UK ATMs set to offer WiFi access, free for BT and iPhone users

[Via Tech Digest]
British posts

Telemarketers-turned-inventors from the United Kingdom have started shipping TrueCall (£99.99), a device that acts as an automated secretary on your land line, either forwarding trusted numbers to your phone or answering untrusted numbers with an automated message and shooing them away. When an unrecognized number dials in, TrueCall asks them who they are and then rings you asking whether or not you want to take it. Sure, it's not the most fun way to automatically ditch unscrupulous callers, but we'd like to listen in on the conversation when a robocall reaches this baby -- it'd be like one wall talking to another wall.
We'd swear this had to be some sort of spoof on the impeccable James Bond, but sadly enough, the whole thing is true. A secondhand Nikon Coolpix camera which sold on eBay for a mere £17 ($30) turned out to be a real bargain once its new 28-year old owner completed his first image dump. Along with decidedly decent snaps from his US vacation, he also found a number of "top secret" images, diagrams and sketches that have since been confirmed as MI6 material. We're talking photos of rocket launchers, hand-drawn graphics of terrorist links and all sorts of other information not at all intended for civilian eyes. 'Course, the whole thing could just be the act of one talented Photoshopper, but we highly doubt the agency would be so fortunate.
We already knew that UK motorists caught driving while texting (or vice-versa) could face a penalty of two whole years in the slammer, but now it seems that merely talking while controlling a motor vehicle could land you in the exact same predicament. Reportedly, British drivers caught chatting on a handset or sending an SMS while on the road "could be jailed" under new guidelines that are expected to be published. In the most extreme cases, they could be tagged with "dangerous driving, which carries a two-year maximum sentence and an unlimited fine." Currently, these folks simply get slapped with an "automatic fine and three points on their license under the lesser charge of careless driving." But honestly, it's not like prison would be so bad for cellphone addicts -- after all, we hear some cells over there actually provide service.
That $150 Medison Celebrity we glanced a few days back seemed to smell a bit fishy from the get-go, and a recent press release from the firm does a fairly terrible job of assuring us all otherwise. Typically, one's in dire straits if it has to address mass concerns of scamming, and Medison is now blaming the unexpectedly large amount of orders and "tremendous" amount of website hits and support calls for an apparent "shift in the time frame" in which customers will receive their orders. Granted, the company still promises that it will deliver, and now claims that your money will be returned if your machine isn't received in three months. Ah well, it's not like you had better things to do with your cash than let someone else earn interest on it while you fret over ever seeing it (or a laptop in its place) ever again, right?






