Maggie Reardon wrote a post today on her Signal Strength blog about AT&T beginning to crack down on customers using the iPhone's tethering capabilities without paying for the service. Apparently the company has begun sending out e-mails and text messages to the offending customers inviting them to sign up with its tethering plan--$45/month for what it calls a "DataPro" 4GB service.

I haven't used this feature at all yet on my iPhone and I probably never will at $45 a month. But this story also brings up the old "Unlimited Data" plan argument. I think I was grandfathered in with an Unlimited Data plan (which frustratingly doesn't include texts for no reason I can understand accept that AT&T is nickel-and-diming us to death), but as you can see, my "unlimited" plan has very clear limits when it comes to tethering (and texting!). I don't know about you, but last I checked, unlimited meant without limits. Also, if the connection is going through my iPhone to my laptop, how is that any different than simply using the same connection on my iPhone without a laptop? It's the same connection, right? If not, is it really a $45-per-month difference? Somehow I doubt it.

Anyway, I just thought I would (vent) put it out there and see what readers think about the new tethering features, the pricing, and the highly limited "unlimited data" plans. Let me know what you think in the comments.

This week's apps include a unique background image collection app, and a combination first-person shooter and role-playing game that's set on Europa, the ice-covered moon of Jupiter.

Pimp Your Screen (99 cents) is certainly not the only wallpaper and background app in the iTunes App Store, but it makes it really easy to add some sweet-looking backgrounds to your iPhone. Featuring high-resolution Retina Display- and iPad-ready backgrounds, Pimp Your Screen offers categories and unique styles not found in other apps of this type. Choose from categories like App Shelves (to make it look the apps are sitting on shelves), Neon Combos (for really colorful neon backgrounds), and Icon Skins (which give your app icons different visual qualities).

Certainly, you can find plenty of nice-looking backgrounds on the Web, but I like this collection of images, and the software's in-app help dialogs make it a snap to switch looks quickly. It also offers little extras like the ability to see a preview of app icons overlaying a background beforehand, for example, and the ability to look at current most popular wallpapers, recent additions, and more.

Overall, there are a ton of wallpaper apps available for the iPhone and iPad, but this collection was made to fit naturally with the app icons on your home screen and offers beautiful high-res images you can switch easily.

Mission: Europa Standard Edition ($3.99) is a cross between the RPG and FPS genres, and, if you can get past the somewhat simple-looking graphics, is a very deep, content-rich game. The game starts out with a common storyline found in many games these days: you're on a routine mission, the main base loses contact with a mining facility on the surface, and now you need to investigate (think Doom 3 or Dead Space or movies from the "Alien" franchise).

Despite the somewhat predictable plot, Mission Europa offers up vast worlds with hundreds of missions, tons of items to find and use, crafting, and all the other things that make RPG games great. At the same time, your control system follows the common first-person shooter setup like other games in the genre: swipe on screen to look around, move with a left joypad, and shoot by touching a button on the right.

Mission: Europa adds much more to this setup (and perhaps too much) with a button to attack with your off-hand along with several hot-bar-like buttons you can use to activate skills you acquire as you play. You'll also spend a lot of time navigating through several menus like your inventory, available skills, quest lists, game maps, crafting screens, and more. The menus are not particularly intuitive, but after some practice I was able to navigate the various menus fairly quickly--just keep in mind that it might be a bit frustrating at first.

The first few missions are common to most RPG games: "Kill 10 of X monsters" or "Gather 10 of X items" type of quests. But as you play, and become more immersed in the game, you'll begin to realize that the complexity of the menus is needed--there is a lot of content here and much to do in the Mission: Europa world.

Mission Europa comes in two versions. The Standard version is $3.99 and lets you sample the first 10 character levels and the first chapter of the story. For $9.99 you can get the Collector's Edition version with all the missions unlocked, no level cap, and some extra items. I think $3.99 is a bit steep for (what I might call) a lengthy demo, but I found a way you can save a little money. As long as you don't mind not having the free extra items, you can unlock all character levels and missions via in-app purchase for $2.99. This means to get the full game you can just pay $6.98 (Standard version plus level pack) instead of $9.99 for the Collector's Edition.

Overall, on my iPhone 4 the graphics were crisp and smooth, but they are not as complex or polished as games like Nova 2 or the Modern Combat games. Still, with so much to discover, weapons to create, and strange worlds to explore, Mission: Europa is perfect for the adventure-seeking gamer looking for a deep gaming experience and who doesn't mind fiddling around with menus to make things work.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Is Pimp Your Screen worth 99 cents or would you rather get your backgrounds on your own? What do you think of Mission Europa? Why do I pay for texting? Let me know in the comments!

Xobni is offering access to the first 100 CNET users who want to try out Xobni for Gmail. Sign up here, using the code XOBNI-CNET100. Once codes run out, you can still add your name for future access.

It's been a while since we've heard from Xobni, the company best known for its Outlook organizer and later, its BlackBerry e-mail add-on. Today, it pops into focus once more, with a new product: an e-mail extension for your Gmail account.

Called Xobni for Gmail, the free, limited private beta is an add-on for Firefox and Chrome that promises to go deeper than Google to bring context to the content of your Gmail account.

With Outlook and BlackBerry, Xobni's value proposition makes perfect sense--search was lacking, and Xobni's ability to pull together names, job titles, phone numbers, Facebook photos, attachments, and conversations surrounding any e-mail address to enter your inbox offers tangible benefits.

But Gmail already offers speedy search and threaded conversations. What does Xobni bring to the table?

More of the same with its organized sidebar capable of gathering supporting contact details taken from the contact's social networking profiles like Facebook and Linked In, as well as more-detailed contact information, and interesting stats about your social network--for instance, how often you speak electronically, and other people you speak with. Clicking a number can launch a Skype call, but Xobni doesn't currently connect with Google Voice.

Business users of corporate Google Accounts will also be able to use Xobni to aggregate contact details. In fact, you can link multiple Gmail accounts if you use Google's e-mail client for personal and work-related messaging.

Current Xobni users have the option of linking information with their Outlook and/or BlackBerry accounts to form one enormous address book accessible across all Xobni apps.

Getting started
We got a chance to get started with Xobni for Gmail (on Firefox this time) just prior to this morning's private beta launch. Setup wasn't hard, but you do need to validate your account and authorize access into Gmail (via OAuth) before Xobni can begin the lengthy process of indexing your messages. The longer your history with Gmail, the more patience you'll need to exercise before you can start experimenting.

Our in-box was still indexing at the time of writing; be assured we'll be taking a long-term review approach as Xobni for Gmail continues to develop.

Next up: iPhone and Android
Xobni has also announced plans to release a beta for Android and iPhone within the next three months.

If you're trying out Xobni for Gmail using either Firefox or Chrome, come back and let us know what you think.

Article updated at 10:27 a.m. PT to change the product name to Xobni for Gmail. The initial beta we sampled was called Xobni Lite.

In September, Google said it hoped to bring its then-new Google Instant search feature to users of the Opera browser "shortly." A half-year later, there's still no sign of it.

Google still is working on it, though.

"We've encountered some technical barriers that are temporarily preventing us from making Instant available for Opera," Google said in a statement yesterday. "It's difficult for us to estimate when we will overcome these barriers, but we want to bring Instant to as many browsers, platforms and regions as possible."

It's not clear exactly what those glitches are. Opera fans are able to use Google Instant by setting their browser to lie about its identity and tell Web servers it's Firefox, so clearly the feature isn't totally impossible.

Opera, based in Oslo, Norway, long has had a loyal following of passionate users, and the browser maker has often been eager to embrace new Web technologies, so being stuck in a tech backwater clearly is frustrating to some users.

Opera is continuing to advance its browser. New features emerging in a beta of Opera 11.10, code-named Barracuda, include support for several new standards. You can download Opera 11.10 beta for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Among them:

• the Web Open Font Format, an attempt to bring better typography to the Web via downloadable fonts.

• CSS's linear gradients, which can create gradual color transitions and fades without requiring images to be downloaded.

• CSS's multi-column layouts to make it easier to provide newspaper- or magazine-like look to Web pages.

Separately, Opera is working on adding hardware acceleration and WebGL's 3D graphics to a future version of Opera. Also in the works is the HTML5 parser, which among other things defines a standard way for all browsers to handle the abundance of incorrectly coded Web pages.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

A faster, regular release schedule isn't the only idea Mozilla is adopting from Google's browser. The organization also is embracing a plan to give Firefox a similar spectrum of test and stable versions to try to bring new features to market swiftly.

The general idea is to issue new versions of Firefox with varying levels of maturity, with the more mature versions geared for larger audiences, according to a draft document published by Mozilla programmer Rob Sayre.

The goal of the overall effort is to inject more competitiveness into a browser that deserves credit for reinvigorating a market left stagnant by the dominance of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Firefox still is the No. 2 browser in worldwide usage, but now Google's Chrome has attracted many technophilic early adopters, and the brand-new IE9 gives Microsoft a competitive browser again.

The biggest risk coming with the new Firefox release philosophy is leaving behind the slower-moving users. Firefox has gained mainstream acceptance, but the fast-moving, auto-updating philosophy of software development can be at odds with, for example, conservative IT departments.

Chrome comes in four or five flavors, depending on how you're counting. The most raw "nightly" version is built, well, nightly, to include the latest patches. The developer release is more settled down but still designed as a proving ground for new features. The beta release is where final testing takes place, and the stable release is for the mainstream market. In between the nightly and developer releases is the "Canary" version, but it's only for Windows, and it's updated irregularly. For example, it doesn't yet have the new Chrome logo that's in the developer release.

Mozilla is moving toward a similar model, but it uses different terms and doesn't have Canary. The draft document lays out placeholder version names of "mozilla-central (or 'nightly'), firefox-experimental, firefox-beta, and Firefox." Like Google, Mozilla calls the release mechanisms channels.

For now, Mozilla has just nightly builds, a sequence of beta and release-candidate releases, then the final version. The newest, Firefox 4, is due March 22, and under the faster schedule, versions 5, 6, and 7 are also due this year.

Here's how Mozilla describes the process to produce a new Firefox every 16 weeks:

Firefox uses a schedule-driven process, where releases take place at regular intervals. That means each release happens regardless of whether a given feature is ready, and releases are not delayed to wait for a feature to stabilize. The goal of the process is to provide regular improvements to users without disrupting longer term work...

The nightly channel gets new features as soon as they are ready, but it has the lowest stability of the four channels. The UI might change each day, and Web sites might not work at times. The firefox-experimental channel gets new features at regular intervals, but some of them might be disabled if it looks like they need more work. The beta channel receives only new features that are slated for the next Firefox release

The change comes with several consequences.

One big consequence of the new schedule is to security. Firefox users would need to embrace the constant updates, because old versions of Firefox won't be maintained..

"This proposal makes security updates occur along with Firefox releases, meaning we'll no longer be maintaining old branches," the document said. "Having security branches for each major update is untenable if we release as often as we aim to."

Another consequence is a move closer to the auto-update ethos that Chrome embodies.

"This proposal also requires changes to our software update behavior to make them happen more automatically in the background and interrupt the user less often. Otherwise, we will disrupt fx-beta users too much," the document said. "There will also need to be an option for users to completely disable automatic updates, so that they can manage their own upgrade process."

Mozilla plans to draw 500,000 experimental users and 1.5 million beta users from the existing beta-tester community.

The schedule is designed to produce a new Firefox version every 16 weeks, but because the beta channel feeds in more frequently, releases could theoretically come more rapidly. "Under this system, there is a choice to ship a general Firefox release at week 16 and every six weeks thereafter. That doesn't mean a release will happen every six weeks, but the option will be available," the document said.

Critical security fixes also could arrive independently of the regular schedule.

Originally posted at Deep Tech

In every disaster scammers see an opportunity, and the crisis in Japan is no exception. Already there have been fake Red Cross e-mails circulating and there will no doubt be more scams coming.

Those e-mails appear to come from the British Red Cross. They provide some news on the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and urge people to donate to a Yahoo e-mail address on a Moneybookers account, a money transfer service that enables recipients to remain anonymous, according to App River, an e-mail hosting and security services provider.

However, real charities have e-mail addresses with their own domain and typically send people to their own Web site to make donations.

E-mails seeking "donations" via random payment services are just one way scammers can exploit catastrophes. E-mails can also include links or attachments that lead to phishing or malware-hosting Web sites. And scammers can sneak Web sites hosting malware into Web searches based on popular search terms and even create new topical Web sites solely for the purpose of hosting malware.

Here are tips for avoiding scams that piggyback on disasters and other high-profile events:

• Do not follow unsolicited Web links or attachments in e-mail messages. Be particularly cautious about clicking on photos and videos that purport to show dramatic images or footage of disasters as they can be used as bait and lead to malware.

• Do not provide sensitive information, such as bank account information or Social Security number, in response to an e-mail.

• Keep your antivirus and other software up to date.

• Verify the legitimacy of the e-mail by going directly to the charity's Web site or calling the group.

• Find out details about the organization by searching on the Better Business Bureau's site, or GuideStar. Attorneys general often have searchable databases of charitable groups in their states. (California's, for example, is here.) The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) also has valuable information about how best to help victims in international disasters.

• Be wary of sites that resemble legitimate organizations or that have copycat names that are similar to reputable organizations. For instance, most legitimate charitable organizations will have a Web address that ends in ".org" instead of ".com."

• Be skeptical of people claiming to be survivors and asking for donations via e-mail or social networks.

• Ask how much of the donation goes to charity and how much goes to administration.

• Use credit cards or checks; do not send cash. Do not make checks payable to an individual. Only provide your credit card information once you feel certain that the organization is credible and do not use money payment services to make contributions.

• Do not feel pressured into giving donations.

Update 11:45 a.m. PT: GFI Labs blog is reporting on Twitter spam with a link that leads to a brand new site purporting to sell an electronic book on how to "minimize your chances of [getting] radiation sickness." And Sophos reports on malware circulating that poses as links to videos about the Japanese tsunami, as well as dangerous links sent via Twitter notifications.

Update 2:42 p.m. PT: GFI Labs blog is reporting about e-mails coming from "ICRC Basedhelping Foundation" that are seeking disaster donations. Kaspersky also is reporting about Japan quake-related e-mails with links in them that lead to pages with Java exploits designed to install malicious programs.

Update 4:42 p.m. PT: Sophos reported over the weekend about a clickjacking attack in which Facebook users were tricked into liking a YouTube video link that purported to show video of a whale hitting a building during the tsunami in Japan.

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex