SEATTLE – It is almost unthinkable that any one human could pick up where Bill Gates leaves off when he ends his full-time tenure Friday as Microsoft’s leader.
But as Gates bones up on epidemiology at his charitable foundation, the software company he built with a mix of visionary manifestos and extreme hands-on management must still wake up Monday to face hard problems even he could not solve. Among them: beating Google Inc. on the Web while fending off its attacks on desktop computing.
NEW YORK – Avery Axel was annoyed with his cable company, Comcast, and was considering switching to Verizon’s new FiOS fiber-optic TV and Internet service.
The picture on his TV would freeze now and then, and he had heard good things about FiOS. Then the 21-year-old student saw a TV commercial from Comcast that made fun of FiOS and claimed the cable TV company has a larger fiber-optic network.
“I thought to myself: Maybe I don’t have to switch, because if Comcast has fiber optics now, that means that they’ll be better,” said Axel, who lives in Roosevelt, N.J.
But after asking around online, he found that nothing’s changed about Comcast’s service: It still uses coaxial cable to connect homes. It does use fiber-optic cable further away in the network, as it has for many years.
NEW YORK – Verizon Communications Inc. is boosting the speed of its FiOS fiber-optic Internet service in 10 states.
The FiOS service areas of California, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington will see new plans that nearly double Internet speeds, Chief Operating Officer Denny Strigl said in remarks to be delivered at a conference Wednesday.
SAN FRANCISCO – The iPhone will soon be $200 cheaper and support satellite navigation and faster Internet access, but higher monthly service charges are likely to erase most of the savings.
Apple Inc. revealed Monday that it has scrapped its pricing plan for the iPhone as it unveiled a model that works over faster wireless networks, addressing key criticisms about the device that have hurt the company’s foray into the cell phone industry.
An 8-gigabyte version with the new features will go for $199 when it goes on sale July 11, and a 16 gigabyte model will cost $299, the Cupertino-based company said.
Current iPhone owners who buy a new model and sign up for a new AT&T contract won’t have to pay any penalties to get out of their current contract, AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said. And anyone who bought an iPhone in an AT&T store after May 26 can return it before Aug. 1 for full credit against a new one — less a 10 percent restocking fee.
