EU to Monitor Mobile Bills
Added on 2008-01-18 14:44:00
by Tanya Palta
 The European Telecom Commission is concerned about the skyrocketing roaming rates and have deiced to monitor SMS and data charges. Since calls are charged by the minute, users in Europe are often billed 20 percent more than the actual time of their calls.
"The Commission is concerned that customers are being charged on a per-minute basis instead of for the actual time of the call," it said in a statement. "At the retail level, the difference between billed and actual minutes appears to be typically around 20 percent," the Commission said.
[Via Press]
|
|
US Lawmakers Target Teen Texters
Added on 2007-09-10 04:55:00
by Tanya Palta
 According to the American Automobile Association ,California and 15 other states are contemplating banning teenagers from using electronic equipment while driving. This looks like a positive step to curb the menace of mobile related accidents which are on a rise.
The proposed bill would ban 16 and 17-year-olds from using any electronic device while driving including cellphones, text messaging devices, laptop computers, and pagers even with "hands-free" features.
Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety director Dave Melton said: "Bottom line, this law will most probably save lives - not just teenagers but anybody on the road.
[Via Motoring]
|
|
Survey conducted by voice messaging service finds texting dangerous
Added on 2007-08-07 10:46:00
by Mark Brezinski
|
 In a recent survey commissioned by mobile messaging service, Pinger, Inc., found 89% of American adults think texting or sending emails while driving is a dangerous mix. In fact, that 89% believes texting while driving should be "outlawed", much like rustling cattle or tying damsels to traintracks. The survey also claims that 91% of US adults think texting while driving is just about as bad as drinking and driving. Unphased that 2% surveyed didn't think drinking and driving was dangerous, Pinger probed further to find that, of those surveyed, 57% texted while driving themselves! This is an incredibly shocking 38% increase from a study done earlier this year.
What then, are we, the hypocritical, reckless masses to do? Who will save us from ourselves? Don't fret, dear reader, as hero company Pinger has the cure for our lemming-like behavior: their product.
Seriously, though, while we don't condone any kind of distracted driving, we also don't condone using surveys like this to sell a product. There weren't any tests done to prove this product is any less distracting than texting itself, or by what margin this product would reduce the risk of a collision. The only statistic contained in this press release is that an overwhelming majority believe that dangerous behavior is dangerous, but nonetheless exhibit said behavior. The survey only asked 2,049 adults, the results were weighted in many ways that weren't adequately explained, and the part at the end about "pure probability samples" is just there to confuse readers.
[Via Gizmodo]
|
|
NY may ban texting behind the wheel
Added on 2007-07-24 14:40:00
by Emily Price
|
 It seems like it might be obvious that texting while driving isn’t the best idea. Still, many people do it recently causing five deaths of teenagers who were sending messages while behind the wheel. Washington State has banned texting while driving, and now New York senator Carl Marcellino is looking to do the same in NY. Since talking while driving is already banned in NY it would seem that a no-texting law would pass as well. Do you text when you drive? What do you think about banning it?
[via IntoMobile]
|
|
LG's LX260 messaging phone heads through FCC
Added on 2007-07-16 11:40:00
by Randall Bennett
 Looks like Sprint's first Sidekick / EnV competitor just went through some good ol' fashioned standardized FCC testing and got approved. The LX260 has been rumored for a bit, and so far the rumors say it'll hit around $200. The HTC Vox-esque slider form-factor is a new one for the text messaging centric device crowd, but compared to the EnV the LX260 looks like a work of art. Morning Paper says this one will hit in Q4, right in time for a head to head battle with HTC's updated Vox, codenamed Wing (not the T-Mobile Wing though, we know it's confusing.)
|
|
Workaround for MMS from iPhone
Added on 2007-07-02 11:56:00
by Randall Bennett
 We're none to pleased that such a multimedia-centric feature phone doesn't have the ability to send or receive multimedia messages, but if you're willing to find out which carrier your friends frequent, this Howard Forums thread has a list of SMS and MMS email addresses you could use to attach pictures. Essentially, you'd send an email to the ten digit phone number and it'll forward the email to an SMS or MMS capable device. The other benefit? Sending an email instead of a text will be free and won't count against your 200 text message cap.
|
|
Brits Would Rather Give Up Sex Than Texting
Added on 2007-06-22 15:02:00
by Richard Baguley
 Speaking as the resident Brit in these parts, I find this one hard to believe: a recent survey by the retailer Carphone Warehouse claims that more 16 to 24 year olds would rather give up “alcohol, chocolate, sex, tea or coffee than live without their mobile phone for a month”. (translation; Brits call cell phones mobile phones).
When asked which they would least like to give up out of tea/coffee, sex, chocolate, alcohol or their cell phone, 20 percent of those surveyed said that sex would be the last thing to go, while just 13 percent would give up their cell phone (the same number as would give up alcohol). And it’s the twenty and thirty-somethings that are most attached; of those aged between 24 and 35, 28 percent would hate to loose the pleasures of the flesh, with just 13 percent would miss the pleasures of a good texting session.
The older generation prefer a nice cup of tea: 46 percent would hate to not be able to drink tea or coffee, while just 9 percent would miss their cell phone the most.
[Photo from Flickr user Joelogon]
|
|
New Jersey To Increase Texting While Driving Fine
Added on 2007-06-22 14:20:00
by Richard Baguley
 If you’re texting while driving, you might as well type in “I M N IDIOT ”, because you’re behaving like one. And that’s why New Jersey is one the numerous states that is looking to increase fines for talking and texting while driving; the New Jersey legislature has just passed a bill that increases the fine for such behavior to $100. The bill (which now goes to the Governor for his signature) also makes texting or talking while driving a primary offense, which means that a police officer can pull you over for it and charge you with it directly. Under the existing law, you could only be charged and fined for it as a secondary offense, which means as an adjunct to another charge. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a law against being a simpleton . This is a good step in the right direction, but we are still looking forward to he introduction of the device that can automatically find the phone number of the idiot driving next to you down the highway texting, and send an SMS that turns off their phone or texts their partner with a message that reads “I am an inconsiderate idiot who doesn’t mind dying in a terrible car wreck and killing or maiming those around me”.
[Photo from Flickr user Scottfeldstein]
|
|
New system detects calls while driving
Added on 2007-06-15 13:47:00
by Randall Bennett
Talking on your cellphone while driving isn't a crime in most states, but it should be: studies have shown that people who drive and talk are many times more likely to have an accident. But a new company is releasing a device to automatically detect drivers talking on their cell phones. Instead of police officer needing to observe a cellphone in use, the system automatically detects a cell phone call and records which car was making the call. So far, the system has been implemented in Europe and will be coming to the USA in the fall. The company says the system is "designed to detect, identify and cite drivers who break cell phone us laws." If it helps to catch people like the woman on the right (photographed by Flickr user Digihuman), we're all in favor of this (although we should point out that this particular person wasn't driving, but she was filling her car; another thing you really shouldn't do with a cell phone in your hand). In fact, we might even suggest that the company attaches a paint gun to mark the car, or even an EMP gun that can disable the offending cell phone.
Many states in the US have laws that require drivers use handsfree devices. Could this unit, which can be used as a mobile unit or mounted on poles to detect drivers passing by, spark a new round of cellphone legislation outlawing talking-while-driving altogether? Would that be a good thing or a bad thing? Sound off in the comments.
[IMG via TalkingDC]
|
|
Boston city opens TXT message crime tipline
Added on 2007-06-15 09:31:00
by Randall Bennett
 Boston City is implementing an anonymous tip line now compatible with text messages. Anyone in the city can text the word "tip" to "crime" (27463) and submit completely anonymous tips. This adds to the city's regular phone tip line, (800)-494-TIPS, which has been around for over ten years. Bostonians can text or call the number, submit their tip, and if their tip leads to an indictment, the tipster receives $1,000.
|
|
R U A LVR OR A TXTR?
Added on 2007-05-03 11:58:00
by Richard Baguley
 T-Mobile in the UK ran a competition to find the text poet laureate, and they’ve just announced the winners. The prize of $1500 went to Ben Ziman-Bright, who wrote the following poem:
Not even..
The wet rustle of rain
can dampen today. Your text
buoys me above oil-rainbow puddles
like a paper boat, so that even
soaked to the skin
I am grinning.
That’s a pretty nice poem, but I think that the second place should have really won for the unusual approach to spelling..
|
|
Cell Networks Swamped, Students Turn to Texting at Virginia Tech
Added on 2007-04-17 02:06:00
by Robert S. Anthony
|
 As the cell phone network in Blacksburg, Virginia wilted under the heavy demands placed on it by frantic Virginia Tech students and parents trying to contact each other, many cell phone users turned to texting to get their messages through. Thirty-three people were killed by a lone gunman during Monday’s morning shooting rampage on campus, according to news reports.
According to a Verizon Wireless spokesman quoted by the Roanoke Times, the cell phone network experienced four times its usual “busy time” usage Monday as news of the massacre spread.
[Via Roanoke Times]
|
|
|
|
| << Prev | Next >> |
|
|
