No Google Fiber in your town? AT&T will charge even more for its fiber service

By Kris Wouk March 31, 2015

AT&T store. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

If you’re a “glass is half full” type of person, you could see it as a good thing that AT&T charges less for its fiber Internet service if Google Fiber is also available in your town. This indicates not only that Google offers cheap service, it lowers the prices of AT&T’s service as well.

On the other hand, it’s easy to wonder why AT&T doesn’t offer one price everywhere.

AT&T launched its “U-verse with AT&T GigaPower” service in Cupertino yesterday, offering “Internet speeds up to 1Gbps starting as low as $110 a month, or speeds at 300Mbps as low as $80 a month.” In Kansas City and Austin, cities that also offer Google Fiber service, AT&T only charges $70 for the same service, noted Ars Technica’s Jon Brodkin.

This disparity isn’t limited to just a few cities, either. In Dallas, AT&T charges $110 for its gigabit Internet. Within North Carolina, the same service launched at $120 per month – until Google Fiber was announced for the area. After the announcement, AT&T dropped its price to $70.

This alone might be enough to turn potential customers away from AT&T, but that isn’t the end of it. Regardless of what price they are paying, customers also need to sign up for “AT&T Internet Preferences.” This mandatory service monitors users’ browsing habits in order to display highly targeted ads.

“You won’t necessarily receive more ads when you are online, but those you do see may be more suited to your interests,” the AT&T support page for the service reads. Customers can call to opt out of the service, but the page reads “you can change at any time, but this may result in a price difference.”

AT&T’s fiber Internet service is currently available in seven metro areas throughout the U.S. The company is planning to add 10 more areas and is exploring eight additional areas.

So far, it seems that this pricing scheme will remain in effect for each new city AT&T brings its fiber service to.

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Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

Computing

Update your Google Chrome browser now: New exploit could leave you open to hacks

Google Chrome Stock Photo

If you’re a Google Chrome user, you should update the browser immediately. Google released a software update to the browser late yesterday evening that patches two zero-day vulnerabilities to the browser that could potentially allow the browser to be hijacked by hackers.
One of the vulnerabilities affects Chrome’s audio component (CVE-2019-13720) while the other resides in the PDFium (CVE-2019-13721) library.
Hackers can corrupt or modify the data in Chrome’s memory using the exploit, which will eventually give them access to the computer as a whole.
One of the exploits, CVE-2019-13720 has been discovered in the wild by researchers at Kaspersky.
Google says that the update to the browser will be rolling out to users automatically over the coming days and weeks.
That said, if you’re a Chrome user it would be more prudent for you to go ahead and do that update manually right now instead.
To make it happen you’ll want to launch Chrome on your computer and then click on “Chrome” in the menu bar followed by “About Chrome.” That will launch the Settings menu. From there, click “About Chrome” at the bottom of the menu on the left. That will likely trigger an automatic update if yours hasn’t already happened. If it doesn’t, you’ll see a button to manually update the browser as well.
Once you update the browser you should be good to go without fear of the security threat becoming an issue. Last month many Mac users ran into issues with Google Chrome when it seemed to send computers into an endless reboot cycle.
An investigation by Mac enterprise and IT blog Mr. Macintosh found that the issue was actually a bug that deletes the symlink at the/var path on the Mac it’s running on, which essentially deletes a key in the MacOS system file.
That issue only impacted Macs where the System Integrity Protection (SIP) had been disabled. The issue particularly impacted older Macs that were made before SIP was introduced with OS X El Capitan in 2015.
All this comes as Google is gearing up to launch some major updates to Chrome, including one update that will change how you manage tabs using the browser. That update is expected to roll out later this year.

Wearables

Why Google’s $2.1 billion Fitbit purchase won’t fix its WearOS woes

The Fitbit Versa 2 showing apps, while on a table.

Google’s going all-in for its quest to build an Apple Watch alternative for Android. After a few days of rumors, the company officially made the announcement on Friday, November 1: Google is acquiring Fitbit, the fifth-largest wearable maker, for $2.1 billion.

"By working closely with Fitbit’s team of experts, and bringing together the best A.I., software, and hardware, we can help spur innovation in wearables and build products to benefit even more people around the world," Rick Osterloh, Google’s hardware chief, wrote in a blog post.

Audio / Video

AT&T will offer an ad-supported version of its HBO Max streaming service in 2021

questions about hbo max warnermedia streaming service feat

HBO Max may reportedly have a cheaper, ad-supported tier in 2021, making it the first HBO product to include commercials.
According to Reuters, the ad-supported version of HBO Max would launch roughly one year after the launch of HBO Max, which will be an ad-free subscription service.
HBO Max is expected to launch in the spring of 2020. Announced in October of 2018, the service will feature original programming, as well as content from HBO proper and other Warner Media properties.
WarnerMedia recently removed Friends from Netflix with plans to make it available on HBO Max when the service launches. The service will also be the only place you will be able to stream The Big Bang Theory and will be hoem to the entire runs of such series as Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Pretty Little Liars, among others.
Going forward, the service will be the exclusive streaming source for Warner Brothers dramas produced for the CW, including Batwoman and the Riverdale spinoff, Katy Keene. The service will also be the exclusive streaming source for all 11 seasons of the modern Doctor Who series.
The streaming service is expected to cost more per month than HBO’s current offering, HBO Now, which is $15 a month. Current estimates put the service somewhere in the $16 to $18/month price range. AT&T had originally indicated it would be selling three different tiers of the service; however, it appears as though those are all now combined into one offering.
The service is targeted at cord-cutters, and the ad-supported version might be more appealing to customers who want access to a limited amount of HBO’s library, a single program, for instance, and don’t want to pay full retail for the ad-free version.
AT&T is also expected to offer HBO Max for free to the 10 million AT&T customers that are also HBO subscribers.
We’ll, of course, know much more come next year when AT&T is officially ready to launch the streaming service and makes all of its plans regarding the service’s content and pricing available.