Items tagged with SMS
By early next year, the nation will have a new way to call for help--via text message. Verizon Wireless announced that it’s working on a service to provide SMS-to-911 capabilities, which it says will be operational in early 2013. Simply put, the emergency service will allow anyone to send an SMS message to a 911 call center, also known...
Read more...
Whoa, wait a second -- text messaging is on the decline? Well, not entirely, but it's certainly not shooting through the roof from a global perspective any longer. Once thought to be the number one killer of voice minutes, texting seems to be on the decline in a few locales around the world. According to M.G.I...
Read more...
Do you remember what you were doing 19 years ago today? Odds are high you didn't own a mobile phone, though you may have been rocking a beeper (yes kids, beepers used to be cool). But believe it or not, the very first SMS text message was sent off nearly two decades ago, much to the bane of linguists who twitch every time they see a shorthand...
Read more...
Recently, the launch of the Child ID app proved that the U.S. government wasn't scared of tapping into modern-day, consumer-friendly tech to provide a service to the American people. Now, the FCC is pushing for 911 texting. The Federal Communications Commission is envisioning a project called Next Generation...
Read more...
Apple's App Store seems to be exploding with new content, and this week it's gaining yet another notable mention: CloudTalk. As both the cloud and IM become hot topics of conversation, the two are combining in a new social messaging app for iPhone and Android, claiming to "bring voice back" to social interactions. The new version of the CloudTalk...
Read more...
A pirated version of an Android app is actually a Trojan that "shames" someone who installs it by sending an SMS message to all his contacts telling them of his piracy. The original app is called Walk and Text, and costs $2.10 in the Android Market. The app uses the camera on the back of a smartphone to show a user a visual of his upcoming...
Read more...
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added a set of acronyms from text message speak into its compendium of the English language. WTF? Among the new inclusions are LOL, OMG, and FYI. With those additions, we can now freely toss those terms around anywhere we like. The OED calls these "initialisms." As much as these terms are associated...
Read more...
Computers have reached the point where they can beat chess champions. So is it hard to believe that a chess champion might cheat by using a chess program and an elaborate scheme using text messages? That's what happened last year in Siberia, during the 2010 chess Olympiad. At least, that is what authorities believe...
Read more...
Spam text messages are an annoyance, and perhaps more so than spam email, as each spam SMS message could cost a subscriber who doesn't have an unlimited messaging plan money. However, in this case a spam text message prevented a suicide bombing, saving hundreds of lives. Russian security forces reported on the incident with a so-called...
Read more...
Voice usage on mobile phones is going down, as more people migrate to texting, emailing, and social networking apps on their smartphones. It's particularly evident among younger people, and the FCC isn't blind to it: the FCC is reportedly looking into the possibility of allowing the public to send SMS messages and even stream video from their...
Read more...
T-Mobile has been sued by mobile marketing firm EZ Texting, one of those firms that provides those short code ad campaigns (text phrase x to number y). EZ Texting alleges that T-Mobile blocked EZ Texting from access to their network because of a client, weedmaps.com (AKA legalmarijuanadispensary.com), whose site provides information on medical...
Read more...
General Motors has been pushing OnStar in their vehicles for what feels like forever. At this point, OnStar and GM just go hand-in-hand. We've come to expect it in new GM vehicles. But the technology hasn't really evolved a whole lot over the years, at least to technology driven consumers. But the world has moved on...
Read more...
A recent report showed adults are just as likely as teens to text message while driving. That may not be all that surprising, but a new report is: it shows that half of mothers text message while driving. The survey, conducted by by BOHAN Advertising for its WhyMomsRule.com blog, show that among mothers with text messaging service on their...
Read more...
Teenagers are usually pointed to as the prime miscreants when it comes to texting while driving. Not so fast, says Pew Research. Adults text while driving, too. The results of the report are somewhat shocking: adults are just as likely to text as teens, and more likely than teens to talk on a cell phone while driving. That second point perhaps...
Read more...
Wouldn't it be nice if your wireless operator shot you a free text message or e-mail whenever you were quickly approaching your monthly minute limit or text limit? Wouldn't it be great if you received some sort of alert whenever you touched down in a foreign country and were about to incur roaming charges for making calls or using data in...
Read more...
We would take these figures with a certain grain of salt, but based on our own experiences with texting and the societal changes that have followed, we actually tend to find the numbers quite believable. MocoSpace is a social network that strives based not on web views, but mobile views. Thus, most anyone involved in...
Read more...
Ready for a real shocker? That texting and driving habit you've been trying to kick may not be as bad for you as the insurance companies have led you to believe. Of course, we would still recommend putting the phone down while you're driving (we're speaking for all those cars around you, for the record), but an...
Read more...
Texting and driving is already illegal for citizens in a number of US states, but now commercial truckers and bus drivers are also going to be included on the "do not text and drive" list. The Department of Transportation enacted a new rule this week that bars those classes of drivers from texting while operating...
Read more...
Think you thumbs are quick? Think again. LG, which has long been a supporter of finding out just who exactly can text the fastest in this zany world of thumb-friendly communicators, has just announced that Yeong-Ho Bae, 18, and Mok-Min Ha, 17, of South Korea are the (new) fastest texters on the planet. Hear that? On the planet! The duo defeated...
Read more...
The risk has been confirmed, right down the the number of times your crash vulnerability is increased. Matching an earlier study by the Michigan State Medical Society, a new study says that accident risk is increased by 6 times by texting drivers. The only issue is that people don't seem to be willing to change their behavior, sans legislation.The...
Read more...
It's time we, as a nation, came to grips with something. No, we're not about to go on some rant about healthcare, and we aren't talking about the Federal Interest Rate, we're talking about something far, far more endearing to the US public. Yes folks, we're talking about texting. Hold your gasps, please. But feel free to send your immediate...
Read more...
We've already learned that Wi-Fi is more important than food within an airport, and we've seen just how popular in-flight Internet has become, so it's not at all surprising to hear that Americans are eating up mobile broadband and e-mail services. In a new consumer study entitled "Mobile Convergence: Platforms...
Read more...
