I knew this would happen sooner or later.  When a market closes down, a new market will generally always open up.  When AT&T announced that they were closing down their unlimited data plan for wireless and broadband devices, someone else would open up an unlimited data plan.  Well, we’ve found the willing source to feed your broadband addiction.  Sprint subsidiary Virgin Mobile USA has announced a $40 unlimited broadband data plan for mobile devices.

The plan is Virgin Mobile’s Broadband2Go, which features uncapped data use for $40 dollars per month.  The most important selling feature of Virgin Mobile’s service?  No annoying contract to sign; it’s just month-to-month provided you pay your bill!  Of course, you have to buy the MiFi 2200 mobile hotspot for $150 or the Ovation MC760 USB device for $80, but that’s a small price to pay for contract-free, unlimited mobile broadband, isn’t it?

Enjoy it while it lasts, gang.  I wouldn’t say it would go away anytime soon, but I do think the capped data plans are more in line with what our corporate broadband overlords want us to have, so rebels like Sir Richard’s former company are likely to face increased pressure to end buffet-style service.

If there’s one great thing you can say about Facebook, it’s that it allows the user to effectively waste time like never before.  There’s never been a more efficient place to waste time, because it basically piles every possible way to waste time in a single place.  Chat?  Facebook’s there.  Email?  Facebook’s got it.  Maintaining a social network profile?  Duh, Facebook’s got a wall for you to poke all day long!  And now, thanks to apps, Facebook is the place to go for games.

However, not all apps are fun or useful.  Some are just… how should I put this?  Some Facebook apps are too weird to exist.  Here’s a list of seven of the most bizarre Facebook apps out there, none of which is useful aside from its weird novelty value.

I mean, a giant butter statue of yourself would be awesome, but you gotta earn something like that, you can’t just let Facebook butter-fy you!  That’s a serious honor!  It’s like the Nobel Prize of state fair awards!  Don’t cheapen that with technology!

It’s a cliche at this point.  Wherever there’s a coffee shop, coffeehouse, or coffee-serving establishment, there won’t be quiet conversation, people reading books, or people drinking coffee.  Oh no, it’ll be full of people on computers, tethered to the power outlets and staring blankly at the screens on laptops, netbooks, iPads, iPods, or e-readers.  It’s fitting that, since coffeehouses were the first places to openly evangelize wifi to the masses that coffeehouses will also be the first places to start unplugging the wifi.

It comes down to two reasons, essentially.  There’s the money issue.  People with laptops spread out over the whole table, sit there for hours, and generally drink up all the electricity while sipping one cup of coffee for several hours.  That’s not good for the power bill and definitely hurts paying customers who have nowhere to sit and enjoy their drinks and/or a snack.  When there’s no turnover, there’s no profits.

Then, there’s the ambiance issue.  A room full of people staring at screens is too much like work!  Who wants to go there and hang out?  At worse, you get your drink and then you high-tail it for greener pastures where you’re free of the faint sounds of music, compulsive clicking of mice or keyboards, and people pretending to write novels.

So, gentle reader.  Would you go to a wifi-free coffee shop?  Would you avoid a wifi-free coffee shop?  Both options have their place in the world, for sure.  For me, it doesn’t matter what wifi there is or isn’t; I’m the rare bird that goes to a coffeehouse to drink coffee.  I know, I’m STRANGE.

Image: Real Estate

Want to see a video that will blow your mind?  You’re here, so I’ll assume that’s a yes.  The following is available for TweetDeck (my Twitter client of choice) and Echofon for Mac.  It’s Twitter’s new real-time user stream API.  Basically, it’s like a constant stream of Twitter activity that never needs updating, refreshing, or any of the other things that you currently have to do if you want a live-ish view of what’s going on in Twitter.

When I say it’s what’s going on in the Twitterverse, I mean it.  Real-time tweets, favorites, retweets… basically everything everyone does that’s viewable to the public.  Twitter has dubbed it “Twitter at the speed of WOW” and I can see why; there’s just so much going on with it that it can be really intimidating!

I’m not sure I need instantly instant Twitter updating.  At least, not on this scale.  That’s really a lot of info to process at once.

Image: Speed Bump, via The Cynch.

Image:  Ghost in the Machine

More images via Oddity Central.

Image via Gizmodo, magic via Bob Evans.

Full Size via Kuriositas.

Nintendo has announced plans to change their hand-held video game system yet again.  When Nintendo moves, the rest of the gaming universe takes notice, and there’s no field where Nintendo dominates more than the handheld gaming market.  After all, the company has moved from Game Boy to Game Boy Color to DS to DSi, and now, they’re moving to the Nintendo DS3D.  That’s right, 3D games on a portable system!

And the kicker of this whole deal is that the 3D DSi will NOT need special glasses.  In fact, it may need no special changes at all!  There are already games that produce semi-3D graphics using the DS’s existing dual screen set-up and the DSi camera to determine proper 3D positioning based on face-tracking technology in the camera.  Check out a demo of how it’d work using the current DS technology.

Is there anything Nintendo can’t do with their consoles?  Aside from get Mature-rated titles to be successful on the Wii that is.