CNN Invents new word: "kilabyte"

On the morning of 7/10/2011 (MDT), CNN's main news channel broadcast a report on how cell phone companies are going to remove their unlimited data packages and start to charge users based on their data usage. In the report, a couple of the graphics they used trying to illustrate how much usage different services use (such as email, web browsing, and downloading music) contained the word "kilabyte" with an "a" rather than using the proper word "kilobyte" with an "o":


[red arrows and ovals pointing out the error are mine]

Now, I make typos all the time, but this was a big one, IMHO. With their resources, CNN should know better than to display a graphic like this on live TV.

If I had been the "expert" they used during the story and I saw this mistake later, I'd have been pissed.

I probably wouldn't have minded the typo, except for this additional error: they reported that 1 GB of data == 1024 bytes * 1024 bytes * 1024 bytes == 1,073,741,824 bytes. This is technically correct, but in fact it's an industry standard these days with hard drive vendors and network vendors that 1 GB ==~ 1,000,000,000 instead, a 7.3% difference.

According to the story and to vendors, new rates based on usage will be approximately: $30 per month for 2 GB, $50 per month for 5 GB, and $80 for 10 GB.

So therefore, additionally, while I personally do not use a cell phone for any data uses other than the occasional picture or text (at 20 cents per), I also think the prices per month for this amount of data usage is absolutely absurd. These days you can get a 1 TERAbyte hard drive for around $100, or about $1 per 10 GB or 10 cents per 1 GB. While I understand there's a difference in price between hard drives and bandwidth, I don't believe the difference should be 100-fold (100 to 1 or 10,000 percent), especially with the new 4G and 4G LTE networks that actually deliver that data so much faster. At this rate, if you watch a single HD movie on your mobile device, you've already exceeded your monthly allotment of 10 GB for $80. Yikes. $80 to view a movie. And this fee is collected monthly.

Good luck, all. This change in data rates has made me re-think my upcoming decision on what mobile devices to consider.

--SDP