Is AT&T admitting network defeat?

Yesterday, the tech community on Twitter couldn’t help but speculate about why AT&T had pulled the sales of iPhones in New York (call it a conspiracy theory of geeky kind). The very vague phrase “fraud” was thrown around, but I doubt anyone was buying it. The substandard network in New York has been documented (and complained about) for a long while. With recent news that iPhone users are the cause of this (because they’re “data hogs”), you can almost see why AT&T made the decision. Almost.

With all new new commercials of both Verizon and AT&T defending their networks, who’s to say what company is right? But a word of wisdom to AT&T: ticking off your users that are only with you because of phone exclusivity is not the right approach. Nor should you try to quietly alienate an entire city because your network doesn’t work well.

Lottery winner gets huge surprise $6 million prize

I love when good things happen to good people (and let’s admit it, it doesn’t happen very often).

Norris Henry, a retired corrections officer from Westbury, NY, thought he had scored a nice five-digit, second-place lottery win. But he get the thrill of a lifetime when he found out he got the first place $6 million prize. When numbers were drawn for a Lotto jackpot Oct. 14, he thought he had matched five. Instead, he matched all six. The lottery said the second place winner in the drawing took home $39,638….still a nice chunk of change.

How cool is that? I hope he retires and enjoys himself!

Fairbank Farms in Ashville, NY linked to 2 possible US deaths in beef recall

Don’t panic yet, but keep this in mind. CDC says there has been a total of 28 cases and 16 hospitalizations linked to the beef recall.

Over the weekend, Fairbank Farms of Ashville, New York, recalled 545,699 lbs (248,450 kg) of ground beef products.

All but three of the 28 cases listed by the CDC were in the U.S. Northeast and 18 were in the New England states. Sixteen hospitalizations were reported, said a CDC spokeswoman. The bacteria involved were from a common strain, so tests were under way to see if all of the reported cases were related.