T-Mobile users thought they had a lifetime price lock—guess what happened next

“T-Mobile will never change the price you pay,” the carrier told users in 2017.

A large T-Mobile logo above a conference hall.

Enlarge / T-Mobile logo above the Deutsche Telekom pavilion at Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, Spain, on February 28, 2024. (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto )

When T-Mobile announced price hikes of up to $5 per line on older smartphone plans last month, many customers were shocked because of T-Mobile's years-old promise that their price would never rise as long as they stuck with the same plan.

"New rule: Only YOU should have the power to change what you pay," T-Mobile said in a January 2017 announcement of its "Un-contract" promise for T-Mobile One plans. "Now, T-Mobile One customers keep their price until THEY decide to change it. T-Mobile will never change the price you pay for your T-Mobile One plan."

Unfortunately, the promise wasn't as simple as T-Mobile claimed it to be in that press release. T-Mobile also published an FAQ that answered the question, "What happens if you do raise the price of my T-Mobile One service?" It explained that the only guarantee is T-Mobile will pay your final month's bill if the price goes up and you decide to cancel.

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Breaking: Elon Musk drops claims that OpenAI abandoned mission

Musk previously hoped a jury would award maximum punitive damages.

Breaking: Elon Musk drops claims that OpenAI abandoned mission

Enlarge (credit: JC Olivera / Stringer | WireImage)

While Musk has spent much of today loudly criticizing the Apple/OpenAI deal, he also sought to drop his lawsuit against OpenAI, a court filing today showed.

In the filing, Musk's lawyer Morgan Chu notified the Superior Court of California in San Francisco of Musk's request for dismissal of his entire complaint without prejudice.

There are currently no further details as to why Musk decided to drop the suit.

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Elon Musk is livid about new OpenAI/Apple deal

Elon Musk attacks Apple/ChatGPT integration as “creepy spyware.”

Elon Musk is livid about new OpenAI/Apple deal

Enlarge (credit: Anadolu / Contributor | Anadolu)

Elon Musk is so opposed to Apple's plan to integrate OpenAI's ChatGPT with device operating systems that he's seemingly spreading misconceptions while heavily criticizing the partnership.

On X (formerly Twitter), Musk has been criticizing alleged privacy and security risks since the plan was announced Monday at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

"If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies," Musk posted on X. "That is an unacceptable security violation." In another post responding to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Musk wrote, "Don't want it. Either stop this creepy spyware or all Apple devices will be banned from the premises of my companies."

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Elon Musk is livid about new OpenAI/Apple deal

Elon Musk attacks Apple/ChatGPT integration as “creepy spyware.”

Elon Musk is livid about new OpenAI/Apple deal

Enlarge (credit: Anadolu / Contributor | Anadolu)

Elon Musk is so opposed to Apple's plan to integrate OpenAI's ChatGPT with device operating systems that he's seemingly spreading misconceptions while heavily criticizing the partnership.

On X (formerly Twitter), Musk has been criticizing alleged privacy and security risks since the plan was announced Monday at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

"If Apple integrates OpenAI at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies," Musk posted on X. "That is an unacceptable security violation." In another post responding to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Musk wrote, "Don't want it. Either stop this creepy spyware or all Apple devices will be banned from the premises of my companies."

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The Light Phone III is a distraction-free phone that’s a little less minimalist (Coming in January, up for pre-order now for half price)

Most smartphone makers try to convince you to buy their products by telling you all about the things they can do. Light has taken the opposite approach, but offering minimalist phones under the Light Phone brand, which are designed around the idea tha…

Most smartphone makers try to convince you to buy their products by telling you all about the things they can do. Light has taken the opposite approach, but offering minimalist phones under the Light Phone brand, which are designed around the idea that less can be more. They offer users a way to stay connected and reachable […]

The post The Light Phone III is a distraction-free phone that’s a little less minimalist (Coming in January, up for pre-order now for half price) appeared first on Liliputing.

Elephants may refer to each other by name

The animals seem to respond more actively to calls that include their “name.”

A group of African elephants, including adults and offspring, walk across a brown plain in front of a mountain.

Enlarge (credit: Buena Vista Images)

Lots of animals communicate with each other, from tiny mice to enormous whales. But none of those forms of communication share all but a small fraction of the richness of human language. Still, finding new examples of complex communications can tell us things about the evolution of language and what cognitive capabilities are needed for it.

On Monday, researchers report what may be the first instance of a human-like language ability in another species. They report that elephants refer to each other by individual names, and the elephant being referred to recognizes when it's being mentioned. The work could be replicated with a larger population and number of calls, but the finding is consistent with what we know about the sophisticated social interactions of these creatures.

What’s in a name?

We use names to refer to each other so often that it's possible to forget just how involved their use is. We recognize formal and informal names that refer to the same individual, even though those names often have nothing to do with the features or history of that person. We easily handle hundreds of names, including those of people we haven't interacted with in decades. And we do this in parallel with the names of thousands of places, products, items, and so on.

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Elephants may refer to each other by name

The animals seem to respond more actively to calls that include their “name.”

A group of African elephants, including adults and offspring, walk across a brown plain in front of a mountain.

Enlarge (credit: Buena Vista Images)

Lots of animals communicate with each other, from tiny mice to enormous whales. But none of those forms of communication share all but a small fraction of the richness of human language. Still, finding new examples of complex communications can tell us things about the evolution of language and what cognitive capabilities are needed for it.

On Monday, researchers report what may be the first instance of a human-like language ability in another species. They report that elephants refer to each other by individual names, and the elephant being referred to recognizes when it's being mentioned. The work could be replicated with a larger population and number of calls, but the finding is consistent with what we know about the sophisticated social interactions of these creatures.

What’s in a name?

We use names to refer to each other so often that it's possible to forget just how involved their use is. We recognize formal and informal names that refer to the same individual, even though those names often have nothing to do with the features or history of that person. We easily handle hundreds of names, including those of people we haven't interacted with in decades. And we do this in parallel with the names of thousands of places, products, items, and so on.

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Daily Deals (6-11-2024)

Amazon is offering discounts on recent (and previous-gen) MacBook and Mac Mini computers. Amazon is also offering discounts on a bunch of Echo, Kindle, and Fire products. And while Amazon isn’t running a sale on the Kindle Paperwhite at the mome…

Amazon is offering discounts on recent (and previous-gen) MacBook and Mac Mini computers. Amazon is also offering discounts on a bunch of Echo, Kindle, and Fire products. And while Amazon isn’t running a sale on the Kindle Paperwhite at the moment, Target is. Here are some of the day’s best deals. Apple Devices Apple Mac Mini (2023) […]

The post Daily Deals (6-11-2024) appeared first on Liliputing.

ASRock DeskMate X600: Small PC supports PCIe extension cables for external graphics

The ASRock DeskMate is a small desktop computer that packs a lot of features into a small space… as well as support for some hardware that doesn’t fit inside the box. It’s now available in China with prices starting at around $190 fo…

The ASRock DeskMate is a small desktop computer that packs a lot of features into a small space… as well as support for some hardware that doesn’t fit inside the box. It’s now available in China with prices starting at around $190 for a barebones configuration. It has a motherboard with an AMD AM5 chipset that […]

The post ASRock DeskMate X600: Small PC supports PCIe extension cables for external graphics appeared first on Liliputing.

Apple quietly improves Mac virtualization in macOS 15 Sequoia

It only works for macOS 15 guests on macOS 15 hosts, but it’s a big improvement.

Macs running a preview build of macOS 15 Sequoia.

Enlarge / Macs running a preview build of macOS 15 Sequoia. (credit: Apple)

We’ve written before about Apple’s handy virtualization framework in recent versions of macOS, which allows users of Apple Silicon Macs with sufficient RAM to easily set up macOS and Linux virtual machines using a number of lightweight third-party apps. This is useful for anyone who needs to test software in multiple macOS versions but doesn’t own a fleet of Mac hardware or multiple boot partitions. (Intel Macs support the virtualization framework, too, but only for Linux VMs, making it less useful.)

But up until now, you haven’t been able to sign into iCloud using macOS on a VM. This made the feature less useful for developers or users hoping to test iCloud features in macOS, or whose apps rely on some kind of syncing with iCloud, or people who just wanted easy access to their iCloud data from within a VM.

This limitation is going away in macOS 15 Sequoia, according to developer documentation that Apple released yesterday. As long as your host operating system is macOS 15 or newer and your guest operating system is macOS 15 or newer, VMs will now be able to sign into and use iCloud and other Apple ID-related services just as they would when running directly on the hardware.

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