Firms Racing to End Texting and Driving August 26, 2009
As U.S. regulators step up scrutiny of the dangers of texting while driving, software makers are scrambling to develop cellphone applications that block texts or minimize the distraction of texting.Texting is wildly popular: the number of monthly text messages has increased more than tenfold in the past three years to 110.4 billion in December 2008, up from 9.8 billion in December 2005, according to the wireless industry trade organization CTIA.But texting while driving is unsafe: Not only are a driver’s eyes off the road, one or both hands are off the wheel. Texting has been implicated in the crash of …
Email This PostMobile app ads cause concern for advertisers August 21, 2009
The Central Office of Information (COI), the UK’s biggest advertiser, has called for industry bodies to offer guidelines on advertising in mobile apps as the format becomes increasingly popular. Mad.co.uk reports.
It comes after advertisers expressed concern that ads in iPhone apps which link to sites not optimised for mobile could damage brands’ reputations.Last month Google launched AdSense for Mobile Apps to capitalise on the growing sector and began serving ads into iPhone and Android apps for brands such as BlackBerry, Compare the Market and O2. But some ads direct users to online websites that don’t render on …
How the brain hard-wires us to love Google, Twitter, and texting. And why that’s dangerous. August 17, 2009
Seeking. You can’t stop doing it. Sometimes it feels as if the basic drives for food, sex, and sleep have been overridden by a new need for endless nuggets of electronic information. We are so insatiably curious that we gather data even if it gets us in trouble. Google searches are becoming a cause of mistrials as jurors, after hearing testimony, ignore judges’ instructions and go look up facts for themselves. We search for information we don’t even care about. Nina Shen Rastogi confessed in Double X, “My boyfriend has threatened to break up with me …
Email This PostHold the phone: now you can SMS aliens August 14, 2009
Article from: The Australian
THEY may or may not like to “phone home” — but if there are aliens living on the planet Gliese 581d, they are soon to be bombarded with text messages from Science Minister Kim Carr.Senator Carr will today send an interstellar SMS to the planet, which at a distance of 20 light years, or 194 trillion kilometres, away is the closest Earth-like planet that could support life.The message, to be sent from Canberra’s Questacon to mark National Science Week, will say: “Hello from Australia on the planet we call Earth. These messages express our …
Email This PostLibrary Reference Services Are on an Info Quest August 11, 2009
A new library service named My Info Quest (www.myinfoquest.info) claims to be the first collaborative text messaging reference service of its kind. The Alliance Library System (www.alliancelibrarysystem.com) in East Peoria, Ill., has partnered with about 50 participating libraries; Altarama Information Systems (www.altarama.com); and WebClarity Software, Inc. (www.webclarity.info), developers of PeopleWhere (www.peoplewhere.com), to build this new reference service. The pilot program launched on July 20 and will extend until Dec. 31. Other partners include San Jose State University Graduate School of Library and Information Science, South Central Regional Library Council in …
Email This Post911 Service To Accept Text Messages August 9, 2009
Well it’s often said trends of today become the norm of tomorrow and there’s no further proof than An emergency call center in Waterloo, Iowa, became the first in the country to accept “911″ emergency text messages and even reply back, too.While the move may seem frivolous and even foolish since typing a text message typically takes longer than making a call, there is no denying that wireless users these days often prefer texting to talking on their cell phones. Not to mention 911 texting is aimed at helping the deaf, who have had to rely on more cumbersome methods …
Email This PostIn Study, Texting Lifts Crash Risk by Large Margin August 4, 2009
The first study of drivers texting inside their vehicles shows that the risk sharply exceeds previous estimates based on laboratory research — and far surpasses the dangers of other driving distractionsThe new study, which entailed outfitting the cabs of long-haul trucks with video cameras over 18 months, found that when the drivers texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting.The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which compiled the research and plans to release its findings on Tuesday, also measured the time drivers took their eyes from the …
Email This PostKiller Text Messages–Some Messages Aren’t Meant to be Opened August 2, 2009
TEXT, a teen horror movie, tells the story of high-school senior Sarah Madison (Hall) as she frantically searches for answers, after the inexplicable deaths of her best friends; each killed shortly after receiving a mysterious text message on their cell phone.TEXT features original music from Best High School New Artist Beau Osland, VH1’s Rock of Love and Daisy of Love’s Daisy De La Hoya, and Phantasm’s Reggie Bannister.The film is nominated for Best Horror Film and Best Visual Effects at the AOF Festival.TEXT premiered to a standing room only audience at the Freakshow Film Festival in Orlando, FL Halloween 2008 …
