It appears that too much of a good thing can quickly turn sour. When T-Mobile revealed its new Value plans, the carrier allowed customers to decide whether or not they wanted to include a data plan with their service. T-Mobile is now changing its tune by requiring all smartphones to have some kind of data plan.

There have been some misunderstandings between Google and its Google+ users. Some individuals have witnessed their accounts being suspended without any clear reason as to why it happened. Suspension could be the result of a number of things such as spam, abuse and inappropriate content, but disagreements in what makes a legit profile name is one of the main things that causes suspensions.

Sprint is expected to begin rolling out some changes in terms of their Premier rewards program. As for when, we believe it will happen on April 1st, however we still need the official word from Sprint. In the meantime here is what the new plan will include — a Gold and a Silver level. And more »

Hopefully you all read the first post on President-Elect Obama, technology and the future (if not, it is here) in which I started addressing what Obama’s election means for the world of tech. Having looked at how Obama will work for an open Internet, I will now delve into Obama’s plans for a connected democracy and infrastructure.

The first thing that Obama has promised to do is to create a more transparent government, a policy that has probably been prompted by the manner in which the Bush administration has been very secretive. He will attempt to do this by “creating a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for America’s citizens” through the use of technology. Presumably, this will be done by extensive use of the Internet, as well as other technology such as mobile phones, as shown in the selection of Joe Biden as his second man.

Continued after the break.

My, my, Google. It seems the words “Google” and “Privacy” can be found in quite a few articles across the internet as of late. Quite a few falling on the non-flattering side. Perhaps that’s why Google finally made a point of updating their main page to a never-before offered link to their privacy terms AND posting about the update on their corporate blog.

The issue was brought to the light in the first place by NY Times reporter Saul Hansell, when he asked if the company was violating California law by not posting a link to its privacy policy on its home page. The answer? Yes. That is when privacy advocates jumped in and became involved. Although in what is seeming to become an “oh so Google” move…it wasn’t done until Day 31 when the legal time frame following notice is 30 days.

It looks like Amazon’s decision to file a lawsuit against New York’s new tax policy on online stores may back fire on them as the Texas Comptroller’s Office is investigating the probability that the online store may actually owe the Texas government millions of dollars in unpaid taxes. If you will recall, in its case against the New York tax policy, Amazon argued that it should not pay the NY government any taxes because it doesn’t have a “physical presence” in New York.

The same reason is now being used by the Texas government as it found out that Amazon has a “physical presence” in the area. Apparently, Amazon has operated a distribution center at 2700 Regent Boulevard in Irving from 2006 to 2007. This was pointed out by the Dallas Morning News when it called Amazon to ask why it is not charging sales taxes to its online customers.

Amazon has not yet issued a statement confirming that it actually owns the distribution center. But if the presence of an Amazon flag outside the building is any indication of ownership, then Amazon may indeed own the distribution center.

Amazon has filed a lawsuit against the implementation of a new tax policy that would require online stores to collect sales taxes from their affiliates who embed advertising links on their site to drive more sales for retailers. Amazon calls the new tax policy, which was enacted a couple of weeks ago, as “invalid, illegal and unconstitutional,” as it dictates that retailers who would earn at least $10,000 of annual from affiliates in New York must collect sales taxes from those sales to be paid to the New York government.

The new Tax Policy has been receiving mixed reactions even from those not directly involved with the issue. Traditional retailers for one, have welcomed the new tax policy and believe that it would benefit them as it will eliminate the competitive advantage that online retailers have over them. Some critics on the other hand argue that this new policy would be an added burden to online retailers and their affiliates. Tax experts meanwhile, were not surprised with the new tax policy but they were afraid that should the law get upheld, this might establish a precedent which may be followed by other states.