If you receive a text message that appears to be from AT&T, telling you that you had an unsuccessful payment, and to call 422850125, don’t respond!

As Americans start staying and working from home in droves due to the Coronavirus, some Internet providers are removing data caps and boosting speed.

In an unusual move, the Court that issued the decision in the AT&T Time Warner antitrust lawsuit yesterday warned the losing party (that would be the U.S. Department of Justice ), essentially, not to bother trying to appeal his ruling. In his 172 page ruling in the case of the United States of America versus ATT Inc, et al, Judge Richard Leon says, among other things, and we quote, “I do not believe that the Government has a likelihood of success on the merits of an appeal.”

AT&T is offering live streaming television direct to your smartphone or tablet, and even your Android or Apple Watch, through its U-Verse apps and offerings. While you do have to have an AT&T U-verse television package that includes home television (and includes giving you a DVR), there is no reason you have to use it at home or use the DVR, you can choose to access only the online streaming service.

If you’ve ever felt that your iPhone experience would be enhanced if you could only smell scents that go along with your browsing experience, then the Chef Perf iPhone app may be right up your alley. The app, developed by Japanese company Chaku Perfume, smells via an attached scent delivery device that contains an atomizer, also being referred to as a “smell tank.”

Uber, the popular iPhone app that allows you to schedule a private car or taxi through your mobile device, is closing the doors on its Uber NYC taxi service, just a month after opening it to beta. Citing too much ride demand for not enough taxi supply, the app makers said that they are hoping they will have better luck in the Big Apple in the coming year.

From the BlackBerry outage, to Yahoo giving it the boot, BlackBerry makers Research in Motion (RIM) have not been having the best week, and many are concluding that it is the beginning of the end for the beleaguered company. Whether it is the end, or just a series of unfortunate events, there is no doubt that they’re are struggling fiercely to stay afloat amidst market-dominating Apple, and their runner-up, the Android market.

Be prepared for a series of virtual hand slaps if your ISP is saying that you downloaded copyrighted or infringing material or files. A “graduated response” program, aimed at cutting down on illegally downloaded files, was rolled out at the beginning of July and has drawn widespread criticism for both its intent, and execution. Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) CEO, Cary Sherman, is at the helm of a new initiative that aims to punish those accused of illegal downloading.

Ok, first, yes, I admit it. In the form of the newish iPhone 4S, the iPhone finally had enough chops to lure me to try one out, to even consider abandoning my beloved Android. The voice control and dictation features blow Android’s away, for both accuracy and usability. And Siri’s ability to create location-based reminders, and generally how powerful it is, were pretty compelling. But, now there was a new dilemma: which is better? The ATT iPhone or the Verizon iPhone? Which has the better iPhone service – ATT or Verizon? Fewer dropped calls? Faster network?

Sprint and ATT have provided their official responses to Senator Al Franken’s inquiry about Carrier IQ, (also known as CIQ) the commercial customer tracking software included on the sly on their customers’ cell phones, and their response is, essentially, “our customers agreed to it.” ATT admits that they have CIQ installed on “900,000 devices, with 575,000 of those collecting and reporting wireless and service performance information to ATT.” They also admit that they were capturing the content of SMS text messages sent and received while a voice call was in progress. This they blame on a “programming error”, and that may be, but it illustrates the capabilities and danger of Carrier IQ. But one of the biggest bombshells may be that through Carrier IQ, they can – and do – remotely turn on your wifi! Think about that for a minute.

In a lovely “we told you so” moment, we can report that two key Federal agencies – both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) – are opposing the planned merger of AT and T and T-Mobile. We predicted Federal opposition to the merge when AT and T first announced their plans to takeover T-Mobile, and the Feds are opposing the merging for much the same reasons that we said that they would.

If the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has its way, the proposed merger between AT and T and T-Mobile will be vetoed, because it will create a monopoly in violation of antitrust law. According to papers filed by the DOJ in Federal court, “AT and T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low-priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market.”

By now it’s pretty well known that ATT iPhones drop as many as a third of all calls, and that even Apple themselves admits that. But how do the Verizon iPhones do in the dropped call department? Does they drop as many calls as their ATT counterparts? According to a new study, the Verizon iPhone does substantially better in the dropped calls department.

Why yes, we did, not two weeks ago, tell you of a possible T-Mobile merger with Sprint Nextel. However, it seems that AT&T had other ideas, and has made a flat-out aquisition bid for T-Mobile USA, to the tune of $39 billion. You just know that the resulting love child – IF the deal is allowed to go through, as it creates one hell of a monopoly – will have to be called, even if not officially, AT&T&T-Mobile, or, just, AT&T&T.

Not to be outdone by Verizon, who raised their fee for early termination of a cellphone agreement to $350 last fall, AT and T has announced that, effective next week, on June 1, the early termination fee (ETF) for AT and T smartphones and AT and T provisioned netbooks will be $325.00.