3G, 4G, VoIP , Google Voice , a crippling growth in data usage —the bottom line is that there have been a lot of changes to the wireless industry recently. Are you one of the masses maxing out your minutes and data? How Many Minutes Do You Use On Average? ( opinion ) How Much Data Do You Use On Average?

Sprint’s talking about it , but AT&T’s straight-up doing something about Verizon’s plan adjustments this morning with a series of its own tweaks this afternoon. Starting Monday, January 18 (conveniently the same day that Verizon’s changes go live), unlimited talk will run $69.99 on individual plans, a nice little cut of $30 against the $99.99 the carrier charges today; family unlimited, meanwhile, comes in at $119.99. Unlimited talk and text costs another $20 on top of unlimited talk alone — no change from the current add-on pricing. Similarly, unlimited talk plus smartphone data goes for $99.99, meaning that you’re paying $30 for the data package — exactly the same as you’re paying now, so really, this all boils down to a big adjustment in what carriers across the board are charging for voice. The principles of Econ 101 have us believe that voice isn’t as popular as it used to be — we are now sending billions upon billions of texts, after all — and as we ease off the voice infrastructure, it makes sense that these guys would want to upsell everyone into unlimited plans (remember that we’re living in an “all you can eat” kind of nation) while still banking big on precious kilobytes and characters

Well, this sure marks a change of tone for LG. After taking the cautious approach and throwing out a single 3D TV model in 2009, the Korean manufacturer is now boldly predicting sales of 400,000 3D units in 2010 and 3.4 million in 2011. To make it all happen, the company has announced it will introduce a “wide range” of 3D TV sets measuring between 42 and 72 inches diagonally, with flagship models among them. Furthermore, LG’s new partnership with SkyLife will see both companies investing in 3D content creation, as the digital satellite broadcaster will be pitching in $25 million. Naturally, this Korean push is merely a prelude to a planned assault on American and European markets next year, which LG expects will jump all over 3D given its internal survey data indicating 58 percent of people want an extra dimension to their viewing experience. What we’re most excited about, though, is the “ultra-slim” bezel you see in the picture — it is no accident or mere prototype, and its minimization is part of LG’s effort to maximize immersion

No heart-stopping new revelations here, but it’s always good to get an official indication of a company’s plans for the forthcoming year. Samsung, it appears, is firmly set on building and selling a tablet of some sort, whether it be a Joojoo -like buttonless wonder or a more conventional keyboard-equipped device. There’s also a note on multitouch and 3D , with Sammy promising to introduce more mainstream displays with support for them, as well as converting all its laptop and desktop screens to LED backlighting from the middle of 2010 onwards. We’re happy to see CCFL consigned to the annals of history, but Mr. Samsung, if you really want to excite us good and proper, you’d add an O to the front of that monitor technology and stick to the same schedule. [Thanks, Daniel] Samsung planning tablets, multitouch, 3D, making LED backlighting standard originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:14:00 EST

Acer’s far from being a major player in the smartphone space, but to call it irrelevant would be grossly inaccurate. Up until now, however, the outfit has relied largely on Microsoft’s mobile OS to power its phones, though even it seems shocked by the warm reception the Android-powered Liquid has received. According to the company’s own Aymar de Lencquesaing, Acer recognizes that “there is definitely momentum behind Android,” and he continued by stating that “the pace is faster than most would have anticipated one year ago.” He went on to proclaim that the company was apt to pump out 8 to 10 phones in 2010, with next year’s lineup being “much more balanced” in terms of the amount of Windows Mobile vs. Android handsets. Look out, world — Google just might take over another huge portion of your life while you’re fixated on the next great Black Friday deal

This week, a long-brewing FAA regulation requiring planes to protect passengers from 16 G crash forces will come into full effect. What does this mean for you? Well, your next seat—or more accurately, seat belt —could have an airbag . Instead of building airbags into plane seats or the bulkhead—that big flat wall at the front of the cabin—AmSafe, the biggest name in the I’m-guessing-not-terribly-crowded commercial jet passenger airbag industry, has hidden them in seat belts: the bag is mounted at shoulder height and connected to a trigger and helium inflation device underneath the seat. AmSafe’s Tom Barth, pictured here holding a comically oversized seat belt that’s obviously hiding an airbag or something, told NPR : The air bag seat belt looks pretty much like a standard seat belt. People don’t really notice that it’s there.

Right on schedule with the whispers, T-Mobile lifted the veil off of its new price plan tier structure, Even More and Even More Plus, and from the looks of it all those leaks were pretty much spot-on. The traditional Even More plan is a two-year commitment and discounted phone, with unlimited individual prices starting at $59 per month and going up to $99 if you want unlimited messaging and text, too. Even More Plus scrapes the device discount but offers unlimited individual prices at $49 for voice / $79 for everything. It looks like the only major differentiator is the subsidized handset, but here’s where the numbers don’t add up: even with the steep $350 discount on myTouch 3G, factoring in that $20 premium would pay for the phone during the 18th month, leaving six months and $120 of extra payments left that have no obvious justification to us. Additionally the FlexPay / equipment installment plan is now available, letting you break up the cost of your phone into interest-free monthly bills. It seems Even More’s subsidized phones are offered over four installments (e.g.

The details of T-Mobile’s mysterious Project Dark definitely seem to be congealing around retooled handset billing and a set of new plans, and it looks like TmoNews might have the first word here on the all-important subject of plan pricing. Even More Plus, which would be contract-free and offer new handset FlexPay over four installments, is apparently tracking for a $79.99 all-you-can-eat package, $69.99 with 1,000 voice minutes, or $49.99 with unlimited voice and no data. Even More meanwhile, which basically amounts to new contract plan branding with traditional hardware subsidies, will come in at $99.99 for unlimited everything (mirroring Sprint’s pricing) or $59.99 for unlimited voice alone. It seems strange that the contract pricing is higher than the prepaid, especially since Even More Plus apparently won’t offer any hardware subsidies whatsoever, but we’re sure we’re going to find out how this all shakes out soon enough.

Apple is building a new data center facility in North Carolina. Nobody knows what is it for, but according to Data Center Knowledge editor Rich Miller, it will be one of the largest in the world: Apple is planning about 500,000 square feet of data center space in a single building. That would place it among the largest data centers in the world. Let’s put things in perpective: Apple’s current data center in Newark is a little over 100,000 square feet, while most data centers around the world don’t pass the 200,000 square feet mark. The new one, located near one of Google’s large facilities in Maiden, NC, will be a colossal 500,000 square feet. That’s a lot of computing nodes, and massive storage space

While the DSi plays the same games/cards as the DS, Nintendo, somewhat predictably, has announced plans to release ” DSi Enhanced ” games. These games would still be cross-compatible, playable on both the DS and DSi. But these games would take advantage of a few special DSi functions not available to DS players. One example given was the ability to take a picture on the DSi and map it as a texture into the game (face mapping comes to mind.) Sounds fine to us, though only time will tell whether or not DSi “Enhanced” ever becomes DSi “Required.” [ Kotaku ]