Tag Archives: cell phones

It gets funnier and funnier. (Tipped by JMG reader Peter)

Folks stood in the hot summer NYC sun for a long as six hours to get their iPhone 4 today, its second day of release. It kills me how almost everybody in the line is staring into the perfectly good iPhones they already own. Children of the corrrrrrrrn.

Hewlett-Packard has bought struggling smart phone supplier Palm for $1 billion. The companies announced Wednesday that the deal will see HP pay $5.70 for every Palm common share. Palm had closed trading Wednesday at $4.63 but traded as high as $18.09 in the past 52 weeks. When debt is included, the deal values Palm at $1.2 billion. The transaction is …

The latest iPhone app is Tiger Text, a program that automatically deletes text messages from both the sender’s and receiver’s phones, as long as both parties have the app installed. The newest Apple iPhone app, pun very much intended, deletes text messages that you may regret ever sending or you may regret anyone else ever seeing. If you happen to …

BeliefNet columnist Rod Dreher has read the Daily Beast article about Grindr that I mentioned here two weeks ago. Dreher finds the entire concept “dehumanizing,” something a few gay men might agree with, but then he rolls out the usual “Won’t somebody please think about the children?” There’s no point in arguing whether we should or shouldn’t have the Internet, …

In last week’s earnings call with shareholders, AT&T supplied the above graphic to show coverage improvement in NYC. The company has suffered bad local press recently, mostly from irate iPhone owners who complain that many parts of the city remain dead zones, including some parts of busy busy busy midtown. Meanwhile, iPhone fans breathlessly await the rumored end of AT&T …

NYC launches its latest and strongest campaign against cell-chatting cab drivers today with a three strikes system that will cost a driver his his hack license upon the third violation. Taxi and Limousine Commission agents and NYPD officers will be on the lookout for drivers using any electronic devices while not legally parked, including iPods, GPS devices and satellite radios. …

GQ has published an extensive article investigating the possible link between cell phone use and brain cancer, an issue under heavy study in Europe, but not so much in the U.S., where some have claimed such research has been blocked by the phone industry. The article was written with “research support provided by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute,” …

Business Insider reports that Apple will announce the end of its exclusivity deal with AT&T this week. AT&T captivity is the single biggest reason foks who don’t buy iPhones don’t buy them, so this would be big. It would also be unexpectedly early–most analysts aren’t expecting Apple to open up to other carriers until the middle of the year. (We’d …

The ease of making text message donations to relief agencies in Haiti has raised $10M already and that amount is mushrooming by the minute. This is first time that cell phone donations have been used to this degree, enabled by recent agreements from carriers to pass along the funds without taking a cut for themselves. The American Red Cross said …

NYC’s MTA has launched a new site which for the first time provides real-time updates on service interruptions and delays. And the new site includes a smartphone ready function. The authority’s older mobile site posted maps only as PDFs, a clunky format that often takes a while to load on hand-held devices. “On the Go,” which features a fresher, streamlined …

According to the Consumerist, AT&T has suspended sales of iPhones in NYC due to increasing complaints about poor performance. From a conversation with AT&T customer service: Daphne: Welcome to AT&T online Sales support. How may I assist you with placing your order today?Laura: Hi, I was looking at the iPhone 3Gs and the system tells me that I cannot order …

Virgin Mobile has launched an ad campaign in Canada featuring two male models in a kiss. The tagline: “Hook up fearlessly.” The ad has already appeared on bus shelters. Agency of record Juniper Park created the new work to extend the “Fearless” positioning introduced in September. New brand-focused television, print and out-of-home ads encourage consumers to “hook up fearlessly” with …

A Brooklyn resident has launched a text message and Twitter based system of finding parking spaces in Park Slope, which car-owning locals derisively call “No Park Slope.” It’s no secret. Park Slope is a parking nightmare. But what if you could join a cyber community that allows members to share available parking spot information? Well, now it’s possible with a …

Boy Culture tips us to this: Wolverine and James Bond are not to be messed with, especially when they’re doing the whole acting thing. Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig were trying to perform their play “A Steady Rain” Wednesday night in NYC — but some nitwit forgot to turn off his mobile phone. Jackman set the dude straight — staying …

(Tipped by JMG reader Matt)

The long running controversy over whether cell phones cause brain tumors has been ratcheted up by a group of scientists who point to significant flaws in a recent study funded by…hello…cell phone providers. This report, sent to government leaders and media today, details eleven design flaws of the 13-country, Telecom-funded Interphone study. The Interphone study, begun in 1999, was intended …

The UK is running a pretty gruesome PSA against texting while driving. Could something like this run on American television?

This week New York City did another 24-hour crackdown on using cell phones while driving, issuing over 7000 tickets in one day, more than ten times the daily average, netting the city about $1M in fines. The tickets are $120 each, but $200 for cab drivers. The funny thing about this ticket blitz is that every New Yorker knows that …