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Carrier IQ issues lengthy report on data collection practices, sticks to its guns
After having already tried to explain itself with metaphor, Carrier IQ is now taking its floundering PR campaign back to basics, with an ostensibly thorough primer on its practices and a slightly less convoluted defense of its privacy standards. This morning, the controversial analytics firm released a lengthy, 19-page document that attempts to explain "what Carrier IQ does and does not do." In the report, titled "Understanding Carrier IQ Technology," the company explains the benefit it offers to its clientele of network operators, many of whom rely upon Carrier IQ's diagnostic data to make sure their infrastructure is up to snuff. It also provides a breakdown of how it collects data, as well as a defense against Trevor Eckhart's findings, though, as you'll see, these arguments likely won't put this saga to bed anytime soon. Read more, after the break.
Carrier IQ VP says software poses no threat to user privacy, backs up his argument with metaphor
The final chapter of the Carrier IQ saga has yet to be written, but at this juncture, even the rosiest of rose-tinted observers would be hard pressed to find a silver lining. The specter of federal investigation looms larger by the day. Implicated carriers and manufacturers are washing their hands with Macbethian fury. Al Franken is on the verge of going Al Franken. And at the epicenter of all this sits Carrier IQ -- a California-based analytics company that has already gone to great lengths to defend its innocence. First, it sought to discredit Trevor Eckhart's ostensibly damning research with a cease-and-desist letter. Then, CEO Larry Lenhart flatly denied Eckhart's findings with an impassioned YouTube address. In recent days, the company has markedly softened its stance, arguing that its apps are only designed to meet operator demands and to "make your phones better." Now, Carrier IQ has elaborated upon these arguments with a more detailed breakdown of how its software functions, and a more substantive defense of its practices. Head past the break to read more.
India caps text messages to curb telemarketing, Desi teens plot mutiny
SMS-based telemarketing is a serious problem in India -- so serious, in fact, that the government has decided to crack down in a pretty severe way. As of this week, every Indian mobile user or company is allowed to send only 100 text messages per day, as part of a new anti-spam initiative from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The move is just the latest in a series of campaigns to combat a boom in aggressive telemarketing that, according to some, borders on harassment. Authorities say spam phone calls have already declined significantly since 2007, when the government instituted a national "do not call" registry, yet the problem persists, with many users complaining of receiving commercial texts during the wee hours of the night. Regulators seem confident that these new rules will go a long way toward solving this riddle, though some have been left wondering why India's millions of mobile subscribers should pay the price, rather than the spammers themselves. The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, is reporting that subcontinental telemarketers have already begun circumventing the new regulations by re-focusing their efforts on junk mail, ad-based Twitter feeds and other ways to be just as annoying as they ever were. [Image courtesy of Thomas Hawk]
Twitter opens up photo sharing via text message on some carriers
We're not exactly lacking in ways to share a photo on Twitter these days, but one key area that has been left behind is the venerable text message -- which is pretty important for the millions of people that don't have smartphones. While tweets via text have been possible since day one, Twitter has only just now opened up the ability to post a photo via MMS. That service is only available on some carriers initially -- AT&T, Verizon and Cellular South in the US, Vodafone, O2 and Orange in the UK, and Rogers in Canada, plus Vodafone Italy, VIVA Bahrain and TIM Brazil -- but Twitter says that it's working to bring the feature to additional carriers. Actually sending a photo via text is as simple as you'd expect (just attach it to your message and send it to the appropriate number for your country), but you'll of course have to be aware of any additional charges your carrier might impose.
NYC to trial mobile payment parking system, Lovely Rita looks for a new gig
Tired of burning your hard earned cash on parking fines? You might wanna move to New York City, where the Department of Transportation will soon begin testing a "pay by phone" parking system. The mobile payment technology, which has already been introduced in cities like Washington, DC and Atlanta, essentially allows drivers to pay for their parking spots without ever having to interact with those menacing, metallic meters. After registering online, users would be able to pay for curbside real estate by entering the number of the nearest meter and the amount of time they'd like to purchase into a customized app, or by texting it to the city's Department of Transportation. The system would also alert users whenever their allotted time is about to expire, allowing them to add more money directly from their handsets, rather than trudge back their cars. At this point, the plan is to roll out the pilot program to some 300 parking spots over the next few months, most likely in outer borough neighborhoods with plenty of commercial outlets and, presumably, automobiles.
2degrees users overloaded with random late-night texts -- the alcohol apparently not to blame
When we send out an embarrassing text message at 2am, at least we can -- in the words of Jaime Foxx -- blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol. Unfortunately for New Zealand mobile carrier 2degrees, pinning it on the Henney, just ain't gonna cut it this time. Early Wednesday morning, a few unlucky users were greeted by an influx of hundreds of unsolicited text messages. A few of those affected took to the company's Facebook page for answers, and were provided with the following response: Early this morning, a software implementation problem caused a small number of people to receive texts not intended for them. Our network team quickly identified the problem and resolved it by 2:30am. We apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this may have caused. On second thought, judging from the reactions that apology received, the outfit might have been better off using the Blue Top as a scapegoat.
Joseph Holmes photographs punctilious texters in NYC, encourages you to have a peek
Have you ever texted? Have you ever been photographed while texting? Were you in the vicinity of New York City, USA? If so, you may be one of the crowd in Joseph Holmes' newest art composition, as the self-proclaimed professional now has a growing library of individuals who seem to be shockingly focused on whatever they're texting. The gallery is quite simply called "Texters," and he shot 'em over a two month period and whittled that group down to just 26 amazing, wondrous panels of pixels. Hit the source to see 'em all, and yes, it's cool be inspired.
Sprint network is down in some areas, SMS and voice call services affected (updated)
Uh oh, according to the handful of tips we've received, it appears that Sprint is currently having some technical problems on its cellular network in some states. Specifically, customers aren't having much luck with sending text messages, while some are also not able to make voice calls. But don't worry, the carrier's certainly aware of this issue and is already working on a fix, so hang tight and let your fingers take a break -- we'll let you know when things are up and running again. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Update: Here's a statement we got from Sprint: "We did have some disruption to Sprint SMS traffic earlier tonight, but it wasn't a complete disruption -- we lost partial capacity for about an hour. Engineers immediately began rerouting traffic and after about an hour things went back to normal. There is no significant voice disruption anywhere in the US except for a small part of our Sprint network in the Washington, DC area. That has since been resolved and had no relation to the SMS disruption."
VoxOx Call for iPhone handles your virtual numbers, SMS, and faxes on the cheap
We're actually surprised that Telcentris' VoxOx virtual number service has never had a mobile app until now, but hey, better late than never, right? Hot out of the oven is the appropriately named VoxOx Call app for iPhone, which claims to match rival Google Voice's mobile offering but packs some extra goodies. For instance, this app syncs nicely with the VoxOx desktop client, so that you can handle your calls, text messages, voicemails, and faxes on both platforms with ease. And as before, there's no limit on how many virtual numbers you buy and add here, whereas with Google Voice you're stuck with one per account. Hit the demo video after the break to check out the full package.
Shocker! Instant messaging gains popularity as TXTing declines, BBM to blame
Apparently, those young'uns just love their BBM. According to a report by the research group Mobile Youth, young folk (read: those of you between 15 and 24) are increasingly abandoning SMS in favor of instant messaging apps, with texting expected to drop off 20 percent over the next two years. The main culprit? BlackBerry Messenger, which now boasts over 39 million users, many of them living outside the US. In fact, it's in the UK, Indonesia, South Africa, and Brazil -- all popular markets for BBM -- that Mobile Youth expects texting to dwindle the most. And if BBM is to blame, well, that drop-off could be just the beginning.
GSMA and Cloudmark cooking up an SMS spam reporting system
If you get just five spam text messages a day then consider yourselves lucky, as a Chinese mobile user could easily amass at least 30 messages daily, according to Cloudmark. Fortunately, said company has been working with GSMA and various network operators on building an SMS spam reporting system, which should help drastically reduce worldwide cellphone spam. The idea is rather simple: in a multi-country trial that ended last December, participants from AT&T, Bell Mobility, SFR, Sprint, Vodafone, Korea Telecom, and the Korean Internet & Security Agency forwarded suspect spam to "7726," which is short code for "spam." Cloudmark's cloud-based system would then be able to identify and block these messages in the future, be it scams, linkbaits, or just ads from perverse companies. While this sounds like a perfect solution, it's not entirely clear how much this service would cost the operators, but hey, it's never too early to start a petition if you need it that badly.
Israel to activate SMS-CB missile alert system next year
This one's been talked about since the middle of last year (at least), but it looks as if the time for contemplating is over and done with. It's bruited that the Israel Defense Forces will be moving forward on a plan to light up a new cellular system that will blast out SMS-CB alerts to citizens if and when a missile is fired in the direction of Israel. Just over $7 million will be invested, with the application itself being jointly designed by eVigilo and Ericsson. If all goes well, it'll be operational in June of 2011, and it's just one aspect of the country's effort to consolidate all emergency alerts into one centralized system. We're told that the blasts would be sent in a variety of languages, and there's even potential to send 'em to TVs, radios, websites and "billboards." And unlike various other SMS emergency alert systems that have been implemented, these would actually differ based on how the threat was forecasted to affect different geographic regions. Something tells us eVigilo's going to become a multinational company in no time. Update: eVigilo pinged us with a few extra details surrounding the service. For starters, it'll be using SMS-CB (read: not standard SMS) in order to circumvent core networks that tend to collapse during emergencies. This will enable the messages to bypass any congestion and hit all users at around the same time. The alerts would be delivered geographically, not to a specific number of users, with tests proving that "millions" could be reached within 20 seconds over 3G. Besides broadcast over mobile networks, the company will also connect to the national TV network using DVB and offer also DAB reaching digital radio subscribers. Additional capabilities will be given through multicast over IP (Billboards, Variable Message Signs and social networks).
iPad 3G works on T-Mobile, can be hacked to send text messages
Here's a pair of interesting iPad 3G hacks for your lazy Sunday -- first, Apple's tablet is apparently unlocked out of the factory, so trimming a T-Mobile SIM to micro SIM size will get you up and running on EDGE with no further hassle. Not terribly useful in the States, but good news for Europeans who'll have several carrier options right out the gate. Secondly, MuscleNerd of the Dev Team has discovered it's apparently possible to send text messages from a jailbroken 3G iPad using a T-Mobile or non-iPad AT&T SIM -- the stock AT&T SIM restricts SMS and calls, apparently. Check videos of both hacks after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
China sent 23 billion text messages during Chinese New Year
23 billion text messages in one week, with 13 billion from the first two days alone. Pretty mind-boggling, isn't it? And this 10 percent growth in the number of gung-hey-fat-choi messages is the work of just 747 million phone users in China -- imagine what would've happened if all 1.3 billion people in the country had a phone during Chinese New Year. Throughout the same period, China also produced 1.33 billion MMS messages -- a staggering 40 percent increase from last year -- while China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom operated 127.6 percent, 19.5 percent and 15.7 percent more voice calls respectively. Looks like someone's bagged themselves some extra red pockets here. Now, any guesses for next year's figures?
Pinger's Textfree delivers billionth free text message
Among the many methods available for getting around AT&T's stronghold on text messaging and the exorbitant rates associated therein stands a giant in the form of an iPhone application. Pinger's wildly popular app "Textfree" puts the power back in the hands of users by creating a simple and elegant way to text message your contacts without running up the wireless bill. Today, Pinger announced that they have reached a significant milestone. In the short 10 months that Textfree has been available on the App Store, over one billion messages have been delivered. This huge amount of messages represents a staggering savings to Textfree's users and shines a spotlight on the innovation that Pinger has brought to the iPhone ecosystem. I had a chance to talk with Greg Woock, one of the co-founders of Pinger Inc., about the success of Textfree as an individual app as well as Pinger's strategy for App Store success. Hit the read link to check out Pinger's success story.
DOT bars bus drivers and commercial truckers from texting while driving
It's coming. And soon. Of course, you know darn well we're referring to the day where no human in any nation can text and drive legally, and we're seeing the US Department of Transportation get us one step closer with its latest mandate. Effective immediately, bus drivers and interstate commercial truckers are disallowed from texting while operating a motor vehicle, and should they choose to send that one last SMS anyway, they'll be hit with "civil or criminal fines of up to $2,750." Needless to say, the Advocates for Highway Safety are pretty stoked about the notion, but they confess that this isn't taking things far enough. And for anyone who has been sideswiped by someone special telling someone more special "I LUVRZ U XOXO LOL" while doing 80 on the I-15, well, they'd probably concur.
Apple dreaming of object identification, new messaging UI in iPhone OS patent
Seriously Apple, what's up with the patent application bender? Over the past week, we've seen a whole gaggle of new apps, though the latest few just might be the most intriguing. In essence, Apple engineers have outlined plans to integrate object recognition, face detection / recognition, a text message filter (for the parents, you know) and a new, smarter messaging interface that could remind you of unread messages before allowing you to make a call and spout off unnecessarily. Moreover, we're told of a new voice output selection that could enable Oprah or Cookie Monster to read your turn-by-turn directions, bedtime stories or recipes. Suddenly, iPhone OS 3.0 feels so... antediluvian.[Via Unwired View]Read - Unread messages applicationRead - New messaging interface applicationRead - Face detection application
Apple patching nasty iPhone SMS vulnerability
Given the hype surrounding Apple's iPhone, we're actually surprised that we haven't seen more holes to plug over the years. In fact, the last major iPhone exploit to take the world by storm happened right around this time two years ago, and now -- thanks to OS X security expert Charlie Miller -- we're seeing yet another come to light. Over at the SyScan conference in Singapore, Mr. Miller disclosed a hole that would let attackers "run software code on the phone that is sent by SMS over a mobile operator's network in order to monitor the location of the phone using GPS, turn on the phone's microphone to eavesdrop on conversations, or make the phone join a distributed denial of service attack or a botnet." Charlie's planning to detail the vulnerability in full at the upcoming Black Hat conference, but Apple's hoping to have it all patched up by the end of this month.[Via HotHardware]
Boost Mobile says SMS bottleneck to clear up by May 7th
So Boost Mobile's $50 per month free for all hasn't gone exactly as planned, with a surge in the carrier's customer base exacerbating excessive text message delays that have been known to plague Boost and Nextel in the past. The house of "Where You At" has acknowledged the issue, with spokesperson John Votava telling the Wall Street Journal there'll be a fix in place specifically by May 7th. He said the number of new customers that have signed up has overwhelmed the company, and with SMS a still growing trend, that iDEN network's gonna have to either get in better shape or wait for enough frustrated customers to leave and reach a more stable equilibrium.
O2 sees a record 166 million text messages fly during New Year's celebration
If Americans really send twice as many text messages as Europeans, we'd hate to see the figures from the Big 4 here in the States. According to O2 UK, a record 166 million text messages were sent over its network in a 24-hour period that ended at 7:30AM on January 1, 2009. For those not exactly near their abacus, that breaks down to around 1,900 messages per second. Furthermore, over 16 million texts were saved by O2 subscribers using its own Bluebook backup service, though we can't imagine "HNY09!one1!1" messages being all that compelling to revisit, say, every day after 01/01/09.[Image courtesy of Israelity]
