Data

T-Mobile confirms network upgrade won’t affect legacy data plans

Over the past few months, T-Mobile has been touting its plans to upgrade its wireless network to be more friendly with Apple's smartphone. Despite not being an official partner, the carrier sees a lot of business from unlocked iPhone users.

The upgrade, which allows iPhone users to enjoy 3G data speeds, has already started rolling out to a handful of areas. So that has some T-Mobile subscribers wondering, will they get to keep their old data plans on the new, faster network?

Apple looking to build another $1B data center in Reno, Nevada

A new report is out this afternoon claiming that Apple is looking to spend in upwards of $1 billion over the next 10 years to build a new data center and other facilities in Reno, Nevada.

Codenamed "Project Jonathan," this would be Apple's third data farm, as the company already has a digital hive in Maiden, North Carolina, and one in northern California...

FaceTime over cellular spells trouble for capped data users

During its WWDC keynote yesterday, Apple announced that the latest version of their mobile operating system, iOS 6, would finally include the ability to make FaceTime calls over cellular networks.

Considering that this feature has been restricted to Wi-Fi connections since it was introduced in 2010, this was a pretty big deal. But it could end up causing major problems for capped data users...

Verizon putting new shared data plans into effect beginning June 28

AllThingsD reports that Verizon is about to throw down the gauntlet to its rivals in the United States by introducing a big change to how it charges customers for wireless services.

Instead of charging people based on their voice minutes spent and text messages sent, the big red carrier will "almost exclusively" invoice users based on how much data they are using.

The new plans are said to go into effect June 28 and will reportedly be the only option available to new customers...

Virgin Mobile offering prepaid iPhone with $30 a month unlimited data beginning June 29

Confirming recent rumors, Virgin Mobile USA, a Sprint Nextel subsidiary, today announced that it will be offering Apple's iPhone on a prepaid basis beginning June 29. The iPhone 4 and 4S will be available with a month-to-month unlimited data option costing $30 a month, with data throttling once you get past your monthly allowance of 2.5 gigabytes.

With this development, Apple's device will soon be officially available on a total of sixteen carriers in the United States, three of them being prepaid telecoms: Boost Mobile (another Sprint property), Cricket Communications and Virgin Mobile...

Approved: iCloud getting biogas cell farm, too

Apple's plan to use renewable energy sources to power its $1 billion data center in Maiden, North Carolina by the end of this year has received another important nod from The North Carolina Utilities Commission.

The agency just greenlighted a 4.5-megawatt fuel cell installation that will produce electricity from eco-friendly biogas in order to power a huge array of iCloud servers.

Not bad for a cloud that relies on “19th-century coal energy”...

Tablet market continues to be the iPad market

Looks like Steve Jobs wasn't kidding when he proclaimed Apple a mobile devices company at the original iPad unveiling in January 2010. Fast-forward to today and the tablet market is still by and large dominated by the iPad.

According to latest research data by NPD, Apple shipped 17.2 million tablets and notebooks - collectively referred to as 'mobile PCs' - for a cool 22.5 percent share of the entire market. For comparison, second-ranked Hewlett-Packard managed to move just 8.9 million mobile PC units, capturing a 11.6 percent market share.

Just two years ago, it would have been unheard-of for Apple to beat first-tier PC vendors at their own game. But this is 2012 and Apple is riding high on strong momentum that its tablet continues to enjoy in markets the world over...

IBM bans the use of Siri on its network over data privacy fears

Have you ever wondered what happens to your conversations with Siri? Obviously your queries are sent over the internet to Apple's servers for processing, but what then? Does Apple store these conversations? Does anyone have access to them?

These questions seem to be heavy on the mind of IBM's Jeanette Horan, as the CIO recently told MIT's Technology Review that her company has banned Siri from their network over fears that the assistant could be logging sensitive information...

Sprint axes 5GB/$30 mobile hotspot plan, replaces it with 2GB/6GB tiers

Sprint Nextel, the nation’s third-largest wireless operator, announced this morning that it’s doing away with its 5GB $30 a month mobile hotspot add-on for smartphones and tablets.

Instead, beginning May 18, customers can choose between 2GB or 6GB data plans priced at $20 or $50 a month, respectively. As always, the deal involves some fine print you should be aware of…

Verizon clarifies plans to discontinue grandfathered unlimited data plans

Verizon's CFO Fran Shammo caused quite a commotion yesterday when he said the carrier was going to be discontinuing grandfathered unlimited data plans this summer. "Everyone will be on data share."

Folks are upset over the comments because up until this point, Verizon has allowed unlimited data users to keep the plan even though it no longer offers it. So the operator issued a clarification today...

Take that, Greenpeace! Apple’s iCloud solar farm is a go

Apple doesn't run the cleanest of clouds, we all know this. Fortunately, the company's strides to reduce reliance on "19th-century coal energy”, as Greenpeace put it, have received a boost from The North Carolina Utilities Commission which has now approved plans for a massive solar farm to power Apple's $1 billion data center in Maiden, North Carolina.

It's gonna provide 20 megawatts of power to power iCloud servers that host the iTunes infrastructure, your music, photos, contacts and iOS device backups, to name a few...