Stories like this keep us up at night. One woman was using her husband’s Vodafone mobile phone to download four episodes of friends. The downloads were interrupted as the man left his home in the UK for business trip in Germany, but once his plane touched down, the downloads continued.
(As the headline suggests, this doesn’t end well.)
When the man arrived back home, Vodafone actually called his firm to alert him of the huge data charge coming in the mail—all £11,000 of it—based upon some sort of punishing out of network rate from the Germany portion of the downloads (despite the fact that Germans using Vodafone don’t pay £11,000 phone bills every month).
Given that this isn’t the first time mobile carriers have exploited their Europe-trotting customers, the European Union commissioner is giving wireless companies until July 1st to justify exorbitant cross-boundary charges.
We wish Vodafone the best of luck […]
Original post by Mark Wilson
Core, an iPhone Hacker with mad hacking skills, has managed to port to the iPhone a functioning P2P client based on Transmission, which is a popular torrent app for Macs. This is the first time P2P torrent software has run natively on the iPhone, and the prospect has us in tizzy fits of excitement.
Tests have been carried out, and they have worked a charm. However, before you guys go nuts about downloading completely legal torrent files, there are some things you should know:
• This is a command line client at present, and although someone will chuck a GUI on it in the near future, steer clear unless you can handle messing with terminal.
• EDGE and P2P will screw your shit up. If you plan to get your download on, it’s WiFi all the way.
• If you start a download immediately before having sex, your iPhone’s battery […]
Original post by Haroon Malik
Intel has decided to simplify their low-power 45nm chipsets for ultraportables with sexier, more car-like names. The technology formerly known as Silverthorne and Diamondville, from this day forward, shall be known as “Atom.” And Menlow products shall be known as “Centrino Atom.”
You have roughly 48 hours to hold your newly found knowledge over everyone’s head in the IT department. Enjoy. [PCWorld]
Original post by Mark Wilson
We seemed to have missed this in the recent unlimited call plan-gasm, but Sprint is apparently offering a call plan that rings in at $89.99/month and includes unlimited voice, messaging and push to talk. The plan is cheaper because it does not include any data usage in the price. Still, it is $10 less than Verizon and AT&T offerings, both of which will only give you unlimited voice for $99/month. If you don’t need data access via your handset, checkout our awesome cheat sheet to see why this really is exceptional value for money. [Mobileburn]
Original post by Haroon Malik
We rarely get excited about seeds here on Giz, but the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway is a remarkably daunting structure that looks looks like the lair lovechild of Batman’s cave and Superman’s snow cave fortress of solitude.
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Designed to protect 100 million of the world’s seeds through fortified concrete and the surrounding mountainous landmass, the Global Seed Vault is prepared to withstand nuclear missile attacks and keep our plants’ genetic codes safe. And while the plan is all well and good, if I’m anywhere near Longyearbyen when the sky rains radioactive fire, Man will be losing a few species of plants to prevent my seeds from dropping like acorns. [belowtheclouds via geekologie]
Original post by Mark Wilson