color silver/black case — see photos — with a beautiful dark-red back cover (we decided to go only for red for the first batch as it really jumps out, you won't regret it).
• Secured attachment system of tablet into keyboard
• Independent magnet system for the tablet — we don't want your Touch Book to un-magnetize all your credit cards while carrying it in your bag!

Pricing, warranties and returns

Pricing has not changed: $299 (USD) for tablet, $399 (USD) with keyboard.

Software beta and roadmap

In July, the default beta Touch Book OS will include:

• Linux 2.6.29 with all the required drivers
• Xfce 4.4 desktop environment
• A unique 3D interface for starting applications with your finger
• Firefox 3.0 and Fennec beta 2
• Youtube and daily motion support
• A video and music player
• Abiword and Gnumeric
• A chat manager, Pidgin
• Mypaint 5.1
• An ebook reader, Fbreader
• A printer manager, Cups
• All usual accessories (zip, picture viewer, dictionary...)
• Support for most standard USB accessories
• Java support

The software roadmap towards release 1.0 will include the following:

• Upgrade to the latest of all the applications already mentioned
• Skype compatible application
• OpenOffice 3.1
• A full Adobe Flash solution
• Recognizition of the Touch Book by iTunes to synchronize your music and video
• A Google-maps-based application with GPS support (GPS USB not included)
• Some 3D accelerometer-based iPhone games
• Also, we will also offer or give strong support for a Google Android image.

Nice specs, especially the change to full size SD.

Very tempting.

WOOHOO! Hopefully they'll get me my review unit soon.

Man... I might have to get one of these...

Looks really nice! Too bad I don't have the money for one just yet and I'll wait for a few reviews to see what's up. I hope it's as good in form factor and functionality as they advertise.

Jesse~