Earlier today we let you know that AT&T would be changing their Terms of Service following some bad publicity regarding their limits of freedom of speech…that we swear we had nothing to do with. Now the company has just followed up with a finalized draft of the new TOS, and it looks like the rainbows are shining just a little brighter over AT&T customers today.

Here’s their old, super evil TOS:

5.1 Suspension/Termination…AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes…(c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries.

Now here’s the new, Diet Coke of evil alteration:

5.1 Suspension/Termination. AT&T respects freedom of expression and believes it is a foundation of our free society to express differing points of view. AT&T will not terminate, disconnect or suspend service because of the views you or we express on public policy matters, political issues or political campaigns.

Can you believe that speak is in a Terms of Service agreement? It reads more like a mission statement. Hats off to AT&T for making the change. And to everyone else, let’s celebrate.

Continue on for the entire, unabridged statement from AT&T:

“AT&T will clarify the language in its Internet Terms of Service agreements to reiterate the company’s commitment to freedom of speech and open dialogue…whether that be via the Internet or elsewhere on the AT&T network.

AT&T’s Terms of Service follow the company’s longstanding respect for our customers’ freedom of speech, and clarifies that we will not terminate or suspend a customers’ Internet access service based upon their political views or criticism of AT&T. Our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy are designed to protect our customers, the public, and our network and the facilities used to provide service. As a responsible corporate citizen, we will review any complaints surrounding material that’s in violation of the law, compromises our network, or is abusive or otherwise threatening to the safety of any individual or group.

Specifically, the adjusted language will read:

5.1 Suspension/Termination. AT&T respects freedom of expression and believes it is a foundation of our free society to express differing points of view. AT&T will not terminate, disconnect or suspend service because of the views you or we express on public policy matters, political issues or political campaigns. However, AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes (a) violates the Acceptable Use Policy; or (b) constitutes a violation of any law, regulation or tariff (including, without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws) or a violation of these TOS, or any applicable policies or guidelines. Your Service may be suspended or terminated if your payment is past due and such condition continues un-remedied for thirty (30) days. Termination or suspension by AT&T of Service also constitutes termination or suspension (as applicable) of your license to use any Software. AT&T may also terminate or suspend your Service if you provide false or inaccurate information that is required for the provision of Service or is necessary to allow AT&T to bill you for Service.

We feel that the clarifying language better reflects our actual long-held policy, which respects AT&T’s customers’ rights to freely voice their opinions and concerns.

In addition, we are in the process of reviewing our entire Terms of Service to ensure it reflects AT&T’s ongoing and unblemished commitment to freedom of expression as outlined in the language above.

Our customers are our highest priority and we regret any confusion this may have caused.”

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It can be a pain on the ass entering in Wi-Fi WEP, WPA and WPA2 passwords even on QWERTY phones, so Nokia is making things easy on their E and N-series phone users by teaming up with Devicescape. The latter’s software lets you enter in connectivity information on your computer, which then gets housed on your Nokia for hassle-free Wi-Fi authentication later—No typing needed. Although Devicescape makes things slightly easier now for a cellphone with a keyboard, it could possibly enable PMPs and other devices without a keyboard to be able to connect to Wi-Fi. [Techworld via Mobile Mag]

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Minutes ago, version 1.1.1 of the iPhone’s software was jailbreak’d or Jailbroken, or whatever. Apps and other hacks will start flowing again. I’m happy, but not as happy as when I thought Apple was cool with the Apps. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about hacking my iPhone again. I’m worried about bricking my main phone, come 1.1.2. And maybe that was a convenient side effect of the last update, which I still believe Apple had no intention of doing. Unlike the benign patches that Sony looses on the PSP, this was a bit of a bomb. Are you going to hack your iPhone again? Or are you terrified of disobeying the software agreements? (How to Comment)

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Tall or short, the Ahrend 750 Office Furniture System will give you the fit you need thanks to a built-in electronic height adjustment feature. Users can raise or lower the desk with a simple push of a button. Plus, an LCD display makes re-adjusting the desk to your preferred height a snap. It’s kind of like the office version of the “sleep number bed.” Co-workers would exchange their numbers during casual conversation and the short and small-torsoed would undoubtedly be singled out and ridiculed. [Ahrend via Designboom via OhGizmo]

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Hey look, a tech trend piece with some truth to it! The AP’s got a story about people with cellphones and Blackberries practically soldered to their hip feeling that you’ve-got-a-call quaking when it’s not ringing or even in their pocket, like when they’re bathing. Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams offered up the best quote on the sort-of phenomenon, saying, “So far, the only good news is that my pocket is vibrating, and that’s OK because it gives me hope that the condition might spread to the rest of my pants.” An informal poll of 10 Giz crew members showed at least five of us feeling the faux buzz, with Chen affirming that it has indeed spread to the rest of his pants. What about you guys? [Yahoo!/AP]

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Just shortly after the first iPhone 1.1.1 jailbreak was released, the iPhone Dev Team follows up with a different method that can be incorporated into future graphical tools, unlike the previous one. While this one is still not quite ready for mass consumption since it still has the problem of having to use the iPHUC command line tool, it doesn’t require you to swap your media directory in, so you can sync with iTunes immediately after you jailbreak. The important milestones reached by this release are the fact it actually activates your phone, and that the code for it is open so AppTapp and other developers can incorporate it into their own apps; thus eventually making it as easy to install third-party apps on 1.1.1 as it was on 1.0.2.

(WARNING: if you have used anySIM or iUnlock in your iPhone, don’t upgrade to 1.1.1. You won’t be able to apply this and you will brick your iPhone. Everyone else, including people who use TurboSIM or IPSF Paid solution, can do it.) [Official Jailbreak Download (Comes with Tutorial) - (Additional reporting by Jesús Díaz)]

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The super-fast Internet2 backbone that you don’t have access to just got a hell of a lot faster, at least in theory. It used to have speeds of up to 10Gbps, which is pretty crazy fast. But now, by “sending data using 10 different colors, or wavelengths, of light over a single cable,” they’ve ramped that on up to a staggering 100Gbps. Unfortunately for you lovely Giz readers, you won’t be able to use that to download HD porn in half a second anytime soon.

The Internet2 is a super-fast parallel internet that allows people who actually do decent things with their lives transfer huge amounts of data between Universities, research centers, and companies without hogging bandwidth on the regular-people internet. One of the first uses for the new speeds could be the $1.8 billion Large Hadron Collider at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, set to open next May. It’s much more important than keeping your Crysis game lag-free, so it gets priority over you, unfortunately. But hey, eventually I’m sure normal people will enjoy speeds like this, it just won’t be anytime soon. And soon enough, even 100Gbps won’t seem that impressive; the peeps behind the scenes say that with new equipment, they’ll hit 400Gbps within the next couple years. Holy crap. [SF Gate]

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Samsung and Sony both have firmware updates for their Blu-ray players today, with Samsung patching the BD-P1000 and BD-P1200 to fix compatibility problems found in several movies, and Sony applying updates for the BDP-S300 to address BD-Java compatibility in movie extras (a similar problem to the one identified here). Unfortunately for owners, only the Samsung BD-P1200 has an Ethernet connection, so BD-P1000 and Sony BDP-S300 players will have to be updated via burned DVD/CDs. You can thank the Blu-ray association for not mandating an Ethernet port in your own way. [Samsung and Sony]

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Toshiba announced that the Qosimo, its HD DVD-standard laptop, should be available for under $1000 in time for Christmas. Citing easily available DVD-ROM/CD-RW drives as the cause for mainstream adoption of DVD, Toshiba believes that affordable HD DVD/DVD-RW drives will dictate the winner of the war. While battery drain is still a high-def movie disc issue, and laptop screens really don’t do the 1080p content justice, but this won’t hurt HD DVD adoption. Not that we wouldn’t like to see a Blu-ray equipped Sony Vaio at that price. Think these HD DVD drives in the lappies are subsidized? [PC World]

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According to Dean Takahashi of the Mercury News, Microsoft is developing a new motherboard codenamed “Jasper.” The upgrade promises to shrink the ATI graphics chip to 65nm and reduce the size of the memory chips as well. If true, this could reduce build costs and the heat problems that have plagued the 360. Although Takahashi notes that Microsoft believes they already have the heat situation under control. The upgrade is expected in August of ‘08. [Kotaku]

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