Posts tagged Sms at Switched

Posts with tag sms

At Last, US Folks Send More Text Messages Than Europeans

by Lee Bains, posted Dec 4th 2008 at 3:19PM

While text messaging continues to increase in popularity and generated revenue for cell providers, the average US texter sends twice as many messages per month than the average European subscriber, Textually.org gleaned from the Washington Post's coverage of a Portio Research study.

Researchers at Portio project that the end of the year will see a revenue of $130 billion generated by text messaging and expect, by 2013, that number to reach $224 billion. Also featured in the report is the statistic that the country most taken with texting is the Philippines, with a Filipino texter averaging 755 messages per month.

No matter how you slice it, the increase in the popularity of texting in the US versus Europe is a milestone, especially considering how for many years the balance was quite the opposite. Throughout the late '90s, text-messaging was popular in Europe, while US folks barely used the service. This was due to most stateside carriers making it difficult to send messages to all phones outside of their own networks. But now that someone with a Sprint phone in Kansas can send a mobile message to an iPhone in Japan, for example, the United States has finally become a nation of texters.

Continue reading At Last, US Folks Send More Text Messages Than Europeans

Text Messaging Launches on Gmail and Google Chat, Finally

by Tim Stevens, posted Oct 31st 2008 at 1:45PM

We love Google's Gmail service, with its gigabytes (GB) of free storage and clean interface, and we also love keeping up with friends using the Google Talk chat service. The two have long been integrated, enabling you to chat in real-time from within the Gmail page, but now Google is adding another dimension: the ability to send SMS text messages to phones as you would to another person on Google Chat.

You can now send a chat message to a mobile phone number and Google will send that message as an SMS to the recipient's phone, all without charging you a dime. The only catch is that the text will appear to come from some random number in the 406 area code, but Google is indicating it will associate that number with you uniquely, so that your friends can reply to that number and you'll get the text as a chat response. Google is currently rolling out the feature to Gmail users, and by the end of the day you should be able to enable it by clicking on "Settings" and then on "Labs" if you're so inclined. Of course, this is nothing new to AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger users, who have been able to send text messages to cell phones for several years now. [From: Webmonkey]

Government Bans Cell Phones For Train Operators

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Sep 20th 2008 at 12:01PM

Following the horrible train crash on September 12th, the National Transportation Safety Board has banned train operators from using cell phones on the job, at least until a complete investigation can be preformed. Investigators in California found that Robert Sanchez, the engineer on the California commuter train, had been texting while operating the train. The accident occurred when Sanchez blew through a red stop light and plowed into a freight train. 25 people were killed in the collision (including Sanchez), and 135 were injured.

This is not the first transportation mishap to have possibly been caused by cell phones, either. In June, two San Francisco street cars collided, injuring 16, while one of the drivers was using his cell phone. Last August, a teen was hit by a train while texting, and he fortunately survived.

There are currently no federal safety regulations regarding the use of cell phones by train engineers, but most rail companies ban their use. Following a complete investigation, the emergency ban on cell phones may become permanent, which is probably a good thing. We frown upon texting while driving, so it only makes sense to ban the practice when hundreds of people's lives are in your hands. [From: Washington Post, Via: Textually.org]

Does Text-Messaging Cause Brain Damage?

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Sep 18th 2008 at 5:25PM

New research indicates that sending text-messages with your phone is not only dangerous, but also possibly damaging to your brain. According to the Sydney Morning Herald and the BBC, researchers in the UK have discovered that a particular region of the brain, ratio communis, flickers and goes dark when patients use gadgets like GPS and cell phones.

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) has gone as far as issuing a warning not to text or use a cell phone when doing any sort of activity. Don't text and drive, bike, skate, walk, or sleep. In fact, it seems that the ACEP would like us to ditch out texting plans altogether.

We'll be honest, we're a little skeptical here. While we'll buy the BBC's assertion that texting and driving is worse than drinking and driving (after all it isn't the first time we've heard as much), we can't really believe that text messaging literally shuts down a portion of your brain (especially not a portion of your brain Wikipedia has never even heard of). We haven't seen the research or the brain scans, but nothing we can think of would logically explain such an occurrence.

We still don't recommend texting while doing anything that might require any attention (including driving), but we're taking this flickering brain activity thing with a grain of salt. [From: Sydney Morning Herald and BBC, Via: Textually.org]

Senator Investigating Increasing Text Messaging Prices

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Sep 10th 2008 at 11:10PM

Rising text messaging costs are annoying, but it turns out they might also be criminal. Senator Herb Kohl (Democrat, Wisconsin), a prominent member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who heads up the subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, has targeted the cell phone companies for suspiciously anticompetitive practices.

A couple of years back in 2005, just about every cell phone company in the country simultaneously decided to increase their text messaging prices from ten cents a message to twenty cents. Normally, in a competitive marketplace (especially in the world of technology and gadgets), companies force each other to lower prices and try to undercut each other, but most cell phone providers seem to be in lockstep price-wise.

Kohl is also worried that this uncharacteristic increase in fees occurred at the same time the mobile field was consolidated from six companies to four. With the Verizon buyout of Alltel on the horizon, Kohl fears further price hikes and more trouble for the consumer. [From: USA Today]

OMG, US Txtng Brks Rcrd

by Chris Ziegler, posted Aug 28th 2008 at 2:45PM

Ready for some truly staggering figures? VeriSign has reported that it delivered some 95.4 billion text messages between US carriers in the first six months of the year, setting a new record. Single-day and single-hour records were also set in the same period -- 648 million and 42 million, respectively -- proving that Americans are finally warming up en masse to text messaging as a totally valid means of communicating, probably thanks in no small part to the proliferation of devices like the enV2, Rumor, and Blitz. If you can call the complete bastardization of the English language used during texting "communicating," that is. [From: RCR Wireless News]

Obama Text-Message Reached 2.9 Million People, Says Nielsen

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Aug 26th 2008 at 11:56AM

Barack Obama's text message announcement of Joe Biden as his vice president was sent to 2.9 million people. If Obama didn't have an unlimited texting plan, that would have been a pricey $290,000 bill.

According to Nielsen, the text messaging stunt was the single largest mobile marketing event in the U.S. Despite the fact that the media reported on Obama's choice before anyone in the campaign could press send, Nielsen still called it "one of the most important text messages even sent and one of the most successful brand engagements using mobile media."

The Obama campaign was able to build upon the already inflated interest over VP choice and collect even more contacts to ad to its database of supporters. All-in-all a successful outing, even if it did get scooped. [From: CNET]

Air Traffic Controller Text Messages Airplane to Safe Landing

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 25th 2008 at 8:40AM

Here's something you don't hear ~~everyday~~ ever: an Irish air traffic controller helped guide a seriously malfunctioning plane to a safe landing via text message. In a story that's admittedly tough to fathom, a pilot with four passengers aboard his twin-engined Piper plane lost all on board electrical power, communications and weather functions soon after he lifted off.

In an effort to establish any form of contact with someone back on the ground, he phoned a controller at the Cork airport and spoke only momentarily of his troubles before losing voice signal. The quick-thinking controller decided to switch up his conversation method to texting, eventually providing sufficient details to safely guide the pilot in. Can you say "promotion?" [From: Irish Times via Slashdot, image courtesy of StarWars Blog]

Text Your Friends Fake Obama Vice President Announcements

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Aug 22nd 2008 at 3:00PM

Got an Obama supporting friend you really want to confuse?

Follow a bit of advice from Wonkette and use one of those semi-anonymous text messaging sites to send a fake message announcing that that Barack Obama has chosen (Hillary Clinton, Gary Glitter, etc...) as his Vice Presidential nominee. No doubt your Obamaniac friend is sitting, sweaty palmed, by his cell phone waiting for the text message from the campaign that will tell him or her (and millions of other supporters) who Obama is giving the VP nod, before an announcement is made to the press. Of course, as with everything else, as the methods get more high tech, the results get easier to spoof.

Most cellphone providers offer text messaging via the Internet, just set the 'from' and 'reply to' number as 62262 and draft up a formal looking message along the lines of:

"As a thanks for all your support we wanted you to be the first to know that Barack has chosen _____ as VP"

Then laugh when your friend calls you frothing with rage. Disclaimer: We are not responsible for any physical violence that might befall you as a result of this gag. [From: Wonkette, Via: Textually]

Michael Phelps Inundated With 7,000 Facebook Friend Requests

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Aug 20th 2008 at 2:32PM

Well if you want to become one of the most popular figures on Facebook, we've got a surefire way to rocket to the top -- break a couple Olympic records. In the days following his historic race into the record books, Michael Phelps has received well over 7,000 friend requests on the social networking site du jour (first Friendster, then MySpace, now Facebook, next -- FriendFaceSpace).

In an interview with Bob Costas on NBC, Phelps was told he had blown right past some of the biggest stars in the world (including Michael Jordan, Miley Cirus, and Will Smith) in terms of Facebook popularity. The swimming superstar (there's a phrase we never thought we'd hear) was swamped with four to five thousand text messages in the days following his record breaking race.

We really hope he has an unlimited texting plan. [From: USA Today]

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