Items tagged with SMS
For years, police have struggled with an anti-snitching culture that has made witnesses afraid to come forward with information that could help solve a crime. Now, police from across the country are getting help from anonymous text messages sent to text-a-tip programs throughout the country.Boston is one of the first cities in the country...
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What seems to be a plethora of studies and research prove that text messaging while driving is dangerous. Despite this, a new Pew Research study (.PDF) shows that 1/3 of teens aged 16 and 17 text while driving.Here are some of the highlights, or rather, lowlights, of the report: 75% of all American teens ages 12-17 own a cell phone, and 66%...
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Wait a second, a wireless operator advocating against texting and driving? Is 2012 upon us already? In a move that can only be seen as a ploy to generate some positive PR, Verizon Wireless has just launched a Don't Text And Drive ad campaign, despite that fact that the sending and receiving of text messages is incredibly lucrative for carriers...
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While Apple enabled MMS functionality in iPhone OS 3.0, AT&T has, according to the company, held back rolling it out because of potential network issues. In other words, AT&T is saying, "We're not ready!" At least AT&T was saying that. In addition to setting a hard date of Sept. 25th for a rollout of MMS functionality to users,...
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We've seen report after report asserting that children, teens and even adults text like there's no tomorrow. According to Nielsen Mobile research, the average teenager with a cellphone sends and receives a grand total of 2272 text messages per month, or about eleventy billion per second of every day. All joking aside...
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When Apple released the iPhone OS 3.0 firmware, there was much angst over the fact that MMS would be included in the package, but not for AT&T users (there has also been angst over lack of tethering but that's another story). Two, count 'em, two lawsuits have been filed over the delays in rolling out MMS, which AT&T said was coming...
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Text messaged every single person on earth already? An Australian website is offering you the chance to send a text message into space. You have until 07:00 GMT Monday, Aug. 24th, 2009 to sign up. The site, HelloFromEarth.net, is accepted SMS style messages (meaning 160 characters or less) which will eventually be sent into space, directed...
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Ever wonder what would happen if you texted some incomprehensible message to "911?" If you're a resident of Black Hawk Co. in Iowa, you'll probably get some attention--pronto! This week, an emergency call center in the basement of the county jail in Waterloo, Iowa became the first call center in the United States to...
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One day after security experts announced their iPhone SMS hack research at the Black Hat Security Conference, Apple released a patch to address the flaw. Experts revealed on Thursday that malformed SMS messages could be used to hijack an iPhone. Originally, an O2 spokesperson was the first to reveal the upcoming fix, noting that the patch...
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A chink in the iPhone's armor? Say it ain't so! During a presentation at the SyScan conference in Singapore, security researcher Charlie Miller made clear that there was a significant vulnerability in the iPhone's SMS system, a flaw that could "allow an attacker to remotely install and run unsigned software code with root access to the phone."Of...
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For decades now, roaming charges have ate at the nerves of travelers. If there's one thing that has always been classified as a "rip-off," it's cellphone roaming charges, particularly international charges. No matter which carrier you have at home, you can rest assured that you'll be healthily gouged while talking, texting or surfing while...
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For all the parents out there who can't stand to see their kids text during meals, during family reunions and during study sessions, here's a note: that obsession could land them $50,000 and fifteen solid minutes of fame. Just eight months after getting her first cell phone, Iowa's own Kate Moore managed to out-text 20 other finalists from...
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If you need any proof that while some states have such laws, we should probably have a federal law against text messaging while driving (or maybe even some technology), here's a great example. This bus driver, in San Antonio, TX, is trying to text, while driving disabled passengers to their destination. He pulls the phone out, and starts texting,...
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Well, it was too good to last. Infinite SMS, the iPhone app which offered an infinite number of SMS messages by utilizing the SMS chat feature of Google Talk, is no more, as Google has closed off those APIs from third-party developers. To be clear, Google’s free SMS feature isn’t gone. They’ve only blocked non-Google apps like Infinite SMS...
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Google is having a bad few days. First it labeled the entire Internet as malware, then it sent legit mail to the Spam folder as a side effect of the first issue. But things continue to go wrong for Google, as last night users of the SMS Search feature received message after message ... after message in return. The SMS Search feature allows...
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Technology created to prevent phone use while driving has been hanging around for years, but apparently, there are still quite a few issues to be worked out before it's completely viable. A couple of products in particular -- which are generally designed to disable a driver's cellphone in order to prevent calling and texting while switching...
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A phishing scam, in 140 characters or less? That's what we have here, as a phishing scam apparently hit Twitter on Saturday. According to Twitter, If you receive an email notice saying you’ve received a Direct Message with a link that redirects to what seems like Twitter.com, be careful about entering your Twitter credentials. Instead, look...
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Text messaging may be more popular then making phone calls, but as of the New Year, California drivers have to resort to the old school style of talking to people, at least while driving. In September of 2008 California banned text messaging while driving, effective Jan. 1, 2009. Lest California drivers forget, they still need to use a hands-free...
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Earlier this DriveAssist unveiled its cell phone stopping tech, software designed to detect when a cell phone is moving at car speeds, at which point the phone would essentially be disabled. A new, competing technology called Key2SafeDriving aims to do the same thing, but in this case relying on hardware as well as software.Key2SafeDriving...
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In October, Google toyed around with a feature that let you send SMS text messages from Gmail. After hitting a few snags, the company ended up pulling it. Now, this feature is back, and it appears it’s here to stay. This new Labs feature combines IM and texting, allowing you to chat from your computer and making it possible for your friends...
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A British surgeon volunteering in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa used text messaging to help him perform an unfamiliar surgical procedure, saving a teenager's life. David Nott was volunteering for the French medical charity Medicin Sans Frontierescame (A.K.A. Doctors Without Borders) and when he first saw J he knew he was dying,...
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Oh, well. It sounded so good, and it would have been, too: Gmail adding, through its Labs, the ability to send SMS messages through Gmail Chat and at the same time associate a permanent phone number with your account. Normally, a temporary ID is set, but this would have enabled you and your friends to SMS back and forth without worry. You...
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