ARS Technica reports Time Warner Cable is backing down in the face of consumer revolt over their metered billing tests. From the article: "When Comcast currently offers a 250GB/month cap for around $42.95, and the price of Internet backbone traffic is dropping by 50 percent a year, and DOCSIS 3.0 updates cost only $20-$100 per customer, and TWC's finances showed big upticks in broadband revenue even as costs plunged--well, selling a 100GB/month cap for $75 was hardly going to go down well"

DSLreports.com reports on a very large AT&T network outage in the southeastern US Monday evening. AT&T customers in BellSouth territory from the Carolinas through Louisiana didn't have a very good night of connectivity, as users in their AT&T forum will attest. Speed tests showed connections slowed to a crawl, and users say the network status page didn't offer much insight. As ComputerWorld notes, new iPhone users also had problems accessing the company's EDGE wireless network. An AT&T spokesman confirmed the outage but didn't give an explanation.

When the RipIt4Me site disappeared March 31, users suspected it might be an April Fools joke or prank. On Monday, discussion topics and forums devoted to RipIt4Me support had been closed or removed from Doom9 and Digital-Digest Speculation is legal pressures forced the site down, but users are also concerned regarding the removal of support and discussion forums for the utility. Apparently forum moderators have been advised to minimize speculation as well. More discussion is available at SlySoft's forum.

Hewlett-Packard researchers have developed a memory chip with wireless networking capabilities that is roughly the same size as a grain of rice, the company said Monday. Prototypes of the Memory Spot chip developed by HP Labs contain 256 kilobits to 4 megabits of memory and can transfer data wirelessly at speeds up to 10Mbps. This amount of storage allows the chips to hold a short video clip, digital pictures or "dozens of pages" of text, HP said, adding that the chips do not require a battery. Memory Spot chips get their power using a technique called inductive coupling, which allows power to be transferred from one component to another through a shared electromagnetic field. In the case of Memory Spot, this power is supplied by the device that is used to read and write data on the chip. Data stored on Memory Spot chips could be accessed using a variety of devices, such as specially equipped cell phones or PDAs, making them suitable for a range of applications, such as adhesive attachments applied to a paper document or printed photograph, HP said.

Bloomberg News is reporting Novell has replaced replaced its chief executive officer and finance chief after they failed to revive profit and sales growth.

President Ronald Hovsepian, 45, will take over from CEO Jack Messman effective immediately, Novell said today in a statement. Dana Russell, 44, was appointed interim CFO, replacing Joseph Tibbetts. Director Thomas Plaskett will become chairman.

Messman, 66, struggled to transform the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company into a seller of Linux software that could rival Red Hat Inc. Novell last month said third-quarter profit may miss analyst estimates as new product sales trailed expectations, disappointing investors for a second straight quarter. The shares slumped 15 percent the day after the May 31 announcement and 17 percent after the March report.