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Imagine that without any misguided action or behavior of your own your iOS device were to crash, simply as the result of receiving a text string via your iPhone or iPad's Messages app. Next, imagine that after this "What the heck!??!!" event (and device reboot, of course) you subsequently could not even open the Messages program. Imagine no longer. A new bug has been revealed in Apple's Messages app that will crash your device and render Messages mostly unusable upon receipt of a text containing a unique text string comprised of various symbols and Arabic characters. And the bug isn't confined to receipt from other iOS devices either, displaying the same behavior...
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Ah, the digital world. Sometimes, it's easy to realize we're living in it. Things like digital boarding passes and cars that drive themselves are prime examples. But other times, we're wondering what the hold-up is. Now, in the banking world, Wells Fargo is finally answering the call on an issue that seems super obvious. The company announced today that in addition to its popular email or e-receipt option, it is introducing text receipts at its more than 12,000 ATMs across the country. This new service is available to all Wells Fargo Online or Mobile Banking customers who provide their mobile phone number. As the first bank to offer e-receipts to its customers at its ATMs in June 2010, Wells...
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It's hard to understate the global importance of Wikipedia. While many traditional university professors still won't allow the crowdsourced site to be listed as a source, only a fool would deny the site's impact on educating the world in areas they may have otherwise never stumbled upon. Particularly in developing nations, Wikipedia is an easy, ad-free, stripped-down knowledge base, with pages that are simple to load and easy to read on even the most antiquated of devices and over the most awful of connections. Granted, not everything is perfectly accurate, but the vast majority of Wikipedia pages are vetted and updated by legions of editors around the globe that do so simply to provide a service...
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By May 15, 2014, all four of the nation's top wireless carriers (AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile) will support emergency texting. U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said all four of these carriers have committed to major deployments of text-to-911 in 2013. The rollout is scheduled to be available nationwide by May 15, 2014. As a result of the agreement between the Federal Communications Commission and these wireless carriers, more than 90 percent of the nation's mobile customers will be able to contact emergency services using text messaging. The service is designed to compliment, not replace, voice calls to 911 services. "Access to 911 must catch...
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FEMA and the National Weather Service are looking out for you. How so? They're joining up to launch the Wireless Emergency Alert System, which is described as a free SMS system that will text users connected to cell towers in areas that are being nailed with storms or other disasters. The idea here is to broadcast them to all devices within range. It's engineered to cover around 97% of the nation, but it's just now being rolled out across operators. Both Sprint and Verizon (the two largest CDMA carriers in the States) are both primed and ready, but there's no word yet on some of the smaller, regional carriers nor AT&T / T-Mobile USA. It's worth noting that not all phones will work; those...
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There's iMessage for iOS and Mac users, and there's BBM for BlackBerry users. What about Android, you say? Well, for those users, there's MightyText. The company actually began as Texty, and has been in a Chrome beta state for the past few months. Now, however, they're launching to the world, and including support for pretty much all major browsers. Here's how it works: you install the MightyText app on your Android 2.2+ phone, and then you visit the company's website to install the plug-in for your browser. Once you sync the two up, you can then use any web browser to send and receive text messages, through your Android phone number. So, in a way, it's an easy way to reply and create text messages...
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By early next year, the nation will have a new way to call for help--via text message. Verizon Wireless announced that it’s working on a service to provide SMS-to-911 capabilities, which it says will be operational in early 2013. Simply put, the emergency service will allow anyone to send an SMS message to a 911 call center, also known as a public-service answering point (PSAP) via Verizon’s existing CDMA network. This week, the company announced that it has selected a vendor partner in the endeavor: Annapolis, Maryland-based TeleCommunication Systems Inc. The FCC and other federal and state agencies are on board the project, as well. "TeleCommunication Systems has worked closely...
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Whoa, wait a second -- text messaging is on the decline? Well, not entirely, but it's certainly not shooting through the roof from a global perspective any longer. Once thought to be the number one killer of voice minutes, texting seems to be on the decline in a few locales around the world. According to M.G.I. Research, there was a "significant drop" on texts on Christmas Eve in Finland. Reportedly, mobile user son Sonera sent 8.5 million texts on Christmas Eve this year, compared to 10.9 million last year. Hong Kong? They saw a huge decrease -- nearly 14% year-over-year. Even Down Under, Aussies sent 9% fewer texts than in 2010 on the holiday. Why? Well, there are a few guesses. Mostly, it's...
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Skype's on the acquisition trail again. Shortly after Microsoft announced their intentions to scoop up Skype for many, many billions of dollars, Skype themselves have done some shopping on the open market. GroupMe, a social startup that was gaining huge traction with their group-messaging application on Android and iOS, is now a part of the world's most well-known VoIP calling/messaging app. Many were suggesting that GroupMe was poised to becomes Skype's largest competitor, and now, well, they just swallowed that whole. Probably a smart business move. GroupMe just launched a year ago, so it's still fresh on the vine, but Skype knows that it better start picking it it hopes to narrow that pool...
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Recently, the launch of the Child ID app proved that the U.S. government wasn't scared of tapping into modern-day, consumer-friendly tech to provide a service to the American people. Now, the FCC is pushing for 911 texting. The Federal Communications Commission is envisioning a project called Next Generation 911; in addition to just sending standard SMS, it will also allow 911 teams to receive photo and video messages in order to better prepare and respond. "It’s hard to imagine that airlines can send text messages if your flight is delayed, but you can’t send a text message to 911 in an emergency," said FCC chairman Julius Genachowski. "The shift to NG911 can’t...
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Here's a great concept: integrate messaging services that are on your phone, with your PC. That way, whenever a message comes to your phone while you're on your PC, well, you'll be able to reply without having to reach down and mess with your handset. MightyText is enabling that kind of functionality with Android phones, by sending both texts and phone calls right to your browser. This enables you to not even be near your phone; so long as you're logged in with a browser, you can receive texts/calls. Not a bad idea! The program basically pushes texts and calls from your Android phone to the monitor, and the company's off to a pretty successful start. They have pushed over 18 million SMS messages,...
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Have you ever wished you could send a text, without typing anything? Texting and driving is a huge distraction, and there are lots of times where only a text will do, but actually stopping to type something out just isn't convenient. What if you could simply speak, and a text would be created and sent? That's now possible so long as you have an iPhone. Jawbone has just released the THOUGHTS application into the iOS store, which allows users to easily send quick voice messages to individuals and groups, without typing or calling. The application combines the speed of texting, the group collaboration of email, and the emotional quality of voice all in one. It's totally free in the iOS App Store,...
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Ever heard of Swype? That's a program on Android that allows mobile users to simply leave their fingertip on the display and move it from point to point in order to input text. It's a radical change from pressing key after key, and it's clearly catching on. Nuance is a company that has been involved with touch input for awhile now, and they're introducing a similar solution for Samsung's Wave II. It's called Continuous Touch, and it's shipping now on the Wave II, Bada 1.2-powered smartphone. The technology allows users to glide their finger from one letter to another in order to spell out words, and it's being branded as QuickType for Samsung. T9 Trace is fully integrated with Nuance XT9 predictive...
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General Motors has been pushing OnStar in their vehicles for what feels like forever. At this point, OnStar and GM just go hand-in-hand. We've come to expect it in new GM vehicles. But the technology hasn't really evolved a whole lot over the years, at least to technology driven consumers. But the world has moved on, and the world now lives on Facebook and Twitter. And so, Facebook is coming to OnStar. Yes, really! General Motors has announced a "relaunch" of OnStar, with the brand and focus now pointing to "responsible connectivity." Apparently that also involves adding Facebook audio updates, so users can hear the status updates of their friends without having to take their eyes off of the...
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