unlimited

NEW YORK--Verizon Wireless will keep its $30 unlimited data plan for the iPhone, Lowell McAdam, chief operating officer of Verizon, said today at the company's quarterly investor meeting.

The Wall Street Journal first reported McAdam's comments ahead of Verizon's quarterly earnings conference call this morning. And the company confirmed it here at an event for investors and analysts. But the plan will only be offered for a limited time before the company moves to a usage-based billing model.

"I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot," he told the Journal. He said that … Read more

Designed as a cloud-based alternative to iTunes, Sony's new digital music streaming service has added a few more European countries to its audience, with the U.S. potentially next on the list.

Already available in the U.K. and Ireland, the company's "Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity" service hit France, Germany, Italy, and Spain this past weekend.

Offering music from Sony's own label as well as from other publishers, Music Unlimited gives consumers the ability to stream songs to a variety of different Sony devices, including Bravia TVs, Blu-ray players, home theater systems, PlayStation consoles, … Read more

Verizon Wireless is keeping its unlimited data plans when it announces the new Verizon iPhone, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

Verizon is expected to unveil the long-awaited Verizon iPhone tomorrow at a media event in New York City. The carrier sent invitations to the press on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal cites one unnamed source on the news that the company plans to keep its $30-a-month unlimited data plan. Verizon rival AT&T, which has been the exclusive carrier in the U.S. for the iPhone since it launched in 2007, eliminated its unlimited data plan in June. … Read more

Sony has launched its music-streaming service in the U.K. and Ireland, the company announced today.

Dubbed Music Unlimited, the service offers 6 million songs from top labels, including Universal, Warner Music Group, EMI, and, as one might expect, Sony Music Entertainment. It also boasts tracks from independent labels.

The focus of Music Unlimited is to deliver that content to a variety of devices. At launch, the service works with 2010 models of Sony's HDTVs, Blu-ray players, home theater systems, PlayStation 3 consoles, and PCs. The company plans to release it to Sony portable products and Android-based devices at … Read more

If you've ever lost a program's product key code or other essential documentation, you can probably appreciate a tool that helps you keep track of all your software. How about All My Software? It's a free application from Bolide that scans your Windows system for all installed software, including support and contact information, links, and even order date and number, if applicable, and saves them in a database you can export to Excel.

All My Software's installation wizard includes a scanning stage that displays files in the registry with the option to exclude them from the … Read more

U.S. wireless smartphone subscribers will do almost anything to keep their unlimited data plans, which could spell trouble down the road for AT&T, the only U.S. operator without an unlimited plan.

For the growing number of smartphone users in the U.S. market, loyalty to a particular phone or a specific carrier is trumped by the availability of an unlimited data plan. Cell phone consumers are a notoriously fickle bunch. And for the past couple of years, wireless operators have been stepping over each other to gain exclusive deals on hot new phones to attract new … Read more

What good is a smartphone without decent data service? Indeed, accessing the Internet and all those Web-based apps is the only reason most people even want a smartphone.

But what if your service provider starts capping your data service and charging you for how many megabytes of data you use every month? For some consumers, the thought is absolute heresy. In this week's Ask Maggie column, I try to quell one reader's concern that Verizon Wireless will abandon its unlimited data plan once the iPhone arrives.

I also advise another reader to consider an Android device other than … Read more

When it comes to wireless services, sometimes unlimited doesn't really mean unlimited.

Wireless is a competitive business, and sometimes operators say almost anything to get consumers to sign up for their service. Over the last few years, outraged customers have forced wireless carriers to stop throwing around the "unlimited" term so freely. As a result, a lot of mobile broadband services note in fine print that they are not, in fact, "unlimited."

But what if you truly want to pay for an unlimited data service? Do any even exist? I have answered this very question … Read more

The mystery bug--a type of bacteria--behind intriguing biofuel start-up Joule Unlimited was revealed with the publication of a patent on Tuesday.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based start-up said that it has received Patent No. 7,794,969 for an engineered form of cynobacteria, or blue-green algae, which grows in water and is capable of secreting biodiesel fuel.

The company asserts that it can make diesel fuel directly using only sunlight and waste carbon dioxide in glass bioreactors for as little as $30 a barrel.

Most biofuels processes take multiple steps to convert plant matter into sugars. Joule claims to be the … Read more