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

Let’s put things in perspective: Apple’s current data centre in Newark is a little over 100,000 square feet (9000 square metres), while most data centres around the world don’t pass the 200,000 square feet (19,000 square metre) mark. The new one, located near one of Google’s large facilities in Maiden, NC, will be a colossal 500,000 square feet (46,000 square metres). That’s a lot of computing nodes, and massive storage space.

The big question here is: Why? Is this designed to accommodate 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 is as good as anyone else’s, like with everything about Apple. Tell us your ideas in the comments. [Cult of Mac]

There are two flavours of 24 month contract available, both of which get you a $0 upfront NC10 – the $50 a month plan with 2GB of data included, and the $70 a month plan with 5GB.

The 10-inch lappy will come with XP, 1GB RAM and an optional optical drive that will cost an extra $1 a month for the $70 plan and $5 a month for the $50 plan. Both plans have an excess usage charge of 15 cents per MB.

While it would be far cheaper to actually pony up the cash up front and add a mobile broadband card later, there is something to be said for the convenience of cheap monthly payments that includes data.

What do you reckon? Is this something that floats your boat?

[Optus]

There’s no Three pricing yet, but we’re sure that once the Telco gets off its backsides and announces pricing, Andrew will update the page.

[Numbers In A Flash]

Tethering is included in the Timeless plans above, but will be the $10 monthly fee for all the other plans on offer. One of the reasons for this is to ensure network quality apparently. Also worth noting is the fact that the only reason (according to Optus) the iPhone has a tethering charge while other phones don’t is that the iPhone is the only device with data included in the price.

This pricing structure is a limited time promotion for about three months or so. Minimum price over 24 months is $2,376 on the $99 Timeless plan. There’s a heap of other plans available, as you can see below:

As you can see, the only way you can get a new 3GS for free is via the Timeless plans above. You can pick up an 8GB iPhone 3G on a $59 cap plan though, which isn’t too bad an option I guess.

For what’s included with each cap, you can head over to Optus’ website, although the $99 Timeless options looks to be the way to go if you’re looking at Optus for the new iPhone.

UPDATE: A few of you have asked about pre-paid pricing. Short answer is that it doesn’t exist. Longer answer is that it’s something Optus will be looking at, but not for launch…
[Optus]

Skype has a new plan that sounds pretty excellent for those who talk a lot to family overseas. $US6 a month buys you unlimited minutes to more than 40 countries.

The catch? The plan is valid for Skype to landline calls only. (In other words, the subscription doesn’t include Skype calls to international mobiles.) The eligible countries are listed below, giving that “girl” from Estonia you’ve been “online dating” no decent excuse to avoid voice chatting.

Skype Adds New Unlimited Country Subscriptions in U.S. and Canada

Subscriptions give Skype for iPhone app users more options for calling regular phones.

San Jose, CA, April 20, 2009 – Skype, the worldwide leader in online communications, announces that it is expanding its calling subscription options in the U.S. and Canada. People can select an Unlimited Country subscription which includes unlimited* low-cost calls to landlines to one country of choice for $5.95 per month.

Subscriptions for more than 40 destinations are now available: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Columbia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and United Kingdom.

Since the new Skype for iPhone application was launched on March 31, 2009, it has generated a great response with the application becoming the No. 1 downloaded free iPhone application in more than 40 markets, and downloads surpassed the two million mark in less than ten days. Adding a Skype subscription allows iPhone and iPod touch users to have greater flexibility of calling people who are on regular phones from Wi-Fi zones, and it allows them to save significantly on making calls internationally compared to the rates typically charged on mobile phones.

“In a tough economy, everyone is looking for more ways to save. With the launch of Skype’s Unlimited Country subscriptions, we now offer very simple, cost effective one country calling options,” said Don Albert, GM and vice president of Skype Americas. “Our users can make calls internationally to virtually any regular phone any time of day, without a long-term contract, hidden fees and other restrictions.”

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t jump on this if you’re really keen on grabbing the current gen iPhone – it’s just a subtle recommendation that if you can hold off for another 3 months, you’ll probably be able to get the even newer version, which may or may bot have 802.11n support and a 3.2MP camera. The choice is yours.

Vodafone dials up best deal on Apple iPhone 3G
SYDNEY – April 6, 2009 – Vodafone Australia announced that iPhone 3G will be available for $0* on the $69 iPhone cap with a 24-month contract from today.
iPhone 3G combines three products in one – a revolutionary phone, widescreen iPod and breakthrough internet device, to create an incredible mobile experience. With fast 3G networking, GPS mapping and support for enterprise features including Microsoft Exchange, iPhone 3G puts even more features at your fingertips. The groundbreaking App Store provides access to tens of thousands of applications from games to social networking to financial planning and health management, generating more than 800 million downloads to date. iPhone 3G is now available in 80 countries around the world.
Vodafone offers the best price in the market for iPhone 3G. For just $69 per month over 24-months, customers will receive $340 credit per month, which can be applied to voice calls, text messages and standard services, 250MB of mobile data per month and iPhone 3G 8GB handset* free of charge.
“Vodafone is thrilled to be offering iPhone 3G for $0 on the $69 iPhone plan, the first time this has ever been offered in Australia”, said Edward Goff, General Manager of Consumer Markets at Vodafone Australia.
“There has never been a better time to buy an iPhone,” added Goff.

[Vodafone]

The good: The new cap is 10GB, a fairly reasonably amount for mobile data (really, that’s like over 300MB a day). After you hit 10GB, your connection will be throttled down to 50kbps, just like T-Mobile’s original cap plan. The bad: It will cover every phone, including the SideKick. Worse for SideKick users, their monthly data is going up to match the G1’s. The supposed T-Mobile employee revealing this info also mentions “$US34.99 for all you can eat (cough 10GB cap)” though it’s not quite clear what he’s referring to specifically.

Really, G1 users are most likely to be affected, since it’s the only phone T-Mobile’s got conducive to really moving that kind of data. How much data are you guys using a month on average, anyway? [Android Community Forums via Android Community]

Subject: Important information regarding your iPhone 3G

The new AT&T – Your world. Delivered.

Our service records indicate that you are using an iPhone 3G with a data plan designed for other devices.

To avoid unexpected data overage charges and enable Visual Voicemail, please contact your telecom manager, or an AT&T representative at 1-800-331-0500.

Thank you for choosing wireless from AT&T. We appreciate your business.

Sincerely,
AT&T Customer Service

Now, that may be all there is to it, just a simple warning about the chance you may get unexpected charges. BGR goes a bit deeper, suggesting this is the first sign of a crackdown:

If you were enjoying paying only $US15 for AT&T’s MEdia Net Unlimited, enjoy it while you can! Pretty soon, AT&T will be making sure that you’ll all be paying twice that amount for their sub-par 3G service for the iPhone.

I wouldn’t go that far with only this as evidence, but I certainly wouldn’t discount BGR entirely, either. All I can say is, watch out! [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 rumour to start your holiday weekend early.

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