A Guy And A Gal

If you’re a phan of the phablet, odds are pretty good that you’ve got one by now: after months of waiting, AT&T launched their American version of the Samsung Galaxy Note on Sunday. While the Super Bowl ad left a little to be desired as far as showing off the actual device, a new Samsung ad gives the mega-screen Note and its S-Pen digitizer stylus the screen time they deserve. The 60-second commercial should be appearing on American broadcasts soon – though thankfully, they seem to have abandoned the “phablet” marketing.

The majority of the screen time is devoted to the S-Pen, and why not – aside from a big 5.3-inch screen, it’s the most important differentiator for the Galaxy Note. Casual observers may not realize that it’s more than just a stick of plastic or a capacitive stylus, it’s a digitizer, using Wacom technology for both greater accuracy and pressure sensitivity. The uniqueness doesn’t stop with the hardware: plenty of included apps (as shown in the video) take advantage of the S-Pen, and Samsung has published an API so that third-party apps can get in on the action too.

If you want to dig a little deeper, be sure to check out our extensive review before you open your wallet. Made your decision? Then head to an AT&T or Best Buy store armed with $299.99, or $649.99 if you’re like to forego a two-year contract. Most of Europe and parts of Asia already have the Note in its international version, but AT&T is the only vendor for the states – unless those rumors of a Verizon Galaxy Journal pan out.

A recent Chicago University study is proving that people are more likely to resist their desire to consume alcohol, coffee and tobacco, than to resist their desire to check social media.

Not only that, but according to the study, people are more likely to give in to social media urges than to sexual and sleeping urges, as well as spending and sports. Basically, the only one that was harder to resist was the urge to work.

The results to this study have a good explanation, though. Social networks/media are not expensive, are very accessible and available, and do not harm your health (most of the time). As Wilhelm Hofmann (study leader) mentions, there is no direct downside to social media use. Smokers and drinkers has reasons to want to stop – both health-wise and financial. But most of the time, there is no direct downside to checking Twitter, Facebook or your e-mail. And it only takes a minute.

I have to say, though, the fact that some of the other urges can be more controlled than social networks is surprising. Urges like sleeping and sex are part of our biology. Not only a habit, but inscribed into our very core and DNA. The study states that while these urges were much stronger, people were much more able to control them.

If you want to learn more about the study, you should wait for the full research paper to be published soon. It will be featured in Psychological Science.  

Are you ready for Social Networkers Anonymous?

[Source: The Guardian Via: The Verge]

A new potentially life-bearing “super-Earth” has been discovered orbiting a relatively nearby star. Described as the “best candidate” for supporting liquid water — and therefore life — the planet (GJ 667Cc) is believed to be about 4.5 times the size of Earth. The parent star (GJ 667C) is 22 light years away, and this is the second potentially Earth-like rock scientists have discovered orbiting the M-class dwarf. With a 28.15 day cycle, it’s calculated to receive 90 percent as much light as Earth, and much of that is infrared (meaning the actual energy delivered is about equal) — crucially hinting at similar temperatures and favourable conditions. Not enough is known about the atmosphere right now to fully nail the water prospects, but it’s still our best hope of discovering life as we (don’t) know it yet.

SOURCE via Scientific American

Before AT&T tiered data plans started coming into effect, users were happy to be unlimited data subscribers. Once the changes went into place they would be grandfathered, allowing them to keep their unlimited plan. This was before AT&T started throttling its top 5% of data consumers. Grandfathered customers are now suffering from an interesting effect in the system.

AT&T throttles the top 5% of data consumers in their network, but this is not just an estimate. They literally throttle the top 5%, regardless of where that limit happens to fall, that month. This would mean that if AT&T managed to keep convincing subscribers to use less and less data, the limit would go down, along with the users’ habits. If the top 5% miraculously managed to use only 200 MB a month (or 20 GB), that is where the limit would hit.

The situation is not as critical yet, but “unlimited” data users are certainly experiencing a lower throttling cap. And it seems like tiered data plan subscribers also come into the equation, even though only unlimited users are being throttled.

After going about his business as regular, AT&T user John Cozen was notified that he was being throttled for falling under the 5% top users window. He had only used 2.1 GB of data in that month. After a series of e-mails, AT&T confirmed that this was not a mistake, and the top 5% was being throttled after using just a bit over 2 GB of data.

AT&T’s new smartphone data plans include:

• AT&T Data Plus 300MB: $20 for 300MB
• AT&T Data Pro 3GB: $30 for 3GB
• AT&T Data Pro 5GB: $50 for 5GB, with mobile hotspot / tethering

It might no longer be convenient to be grandfathered into those unlimited data plans (unless you don’t mind the slower speeds). Of course, tiered data plans are not affected. If one pays the equally priced $30 plan, you get 3 GB of data, which is about an extra GB compared to unlimited data subscribers (before being throttled).

The tables have turned around, and unlimited data plans might not be as great as we thought. At least with AT&T. It just might be time for power users to start saying goodbye to their grandfathered plans. They could be getting a better deal with the 3 GB tiered data 

HeyTell, a popular cross-platform voice messaging service, has released an app for Windows Phone. HeyTellallows one to send and receive voice recorded messages, which can prove more efficient than standard SMS. The service requires no account to be created, just add an email and/or phone number and you’re good to go.

Some highlighted features:

• Send/Receive messages to and from contacts on Android and iOS.
• Low data usage.
• Toast notifications.
• Messages can be saved and played offline.
• Send/Receive current GPS location.

You can download HeyTell from the Marketplace for free. Note you may occur charges from your carrier from usage.