When AT&T started slowing down the data service for his iPhone, Matt Spaccarelli, an unemployed truck driver and student, took the country's largest telecommunications company to small claims court. And won.

His award: $850.

Pro-tem Judge Russell Nadel found in favor of Spaccarelli in Ventura Superior Court in Simi Valley on Friday, saying it wasn't fair for the company to purposely slow down his iPhone, when it had sold him an "unlimited data" plan.

Spaccarelli could have many imitators. AT&T has some 17 million customers with "unlimited data" plans who can be subject to throttling. That's nearly half of its smartphone users. AT&T forbids them from consolidating their claims into a class action or taking them to a jury trial. That leaves small claims actions and arbitration.

Late last year, AT&T started slowing down data service for the top 5 percent of its smartphone subscribers with "unlimited" plans. It had warned that it would start doing so, but many subscribers have been surprised by how little data use it takes for throttling to kick in – often less than AT&T provides to those on limited or "tiered" plans.

Spaccarelli said his phone is being throttled after he's used 1.5 gigabytes to 2 gigabytes of data within a new billing cycle. Meanwhile, AT&T provides 3 gigabytes of data to subscribers on a tiered plan that costs the same – $30 per month.

When slowed down, the phone can still be used for calls and text messaging, but Web browsing is painfully slow, and video streaming doesn't work at all.

AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said the company will appeal the judge's ruling.

"At the end of the day, our contract governs our relationship with our customers," he said.

AT&T area sales manager Peter Hartlove, who represented the company before Nadel, declined to comment on the ruling. He argued in court that his employer has the right to modify or cancel customers' contracts if their data usage adversely affects the network.

Companies with as many potentially aggrieved customers as AT&T usually brace themselves for a class-action lawsuit. But last year, the Supreme Court upheld a clause in the Dallas-based company's subscriber contract that prohibits customers from taking their complaints to class actions or jury trials.

Unsecured login information for a chat feature on YouPorn, one of the most popular pornography sites on the Internet, has revealed the email addresses and passwords for some of its users, the Associated Press reports.

While the AP could not confirm the number of accounts that had been compromised, Anders Nilsson of the security solutions company EuroSecure, wrote on his blog that login information for more than one million accounts was made public on Tuesday.

Kate Miller, a spokesperson for Manwin Holding SARL, YouPorn's parent company, emphasized in an email to The Huffington Post that YouPorn was not hacked, but that its third-party chat service "failed to take the appropriate precautions in securing its user data" and has since been taken offline pending an investigation.

"Until then, YouPorn continues to ensure that all appropriate measures and tools are in place to maintain the security of its infrastructure, and to safeguard the privacy of its users," Miller said in a statement to HuffPost.

She added in a phone call that "YouPorn is operating the way it should."

Still, many email addresses and associated passwords have now been made available online.

Sophos's Graham Cluley notes on the serendipitously named blog "Naked Security" that beyond the potential humiliation of having one's email address associated with YouPorn, the users' other accounts that share this login information could be compromised.

The British designer and her Hollywood pal had a Girl's Night Out in honor of The Eva Longoria Foundation, partying it up at Beso in Los Angeles. Sponsored by Chrysler and Vanity Fair, the fete was also attended by Kate Beckinsale (stunning in pink Alexander McQueen), Serena and Venus Williams and Vanity Fair publisher Edward Menicheschi.
While the guests were technically there to honor Eva's foundation, which raises awareness of children's health issues and problems affecting the Latino community, they definitely took the time to let loose and relax (after all, New York and London fashion weeks are finally over!).
Beckham happily tweeted the night away, describing her slim blue and black Victoria Beckham dress as her "favourite dress from AW12!" and posting pics of Eva and Kate with the caption, "Night out with the girls!"
But Eva, who was wearing a neckline so wide and plunging that we're shocked the entire night wasn't a wardrobe malfunction, had the cutest photo of all. She tweeted, "My beautiful girl @victoriabeckham supporting me @vanityfair" with a pic of Beckham's hands wrapped loving around her chest.
Because what are friends for if not for holding your boobies in your dress?
Check out the stylish stars (and BFFs) below. What do you think of Eva and Victoria's outfits?

British jewelry designers Tatty Devine are launching a lawsuit against tween mall mainstay Claire's Accessories, charging that Claire's has plagiarized some of their necklace designs.

Telegraph reports that Tatty Devine designers Rosie Wolfenden and Harriet Vine have already consulted lawyers after noticing that several of the chain store's jewelry designs seemed to be near imitations of their own designs, like one necklace that features a plastic T-Rex skeleton stretched out on a chain.

The designers posted on their site's blog that they're now "taking things forward" in terms of legal action. And it seems they'll have strong support from their community; fans of the brand have already been buzzing about the issue via social media.

Claire's appears to be aware of the issue, as a spokesperson told the BBC: "Claire's is aware of the blog post yesterday on the tattydevine.com blog and is currently investigating these comments."

Tatty Devine, launched in 1999, distributes handmade acrylic-based jewelry throughout the UK. Claire's Accessories, with over 3,000 locations worldwide, takes in $1.41 billion annually in revenue from its accessories, jewelry and cosmetics.

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A mother of eight has died in the South American country of Guyana after she was attacked by a swarm of Africanized bees.

Police said Friday that 47-year-old Munia Sanchara was attacked while picking mangoes from a tree at her house in the coastal community of Cane Grove. Police said she was declared dead after arriving at a hospital in the capital of Georgetown.

Guyana has reported several fatal bee attacks in recent years.

Africanized bees from South Africa were introduced to Brazil in the late 1950s for a crossbreeding program and some accidentally were let loose.

Microsoft’s recent, increasingly aggressive advertising approach against competitors has been quite entertaining. What I like — and what I think people will like — about this particular campaign, however, is that, unlike the Gmail man and Googlighting videos, Microsoft is attacking the products of its competitors by showing how their own products are better. The videos attacking Google, however, are exaggerated (but I found them funny, with a true underlying message.)

If YouTube comments are any metric of public reception, the feedback of Smoked by Windows Phone has been far more positive than that of the recent Googlighting video. Also, speaking of YouTube, the videos of the challenges have been viewed over 500,000 times. This is one of the few genuinely cool ad campaigns produced by Microsoft, and it would be cool if they also produced a “Smoked” television commercial. And if Ben goes on a coast-to-coast Smoked By Windows Phone tour.
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Acer recently launched a new smartphone in its popular Liquid family, the Acer Liquid Glow. This handset runs on the latest Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Operating System. The Acer Liquid Glow is specially targeted at today’s fun-seeking, social-networking youth. According to the company, this smartphone brings the ultimate balance between style, performance and affordability. The Acer Liquid Glow will be showcased next week at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012 in Barcelona.

Acer Liquid Glow features a 3.7 inch touchscreen display, 1 GHz single-core processor, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS, 5 megapixel rear camera with LED flash, 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Android Market, 3.5 mm headset jack, FM Radio with RDS, 512MB RAM, microSD card slot, 32 GB expandable memory, NFC (Near Field Communication), Bluetooth 2.1, micro USB, A-GPS, and more.

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Jeremy Lin collided with LeBron James shortly after tip-off, stumbling backward.

With that, the tone was set.

And Lin's rise from unknown to stardom hit its first major snag.

Chris Bosh scored 25 points, Dwyane Wade added 22 and James put up 20 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, five steals and two blocks – the first such stat line in the NBA since James himself had a night like that four years ago – as the league-leading Miami Heat stopped Lin and the New York Knicks 102-88 on Thursday night.

It was Miami's eighth straight win, all coming by at least 12 points.

"A learning experience," Lin said afterward, before heading to Orlando for his role in All-Star weekend. "A tough one."

Lin's final line: 1 for 11 from the field, eight points, three assists and eight turnovers – a long way from the 23.9 points and 9.2 assists he had been averaging over his first 11 games in the Knicks' rotation, when he breathed immeasurable life into a team that was floundering.

Not this time. Lin paid the Heat a great compliment, saying their defense made it tough to even dribble.

"First of all, he deserves all of the credit he's been given," Wade said. "We knew it was going to be a tough task guarding him. ... He's a good player, but we put a lot of pressure on him and it was a success."

The scene was electric, and for much of the night, the game matched the hype.

Spike Lee, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Chad Ochocinco all sat within seven seats of each other on one sideline, Mike Stanton and Logan Morrison of the Miami Marlins were on another sideline, and members of the New York Mets' front office reportedly jumped aboard a helicopter for the quick trip from the team's spring-training home in Port St. Lucie down to Miami.

Even the First Fan took note of the hubbub surrounding the game.

"In another life, I would be staying for the Knicks-Heat game tonight, then going up to Orlando for NBA All-Star weekend," President Barack Obama told cheering students at the University of Miami earlier in the day. "But these days, I've got a few other things on my plate. Just a few."

When Air Force One was headed to Orlando for a Thursday night fundraiser, yes, there were televisions tuned to Heat-Knicks on board.

His is a story that ushered in the modern age of science fiction, inspiring a century of authors and sparking the imaginations that launched "Star Wars" and "Avatar" into the cultural canon. But it's only now, a century after Edgar Rice Burroughs penned his first excursion to the red planet, that John Carter's adventures on Mars are being presented on the big screen.

And to read the rumors surrounding the film's four years in production, the story of how the epic Disney movie got made seems nearly as legendary a tale.

"It's frustrating, because it's wrong," Lindsey Collins, one of the film's co-producers, says of years of trade reports that the film, the first live-action effort from Oscar-winning "WALL-E" director Andrew Stanton, was a bloated, over-budget mess.

"There's no way to talk about it without sounding defensive, but I'm going to sound defensive for a second and say this movie was made on budget," Collins asserted. "I think Disney took a huge leap of faith with us early on and said, Okay, we believe your number and it's higher than we wanted but we believe it so make it for that ... And in fact, in most areas, it came in under, and the one area we came in slightly over was offset by all the underages of the others, so it came within I think two percent of the budget."

The budget they say they hit was $250 million, which went into live shoots in desert locations and massive computer graphic work to create an elaborate world in which a leather-clad Taylor Kitsch, as Carter, leaps into a war between two rival nations and a race of green, horned, four-armed natives. Barsoom, as Mars is called by its inhabitants, is a rocky desert-scape littered with ornate cities, mystical ruins and anachronistic flying machines. And it's one that took over seventy five years of technological development to make believable on the screen.

Various attempts at adapting Burroughs' seminal, serial adventure series have been made since MGM and "Looney Toons" director Bob Clampett approached Burroughs in 1935 with the idea of making a cartoon feature from the Civil War veteran-turned-space hero's exploits. The test footage, however, did not impress, and the movie was scrapped. The property was acquired by Disney in the '80s -- Tom Cruise was wooed to star -- but that fell through, as did Paramount's attempts to make it, with both Robert Rodriguez and Jon Favreau attached to direct at different points.

Stanton, the current director, grew up a massive fan of the stories, and had always wanted to make the movie himself. Once that was mentioned to Pixar's chief John Lasseter, a quick meeting with then-Disney exec Dick Cook led to the studio scooping up the rights to the seemingly impossible-to-make movie.


"The Curse of John Carter? Yeah, I think everybody felt that the fact that this was a huge property," co-producer Collins laughed, adding that a meeting with Danton Burroughs, the author's grandson, gave her a sense of the books' long legacy. "If it's not done right, it's just going to seem silly and campy, you're never going to buy a live action person sitting next to a CG person. And at least that part, I completely appreciated. I was like, oh my god, how the hell are we going to do this?"

Luckily, Collins' co-producer on "John Carter" was Jim Morris, a Pixar exec who spent nearly two decades working for and then running leading special-effects house Industrial Light & Magic (ironically, "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' company -- how things come full circle).

"Our basic theory was that we wanted to have real stuff under peoples' feet and around them at all times," Morris said. "So what we did was shot them in these big landscapes and just did a little bit of enhancement. We would add ruins here and there and take natural formations and turn them into ruins, and the interior stuff, whether it's in the palace or light or whether it's in chambers, that work we shot on stage [in front of a green screen]."