Notable News From the Tech World
Apple is spending $1 billion over nine years to build a new data center in North Carolina. Earlier this week, the state’s governor signed a bill giving huge tax breaks to the company if it chose to build the center in North Carolina instead of neighboring Virginia, which passed a similar bill.
Notable Quote
“It’s interesting, but not over-the-top interesting. People will keep the same habits.” — Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine
Notable News
- Apple has gaming industry wary (CNBC.com)
- T-Mobile Germany will charge 9.95 euros per month to customers who want to use VoIP services on their cell phones, something the company previously blocked (MocoNews)
- YouTube will premiere a movie the same day it comes out in theaters in an effort to lure more advertisers and extend its reach (Reuters)
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
I still don’t get it: Why would anyone lobby to have a data centre built in their state? They suck down gigawatts of power, produce substantial carbon, and employ very, very few people — all of whom have highly specialized skills. Hardly a substantial economic stimulus.
I’m not by any means down on data centres in general, as that would be hypocritical. But what I fail to understand is why taxpayers should subsidize them — and what they get in return other than a giant heat sink in some industrial park off the turnpike?