• 30% raise to help limit workers’ suicidal thoughts source

• good AT&T will FINALLY allow data tethering via the iPhone, after blocking it for years.
• bad AT&T will no longer offer unlimited data plans, but instead two tiered data plans.
• okay Old customers won’t be forced to switch, but new customers will have no choice.

The new charges

• $15the cost per month for the 200-megabyte “DataPlus” plan; it’s $15 for each additional 200 megs
• $25 the cost per month for the 2-gigabyte “DataPro” plan; it’s $10 for each additional gigabyte

The bullet points

• » Why do this, anyway? Because AT&T found in its research that most customers only used a certain amount of data, and a small number of users accounted for most of the bandwidth-sucking data usage. Take that as you will, kids. On the plus side, AT&T is at least trying to make the new charges somewhat friendly to consumers, allowing for retroactive changes between the two plans.
• » The wildcard, of course? AT&T is the first company to do this. Which means that Verizon, Sprint, all those other companies? They still have unlimited data plans. And if Verizon gets the iPhone like is being predicted, it seriously puts them at an advantage. source

• You know, when this whole thing with Gizmodo happened, I got advice from people who said ‘you gotta just let it slide, you shouldn’t go after a journalist just because they bought stolen property and tried to extort you.’ … I can’t do that. I’d rather quit.
• Steve Jobs • Speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s D8 conference – very frankly in many ways. He touched on a lot of topics in the Q&A segment, noting among other things: He had no idea this e-mail thread was with a dude from ValleyWag, iPhone OS was originally designed for a tablet like the iPad, Adobe made a big stink about Flash only after the iPad’s release, and, well, this. This is the money quote from the whole thing. source

• 20% the size of the raises Apple is giving FoxConn employees so they stop committing high-profile suicides
• .7% the amount the raises will raise the outsourcing cost of the iPad’s sale price, from 2.3 to 3 percent source

• $97 for the iPhone 3GS – just before the 4G launch source

• Microsoft can’t undercut Android on price, and it seems increasingly unlikely that they can beat Android in terms of features or experience. They didn’t warrant even a passing reference from Google at I/O. No chance, indeed.
• “Daring Fireball” blogger John Gruber • Regarding Microsoft’s also-ran status in the phone market. Gruber argues that MS’s entire model hinges on the idea that they’ll monopolize the smartphone market, and since they’re far behind Apple and Google already, they don’t have a chance of succeeding. Gruber does say, however, that Google and Apple’s competition in the space is healthy and Google has some definite advantages over Apple right now. Hilariously, he also compares the iPad to a teenager that shouldn’t need its parents, but does. source

• YEP and his comments kind of say it all; ouch source

• Right now, we have nothing to lose. The thing is, Apple PR has been cold to us lately. It affected my ability to do my job right at iPad launch. So we had to go outside and find our stories like this one, aggressively.
• Gizmodo Editorial Director Brian Lam • In a written response to Steve Jobs after Jobs called. Lam wanted Apple to give him a written note saying the phone was real. Jobs declined, and the rest is history. This is bad for Gizmodo (and Brian Hogan) because the letter makes it clear that they put personal interests above doing the right thing. It sounds like extortion, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t it be crazy if this was enough to take Gizmodo, a major site, down? This makes it seem entirely possible. (A good summary of the legal documents is here.) source

• Here’s how we imagine the call went: “Hi, this is Steve. You sons of #&((@& better give me my #(&@(&! phone back or I’m going to hit you with a legal thrust so hard you’ll cower the next time you see an Apple product. I hope you die of malaria, Brian Lam. There will be no net that wannabe philanthropist Bill Gates can give you that will protect you from MY wrath. You should see what I did to Eric Schmidt after he released the Nexus One. You’re the scum of the earth. Do what you know you should, #(&(@!(. BYE.” source