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AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. (credit: AT&T)

AT&T today announced that it will increase its data caps on home Internet service, and expand enforcement. As a result, more customers will have to pay $10 overage charges for each 50GB they use beyond their monthly limit, similar to Comcast's data cap system.

AT&T will also let customers upgrade to unlimited data for an extra $30 a month. This is only necessary for Internet-only customers. People who purchase both AT&T Internet and TV in a bundle will get unlimited home Internet data at no extra charge. That applies to bundles with either DirecTV satellite or AT&T's wireline U-verse TV system.

Previously, AT&T enforced a 150GB monthly cap on its DSL network. On May 23, AT&T will expand enforcement of caps to U-verse Internet service, which brings fiber closer to the home to boost speeds, and to "Gigapower," its all-fiber service.

FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly speaking at the ITU World Radiocommunication Conference in 2015. (credit: United States Mission Geneva)

A Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission wants multiple investigations into Netflix because of the online video provider's admission that it throttles its video streams on mobile networks.

The FCC, the Federal Trade Commission, and Congress should all investigate, FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said in a speech today in front of the American Action Forum, a policy research institute. O'Rielly is not impressed by Netflix's argument that it only reduces video quality to help its customers stay under mobile data caps.

"Netflix has attempted to paint a picture of altruism whereby it virtuously sought to save these consumers from bumping up against or exceeding their data caps," O'Rielly said. "There is no way to sugarcoat it: the news is deeply disturbing and justly generates calls for government—and maybe even Congressional—investigation."

Come along with us as we explore this year's New York International Auto Show—and don't miss Audi's spectacular trolling of its German rivals. (video link)

This year's New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) is currently underway at the Jacob H. Javits Center in Manhattan, and in recent years New York has become an increasingly important event for the auto industry. NYIAS is almost at the point of rivaling Detroit as the premiere US show. We spent a couple of days pounding the floors to find out what's new and interesting, and we've already reported on some of the more significant debuts—like Mazda's MX-5 RF and Porsche's 718 Boxster. There are simply too many noteworthy vehicles and technologies on display these days to give the fuller review treatment to all, so what follows is our "best of the rest," in alphabetical order, because we don't want to play favorites.

A is for Acura, and that means the Acura NSX GT3. This is a racing version of the company's new hybrid supercar, built on the same production line in Marysville, Ohio. It's shorn of the road car's hybrid system, however. We hope to see some of these competing in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship next year.

Google Fiber Phone. Phone handset not included.

Google Fiber's phone service is official. Secret invitations to the phone service leaked back in January, but today Google announced the addition of optional phone service for Google Fiber residential customers. The addition of phone service allows Google Fiber to finally compete with "Triple Play" home offerings, which bundle Internet, TV, and phone service from a single company.

In addition to the regular Google Fiber bill, "Fiber Phone" costs $10 per month for unlimited local and nationwide calling. For international calls, the service uses Google Voice's international rates. The actual hardware you receive from Google won't be a phone, it's a VOIP phone box that will bridge your new-school fiber connection with an old-school landline phone.

The service is clearly an offshoot of Google Voice/Project Fi and carries over most of that feature set. You get a "cloud based" phone number that you can forward to any phone with spam filtering, call screening, and do-not-disturb features. There's a voicemail system with speech-to-text transcription, which we'd imagine requires an app or website of some kind. There's also call waiting, caller ID, and, critically, 911 access.

This year it looks like Porsche's 919 Hybrid will once more be the car to beat. (credit: Porsche)

2016's most technologically exciting racing cars have revved up in Europe this month. Of course, we're referring to the hybrid prototypes from Audi, Porsche, and Toyota that will compete in this year's World Endurance Championship. It's no secret that we're gigantic fans of the WEC here at Ars. And we especially love that these carbon fiber testbeds use the crucible of long-distance racing to develop new technology that has a direct impact on the cars we drive on the roads.

The cars were revealed to the world in the days leading up to the WEC's Prologue test at the Paul Ricard circuit in the South of France, which was held on March 25 to 26. There have been a few changes compared to last year's cars, and these tweaks are aimed at making the hybrids even more efficient than 2015. (Bear with us, this may get a little complicated to explain.)

Each car is allowed up to two hybrid systems in addition to their internal combustion engine. These can be motor-generator units that harvest and then deploy kinetic energy to the front or rear wheels, but other systems are also allowed (i.e. a motor-generator unit connected to an engine's turbocharger). Gasoline and diesel engines are allowed, and they can be naturally aspirated or turbocharged.

(credit: Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier)

With patches of stem cells on their broken spinal cords, partially paralyzed rats once again reached out and grabbed distant treats, researchers report in Nature Medicine.

While previous studies have shown progress in regenerating certain types of nerve cells in injured spinal cords, the study is the first to coax the regrowth of a specific set of nerve cells, called corticospinal axons. These bundles of biological wiring carry signals from the brain to the spinal cord and are critical for voluntary movement. In the study, researchers were able to use stem cells from rats and humans to mend the injured rodents.

“The corticospinal projection is the most important motor system in humans,” senior author Mark Tuszynski at the University of California, San Diego said. “It has not been successfully regenerated before. Many have tried, many have failed—including us, in previous efforts.”