Instead of building airbags into plane seats or the bulkhead—that big flat wall at the front of the cabin—AmSafe, the biggest name in the I'm-guessing-not-terribly-crowded commercial jet passenger airbag industry, has hidden them in seat belts: the bag is mounted at shoulder height and connected to a trigger and helium inflation device underneath the seat.

AmSafe's Tom Barth, pictured here holding a comically oversized seat belt that's obviously hiding an airbag or something, told NPR:

The air bag seat belt looks pretty much like a standard seat belt. People don't really notice that it's there.

No need to deny the lumpiness, Tom—I think people will forgive a little bulk if it means they won't splatter their brains all over that darling floral bulkhead carpet next time a landing doesn't go quite as planned.

But alas, the rollout won't be universal. The FAA regulation doesn't require airbags per se, as long as aircraft manufacturers can somehow claim that a 16 G impact is survivable by way of padded seatbacks, open space, or better restraints. Only a handful of commercial jets have exploding seat belts airbags today—none of which have ever deployed, by the way—but the regulation, which only applies to new planes, should make these things a common sight. [NPR]

UPDATE: Now with added video edutainment:
—Thanks, Sergio!

Apple is planning about 500,000 square feet of data center space in a single building. That would place it among the largest data centers in the world.

Let's put things in perpective: Apple's current data center in Newark is a little over 100,000 square feet, while most data centers around the world don't pass the 200,000 square feet mark. The new one, located near one of Google's large facilities in Maiden, NC, will be a colossal 500,000 square feet. That's a lot of computing nodes, and massive storage space.

The big question here is: Why? Is this designed to accomodate the iPhone family growth? Or is there a secret product and service plan that will require this gargantuan power and storage? New expanded content for new devices? Books? It can't be only that.

Your guess are as good as Miller, myself, or anyone else's, like with everything about Apple. Tell us your ideas in the comments.

Here is mine: According to the note I got in this bag of Cheetos, Apple is building a massive neural network to hold a duplicate of Steve Jobs' brain, so he can run the company for ever and ever. Just don't tell it to Jim Goldman. [Cult of Mac]

The plan, which originally kicked off in San Francisco, offers unlimited minutes for $49.99/month on a single line or unlimited minutes for $89.99/month on a two-line family plan. With add-ons, such as unlimited data ($24.99), and unlimited messaging ($9.99), you can get unlimited everything for only $85—not too shabby. [Boy Genius Report]

The numbers look pretty nice, as BGR breaks it down: With $50 voice, $10 for unlimited texting and $25 data, you have an all-can-consume package for $85 a month (tack on another $10 if you've got a BlackBerry). [Cellphone Signal via BGR]

AT&T offers data plans for BlackBerry that include tethering for an additional $30 per month (a total of $60 per month for the BlackBerry+tethering plan).

It seems ludicrous that the same thing is not offered with the iPhone. I understand the desire to prevent tethering with the current data plan, but I am willing to pay more money to allow tethering! With such an advanced device, why can I not do so?

From "Steve" to our reader:

We agree, and are discussing it with ATT.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

We're not sure—that "Sent from my iPhone" kicker either makes this email completely legitimate or illegitimate, but it's not a bad little rumor to start your holiday weekend early.

So would you pay extra to tether your laptop to your iPhone? [Image via Lifehacker]

Now, get to work! [Journal of Instrumentation via Symmetry via Slashdot]

What's even more interesting is that the old phrase of "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids" might be applicable here, with Ahed standing a pretty good chance (thanks to a mysterious military contract backer) of getting away with this scheme if he didn't destroy evidence. After all, even the military contacts who were trying to choose between vendors were angling for his robot to win. [Wired]

You won't get charged for data use if you are downloading songs from V Cast Music Store, or sending and receiving picture or video messages, though they still cost 25 cents a piece. Ditto for 15-cent text messages. Subscribers to V Cast video service (starting at $15 per month) will get unlimited data use for Mobile Web, as you would hope.

New add-ons to Nationwide include $20 for unlimited text messages and $40 for the full meal deal: monthly subscriptions and unlimited megabyte usage for Mobile Web, Get It Now, V CAST Video, VZ Navigator and Mobile E-mail. That is one "I HEART Verizon" plan.

Word is, some of this will also apply to the new BlackBerry plans, but I don't have details on that just yet, so stay tuned.

It's not a whoo-hoo, thrilling plan revision meant to save you loads of money, but it does show that Verizon is no longer clinging to this antiquated concept of airtime in a data-based world. I have confirmed that if you do want to ditch your old America's Choice plan and swap into a Nationwide one, you will be able do to so without renewing your contract, just like we told you. [Verizon Wireless]

Apple Rate Plans [Apple]

Reader Applejuice (not to mention other people we've heard from) had a friend who got out of her contract by saying she was relocating to a part of Alaska that didn't have Sprint coverage.

By "moving" to a non-covered location, you can easily call up Sprint, Verizon or T-Mobile and get out of your contract without paying a termination fee. Of course, we're not entirely sure it'll work if you "move" instead of actually move, since the company may demand to see some utility bills with your name on it. Worth a try though, if you're insistent and firm, but not rude. – Jason Chen

Thanks Applejuice

So I was reading through what seems to be a Helio sponsored community site: Heliofriends.com and one of the mods dropped that tomorrow a $200 rebate will kick in on the Kickflips through this site. Which means the Kickflips are free after the rebate.

Also, tomorrow is supposed to be the start day for a new price plan. $65 all-in data/500 min. This was also mentioned in a seperate thread.

Looks like they are trying to lower the price to bring some of the fence sitters down.

-James

Pretty cool James. Part of us think they want to start lowering prices offer a new rate plan because of their lackluster subscriber numbers. Add to that the recent troubles of VK Mobile, the manufacturer of one of their two handsets, Helio may be in need of some cash. – Jason Chen

Update: To clarify, the heliofriends.com site isn't associated with Helio. They're the ones offering the rebate—Helio has nothing to do with it. Also, the new $65 plan came about because some subscribers didn't need the 1000 minutes, so they made a $65 plan to sit between their $85 plan and the a-la carte. So, heliofriends isn't "helio sponsored", and they're not lowering rate plans. Just adding a new one.

Product Page [Via Zatz]