data

Apple looks to double its N.C. biogas fuel cell farm

Ten megawatts of electricity is enough energy to power more than 6,000 homes. It is also the same amount of electricity that Apple is looking to produce with its biogas fuel cell project at its North Carolina data center.

The tech giant has filed a request with the N.C. Utilities Commission to double the size of its local fuel cell farm, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Currently, the data center has enough fuel cells to pump out 4.8 megawatts of electricity. Apple is asking to bump those numbers up to 50 fuel cells, which should be able … Read more

Facebook users seek answers on advertising, privacy

When given the opportunity to question those who lead Facebook's privacy team about proposed changes to the social network's data use policy before voting on the matter, Facebook users were more concerned with how the site currently manages its data.

Questions during today's half hour live Web talk (archived here) included ones about how posts on Timeline are displayed, what information is shared with advertisers, online bullying, what happens if your account is hacked and, of course, what about that viral copyright post. (It's fake.) One user wasn't even sure there was a vote: "… Read more

Court: Yes, Verizon, you do have to abide by FCC roaming rules

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., unanimously upheld Federal Communications Commission rules adopted last year that requires larger phone companies, such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless, to strike roaming deals with smaller operators on their wireless data networks.

Verizon Communications had challenged the FCC rule, which was adopted last year. But today, the three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., rejected Verizon's argument that the FCC had overstepped its authority by adopting such a rule.

The court unanimously found that the FCC was well within its jurisdiction … Read more

U.S., U.K. caught in middle of huge Swiss spy data leak -- report

The U.S. and U.K. have been warned by Swiss spy agency NDB that some of the information they had shared related to counter-terrorism has been stolen, according to a new report.

Last summer, a disgruntled NDB IT technician who believed he wasn't being taken seriously over the way in which data systems should be handled, allegedly downloaded terabytes of counter-terrorism information shared among the NDB, the CIA, and the U.K.'s MI6, and had eyes on selling it off to "foreign officials and commercial buyers," Reuters is reporting today, citing European national security sources.… Read more

How to enable metered Wi-Fi connections in Windows 8

One of the new features of Windows 8 is metered wireless connections. In the past, you could run Windows programs to monitor your data usage, but they didn't do anything to actually reduce data usage. With mobile hot spot and broadband card usage on the rise and unlimited data plans nearing extinction, every kilobyte of bandwidth saved is a penny earned. Enabling metering in Windows 8 will limit your PC or tablet's data usage by preventing nonessential data transfers.

According to Microsoft's FAQ on metered connections, the effects of enabling a metered connection are:

Windows Update will … Read more

C Spire launches shared data plans December 3

Following Verizon and AT&T, regional carrier C Spire will soon let customers share a pool of data among multiple devices.

C Spire's shared data plan follows Verizon's model of charging a fee for devices to access the data allotment, in addition to a monthly charge for the data itself. Up to 10 devices can draw from the data pool.

$20: Tablets, USB modems, and other connected devices $30: Feature phones $40: Smartphones

Data ranges from 1GB for $50 to 20GB for $150, and up. C Spire also lets customers top up their data as the month … Read more

Amazon Web Services slices S3 prices

Amazon Web Services will cut S3 prices by roughly 24 percent to 27 percent across all regions in a move that illustrates the cloud provider's ability to add economies of scale to its IT infrastructure.

"We're lowering prices for S3 by 24 percent to 27 percent in all regions," said Andy Jassy, senior vice president of Amazon Web Services.

The price cuts are one data point highlighting how AWS intends to disrupt "old-guard technology companies."

Jassy made the comments at Amazon Web Services' inaugural re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. The powwow was designed … Read more

Can you ditch your smartphone data plan for Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi is just about everywhere these days, so why do you still have to pay an arm and a leg for pricey 3G and 4G wireless data service from a carrier if you want to get online from your smartphone?

This is a very good question. Now that every smartphone on the market comes with Wi-Fi capability built-in, some frugal wireless customers are wondering whether they can subscribe to a voice-only service and use Wi-Fi instead of a costly data plan to access the Internet.

In this edition of Ask Maggie, I explain why the major carriers don't offer … Read more

Hackers steal and publish e-mails from U.N. nuclear agency

Hackers have made their way into one of the servers of the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency, according to Reuters. The agency confirmed that the hackers stole information and published it online.

"The IAEA deeply regrets this publication of information stolen from an old server that was shut down some time ago," agency spokesperson Gill Tudor told Reuters. "The IAEA's technical and security teams are continuing to analyze the situation and do everything possible to help ensure that no further information is vulnerable."

A group that calls itself "Parastoo" claimed responsibility … Read more