The new Verizon Wireless commercials “There’s a Map for That” campaign have gotten a little more attention than they may have wanted over the cell phone carriers doubling of early termination fees from $175 to $350.  Not only is the FCC looking into this move, several representative on Capital Hill have taken notice as well and have proposed new legislation designed to limit how much consumers can be charged by their cell phone carriers in these fees, and also to control how these fees are prorated and sometimes hidden in the legalese of the contracts.  Also on the list of issues for the FCC is how some customers have reported that if they do not choose to get a data plan on their phone (because they don’t intend on using the internet on the phone), it is almost impossible not to accidentally ping the data servers a few times a month by accident when you hit a single preprogrammed key on Verizon phones (and you cant set the phone not to connect if that button is pressed).  When a customer without a data plan pings the data servers, even for just a nanosecond (they see the “connecting to web” message and immediately hit cancel), they are still charged $1.99   Several customer have reported that seeing these obvious overcharges is a regular thing on their bills, and while its easy to get credited if you call customer service, the FCC is curious just how many customers are being charged for these unintentional button presses every month.

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Also this week, I take a look at a strange new law in Australia that will require you to give a percentage of the money you get when you resell a work of are that you paid for.  So if you buy a painting for $100 and fifteen years later sell it at a garage sale, you are required to give a portion of those monies to the original artist.  I really wish I could get paid for things I already sold once.  The idea appears to be to try and protect artists that sell works early in life that become very valuable when the artist becomes popular, although I’m not sure why the artists can’t just make new art, or just who the heck thinks its appropriate to sell something and then come asking for more money later…will I get some kind of refund if I overpay and the artwork end up being worth much less than I paid for it?  I doubt it.

And as always we have This week in history, and strange news you probably hadn’t heard

There are a few things I think of when I want think about a new cell phone.  The 1st is, when the heck is the iPhone coming to a real cell phone carrier in the US?  Many other countries have the darn thing on multiple carriers and we here in the US are still hosed over with the choice of cool phone or reliable service.  Not for much longer though…Google and Verizon are teaming up the bring Andriod powered headsets the the Verizon network, .let the world rejoice because by years end, i may actually get a cool phone!

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Also this week

Give it away, Give it away now…unless its Eagles Tickets

Making people pay doersn’t always work like you hope

Saturns rings…no no no…I mean Saturns R I N G S ! ! !

photo courtesy of Nadbasher via flickr