If you’ve ever thought “man, texting is really ruining verbal communication” stop right now, before you start feeling like you’ve had an original thought. People were thinking the same thing about the telegraph in 1906. Then again, depending on who you are, maybe it’s an improvement. [Kip W via Buzzfeed] More »
Kenya has a lot of beautiful, rare animals, but unfortunately a lot of people are keen to kill them, and sell bits of them for money. Kenya’s got a new plan to try to keep those poachers in check though, and it’s good old-fashioned text messaging. More »
SMS messaging turned 20 years old yesterday, and feels even older. It’s decrepit, though, wildly overpriced, and too limited to be our long-term texting solution. More »
Today is texting’s 20th birthday, and as part of the celebration, we’ve rounded up a little museum of texting slang. You may know some of it very well, you may not recognize some of it at all. You may even find the existence of some of it to be quite dubious. More »
Finnish engineer Matti Makkonen famously dreamed up the idea for the SMS (Short Message Service) in a Copenhagen pizza shop in 1984, and the first message (“Happy Christmas”) was sent to a Vodafone UK cellphone from a PC on December 3, 1992. Since then, an estimated 8 trillion texts have been sent, and now the normally recalcitrant pioneer has given the BBC a rare interview (appropriately via text message), where he discussed “txtspk,’ keypads vs. touchscreens, and the next big tech development.
While described as the father of SMS, Makkonen is still reluctant to take sole credit, saying it was “the result of a joint effort to collect ideas and write a specification.” On top of that, he never felt the idea was patentable and therefore never saw a penny from the invention, despite its present day pervasiveness. As for textspeak, the engineer refrains from creating abbreviated messages himself, saying “my passion is to write correct language (Finnish), using all 160 characters.” He’s happy to do this using a modern touchscreen phone, although he couldn’t resist using the interview to pay a charmingly backhanded compliment, saying they’re “slow enough (that I can) think and sometimes even edit what I write.”
[Image credit: Nokia]
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Nokia
Source: BBC
Your dear grandma and grandpa are wonderful, caring people who love you very, very much. But why is it that when they add technology into the mix, it messes everything up? What happened to sweet Gammy? Maybe they’re taking too much advice from Conan, whose hilarious Senior Tech 101 series breaks down how to use technology like texting for old people. Watch it below. More »
In Saudi Arabia, if a woman leaves the country, her husband or male “guardian” will receive a text message to let him know that, even if she’s traveling with him, ho boy! His woman is on the loose. Saudi Arabia: where technology and misogyny unite! More »
Cinemark will now reward you for not texting during a movie. Instead of the more logical alternative, which is tasing you. Gizmodo reader Eyaare disagrees. Here is his counterpoint, presented without comment: More »
Gadget modder extraordinaire, Benjamin Heckendorn, has returned with season 3 of The Ben Heck Show. Along with new segments such as news, viewer questions and rants, you’ll find that Ben has whipped up a creative solution to the problem of texting while driving. Using the ShopBot CNC router, Ben carves out a chastity belt of sorts — his words, not ours — to form the casing of a system that will sound an alarm whenever one’s car is running and their phone isn’t in the protective dock. The anti-texting system also logs its status to an SD card, which can then be reviewed at a later time. It won’t be until next week’s episode that we get to see the final product, but all the geeky bits that make this project possible can be found in the season opener, which you’ll find right after the break.
Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Mobile
The Ben Heck Show kicks off season 3 by clamping down on texting while driving (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Nov 2012 21:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The above photo is a real example of texting gone horribly wrong. Morbid and hilarious for us, but uncomfortable for the him (or her). And it just brings up so many questions. More »
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