Tag: COMMUNICATION

Libyans may not be able to rely on their own national networks to access the Internet, but they can still get online the old-fashioned way, thanks to a small Dutch ISP called XS4ALL. Users with modems can log into XS4ALL by dialing +31205350535, and entering xs4all as both the user name and password. The downside is that accessing the ISP will require Libyan users to pay international calling ...

Share As anticipated, Facebook unveiled its revised messaging product today. The site's roughly 500 million users send over four billion IMs and Facebook messages everyday (though only about 350 million actively use the Facebook messaging platform). These numbers make it clear that part of Facebook's future relies on it's relevancy as a communications platform, and thus the launch of the ...

This isn't exactly a news flash, but today's teenagers send a lot of text messages. According to a new report from Nielsen, kids aged between 13 and 17 send and receive an average of 3,339 texts per month -- the equivalent of more than 100 per day. Adults text their fair share, too. The average 45- to 54-year old sent and received 323 texts per month during the second quarter of 2010 -- 75-percent ...

It'd be hard to find a chunk of society more profoundly influenced by mobile technology than the deaf and otherwise hearing impaired. Ever since the dawn of the smartphone era, deaf cell phone users have been able to communicate more easily with the rest of the world -- and, for the first time, have been able to do so on their terms. Day-to-day life at the Alabama School for the Deaf in ...

As recently as the early 1990s, a stint in the Peace Corps meant going off the grid. Now, according to an NPR report, Peace Corps volunteers are staying connected to friends and family back home via Skype, e-mail, texting, Facebook or even phone calls. "When they go back to their homes, instead of turning out the kerosene light and going to bed, they can get on Skype and they give a quick call to ...

Google Wave, only a couple of months past its first birthday is no more. The highly anticipated (and hyped) re-imagining of communication and collaboration for the modern era stunned us with its incredible capabilities and questionable utility. After opening to the public in May, Wave failed to attract the user base Google anticipated. Instead, when faced with a drastically different paradigm for ...

Here's a scenario: you're cruising along in your submarine at a depth of 1,200 feet, and one of the fresh-faced midshipmen does a spit-take all over your commanding officer's face after he asks the young cadet to wipe the leaking stopcocks in the engine room. You grab your cell phone to send a text to your buddies ashore: "LOLZ!!1 Swabbie spits on CO, hilarity/the brig ensues." You hit 'send.' No ...

There's no denying the hype around the iPad, but, apparently, humans aren't the only mammals who are intrigued by Apple's tablet. According to a press release (PDF) from Speak Dolphin, a bottlenose dolphin named Merlin recently learned to communicate using the iPad. Merlin, who resides at a research center in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico, is shown an object, like a ball or plastic duck. Then, trainer ...

What's the number one problem plaguing today's youth? Drugs? Please. Sexting? Psh. Justin Bieber? Close, but no. It's paper, you guys. In today's e-mail and SMS-dominated age, kids have simply lost touch with the core American values of good penmanship and environmental recklessness. And that's why the altruists at the Domtar paper company have taken it upon themselves to launch a new awareness ...

Rather than sit back and do nothing while his son struggled to communicate, one British father created a program to help his autistic child communicate. Autism is a difficult disease for both parents and children to manage. According to BBC News, Stephen Lodge's Speaks4Me program allows its user to form sentences by dragging and dropping onscreen images in a particular order. Stephen's ...

Texting your way to carpal tunnel syndrome at the age of 16 is extreme, but what about the rest of America's teenage youth? Has texting now replaced actual speech as teenage lingua franca? A recent survey conducted as part of the Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project finds that 75-percent of teens now own cell phones, up from just 45-percent in 2004. Researchers also find that ...

Remember that scene in 'Avatar' when the crippled marine runs for the first time in his new body? We know it brought a tear to your eye. Well, a group of scientists and engineers (think of them as a nerdy version of the Justice League of America) recently gathered at M.I.T. to discuss bringing this concept from the big screen to real life. According to Singularity Hub, these guys want to ...

As the death-knell of e-mail begins to toll, many Web trackers have been inspired to explore the ramifications for the future of cyber communication. Two years ago, surveys revealed that many teens believed e-mail to be an aging Web dinosaur, as 80-percent of those polled had already turned their attention to social networking. According to the Wall Street Journal, the rest of the world is ...

If you don't acknowledge that the speed at which information travels has drastically increased over the last two centuries, you're either painfully oblivious or dead. But have you ever wondered to what degree, exactly, we've become spoiled by instantaneous access to information from around the globe? Well, your answer might lie in a chart that Beebo has pulled from the book 'A Farewell to Alms.' ...

If you grew up with a few brothers and sisters, you know there are certain unspoken rules when it comes to food. You have to move fast without being noticed to get the last fish stick. According to a new study, it's not just humans who can learn these survival rules; robots can, too. Technology Review reports that a team of scientists at Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de ...