I work for one too.. our service is 50 megabits and BADDD TO THE BONEEEE

$130/mo for 5 megabits and 40 GB cap

Movies come out so quick now on blu-ray and DVD that there is practically no reason to expose oneself to the risk of getting logged as a copyright infringer. Go pay a couple bucks at blockbuster, big effin deal. It would take less time to dupe a bluray from BB and leave out all the ads and unskippables than it does to download and burn it. (LazuruS's fat pipe excluded)

> Long live my 100Mbps/100Mbps uncapped internet for 26.7 US dollars/month (165 Sek/month)

no shit man i wish i could pay for my internet with seks

Here in Wasilla I have to use _money_ to pay for internet and its $100 for 5 megabits down, 256kbs up, with a 40 GB cap.

>> ^Yogi:

It's amazing how perceptive, funny, and intelligent Brian Williams can be...and yet still I couldn't watch his program without stabbing forks in my eyes. How can you be this way and not see that your own network...your own show is soo full of shit?


I think he's like this because of the people that surround him; how could you not be. I would also try to make many a joke that they don't understand unless they look up a turn of phrase--on their iPad (a glorified non-cellphone/unless you really need/want to spend that much money on one-"buggy and slow"-device).

Yes, I've used my Dad's. It certainly has some nifty features (which have all been invented or used already), but since it's Apple and it has the name i"x", it must be a game changing, revolutionary, cutting edge, never crashes, solves: world hunger, bi-polar, cancer, Fox News, heralds baby Jesus's return to Earth in North Western Missouri; and it has a shelf/I'm mean battery life of 30.62 days--or so I've heard.

It was semi-slow (that wasn't very surprising); slow in two departments: switching and starting between and new apps or processes. Second, the Wi-Fi connection was flaky (either not downloading or when downloading, even including the occasional burst speeds, it averaged 22 KBps (as I say below it should at least be going 100-200 KBps [this is still incredibly slow], as his connection has a download rate of 1.2-1.5 MBps). I'll play with that a bit more (as I think it may have been the wireless router as he has a 14-Megabit connection).

The games were fun and a few of the apps were great. But, I'd rather have a lightweight fully functional notebook PC with a 16:9 screen, atleast 720p, and a fully customizable network adapter. ...And to be blunt, I'd much rather have Windows 7 or even Vista (fully patched), as both have great functionality and support plus their 64-Bit support is great. Plus I can put in a full Blu-Ray drive that comes with PowerDVD.

Better applications, better games and support. Yes, this is an anti-apple rant as I think all of their once "highly revered" features: functionality, non-crashing, no hacking (hah!), graphical editing applications (which is a "contract" feature), sound editing applications (same as the last), and it's "ease-of-use" (which is now a completely moot point). Apple is still successful, because they find niche products that do well; like the Nintendo DS. The iPod (although the screens break a bit to early, my only complaint) and the iPhone are great products and fill a gap in a niche market. The iPad does the same thing, but from what I've tried it needed another year (plus some spec changes like a 16:9 screen going up to 720p (which is HD not this stupid licensing agreement so they can use the logo on a nice, but NOT HD screen (I think it's XGA or 1024x768), a connection port that could handle a multitude of devices: usb, 1394, ethernet, gamepads, speakers, etc I know it does some of this already, especially in the bluetooth department.

But, I feel that it should have come with the large flash/ssd drive, cell phone features (which they do have, it just costs an arm and a leg), more functionality for the "touch pen" (some mouse-like buttons etc...), FLASH & FULL browser SUPPORT (not having flash, plus other regular features "kills it" in a lot of ways)--Apple has to have their money/way though; I don't think they've got any clue when they shoot themselves in the foot), and a slightly faster (or duo-core) processor to help the experience feel more smooth; they have a: "1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed chip" were as a Intel Atom that has an nVidia extension may have been a better choice (I'm not to sure about battery usage for these guys, but from the devices it was used in it wasn't too bad).

So in the end (damn this was WAY longer than expected) I think they should have refined it for another year. Got some REAL user feedback; give it to people that don't work for the ass-kissing mainstream Apple press-core (yes, I'm talking about the likes of Engadget). Then, actually work on their gripes! People already seem willing to pay an arm and a leg for their stuff, so if the price goes up one-hundred, don't worry all your loyal'ii will still buy it. Anyway...this didn't happen, so I was left feeling underwhelmed by it and would instead by a nice laptop.

BTW, Brian Williams is the shit!

/This post may seem anti=Apple and in a lot of ways it is, but I would like them to make a good tablet (or awesome tablet--if they'd pull their collective heads out of their asses). It seems to me that any company, right now, that takes some time and makes a fast, reliable, easy-to-use, with 720p (and lots of video/codecs support)...will destroy Apple's iPad longterm (right now I just see Android tablets, but the ones I've seen are underwhelming).

//If someone has seen a good tablet coming out that has some of the features that I'm talking about, please throw in a reply.

The thing is, to get 50 megabits in Japan costs the equivalent of only $30 a month.

$30 a month in DSL from my provider (a middleman provider between Verizon and I that charges maybe $5 a month extra for unlimited bandwidth + more) gives you a 1 megabit connection!

$25 a month for a 1 megabit connection is bullshit. It's utter garbage.

I live in a city in California between Santa Barbara and LA where Verizon and Time Warner Cable have both rolled out fiber. But the cost for FIOS is ridiculous, and gets you only 5 megabits to start.

TWC offers a 10 megabit line for $40-some a month, but is interested in metered bandwidth. That's unacceptable, and I refuse to support it.

The low end broadband speeds haven't changed in 10 years or so. There shouldn't even be a .766 megabit option available at all.

I understand that there's an infrastructure problem with doing this, and that these companies need to recover their losses. Thus, they want to keep shitty DSL and whatever speed $30 solutions available.

But someday the low end options need to be upgraded. 5 megabits should cost $20 a month.

>> ^Entropy997:
As far as broadband deployment, I think that's great. However, Internet connection speeds need to be improved. There should be a forced switch to a minimum 5 megabit connection.
Supposedly the national average is 2 megabits, but that is a lie. The average HARDCORE GAMER on Steam has a .766 megabit DSL line, according to Steam surveys.
We invented the Internet. We should be in the top 5 countries in the world for connection speeds.
Japan's national average is supposed to be 50 megabits. Ours isn't even actually 2.

Japan is smaller than California with more than triple the population density. If you live in a major US city, you can get a 50Mb pipe. They can't roll that kind of infrastructure into fucking Liberty, NY and expect to even approach breaking even, let alone profit. There just aren't enough customers.

On the other hand, cable here is 7Mb. I imagine most US broadband is well over 2Mb and the average is just being dragged down by people who don't see any reason to upgrade from dialup.

They auctioned off the airwaves and made a nice chunk of change, too (billions, I believe). Though nothing compared to what is needed to revive the economy.

Also, the whole digital thing is overrated. All it amounts to is interactive menus. The picture quality is the same.

Watching standard def on an HDTV though definitely improves the image quality. Simply using an LCD screen does something right there.

As far as broadband deployment, I think that's great. However, Internet connection speeds need to be improved. There should be a forced switch to a minimum 5 megabit connection.

Supposedly the national average is 2 megabits, but that is a lie. The average HARDCORE GAMER on Steam has a .766 megabit DSL line, according to Steam surveys.

We invented the Internet. We should be in the top 5 countries in the world for connection speeds.

Japan's national average is supposed to be 50 megabits. Ours isn't even actually 2.

There's a problem.

Megabits, jigawatts ... it is all terribly confusing. All I know is that: (a) math is goddam hard and (b) the internet is not a big truck that you can just dump information on -- it's a series of tubes.

Anyone heard of the Canal+ service in Paris? That's the future of internet media (25-45 MegaBits/Second ADSL supplying internet/TV/films etc direct to multiple devices, EG TVs / PCs). BT (over here in the UK) are following suit with their BT Vision service; where they've signed up US companies for internet broadcast rights (a taste of this service is at: http://www.discoverybroadband.co.uk and more info at: http://www.btvision.bt.com/ )