Interestingly, in Australia we have had Data Caps for a significant amount of time (2002 I believe was when Telstra introduced the 3gb Cable Cap).
I know it's not US based, but looking at ISP's and their offerings elsewhere, there are options available. For example I have an Unlimited ADSL2+ connection from TPG (www.tpg.com.au). The trend locally seems to be ISP's offering more data and more value for money (Unlimited in some cases, but 500GB / 1TB plans for marginal fees per month)
If throughout the unwrapping of the gifts, there was a Microsoft Surface, then I'd agree with you but for the most part I believe this reads as genuine.
Without putting too much thought into the subject, the state of Office in the enterprise upsets me. Over the last six years I've gradually rolled away from Outlook and Word in favour of Google Apps / Drive. True, it's not perfect, but for the 'lay user' (students per se?) it is sufficient and the barrier to entry is low.
My real concern with Office comes from what if in the future I'm not in a position where the company I work for is still tied to the Office Suite of products. Productivity wise, switching back to Office (even Office365) is a real killer for someone that is proceeding efficient at the former.
Side note, for reference I'm a Google apps user with ads disabled for my domain, who doesn't use this new inbox style, so I'd assume the ads wouldn't display for me in any case.
First, Google's ad revenue's are down ~5%, every jumps up and down saying the end is near and they need to shape up before they fade into irrelevance.
Now a hint of a forthcoming feature where they are doing just that, making a change to increase revenue and people lose their minds.
Lets think about this. The feature is under Promotions, a section already laden with junk for most people. Are we all saying that John from "matresses online" can send me news about this weeks greatest sleep position and special offers like 5% off pillow fluffing, but Google couldn't input it's own ad, which would likely be tailored to your interests in any case? If you signup to promotions for numerous sources (enough to warrant the promotions tab) you might appreciate the ad, no? If you don't, well you'll never be in the Promoted tab in most cases anyway, so it likely wont affect you all that much (assuming they wouldn't inject ad's into main inbox stream).
I know it's not US based, but looking at ISP's and their offerings elsewhere, there are options available. For example I have an Unlimited ADSL2+ connection from TPG (www.tpg.com.au). The trend locally seems to be ISP's offering more data and more value for money (Unlimited in some cases, but 500GB / 1TB plans for marginal fees per month)