Entries tagged with “text” from WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

U.S. Cellular is now offering a text alert service "Overage Protection."Here's how U.S. Cellular's Overage Protection works:

Existing and new post-pay customers can sign up by visiting a retail store, contacting customer service or accessing their account at uscellular.com. New customers who activate service on uscellular.com can also request that Overage Protection be added on to their account.

The customer decides who will receive the alerts. Once set-up is complete, the service runs nightly, calculating their usage. If a predefined threshold is reached, a text alert will be sent the next day during normal business hours.

ZoomSafer, has released a fully original music video entitled "Little Words" to help promote National Teen Driver Safety Week.

"Distraction from the use of mobile phones is causingan increase in auto crashes among all age groups, especially among teens who are prolific texters," said Matt Howard, co-founder and CMO of ZoomSafer. "We've partnered with an incredibly talented recording artist and have crafted a powerful music video that people can relate to and that poses an important and straight forward question about the practice of texting and driving."

The images are more then "Little Words" because a smashed up car just isn't pretty. To view the video "continue reading."

Teens have very distracted driving habits according to second annual Vlingo Consumer Mobile Messaging Habits Report The Vlingo report finds 60 percent of teens admit to reading incoming text messages while driving.

Text messaging has overtaken the phone as the primary communications medium for teens. According to the Vlingo study, 94 percent of teens use their mobile phones to send text messages. Fifty-four percent send more than 500 text messages per month and 79 percent send more text messages than make phone calls. Teens use text messaging primarily to communicate with friends (72 percent).

While 62 percent of teens support making driving while texting (DWT) illegal, only 34 percent favor making it illegal if a hands-free solution was available. Notably, teens are in favor of technology that would make DWT safer. Ninety percent of teens would use a technology solution that let them speak text and email messages by voice and have incoming messages read to them while driving instead of typing.

CNN News doesn't always practice what it preaches which Jon Stewart pointed out on the Daily Show.

He starts the introduction with a "he-he-he-he-he."

Yes,  texting while driving is dangerous reported CNN. But CNN also showed off the latest CNN iPhone app for traffic updates while using an iPhone in traffic.

Jon Stewart does an eye-opening rendition of what could happen with the CNN iPhone app while driving.

The "Texting While Driving Dangerous" story was reported on CNN a day after the show, showing off the iPhone CNN app with traffic updates.

Verizon and  the Advertising Council are offering a public service advertising campaign to help teens deal with "textual harassment," privacy issues and pic-pressure.

The new PSA's for Verizon Wireless' Mobile web service, and Verizon FiOS Internet and Verizon FiOS TV show  "That's Not Cool. " It helps teens deal with digital dating abuse There's a teenager guy in a cell phone sending and receiving all kinds of text and then asks for something "Not Cool."

At the website, sock puppets and Barbie dolls discuss digital issues:

• My boyfriend texts me asking where I am all the time.
• My boyfriend wants pics.(without clothing of course.)
  
• A guy I'm seeing spies on social networking sites.

They feell pressured, uncomfortable, confused, and down right disrespected.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children NCMEC has issued a policy statement regarding sexting. The statement is a product of extensive dialogue with leaders in the field, and was developed with the strong involvement of the American Bar Association's Center on Children and the Law.

Okay folks, you text while driving and cause accidents. Shouldn't you give your dear dentist and break and not be texting while in the dental chair? Just think of the mistakes you will make while breathing the "happy-air." Personally, I wouldn't want my dentist to miss anything with a pick and drill in his hands.

More than four out of five dentists surveyed by the Chicago Dental Society revealed that patients send and receive text messages on their cell phones while receiving dental care.

The survey was conducted between July 16th and July 25th via email and among dentists in the Chicago Dental Society's Facebook Fan Page.

In addition to the dentists who said their patients regularly text in the dental chair, 46 percent said this habit hampers their ability to provide care. The high number of dental chair texters is also surprising, given that 32 percent of the dentists indicated they have a cell phone/mobile device policy posted in a visible location in their office.

As students go back to school they are probably having sticker shock when they see the price of college text book. If you don't want to keep the text book you can rent it for about a third of the cost. One little SMS with an ISBN number could save a lot of cash.

Textbook rental service, Chegg.com, has launched an SMS service and a mobile site to provide instant price quotes and instant savings to students across the country.

To use the SMS service, students  text 44144, enter 'ISBN' followed by the book's ISBN number and they'll instantly receive the rental cost from Chegg.com.

The new mobile site from Chegg.com is available at m.chegg.com, allowing users to enter the book's title or ISBN number and receive the rental cost via email.

There are many applications for smartphones especially the BlackBerry and Palm Pre that help you while you are traveling.  Not everyone has a global phone that will roam with you all over the world.  So what can you do if you are stuck in a country with a simple prepaid (most likely Nokia phone) without an iPhone and need to know if your flight is on time?Just send a text message with the flight number to AeroStatus, they will deliver the current flight status information right to your mobile phone - instantly and free.(SMS charges will apply)

• You can choose to have automatic alerts about flight status changes sent to you.
  
• If there is a delay in the departure of the flight, you will receive an update with the new departure time.
  
• As soon as the flight departs, you will receive a message confirming the time of departure and the estimated time of arrival
  
• Once the flight arrives, you will receive the final update, confirming the time it landed.

They claim you can stop guessing about delays and avoid searching for internet access to check the flight time. This service can save a lot time if you are a "textual" person.

With AeroStatus, you can get information about any flight, any time, from all over the world, in your preferred language, instantly.

Here's how it works:
Send the flight number including all letters and digits (example: XYZ123)

by text message (SMS) to:

+44 7786 209009 or

+1 212 722-7777

Then you receive a text message back with flight status. You can also email status@aerostatus.com

According to NBCNewYork.com a teenage girl fell into a uncovered sewer while texting on Victory Boulevard on Staten Island. 

The girl, Alexa Longueira, 15, received some scrapes on her arms and back after she fell into the sewer hole.

The family plans to sue. The Department of Environmental Protection said that they walked away to grab some cones while Longueira plunge into sewage.

"Oh my God, it was putrid," Kim Longueira, Alexa's mother said, "One of her sneakers is still down there."

Here's the text Ms.Longueira should have been reading, "OMG! Look @ the hole in the grd, stop. Bye BFF."

There are  Android, iPhone, BlackBerry apps for how to exit the subway for the fastest route, perhaps a man-hole map could come in handy.

The third annual LG U.S. National Texting Championship, concluded  with 15-year-old Kate Moore from Des Moines, Iowa as the winner. Moore, won the title of the LG U.S. National Texting Champion, along with $50,000 in prize money by texting on an LG enV3.

The winning phrase was "Zippity Dooo Dahh Zippity Ayy ... My oh MY, what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine Comin' my way ... ZippittyDooDahZippityAay! WondeRful feeling, Wonderful day!" which Moore completed flawlessly in less than 60 seconds. The contestants used the new LG enV3 phone, the newest edition in the enV family, which features a full QWERTY keypad.

"When I heard the final phrase, I got so nervous and thought how can I finish that!" said winner Moore. "But apparently, my thumbs are faster than everyone else's! I'm so excited to be this year's champion."

Kate told AP:

"Let your kid text during dinner! Let your kid text during school! It pays off .Your kid could win money and publicity and a phone."

More frequently sent 4,000 texts-per-month, eight months after she got her first cell phone.

Moore won the title of texting championship after beating step sisters Erin Fink, 15, and Morgan Dynda, 14, both from Pooler, GA. The two sisters and best friends drew gasps from the crowd as they went head to head in a semi-final texting showdown in which Dynda came out on top, placing her in the final round where she competed against Moore.

AT&T reported that more than 78 million text messages crossed its network as fans interacted with American Idol -- the highest total for any season and more than double the 78 million messages AT&T reported last year.

97 million votes were cast last Tuesday night. From that 97 million, were the 78 million generated from text messages through votes, trivia contests, and other SMS content.

Text message traffic counted in the tally includes not only text votes but also other ways fans interact with the show via text, such as answering weekly trivia questions, opting in to receive voting number reminders, submitting questions to AT&T-hosted chat sessions with outgoing contestants, and participating in AT&T's sweepstakes.

More than twice as many AT&T customers played weekly Idol Trivia via text this season versus last.

The number of AT&T customers who opted in to receive voting number reminders--a weekly text message listing all of the IDOLs and their voting numbers--was 70 percent higher than last season; fans who opted in for vote number reminders this season sent nearly twice as many text votes than did the overall voting population.

IDOL contestants lit up AT&T's ringtone leaderboard this year. At one point during the week of May 10, AMERICAN IDOL tones comprised 15 of the top 100 ringtones.

Verizon Wireless has filed a lawsuit against Pennsylvania-based Money Warehouse, Inc. (doing business as All State Mortgage Lender) and other John Does alleging they sent at least 800,000 wireless spam messages promoting mortgage products to Verizon Wireless customers and employees beginning in February 2009.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Trenton, N.J., alleges these unsolicited messages were sent using an autodialer to randomly-generated numbers in violation of the Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits the use of an autodialer to call wireless phones.

"At a time when many Americans are concerned about making their mortgage payments, these types of unwanted text messages, from unknown senders, can be upsetting," said Steven E. Zipperstein, vice president and general counsel at Verizon Wireless. "Our company will continue to work diligently to stop these people who break the law and harass our customers."

Paying per text can be expensive. 13-year-old Dena Christofferson's texting aggravated her father, Greg Christofferson of Cheyenne Wisconsin when her texting, sky-rocket the family's wireless bill to $4,756.25.

Dena's father purchased data plan from Verizon Wireless that excluded texting. Dena sent and received almost 20,000 messages in a month, or around 700 texts sent and received per day. Christofferson's reacted as any father might, he smashed the handset with a hammer.

Another dilemma, Dena had to deal with was that her principal called the family soon after the phone bill debacel and told her parents that the teenager was getting several Fs on her report card. Dena was grounded as well cell-less.

AT&Tclaims teens and text-happy adults will enjoy the LG Neon, a low-cost touchscreen device available in the coming weeks. The green and white quick messaging phone features a full keyboard, 2.0 megapixel camera, and access to Instant Messaging, Mobile Email, AT&T Music, and the mobile Internet. It also has Bluetooth, and an FM radio.

The LG Neon apparently, is the same as LG KS360 with a similar full QWERTY keyboard, 2.4" touchscreen display as well other functions such as IM, connections to social media and general overall look of the phone.

The Neon is EDGE-only, which will not allow for streaming video or full-track music downloads. You can, however side-load tunes via USB.  The LG Neon will sell for $29  with a new two-year AT&T contract, it should be available towards the end of April.

Integra5, the leader in delivering next-generation communication experiences across TVs, PCs, mobile and DECT phones, and Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc. announced a partnership to allow mobile operators to extend their reach with the delivery of social, SMS-centric applications to multiple devices - based on Integra5's new MediaFriends application suite.

Deployed in the mobile operator's network, Integra5's platform is uniquely able to route SMS messages between the Sybase 365 mobile messaging platform and users' mobile phones, TVs, PCs and DECT phones. In addition to mobile operators, the partnership also benefits video providers and programmers, enabling the deployment of new TV-based services that incorporate SMS - such as Integra5's MediaFriends TV Chat - with no wireless network requirements.

Integra5's MediaFriends is a new suite of social media applications that allows users to participate in real-time group or one-on-one chats using mobile phones, TVs, PCs and DECT phones. The first phase of the suite, MediaFriends TV Chat, delivers a social entertainment experience on the TV. Using a remote control, viewers can invite friends to watch TV programming together and engage in chats by sending text messages via their mobile phone and view the conversation directly on the TV. The next phase - MediaFriends PC Chat - expands the experience by allowing users to view and participate in multi-device chats directly from their PCs.

Foursquare is mobile friend finder, meet n' great game by the creator of DodgeBall, Dennis Crowley.  DodgeBall was sold in 2005 to Google. Foursquare works as an iPhone app, via text or the mobile web.  It's kind of like, Twitter with benefits.

Members create a network of friends in the service.  When friends arrive at a nightclub or other social hotspot, they "check in" to Foursquare via a text message, mobile web or the iPhone application. In other words, the way Foursquare puts it, "tell us where you are and we'll tell your friends where to find you".

Members earn points and badges. Frequent attendees to certain night spots get to be the mayor of the joint.  Currently, Foursquare is  available in Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

ChaCha is now offering ways access live sports scores for March Madness. ChaCha is introducing ThmbSavrs abbreviations that enable fans to send shortcut texts to ChaCha (242242) and receive live sports scores, news and updates quickly.

Unlike other mobile search services that do not recognize these shortcuts, and require exact keyword search matches to return search results, ChaCha will answer fans' queries no matter how customers ask - even if questions are spelled wrong.

Fans can get up-to-the minute information easily and quickly with a shortcut system that recognizes the way fans refer to their teams. For instance, ChaCha ThmbSavrs enables customers to shorten, "What is the score of the Gonzaga game?" into "Score Zags."

"Basketball fans can call 1-800-224-2242 or text 242242 and ask any question as if they were calling or texting a smart friend. Now with ThmbSavrs, we provide live score feeds for fans that want instantaneous, real-time updates," said Scott A. Jones, CEO of ChaCha.

"We experience a huge surge in questions during March Madness and football season, and our new sports search capability is, literally, a game changing capability for on-the-go fans that use their mobile phones to track their teams' scores. Even when our customers are in a rush and they type or spell their favorite team's name wrong, ChaCha can handle it."

A report from In-Stat finds the most profitable data service is still text messaging.  Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) technologies provide potentially endless revenue streams for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). In-Stat found the following:

•  Users are sending more than 2 trillion mobile messages per day globally as of the end of 2008.
•  In-Stat consumer survey showed that consumers that use mobile messaging also use significantly more voice minutes than overall survey respondents.
• US mobile messengers are also more likely to pay up to 25% more for their handsets than all survey respondents.
  

"SMS may be a basic, cheap technology, but it still has much life as a MNO cash cow," says Frank Dickson, In-Stat analyst. "The keys to SMS profitability are its ease-of-use, inexpensive price tag, global reach, and increased reliability as infrastructure development increases in more rural global regions. In developed areas, however, it has become increasingly important for mobile operators to find ways to enhance and personalize the SMS service offering.

VeriSign predicts 1.4 billion mobile messages wll be delivered nationwide on Inauguration Day.

Due the historic nature of the inaugural, and Obama's ties to heavy users of messaging technology, VeriSign expects the Election Day record of 803 million messages carried on its network that was set on Nov. 4, 2008 to be broken.

VeriSign estimates mobile messaging to increase by approximately 15% on the day that Barack Obama and Vice President-Elect Joe Biden take the oath of office and Obama then addresses the nation for the first time as president.