AT&T notifying customers via text of network improvements.

For as much as we rag on AT&T (and yeah, I kind of like it) it’s always nice to hear of something good coming from Ma Bell. Believe me, they need the good press more than anyone right now. On that note, AT&T released a network diagnostic app several weeks back that gave users the ability to send the diagnostic information back to AT&T. AT&T then in turn used said info to determine where to beef up their network. Some locations such as the heart of San Fran or Chi-town are a given — others not so much.

Either way, it does appear that AT&T is finally starting to get this whole company-customer relations thing, with reports indicating AT&T is sending out text messages to users, notifying them of upcoming network upgrades in their area. (See picture)

It really is nice to see AT&T reaching out and actually telling customers what they’re doing and where they’re doing it. Kind of makes that diagnostic app and submittal scenario worthwhile, huh? Any GS readers receiving text messages from Ma Bell such as the text above?

OhGizmo > Gizmodo

AT&T releases voicemail-to-text feature for customers at $9.99/month. Overshoots relevancy by $8.99.

For the longest time, voicemail was one of those that remained stagnant in the digital sphere. It was a simple service that was left behind as people of all flavors moved to more text based communications. Who had time for sifting through voicemails anymore? Then came visual voicemail. A revolution of epic proportions. Instead of being forced to listen to each message individually, now you could pick and choose what and when you checked your old time messages. And finally, voice-to-text/transcribed messages for voicemail brought the old voice based medium into the modern age with a means of delivering a voice message as text giving you even greater power with your mobile device. The service is become more widely available as popularity grows. One of the more prominent users of said technology is Google whom includes the feature freely in their Google Voice service. But not everyone has Google Voice. AT&T would like you to know that they too now have voice-to-text voicemails — for $9.99/month. Anyone thinking that’s a bit pricey for such a simple feature? Well, that’s because it is. Hmm, pay $10/month for something I can get for free or significantly cheaper from various other outlets or pony up? Ya, I’ll pass.

PhoneArena

Email to be extinct in 10 years? Eh, probably not.

While looking forward to the future, it’s always fun to think about what is “hot” now and how it will undergo the usual tech transformation into old, outdated, and dead technology. The telephone used to be an amazing wonderment of scientific engineering. Now it’s nothing special. Much the same, email was at one point the pinnacle of technological achievement. Today everyone including their grandma and maybe even her dog have at least one email address. So what type of lifespan or useful timeline can we place on email?

10 more years is all we’ve got with the electronic mail service if TalkTalk’s claims are to be followed. 10 years. That isn’t very long from now at all. Look how far we’ve come sense the first email was sent way back in the 60′s. Email hasn’t changed really. It’s still a simple file transfer service. Can it really be going the way of the dodo in as little as 10 years? I doubt that. In fact I guarantee email will be around for decades to come. TalkTalk bases their response on how snail mail has become less valuable over time as well as taken into consideration the how quickly technology advances and that ever exciting technology doubling rule — technology doubles every 9 months. At that rate, will email really be extinct in as little as one decade?