Tracfone Agrees To Pay $40 Million to Settle FTC's Data-Throttling Charges

TracFone Wireless has agreed for settlement at $40 million which would be paid to Federal Trade Commission in order drop the charges of duping millions of customers through false advertising for unlimited data services. TracFone even actively indulged in malpractice of throttling the customer’s speed and cutting off their services entirely on exceeding the certain data allotments.

How TracFone Manipulated The Unlimited Data Plan

TracFone has resorted to controversial ‘data throttling’ practices in order to squeeze and throttle customers who happens to exceed a certain allocate amount of data within a month. TracFone has been accused of generally starting to throttle the customers after 3GB of data usage and it even discontinued the services of many customers who exceeded the undefined usage limit of 4GB.

In September 2013, TracFone started to issue some clarity on its data clarity practices exclusively for its Straight Talk and Net10 brands, signalling that the subscribers would be throttled to a 2G speed after the usage of 2.5 data. FTC has stated that such disclosures were not clear as well as were in fine small print which means consumers likely miss it. FTC even revealed that these practices were carried out not for the technical reasons but it was done in an effort to reduce the high costs associated with providing unlimited data.

TracFone Is Not The Only One Duping Customers

The duping incident of TracFone is not only one which came into the radar of FTC. FTC has made the similar accusation and had brought a lawsuit against AT&T Mobility for using dubious data throttling policies. FTC has alleged that this carrier has misled as many as 3.5 million customers with its scheme of unlimited data plans and later indulging in throttling their data speeds and changing the terms of the plan as well. However AT&T had rubbished such claims and stated that the lawsuit doesn’t have any merit though the case in still continuing.

TracFone Throttling Practices Goes A Long Way Back

According to the complaint filed by the FTC alleges that TracFone has been engaged in throttling practices since 2009. TracFone has extensively advertised about its prepaid monthly plan for around $45 per month wherein customers were entitled to receive unlimited data across various brands such as Stright Talk, Simple Mobile, Net10 and Telcel America.

The director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, Jessica Rich, has emphasised on the point that companies are liable to hold on to their promises and commitments to the consumers in any given case. If a company promises to deliver unlimited data plans then it has to do that.

FTC Build A Path For Claiming Refunds

The settlement made by TracFone has also paved a way wherein the consumers of its varied brands namely Straight Talk, Telcel America, Net10 and Simple Mobile would be able to get refunds from the company for services which it promised but failed to deliver. TracFone is also prohibited from further making any deceptive advertising claims about its data plans.

Particles Accelerate Without a Push

Discovery of Subatomic Particles – Induced to Speed up to the Speed of light

A team of researchers from MIT and Israel’s Technion Institute of Technology have come up with a discovery of some subatomic particles which can be induced to speed up by themselves to the speed of light without any application of external forces and the same principle could be used to extend the lifetime of some unstable isotopes or probably open up new avenues of research in particle physics. This discovery is the outcome of a theoretical analysis and not experiment, though if true could change the way we think on the motion of fundamental particles.

The findings were published in the journal - Nature Physics by Ido Kaminer, MIT post doc together with four other colleagues at the Technion. The result which are based on fresh analysis of the Dirac equations describes the relativistic behaviour of fundamental particles, such as electrons with regards to wave structure and by checking with wave structure, a quirk of quantum mechanics the cause of how particles could behave as if they are waves, it was indicated by the team, that there is a possibility to imbue electrons with unusual as well as counter-intuitive characteristics.

Phase Mask – To Develop Hologram

As per the researchers, these characteristics could be forced on the particles with the use of something known as phase mask which is used to develop hologram by creating useful interference though at a tiny scale it was possible, their model indicate that one of the new particle qualities have the ability to `self – accelerate’ in a way which is indistinguishable from how an electron could behave in a magnetic field. Here the particle would not actually be violating the laws of physics since the effect actually would see the particles also expanding in size as it moves.

This self-acceleration does not actually violate any physical laws, such as conservation of momentum because at the same time the particles tend to accelerate and spreads spatially in the opposite direction. Kaminer states that `the electron’s wave packet is not just accelerating, it also tends to expand and there is some part of it that compensates. It is referred to the tail of the wave packet and will go backward so the total momentum will be conserved. There is another part of the wave packet that is paying the price for the main parts’ acceleration’.

Self-Acceleration – To Produce Effects Connected with Relativity Theory

According to further analysis, it seems that this self-acceleration tends to produce effects which are connected with relativity theory and is a variation on the dilation of time as well as contraction of space, effects of which have been predicted by Albert Einstein to occur whenever objects move close to the speed of light.

Example of Einsteins’ famous twin paradox is that one twin travelling at high speed in a rocket tends to age more slowly than the other twin who remained on Earth. The next step for the researcher is to turn theory into practices and working at MIT, the team could use an electron microscope fitted with a special designed phase mask which could produce 1,000 times higher resolution than those needed to create modern hologram. Thus they would be capable of accelerating an electron without the need of doing anything to it.

Why Google Is Making Human Skin

As per the authentic sources, Google is making the artificial human skin as the part of special research projects which is “wristband that can detect cancer, impending heart attacks and many other diseases”. It is well known fact that Google is trend setter and now this search engine giant is developing the synthetic human skin only to test cancer-detecting nano-particles, which can work with a combination of wristband. Currently, Google is working on many health related and as well as non-health related projects to give better and comfort life to humans.

In the press conference, last year Google has announced that they are working on magnetic nano-particles, which can be the helpful to find the cancer cells in the bloodstream and it will have the ability to report back to a wristband. And in present, Google is working on synthetic skin so that they can develop the technology.

As per one of the employee, “New technology will use the light signals to talk to the wristband and it will provide the superficial veins for the wrist, which will be underside. Shining lights means it will use the skin on the different factors such as; colors and skin types and more, so that team of researchers in Google can built the fake arms with same as original biochemical components and auto-fluorescence.

As per the statement of Andrew Conrad, who is the Head of Google's Life Sciences department, “We all know that cancer cells are floating through our body, which constantly trying to kill us”.

Researchers of Google’s life sciences division are working in Google X laboratories in California to make every possible effort to test the technology. This project will help to theoretically detect the diseases and diagnosis it long before appearance of physical symptoms, in short it will us to reduce the fatality rate of illnesses.

The main idea behind this project will identify slight changes in the person's biochemistry, which could act as the early warning system. Google X lab is dedicated to investigate these potentially revolutionary innovations, so that many ideas can be implemented to make it more effective before being made public.

Google has believe that with this technology it is possible to make the cells light up with magnetic wristband and this magnetic wristband will help to detect the them as soon they will pass through the arm in the bloodstream. But still there is question that “Is people will be comfortable to have monitoring system in their body”.

In the research patients would be swallow a pill¸ which will contain the nano-particles and that will be tailored to attach the makers for different conditions like; chemical levels or cancerous cells linked to disease. Previous researches has included that research in to glucose measuring contact lenses, so that patients with diabetes and a spoon can counteract the tremors that can caused by Parkinson's disease. Google has also some non-health related projects such as; Google Glass, delivery drones, self-driving cars and internet balloons in the stratosphere.

Exploding Kittens Game Blows Up Kickstarter

There are times when simple idea gets huge backing and astonishing support and money. Exploding Kittens has made a sensation by blowing away its humble $10,000 funding goal with attracting a whooping funding of $4 million in pledges on the popular crowd-funding forum Kickstarter. Exploding Kittens is simply a card game which offers a unique perspective and engaging game-play to the players which had inspired a huge amount of crowd sourcing fervour.

Exploding Kitten Fares Extremely Well On Kickstarter

The funding campaign for the Exploding starter saw an amazing response from the backers and it got fully funded within first twenty minutes. Another forty minutes later it reached 1000 percent of its funding goal.
This card game has been created by an online famous celebrity who is popularly known for his The Oatmeal and himself being called Matthew Inman. He had brought up his own distinct enthusiastic art style in the card design. The co-designer Elan Lee has been left stunned more than surprised with an overwhelming response they had received for their Exploding Kittens project on Kicstarter. Regarding this usual interest and funding pattern shown by this card game Kicstarter’s Luke Crane has said that the backers had been enthralled by project’s sense of humour, art style and presentation.

Exploding Kittens Is An Innovative Card Game

This game works in the manner of the Russian Roulette wherein players draws cards and tries to avoid being evicted from the from by unknowingly or accidently triggering an exploding kitten. It has all the interesting features to enhance the game-play by bringing a tragedy, drama, strategy and weaponized back hair. This card game is available in a regular deck and suitable for the players of 7 years of age and above.

Exploding Kitten is all about the strategic betrayal wherein the players would be pitied against each other. Players would be left to decide which one is to betray and how they wish to perform it. This game shouldn’t be taken literary as it has nothing to do with hurting cats or kittens. The object of this game is to defuse the explosions which might occur if the kittens happen to get into trouble.

Exploding Kitten Breaks Reading Rainbow Record On Kickstarter

Exploding Kittens has created a sensation of the crowd-funding website named Kickstarter. Currently its holds the record of eight most funded Kickstarter projectin its history. Exploding Kittens still have a 23 left days which gives it a great chance of becoming the most funded project in is history.

Exploding Kittens is attracting funding at a break-neck pace and it is all set to break the record of Reading Rainbow. Reading Rainbow had set record of most funded project in 2014 with a whooping backers count of 105,857 but Exploding Kittens has already achieved those number of backers and many are still pledging to support its endeavours.

As Exploding Kittens has already achieved the most number of backers, now comes the time to deliver what it projects. Inman is heavily busy creating the art work for the cards and aims to send it to their backers by the end of summer.

Bill Gates Is Worried About Artificial Intelligence Too

Bill Gates has joined the ranks of other eminent scientists and industry notables for issuing a warning for humanity against the use of artificial intelligence. Earlier Stephen Hawking and the Internet innovator Elon Musk has raised the possibility of potential threat which comes from the machines if they ‘happen to think for themselves’. Gates has put forward his thoughts on this matter on Reddit “AskMeAnything” thread which is special kind of online Q&A session conducted live on this social news website.

Artificial Intelligence In Sci-fi- Movies

The current advancement in the field of the technology had led to the emergence highly efficient Artificial Intelligence. There are numerous short stories and movies which shows the threat posed by the AI if used unchecked but today AI has moved into reality. In the ‘Matrix Trilogy the emphasis is deemed upon the machines which thinks that humanity is threat and they enslave people for maintaining their virtual existence. In terminator series Skynet computer system becomes sentient and it wages a cruel multiyear war using cyborgs to kill humans.

Presence of Artificial Intelligence in Reality

AI is introduced in the real world by Apple with its voice based personal assistant called Siri. Though it is not extremely advanced at the moment but research is going on to make it much smarter. IBM has also developed a supercomputer based on AI which has moved from just analysing few stings of data to conducting medical research and diagnosis on its own. Furthermore researchers have even created a new computer program which posses incredible AI that can beat anyone at poker. Gates doesn’t find this interesting but view it as a worst scenario where researcher might happen to build AI which is too much smarter than the needed.

Fears Emerging From Artificial Intelligence

Musk had earlier stated that the so called AI development is like summoning the demon. Hawking had expressed his views for an international newspaper in May 2014. He said that short term impact might appear favourable on who controls but the long term impact depends wholly on whether it could be controlled or not. Google CEO Larry Page has also talked about AI but he doesn’t seem to express any explicit fear or concern.

Bill Gates warning against the AI comes from the Microsoft development of the machine intelligence called Cortana which has already been implemented in its range of Lumia smartphones. It is interestingly based on AI character which features in a popular video game named Halo. Cortana is all set to release in the PCs as a part of the new Windows 10 operating system later this year.

Reasons For Bill Gates Giving The Warning Signals

A physicist and entrepreneur named Louis Del Monte shed lights on the extent of threat emerging from the AI. He believes the machines would certainly surpass the humans and would become the dominant species as there is no legislation which limits the extent of their intelligence. They would end up outsmarting the human’s intelligence and even work towards their own survival which means going any extent to save them.