Posted in technology, tagged 3G, 4G, ad, agreement, Android, annoying, AT&T, bait and switch, best practices, brochure, bundle, buyer beware, cell, cellular, comparison, competition, competitive, complicated, confusion marketing, confusopoly, consumer, contracts, customers, data, de facto collusion, definition, demand, dictionary, enforcement, English, experience, fatiguing, FCC, feature phone, fine print, FTC, GoPhone, gotcha, GSM, handset, industry, law, marketing, messaging, misleading, moble, needlessly complicated, online shopping, OWS, package, pay as you go, phone, postpaid users, pre-paid, prepaid, press release, price gouging, pricing, protection, regulation, retailers, service plans, sign up, simplified, smartphone, Sprint, standard usage, stores, streamline, T-Mobile, telecom, terms, text and web, texting, trade, transparency, truth in advertising, unlimited plans, unlimited talk, upgrade, Verizon, web, wireless on December 17, 2011|
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If you haven’t been in the market for a cell phone recently, perhaps you missed it: AT&T’s Unlimited Talk, Text & Web GoPhone Plan, ushered in by a June 21, 2011 press release.
The FCC, FTC or state attorneys general really ought to look into AT&T for the marketing of their “unlimited web” mobile phone services. Without the benefit of a clear-and-obvious disclosure, AT&T’s prepaid smartphone customers, like their contract-bound counterparts, need to sign up for a separate data package, otherwise there is virtually no web to speak of under so-called unlimited talk, text and web GoPhone plans. A data plan will set consumers back $10 to $45 or $5 to $25 per month in additional fees depending on whether or not the service is under contract (postpaid) or prepaid (with prices subject to change, of course).
For consumers trying to keep their costs down in a tough economy, every dime counts. AT&T and its largest competitor, Verizon, would like us to think they are competitive in the prepaid market so they’ve crafted their own definition of the word “unlimited”. Verizon stipulates parenthetically that their unlimited prepaid option applies only to “basic phones”. By contrast, AT&T makes an implicit suggestion that web access is unlimited to any prepaid handset owner. The reality that it does not comes on top of the industry’s controversial practice of capping or throttling data access on the part of its heaviest “unlimited data” users. It is, in a nutshell, a case of what Sir Richard Branson calls “confusion marketing“.
AT&T titled their press release this past summer “Prepaid Calling Just Got Better: Nationwide Unlimited Talk, Text & Web Plan Now Available for $50”.
Two things stand out: 1) The news organizations and blogs that covered this new plan largely parroted the headline to perpetuate a patently false notion of the true cost of owning a modern prepaid phone, and 2) AT&T and its competitors need to abide by standard English usage in the use of the word “unlimited” when paired to “talk, text & web”. In fact, they have a legal obligation to abide by truth-in-advertising laws.
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Posted in economy, politics, technology, tagged adapt, adjustment, ahead, alternative energy, alternatives, Amazon, American Dream, Baby Boomers, bailouts, banks, barrel, big box, Big Coal, Bowling Alone, brick and mortar, budget, buy local, buying, buying decisions, cap and trade, capacity, careers, cars, Cash for Clunkers, chain stores, challengers, change, climate, coffers, commodity, communitarianism, communities, community, community centers, community purse, companies, compete, computers, concentration, consequences, constrain, consumer confidence, consumers, cookie cutter, crude, Dark Age, deals, debt, debtor, deficits, defunct, demand, demise, demographics, desertification, destinations, developments, digital, discontinued, discounters, diversity, domain, double dip recession, downsizing, drivers, e-commerce, e-retailers, e-tailers, ecommerce, economists, education, efficiency, Ellen Ruppel Shell, encroach, energy, entitlements, erosion, evolution, expectations, Federal, financial, forecast, fossil fuels, free shipping, frugal, fund, future, gains, gasoline, globalization, GNP, governments, Green, Greening, growth, hardware, here to stay, heritage, hikes, hindsight, horizon, income, increases, independence, inflation, infrastructure, innovation, internet shopping, Jane Jacobs, Jeff Goodell, jobless recovery, jobs, landscape, lifestyle, lingering, local, local color, long term, loss, losses, market forces, marketplace, Marshalls, money, moneysaver, mouse, myth, necessity, new normal, oases, oil, oil refineries, out of business, outlook, overstock, Perfect Storm, petro, pitfalls, population, postal service, prediction, price wars, prices, production, projection, public safety, purchases, question, ramifications, rates, reality, red tag, refining, regulation, retail, retailers, revolution, risks, Robert B. Putnam, Ross, sales, scale back, sell, shift, shipping, shop, shop locally, shoppers, shopping, signs of life, Social Security, society, spend, stagnation, standard of living, state, suburbia, SUVs, TARP, tax base, tax revenues, tax-free, taxation, thrift, time, TJ Maxx, toll, too little too late, towns, trade, transport, travel, trends, unintended, United States, urban, vacuum, wages, weak, web, web bargains, websites, welfare, workforce on March 22, 2010|
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For years “energy independence” has been the catch-all solution promoted by politicians, talk radio hosts, newspaper columnists and others who point out that the U.S. is short on oil refining capacity. Nonetheless, petroleum production facilities are not only in the process of downsizing in response to a weak economy, but permanently so the Los Angeles Times reports in “Oil companies look at permanent refinery cutbacks” [March 11, 2010].
The oil industry, which as recently as 2007 broke so many profit records that allegations of collusion and price-gouging surfaced, is singing a different tune: Limiting supply to increase sagging profit margins is the solution, analysts say, for losses induced by everything from fuel efficient cars to retiring baby boomers who no longer commute to and from work.
And to think: Just a few years ago SUVs, with their paltry ~13 mpg, were the rage from Coast to Coast. Could it be that Cash for Clunkers, unintentionally so, was a little too effective — or are oil industry insiders selling Americans up the river when they can least afford it? Whatever the case may be, nothing says Green like fuel-efficient automobiles and the beginnings of an alternative energy infrastructure. Even so, the picture the LAT paints is far from complete. The Perfect Storm of tightening supply, increasing commodity prices, rising taxes and further job losses looms on the horizon.
Hang on to your hat! The price of life is going up.
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Posted in media, technology, tagged 1984, 21st Century, ADD, addiction, ads, advances, adverse, advertising, age, alter, Amazon, analog, Animal Farm, annotations, apathy, ash, assumptions, attention span, back, backbone, backlit, balkanization, Big Brother, BlackBerry thumb, books, brain, burning, business, cap and trade, capacity, carpel tunnel, cell phone, cell phones, censor, censure, Century, change, chaos, children, China, chronic, Circuit City, citizen, claims, clean, coal, competing, complacency, complex, computer, Computer Vision Syndrome, consequences, consumers, contact, content, contracts, control, controversy, copies, copyright, cost, creative control, CRTs, cultural, CVS, data centers, debate, deceptive, deficit, delete, demand, dependency, deprived, development, device, digital divide, dirty, disabilities, disabled, disconnects, disinformation, display, distributed, distrustful, downloaded, duality, dumbing down, e-book, e-reader, ebook, eco-friendly, ecological, editor, education, elbow, electric, electromagnetic, electronic leash, electroshock, EMF, energy, entertainment, ereader, ergnomics, ergonomists, evolution, exchanging, experiences, Eye Fatigue, eyes, eyestrain, Facebook, fatigue, fine print, finger, flat panel monitors, flicker, free, freedom, future, gadget, gatekeeper, generate, generation, George Orwell, globe, grapevine, Green, grids, growth, gullible, hand, hardware, headache, health effects, herd immunity, high technology, history, hoaxes, impacts, information, injury, insomnia, Internet, intrusions, issues, journalism, keyboard, kids, Kindle, LCD, learning, letter, liberty, Libraries, library, life, limiting factors, literature, load, look back, losing, loss, magazines, margins, materiality, media, mentality, mind, model, monitor, musculoskeletal disorders, MySpace, myths, net, networks, neurological, news, newspapers, nostalgia, NYT, occupational, offsets, on demand, operate, optic, orthopedic, Orwellian, overload, ownership, pain, paper, PC, personal, photograph, physical, physiological, pirated, planet, plugged in, pollution, power, practice, predecessors, price, printed, privacy, production lines, productivity, programming, progress, publisher, rates, reading, realities, reality, recycle, refresh rate, repetitive strain, response time, responsible, rights, risk factors, RSI, rumors, sacrifice, screen, sense of place, sentimental, sever farm, shared, shift, sites, sleep, smokestack, snapshot, social, social capital, society, sociology, software, Sony, static, stunt, systems, tactile, talking, tangible, tech, teens, television, texting, threatens, time capsule, touch, tradeoffs, trains, transform, trends, turn of the Century, unauthorized, unsustainable, usage, video, view, virtual, Walter Cronkite, wary, watching, web, white space, word, world, wrist, written on July 19, 2009|
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Amazon’s electronic reading device known as Kindle is not exactly as “Green” as it is cracked up to be, but now we have another reason to reconsider the merits of paper-based reading: Censorship.
Kindle users may not have anticipated it, but Amazon can recall an e-book purchase at the push of a virtual button. Need those annotations for a book report? If your digital reading material is recalled, Amazon removes those too.
Tough luck.
Amazon claims they are working to amend a hasty retraction process that resulted when an allegedly unauthorized source made available a number of e-books to which the lawful copyright holder objected, reports the New York Times in “Amazon Erases Orwell Books From Kindle Devices“. Refunds for the illicitly encoded material are on the way, but the questions have only begun. And well they should.
In an ongoing series on the transformative impact of high tech, the Social Critic aims to explore the lesser known consequences of the virtual world. In this instance, we find a stark reminder that in the digital universe the price of “virtual” amounts to easy come, easy go. You can’t share an e-book. You can’t recycle an e-book reader — at least not in the Green manner one might have hoped [see “GreenSmart vs. GreenDumb”]. And you can’t take for granted that you “own” anything in the virtual realm in the same physical manner it is possible to own DVDs, books, magazines, newspapers and the like.
What this article doesn’t touch upon is disturbing in its own right: The questionable health effects, particularly on the eyes and brain, of exchanging the tangible for an imperceptibly flickering digital view screen. Over time, exposure may blunt brain development in children, promote sleep and attention disorders, lead to career-limiting repetitive strain injuries to the spine, elbows, wrists or fingers — or more commonly still, eyestrain and headaches — all while aiming electromagnetic radiation at our craniums (of which cell phones and CRT monitors are among the worst EMF offenders). None of this, however, takes into account the fastest growing concern of all: the controversial notion of Internet addiction. Until recently, in fact, China took a very heavy-handed approach to digital addicts: electroshock therapy.
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