If you live in California, frequently commute via bike, and resort to yakin’ or texting it up as you move along be warned. California is coming for you — your phone specifically. Apparently the texting/phone ban while driving is doing so well, the state of California wants to pass along the law (and fines) to bicyclists. The first offense will cost you $20 with each subsequent offense dinging your bank account another $50.
Considering the traffic that major California cities can have, we don’t see how you could (or would want) to talk on a phone while navigating traffic and people during rush hour. But if there’s a will there’s a way we guess…
While we tend to cater more towards the mid to high-end cellular market, the truth of the matter is that there is still a massive demand for lower-end smartphones and less complex connected devices. Take for example, the data-only Peek. It’s not a phone and it’s not a web browsing device. In fact, when the device was first launched in late 2007, the only supported feature on its monochrome screen was email. By this years introduction of the Peek9, weather, RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook and several other bits of information have been thrown into the mix as well as a full-color display. With the Peek 9 encroaching ever further into the world that smartphones typically cater to, can it and the company survive?
Since Apple didn’t have a fun childhood (or iPhones), they have to take the fun out of ours! If it isn’t one thing it is another with this company. Now, I am a huge Apple fanboy — have been since my Dad’s Apple deuce years and years ago, 20+ years in the making to be the stuck up snob I am today…But this is just getting ridiculous. Yes, their app rejection has become a little less fascist if you will, but it seems they do more and more to stop us from living our lives the way we want to.
The latest smack to our faces is that Apple was awarded a Patent today for filtering sext messages. Yes, you heard that right! Apple can now control the text messages we send back and forth. This is just basically uber parental controls for your kids’ iSlutPhones. But really…Why not have our parents educate our children from being slutbags and teach them respect for others and not to be complete arseholes. I see 8 year old children walking around telling me to “get the F*** out of my way” whenever I set foot into a Wal-Mart. Yes, that is because I am in a Wal-Mart, but still! This kind of censorship should start with the parents, not with Apple allowing them to slack off at teaching their kids things and giving them a lazy way out.
**Sweet jesus…I meant “hole”…not “whole”. And the Mondays strike again…**
Feel like chttn it ^ in SMS form at 60 feet under? Most tech savy humans know that such feats are impossible due to the impenetrable nature of our sweet mother earth. You know how it is, rock and dirt decimate cellular signals. But a young 16-year old kid by the name of Alexander Kendrick spent his free time tinkering with gadgets alone in his room instead of drinking behind the garage with his buddies is now on track to becoming a scientific hero with his new invention. Meet the collapsible, underground cellular tower.
Being able to send quick text messages when deep underground has its obvious benefits with danger and bodily harm being two chief reasons. In it’s current form (pictured above), even being collapsible the tower is still a bit unwieldy and large to tote around. Researchers and companies already marketing the underground cell tower are working on making it smaller — much smaller — so that it can actually be carried to and deployed in the tightest spaces of the deep underworld.
Besides saving countless lives in the future, cutting cave rescue times dramatically, and bettering spelunking as a whole, Alexander also managed to make out with a new computer, a trip to Switzerland, and $12,000 in cash for entering and winning his invention in the 2009 International Science Fair. Bravo Alex.
As if the wireless world couldn’t suck any more for consumers, AT&T is going ahead and fucking us all over. While the now standard practice of requiring a data plan on smartphones is ridiculous enough, being forced to pay for a messaging plan against your will is downright highway robbery. Now to be clear, this isn’t a retro active rollout or one that would affect someone who is simply changing their voice plan. This new AT&T raping is strictly for new activations. Gee, lucky new AT&T customers huh? And so we come to the dirty details.
Phones requiring messaging at activation: Pantech Reveal, Pantech Impact, Motrola Karma, Samsung Flight, Samsung Impression, Samsung Magnet, Samsung Solstice, Samsung Mythic, Samsung Propel, LG Xenon, LG Vue.
–As you can see, these aren’t necessarily “high-end” phones. I don’t know how much time many of you have spent with the onscreen keyboards on some of these “feature phones” but the harsh reality is that they suck. They’re utter garbage. Moving on…
Minimum “Quick Messaging Phone” Cost: $20…on top of your normal voice plan. That $20 breaks down into $5 for an allotment of 200 SMS/MMS and the $15/month required “unlimited” data plan.
–Seriously?! How can AT&T think this is in any way “good” for business? I understand some people are idiots and don’t buy a messaging plan, racking up eye bleeding overage charges. But you know what? That’s their problem. Why penalize users who don’t want or need a messaging plan. It’s that insatiable greed factor in capitalism that is so frustrating and maddening when companies such as AT&T abuse the system and take advantage of their customers.
To recap, the only people benefiting from this new change is AT&T and their pockets. The thing that is the most disturbing is that as prevalent as common as text messaging is these days, it isn’t a “necessity”. You can go your entire life using a cellphone and never send/receive a text message yet still communicate just fine. So how is it legal to forcefully charge someone for something they don’t want nor will ever need? It’s bullshit is what it is. Yet another reason I’m glad to not have to associate myself with AT&T.
Furthermore, if AT&T really were “looking out for the customer”, they wouldn’t charge $5 for 200 measly text messages. It’s no secret anymore, we all know how text messages cost next to nothing to send and receive. AT&T could easily toss in 500 or even 1,000 text messages and bump up the allotments on the other texting tiers accordingly.
Am I alone in thinking AT&T has crossed into a new level of asinine?
A troubling feature of new cellphone activations of late is that if the phone is considered a smartphone, (or if on Verizon, any phone remotely capable of reaching some stripped down WAP page) the carrier forces you to sign up for a monthly data plan. It’s great for the companies bottom end but beyond ridiculous for everyone else. But that’s nothing compared to a new trick that may be up AT&T’s sleeve.
According to one of BGR’s highly secretive ninjas, AT&T is looking at requiring not only data plans on certain phones, texting plans as well. Now as much as I hate the practice, I can kind of rationalize and understand the data plan. Besides, what good is a smartphone without a data connection? But requiring a texting plan? There are still plenty of people on the planet that despise texting. I just don’t see this going very well if it does in fact materialize into a fact.
After spending slightly over one year with an iPhone, I have become pretty well versed in the world of soft keyboards. Though with my Moto DROID I’m finding myself using the real keyboard more often than not. Part of the reason is that I just like the real keyboard better. Chalk up a second reason to the soft keyboard in Android being just “ok”. The great thing about Android however is that it’s open to be everything and anything you want it to be. With that said, if you don’t like the stock keyboard, just change it.
Those in the world of Windows Mobile or Android may already know of a great app called “Swype” that makes texting much easier by allowing you to drag your fingers from letter to letter instead of tap-lift-tap-repeat. Added gesture support for things such as capital letters and so on is an added treat. But Swype isn’t alone in this mobile soft keyboard war.
Introducing “ThickButtons“, a new soft keyboard text entry app that is a little more “old school”. While Swype uses a new and innovative method for onscreen text entry, ThickButtons attempts to breathe new life into an old method. Instead of dragging your finger from letter to letter or the old tap-lift-tap-repeat, ThickButtons uses text prediction algorithms to enlarge the keys you’re going to use next in order to make typing easier, faster, and with less errors. The increase in size is roughly 15-20% — just in case you were wondering.
The concept is pretty intriguing and something I’ll definitely want to check out in the months ahead. Look for ThickButtons to drop for Windows Mobile 6.x and Android devices this March. Stay on top of the news by following ThickButtons at @Thickbuttons.
If you haven’t heard, the next up and coming touchscreen tech is Swipe. It is an alternative method to inputing — in this case sliding — text onto a touchscreen device. Instead of tap tap tappin’ away, Swype users can simply slide their finger from one letter to the next providing quick and fluid firing of words and thoughts.
This innovative new mobile app was first seen and launched exclusively on the Samsung Omnia II. That phone in particular is nothing special — at least to more hardcore, powerusing geeks such as us. The iPhone would seem like a great candidate for such a feature, however, any legitimate Swype app submitted to Apple would certainly get the ban hammer for it meddles with core elements of the UI. That leaves us with Android. Some may be saying “hold on a sec, what about BlackBerry?”. Well, the Storm and Storm 2 are the only touchscreen Berries around and frankly, even the new touchscreen Storm isn’t that great. Not to mention, the whole clicky nature of the screen registering input sort of throws a monkey wrench in the slide-to-spell functionality of Swipe. Moving on…
Mobile Crunch’s Greg Kumparak has been enjoying some hands on time today with the upcoming Android version of Swype. Overall, Greg thinks it’s “great”. Honorable mentions include easy and quick learning curve (or lack thereof), robust word complete and guessing, and fast operation that doesn’t hamper host device, among others. Sounds awesome! A picture is worth a thousand words. A video…? A lifetime story. Go ahead, give it a look…
Fancy the BlackBerry do you? If you have any number of friends or colleagues that you converse with on a regular basis, you’ve no doubt encountered the various IM services that are available. Talking to individuals on all of those separate accounts used to be a chore — until multi-chat apps came along that is. BeeJive IM (formerly “JiveTalk”) is by far the best looking and performing multi-chat app for BlackBerry. Back in my BlackBerry days, I used BeeJive. It was fast, easy to use, and a lot more visually appealing than other BlackBerry chat apps at the time. Even till this day, BeeJive has a better fit and finish the most competitors.
Personal experience and jubilee aside, I’d like to announce to you that BeeJive has released BeeJive 2.0 RC 1. Now, if you’re not tech savvy or don’t know how to trouble shoot minor bugs, stay away from the RC 1 build. While slightly better than a beta in terms of stability and performance, it still isn’t the fully polished final model, ready for prime time. I guess if you’re interested in downloading BeeJive 2.0 RC 1 you’d probably like to know what’s new…
Get online with best value broadband & home phone bundles.
Choose between our Essentials or Plus packages -
both with introductory offers - & benefit from our ground-breaking HomeSafe online protection.
Compare our broadband and phone bundles with our competitors.
We think our Essentials and Plus packages are great value -
see for yourself by checking the breakdown of costs and features versus our biggest competitors.
When it comes to marketing your product it's essential to understand the visitor patterns in your shop. Heatmap software allows you to do just that by producing reports and visualizations that help you make the best decisions for your business.
If you haven’t heard, the next up and coming touchscreen tech is 
Fancy the BlackBerry do you? If you have any number of friends or colleagues that you converse with on a regular basis, you’ve no doubt encountered the various IM services that are available. Talking to individuals on all of those separate accounts used to be a chore — until multi-chat apps came along that is. BeeJive IM (formerly “JiveTalk”) is by far the best looking and performing multi-chat app for BlackBerry. Back in my BlackBerry days, I used BeeJive. It was fast, easy to use, and a lot more visually appealing than other BlackBerry chat apps at the time. Even till this day, BeeJive has a better fit and finish the most competitors. 
