There are a few major things happening in the tech world that no one seems to know or care about. Everyone seems to think that conspiracy theories are what drive our world forward.
Theories – although they are frightening – don’t bother me that much these days. To be honest, Apple’s systematic takeover of everything we use doesn’t faze me as much as what AT&T is doing to make our lives more expensive.
Effective June 7, AT&T is going to cut its unlimited data plans. This means you’re going to have to watch how much data you use up during a month.
Here are your basic options, as laid out by AT&T: DataPlus customers get just 200 megabytes of data for $15 per month. Additional 200-MB blocks cost $15 each. DataPro users get two gigabytes of data for $25 per month. Overages are billed in 1GB increments for $10 each.
Now according to AT&T this change will not affect 98 percent of its customers. The remaining percent, primarily gamers and people who download videos, get hosed.
Gamers and people who download videos … sounds like college students to me.
It stinks and there isn’t much anyone can do about it. And now AT&T is buying T-Mobile for a cool $39 billion.
Our lifestyle is changing.
Gamers aren’t people who live in their mother’s basements anymore. People watch television on computers, phones or basically anything with a screen that is not a television.
When I said systematic takeover earlier in the column I meant it. At this point we’re kind of just accepting it as inevitable change. These “inevitable changes” are negatively impacting how we receive, perceive and enjoy media.
AT&T is only the latest culprit. Keep an eye on how things are working in the tech world. The tech world is a scary parallel for how things work everywhere else.