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AT&T teams up with the state of Tennessee to start text-to-911 trials
Verizon's certainly at the forefront when it comes to involving text-based emergency services with mobile devices in the US, and thus it's natural for rival AT&T to have to keep up in this department -- much like with those Long Term Evolution rollouts. The good news is that AT&T has announced it's partnering with the Tennessee administration in hopes of taking advantage of the state's "next-generation" 911 IP infrastructure; one which has been in the works for a few years now. Naturally, the trials are limited to AT&T subscribers in The Volunteer State, and for those folks the text-to-911 process will be as self-explanatory as it sounds, with the Rethink Possible carrier taking care of all the backend work by sending such messages to emergency call services. While it's indeed only a small chunk of the country, it's definitely a step in the right direction -- that said, only time will tell how efficient this solution can be.
Texas man foretells dire outcome: messages 'I need to quit texting,' before driving into ravine
Despite our love of gadgets, we're not willing to give any slack to people that text while driving, and for one good reason: it's freaking dangerous. You've heard the grim stories before, but few incidents resonate to the heart of the matter like that of Chance Bothe from Texas. Despite his better judgment, the young man was texting a childhood friend while trying to bring the conversation to a close by saying, "I need to quit texting, because I could die in a car accident." That message was followed by one more, an unfortunate, "b right there." Regrettably, that final text caused him to miss a slight curve in the road and careen into a ravine. Chance is alive today -- thanks in large part to the fact that the accident was witnessed -- but the recovery hasn't been easy. In addition to a broken neck, a number of fractures and severe head trauma, he's already undergone two facial reconstructions. In the wake of the accident, Chance's friends and family have founded UnSend, an organization that dedicates itself to raising awareness about the dangers of texting and driving. Chance, too, is using his experience to educate others: "They just need to understand, don't do it. Don't do it. It's not worth losing your life."
Data-hungry crowds spoil Olympic TV coverage, archers alerted
With an opening ceremony celebrating social media and a guest appearance by the father of the world wide web, you would think the games are pretty Twitter-friendly. Well, not so much, as the hordes of London have been told to keep non-urgent texts and tweets to themselves to avoid disrupting TV coverage for those who weren't lucky enough to score beach volleyball tickets. The recommendation comes after broadcasters bumbled through the men's cycling road race due to a lack of available data from the cyclists' GPS. The information bottleneck appears to be related to one specific network and sharing the data burden has been discussed, although probably not via Twitter. The IOC knows that telling the masses not to log on likely won't have any impact -- so, what's next for the data haters.
Ofcom: Texting is more popular than talking
Ofcom's annual report into the communications habits of Britons has revealed that it's not just geeks who stare in annoyance when the phone rings. The general consumer is now abandoning voice calls is favor of texting in a big way, making five percent fewer calls than they did the previous year. The numbers also showed that on average, people send 50 texts a week, smartphone ownership was up 12 percent and tablet purchasing shot from 2 to 11 percent in a single year. The trend isn't slowing, either, given that a whopping 96 percent of 16 to 24-year-olds prefer SMS and Facebook to talking -- giving us hope that we'll soon be spared having to listen to that guy's conversation during our morning commute.
MightyText launches in earnest, enables browser-based texting through your Android phone number
Nah, it's not exactly iMessage (or BBM) for Android -- in some ways, it's better, but it lags behind in others. MightyText has launched in earnest today, graduating from its Chrome-only beta state and opening up a world of new messaging possibilities for those with Android handsets. In order to gain access, users need only install the free app linked below on an Android 2.2+ smartphone, and then install a plug-in at the company's website into your browser of choice. Once synced, you'll be able to view, send and reply to messages through your Android phone number, with no additional charges added at any point. The only niggle is that this is still SMS; unlike iMessage, which utilizes data, you won't be able to use this as a loophole to send messages whilst using Gogo on a plane, or using a WiFi hotspot in an international destination. The SMS still gets routed through your phone, so you'll still need a texting plan (or a pay-per-text plan) and a solid cellular signal to make the magic happen. For those still interested, the links below are beckoning.
Virgin Mobile adds $40 payLo unlimited plan for talk and text types
Virgin Mobile's feature phone arm just added a third tier, delivering unlimited talk and texting, along with 50 megs of web access for $40 per month. This offering joins Sprint's other payLo budget offerings, including an entry-level option that includes 400 minutes of talk time for $20 per month, and a $30 monthly plan that delivers 1,500 minutes, 1,500 texts and 30MB of data. Overage charges are quite hefty, at $0.10 per minute, $0.25 per message and $1.50 per MB (ouch!), with the option to reset the counter instead by starting a new month once you hit the threshold. Considering that the plans are designed for feature phones (which are seldom used for anything but basic web access), the tier limits do sound manageable -- perhaps even a deal, if you talk a lot and never browse the web. The payLo plan can be paired with any of Virgin's feature phones, which range in price from $15 (for a sold-out LG101) to $50 (for a QWERTY-equipped Kyocera S2300). Get the full scoop from Sprint in the PR after the break.
Texting: the truth serum of the 21st century
The University of Michigan and The New School for Social Research has found that if you want someone to tell you the truth, you should text them. Dispensing with the lie detector for job interviewees, academics found that people gave more honest and detailed answers via SMS than over the phone. The team believes it's due to the lack of time pressure and not having to produce a pleasing answer for your interrogator. If the findings continue to provide similar results, it looks like Steve Wilkos could be replaced with a smartphone.
Animated Color Messages pops your Messages text
For a buck, Animated Color Messages from SSA Mobile can add a certain flair to your iOS Messages conversation. It's a simple app to use. You choose a font, a text color or background pattern, or even a typing animation, and the app constructs a gif for you, pastes it into the system keyboard, and offers to hop you over to Messages. There, you create a new message, paste, and send it. The app couldn't be easier to use and a quick store search shows this app category is fairly popular on the store. As these things go, Animated Color Messages was easy enough to use, did what it promised on the package, and offered a range of choices to customize with. It was a tiny bit of a pain to keep jumping in and out of Messages to compose, send, read, and reply, but the app did the best it could to minimize that pain. I actually felt the app would be improved with fewer choices and more focus on recommended style combinations. As it is, there's a lot of fonts, tons of colors, and more textures than you could shake a stick at. Joining these into well-designed suggestions could add a way for the app to stand out more tangibly amidst the competition. The target audience for this app appears to be tween girls.
Verizon takes the lead on text to 911 services
The FCC first outlined its intention to allow texting to emergency services back in 2010, and since then despite more talk of accepting photo and video messages, nothing official came to be. This week, however, Verzion has taken the initiative, and announced its own plans to enable text to 911 for its customers. Working with TeleCommunication Systems, the big red hopes that it can facilitate the sending of SMS messages to emergency call-centers as soon as early 2013. Texting isn't just about adding communication options, it also provides a valuable tool to the deaf, hard of hearing and situations where talking is dangerous, or not possible. The service will use existing CDMA and SMS networks, and therefore should be available to all customers once finally rolled out.
Facebook Messenger update makes it even harder to blow people off
Your friends just don't get it. While they're still bumming around in Nikes, dorms and doomed relationships, your life has recently become more serious. That's why you sometimes need to hide from their constant, mindless barrage of messages, and also why you probably won't install the newly updated Facebook Messenger app v1.7. In line with FB's "mobile first" strategy, it debuts key new functions on iOS and Android, including instant and compulsory "seen by" read receipts as well as optional "sent from" notifications. So, in addition to knowing how aloof you've become, they'll be able to track you down and slap your face.
Google+ expands SMS support to over 41 countries, lets you stay social over text
On the off chance your cell phone is of the decidedly dumb variety, Mountain View's engineers have worked out an alternative solution to keep your Google + circles intersecting. Initially available only for the U.S. and Indian markets at the time of the social service's launch, the search giant's expanding the reach of its SMS feature to over 41 additional countries, giving users the option to post updates, as well as receive and reply to notifications via text. The feature isn't standard, so if you want to opt-in, you'll have to enable it in the settings menu first, provided your carrier is supported. Luddites that like to have their online cake and eat it too, might want to make sure they're packing an appropriately capacious mobile plan before those thumbs get to banging away. Of course, the rest of you modernists are more than welcome to join the party, but why would you?
TextSpresso machine brews caffeinated goodness via text messaging (video)
The folks at Zipwhip may have unwittingly discovered a new business model. While the company is primarily focused on cloud messaging services, it's recently created an espresso maker that allows employees to whip up custom brews from the comfort of their mobile phone. Known as TextSpresso, it's based on the Jura Impressa XS90, but unlike the retail model, the machine accepts orders via SMS. As if that weren't enough, it's part of a larger system that's capable of printing employee names onto the foam (using edible ink) and then placing the drink onto a warming tray. TextSpresso is very much a custom job, but if you'd like an inside peek of the system -- complete with servo motors, an Arduino microcontroller and a retro-fitted Canon printer -- be sure to hop the break and dream of what could be.
Virgin Mobile USA restores service, apologizes for the inconvenience
A dozen or so hours after the carrier came clean with its most recent outage, Virgin Mobile USA service has been restored. Data, texts and calls should be flowing normally now, and the company has stated that those still experiencing issues should "try removing your battery and restarting your device." Not recommended? "Visiting your nearest T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon or Boost Mobile retailer." Curious, right?
Researchers find fewer words being added to languages, fewer ways to tell you precisely that
What if one of the words in this post means absolutely nothing in the year 2094? It's possible, and more possible than ever before. That's according to recently published research from a group at the Institutions Markets Technologies' Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies in Italy, who have found that fewer new words are being added to languages today than in eras prior. Despite the proliferation of the internet and untold new ways to communicate, more and more words are being eliminated while fewer words replace them. It's hard to pinpoint the exact reason(s) why, but most gurus suggest that reliance on rigid spellcheck tools and the rise of short-form communication have made it less necessary to find new ways to say things. You can read more on the findings there in the source link, where we're sure master wordsmiths will be saddened by the lack of descriptive flair.
Nokia penalised for texting tips to Aussie users, regrets not adding unsubscribe option
Here's a bit of bad news for those who actually enjoy receiving Nokia's regular tips via SMS: Reuters reports that the Australian Communications and Media Authority has slapped the Finnish company a hefty A$55,000 ($58,000) fine, with the reason being that there was no way to unsubscribe from said messages. This kind of flaw sure is a surprise at this day and age, but Nokia's already taken action by simply axing this spammy service entirely in Australia, while at the same time "ramping it down elsewhere" just to be safe, according to Reuters. If Pope Benedict is still going about his texting business over there, we sure hope he won't be next on the Aussie naughty list. [Image credit: Ester Inbar]
Did you fire off a bunch of texts this Christmas? Welcome to the museum
Finland might be the spiritual home of the SMS, but it also proves that this ancient form of communication is going the way of the rune stone. A mere 8.5 million texts were sent over the country's Sonera network on Christmas Eve, versus 10.9 million on that festive day in 2010. The same trend was spotted on other Finnish networks and also on the other side of the world: Christmas Day texts in Hong Kong were down nearly 14 percent on the year before, and Telstra in Australia experienced a nine percent year-on-year decline over the whole of 2011. Things are different in America, where texting has continued to grow, but that growth seems to be slowing down and some analysts expect "SMS erosion" to hit Verizon and AT&T by 2014. The obvious culprit is mobile internet: social networking apps, BBM, iMessage and a host of other 'free' options, but you won't find carriers complaining -- data contract ARPUs suit them just fine.
Google Voice for iOS joins the mass texting party
Well, it's about a month and a half behind its Android counterpart (and what feels like decades behind the web interface), but the iOS Google Voice app finally (finally!) has support for multi-recipient texting. Version 1.4.0.2372 adds few other nice tweaks, including one touch copy and paste on the dialpad and a larger text entry field with a character count but, obviously, the mass texting capabilities here steal the show. So hit up the App Store to update now and start spamming all your friends.
People more likely to lie when texting, according to UBC research
It's so much easier to be deceitful when you don't have to actually look into somebody's eyes, right? That's what a study conducted by the University of British Columbia figured out. Here's how it was done: 170 students were brought in to perform mock stock transactions using one of four methods -- face-to-face, text, video or audio. Brokers were promised higher monetary compensation for more stock sales, while buyers were told their reward would all depend on the value of the stock. The brokers were given inside information that the stock was rigged to lose half of its value, while buyers were only told after the transaction was over and were asked to report on whether or not the brokers were deceitful when selling this stock to them. The study analyzed which method produced the most lies and found that buyers who used texts were much more likely to report deception, while video chatting was the least. Skeptical about your significant other's text that says they're just at their friend's house or washing their hair? See if you can Skype them instead. Check out the full results of the study after the break.
CEO bans email, encourages social networking
Who needs email when you have text messaging, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and a menagerie of alternative communication tools? Not Atos, a French IT firm that's planning to give email the boot. Over the course of the next eighteen months, CEO Thierry Breton hopes to ween 80,000 employees off of the old standby, pushing text messages, phone calls and face-to-face chats as alternatives. Breton strives to promote a collaborative social network similar to Facebook or Twitter to fill email's void and suffice as an easily accessible global network. Having himself been email sober at work for three years, Breton claims email is inefficient, and a burden to the workflow. Will this new social environment promote efficiency, or will pet photos and status updates become the new spam? If employees can't keep their social inclinations under wraps, Atos may have to resort to the Medieval carrier pigeon. Delivery estimates for long distance range from five days to never.
LG DoublePlay makes its official intro on T-Mobile, offers dual-screens and split keyboard
Where have all the split-keyboard phones gone? It's been roughly six years since the days of the Nokia E70, a messaging device with an innovative form factor, but handsets with a similar mold have become extreme rarities in the market -- if they even make it to the market at all (remember the MotoSplit?). LG's hoping to gain some ground in this area by officially announcing the DoublePlay, a unique Android 2.3 handset with dual touchscreens and split QWERTY. Here's the scoop: the DoublePlay's powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU and offers a 5MP rear-facing camera capable of capturing 720p HD video. Where it gets interesting, however, is in the DoublePlay's design -- it uses a 3.5-inch display on top, sliding out to reveal a 2-inch internal screen sandwiched in between both halves of the keyboard. As it turns out, both screens can be used separately or in tandem with each other, depending on your needs. No pricing or availability was specifically announced, but the presser appears to coincide with the 2011 National Texting Championship beginning October 26th, so the phone will likely launch around the same time. Perhaps we have a device here that'll be a legend in another seven years?
