Verizon confirms contract-free 4G LTE at same rates

Verizon Wireless apparently will offer no-contract 4G dongle service at the same rates as the on-contract pricing, which will come as a welcome surprise for some users. The no-contract price is the same as for a contract-based service: $50 for 5 GBytes or $80 for 10 GBytes, plus a $10 per GB overage.

The only difference is that the no-contract price for the modem is $249.99, as opposed to $99.99 on a two-year contract (after a $50 mail-in rebate).

The reason for contracts in the first place always has been to offset the subsidies on equipment that mobile service providers have been paying for as marketing cost.

Verizon confirms contract-free 4G LTE options: same rates, pricier modems -- Engadget

Verizon confirms contract-free 4G LTE at same rates

Verizon Wireless apparently will offer no-contract 4G dongle service at the same rates as the on-contract pricing, which will come as a welcome surprise for some users. The no-contract price is the same as for a contract-based service: $50 for 5 GBytes or $80 for 10 GBytes, plus a $10 per GB overage.

The only difference is that the no-contract price for the modem is $249.99, as opposed to $99.99 on a two-year contract (after a $50 mail-in rebate).

The reason for contracts in the first place always has been to offset the subsidies on equipment that mobile service providers have been paying for as marketing cost.

Verizon confirms contract-free 4G LTE options: same rates, pricier modems -- Engadget

Google's Chrome 8: What's New

Google Chrome 8, now rolling out to users, apparently features more than 800 bug fixes and stability improvements. Some say those tweaks and other security patches make up the bulk of the progress.

One new feature that's immediately noticeable is the addition of a built-in PDF viewer. According to Chromium Engineering Director Marc Pawliger, the built-in PDF viewer lets the browser 'render [PDF files] as seamlessly as HTML Web pages,' without the need for a standalone Adobe Reader installation.

Since I use Chrome as my primary browser, and since I seem to experience Adobe issues relatively frequently on the three Windows machines I use most often, each running a different operating system, that one new feature might bring some wanted stability to my PDF viewing.

Developers also seem to say Chrome 8 is the first version of the browser to boast full support for Google's upcoming Chrome Web Store. The Chrome Web Store will offer an array of Web-based applications -- both free and paid -- that'll be designed specifically to work with the Chrome browser and the still-under-development Chrome OS.

Google's Chrome 8: What's New, and What's Next - PCWorld

Leadership Matters for Group Coupon Sites

In general, in most businesses, leadership of any category nearly always winds up in a highly-nonlinear distribution where 80 percent or more of the revenue, profit or sales is garnered by just a few providers.

It is not uncommon for the market share gap between providers one and two to be extensive. A rule of thumb is that market share of player one is double that of provider two, for example.

It looks like Groupon already is emerging as the number-one provider in the group coupon or social shopping space.

Hitwise: Groupon Is Getting 79% Of U.S. Group-Buying Visits Vs. 8% For LivingSocial

FCC Chairman's Speech About Internet Freedom

Mobile Email Peaks Friday Through Sunday, Study Finds

Mobile email usage peaks from Friday to Sunday, and during weekdays, is most used in the morning "before work" hours and during the "after work" hours, a study by eROI has found.

Since people are more likely to be on the go during the weekend, almost all results showed that from Thursday afternoon through Monday morning subscribers were engaging with email on mobile devices at a much higher rate than during the standard workweek (9 a.m. Monday to 4 p.m. Thursday), eROI says.

read the study here

Huge Margins at Groupon

CNBC reports that Groupon, the local advertising firm Google wants to buy, has 60 percent gross margins, keeping half of all the money generated when Groupon users buy merchandise in advertiser stores as part of the group coupon offers.