Robbers Can’t Be Choosers: Teens Decline to Steal Man’s Phone Because It Wasn’t a Smartphone
One foolproof way to avoid getting your phone jacked by a roving band of hoodlum teenagers? Have a really shitty phone. Read More
One foolproof way to avoid getting your phone jacked by a roving band of hoodlum teenagers? Have a really shitty phone. Read More
Do you enjoy rolling the window down while driving to catch the breeze in your hair? Hooking your iPhone up to the car stereo so you can enjoy the complex musical stylings of 2 Chainz? What about prioritizing sending a text message over other people’s safety?
If so, you’re in luck: the “designated texter” campaign, launched in Florida, could help you send your undoubtedly very important text and not accidentally kill anybody in a car accident. It’s a win/win! Read More
As anyone who has used a map app recently will tell you, GPS location is still a pretty imperfect science. Sadly, we don’t think that will be any comfort to Wayne Dobson, a 59-year-old Las Vegas man who has fallen victim to a glitch with Sprint Wireless’s GPS technology. The problem has dispatched scores of people who lost their cell phones to his front door demanding he give them their phones back. Read More
Late Monday night, you probably saw friends south of Flatiron fall off the grid and not resurface until answering your panicked text messages Tuesday morning from somewhere uptown.
That’s because, thanks to Sandy, cell service downtown is–not to put too fine a point on it–totally fucked. You might be getting patches of service, but it’s likely an exercise in massive frustration. Don’t hold your breath on it getting fixed right away, either, says the FCC. Read More
Italy’s Supreme Court has issued a ruling that could have a ripple effect for cellphone manufacturers all over the world by declaring a “causal link” between an Italian businessman’s non-cancerous tumor and his daily cellphone usage.
The businessman, Innocente Marcolini, said he used his cellphone as much as six hours a day for work. Now his face his paralyzed on one side.
Testimony from oncologists and researchers on Mr. Marcolini’s behalf might spook even the most hardcore cellphone user: Read More
Love in the Time of Algorithms
If you thought all that texting and thumbkissing was bringing you closer to your S.O., think again. According to a study out of the University of Essex, the mere presence of a cell phone in your general vicinity is enough to serve as an emotional cockblock. Read More
Be prepared to have whatever nominal notions of privacy you entertained about your cell phone usage shattered: A report produced by cell phone carriers in response to a congressional inquiry shows an alarming uptick in data requests by law enforcement over the last five years.
The New York Times obtained a copy of the report, stating that this is the first time data about cell surveillance has been collected on this scale, and that carriers are responding to thousands of requests daily. Read More
Good news if you’re Richard Stallman! According to a travel survey conducted by Intel, Americans are so obsessed with keeping their devices tethered to their fast-typing fingers that they’re eschewing the comforts and hygiene of modern life just to keep them charged. We call this the “Stallman Quotient”: The more you embrace technology over showering, the higher your Stallman Quotient grows. The maximum Stallman Quotient score is 10, otherwise known as “eating something from your foot while being filmed during a lecture.” Read More
Virgin Atlantic already has in-flight Wifi, sweet personal entertainment systems and the ability to order alcoholic beverages from your seat’s TV screen. Now, TechCrunch reports that the company is further boosting its tech offerings by making in-flight cell phone service available for some flights between New York and London. Read More
