Motorola DROID: Stealth commercial

Spotted on PCWorld, a Motorola DROID commercial which was to start airing Friday.

Divorce in the Digital Age: The Perils of Text Messaging

In the age of digital communications, there now are three sides to every divorce story: His, hers, and what's being stored by the phone company. Reuters reports.

Many people who text often will message their spouse, friends or even a lover with whom they're having an affair, revealing intentions, intimate details and negotiation strategies.

Such conversations can become evidence in the mediation or courtroom setting. Yet, hitting "Delete" isn't enough to erase the conversation. The phone company often retains records of text conversations for up to 30 days. In a divorce scenario, those records can be requested or subpoenaed into evidence.

Image from The Chronicle.

Related:

-- French Courts to Admit Text Messages in Divorce Cases

-- SMS as evidence in Polish divorce court

Woman to do community service for hate SMS

How does Nairobi's court handle a complaint about someone sending hate messages? Making the culprit do community service, according to the Daily Nation.

Ms Regina Nyambura Muniu will do community work at Umoja Chief’s office for six months after she pleaded guilty to sending an offensive text message to Mary Stella Gathoni.

Left, this week's cover of The New Yorker with texting parents supervising their children's trick or treating. Right, the way it was. A picture of different era, via Mad Men.

[via Pocket-Lint]

Google relaxes single phone number requirement for Voice

Google has decided to relax the requirement that all calls must come in via the Google number, and is making available a range of features under its voicemail service to calls made directly to users' cell phones.

Read full article in Infoworld.

Mobile Phones allowed in Naypyidaw

Myanmar's government is reported to have permitted mobile phones to be used in its new capital, Naypyidaw. [via Cellular News]

Phones, which are already highly restricted were banned in the new capital city for security reasons.

... Government and military contacts tend to find it easier to get the paperwork to own a mobile phone - but often then rent out those phones to business users.

Related:

-- International Text Messaging Approved in Burma (2008)

-- Myanmar cuts phone service to activists, journalists (2007)

-- Myanmar. The lowest cell phone penetration rate (2005)

-- Military ruled Burma has few cellphones (2005)

-- Burma allows SMS but all messages go through censor
(2005)

Picture from the BBC.

Still No Internet or SMS Allowed in China's Muslim Region

Nearly four months after deadly ethnic riots in China's Muslim region led authorities to shut off the Internet there, local residents are still barred from sending text messages and getting online, reports PC World.

The clampdown on telecommunication in China's western Xinjiang province, where rioting claimed nearly 200 lives in early July.

The rioting between Uighurs, a mostly Muslim minority group native to Xinjiang, and Chinese Han, the country's ethnic majority, also led China to block various social networking Web sites nationwide. Twitter, similar Chinese services and Facebook all remain inaccessible in the country.

25 Insane iPhone And Gadget Costumes

Spotted on ismashphone, 25 insane iPhone and gadget costumes.

Vodafone Symphonia played on 1000 phones with 53 different ringtones

Vodafone NZ hired a production team to orchestrate cellphones into “playing” Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture. The effort took 1000 phones and 53 different ringtone alerts, synchronized to recreate the famous classical piece. [via Mashable]

Watch the video of the performance as well as the making-of in two parts (part 1, part 2)

Not a first though, a collection gathered by American composer Golan Levin initiated the first original «Dialtones Symphony», where the 200 instruments played were the audience's ringing cell phones. The first concert took place on September 2nd, 2001, at the Brucknerhaus Auditorium in Linz, Austria during the Ars Electronica's annual festival. Golan Levin performed his symphony again in the summer of 2002, at the Arteplage Mobile de Jura as a production of the Swiss National Exposition. (Ringtonia)

More on cell phone and ringtones concerts/symphonies.

The Cell Refuseniks, an Ever-Shrinking Club

The New York Times on the few cellphone "refuseniks" who resist cellphones, not because they can't afford them and not because their technophobes, simply because they do not want them. They resent the way that ring tones, tiny keyboards and screens disrupt face-to-face conversation. They savor their moments alone and prize the fact that no one knows how to reach them.

Stop Texting, to Save Lives in Africa

Activists asked cell phone users to stop texting for one hour yesterday -- not to save energy or focus on the road, but to call attention to one of the deadliest and most under reported conflicts in the world. [via Commondreams.org]

The "Cell Out" campaign is part of Congo Week, a series of actions being held worldwide between Oct. 18 and 24 to call attention to what many believe is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world -- the ongoing war over resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Coltan, a mineral needed for many electronic devices, including cellular telephones, is at the center of the conflict in the DRC, which the United Nations has called the deadliest conflict anywhere since World War II.

Related:

-- Coltan and Your Mobile: A M0pocket Repentance And Mobile Community Call To Action

-- Recycled phones and "blood Tantalum"

Nokia sues Apple

Nokia announced that it has today filed a complaint against Apple with the Federal District Court in Delaware, alleging that Apple's iPhone infringes Nokia patents for GSM, UMTS and wireless LAN (WLAN) standards.

[Nokia Press Release]

Mary Meeker: Mobile Internet Is “Bigger Than Most Think”

Mobile internet usage is “bigger and will be bigger than most think,” according to Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker’s bullish prediction. MocoNews reports.

Presenting her report on internet trends and the economy at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco on Tuesday, she said the overall tech industry was in recovery, and predicted that the mobile internet was the “next major computing cycle,” based on what she called the “explosive Apple iPhone / iTouch ramp.” Mobile internet usage, Meeker predicts, will “surprise to upside for years to come.”

Read full article.

SMS NeXT Time

I just noticed this. When you type "next time" on your iphone, it comes out "NeXT Time". A subtle tribute to Steve Jobs' 1988 NeXT computer?

Apple's iTunes Store Starts Tweeting

Apple has opened three new iTunes Twitter accounts, iTunesMusic, iTunesMovies, and iTunesTV.

[via Switched]

Plane dismantled over lost mobile

Offbeat. Passengers bound for Newcastle Airport were delayed in Spain while their plane was partially dismantled after a traveler dropped his cell phone, which slid out of sight, falling into an air vent.

Passengers were delayed for three hours while the cockpit area and front row of seats was taken apart.

[via the BBC]

Some hotels serve up free phone calls

Business travelers who rely on cellphones to avoid exorbitant charges for using hotel room phones may want to reconsider. USA Today reports.

An increasing number of hotels provide free local calls, and some provide free long-distance calls within the USA. That's a big switch for many hotel chains that profited from charging guests to use the hotel's land-line phones before cellphones and Internet communication became widespread.

Related:

-- Cell phones cut hotel bills

-- Do American hotels use cell phone jamming devices?

-- Mobile Phone jame scam in Scottish hotels exposed

California watchdogs consider regulating campaigns’ electronic messages

Between tweeting, YouTube videos and text messaging, the age of the Internet means political candidates now rely on more than snail mail to reach voters, and California's ethics watchdog agency is responding to the changing times. The LA Times Blog reports.

The state Fair Political Practices Commission announced today it is launching a review of the Political Reform Act, written in 1974, to determine whether there is a need for more regulation of electronic communications in political campaigns.

G-20 Themed Ringtone

After comments on a popular comedy show about police tactics used in Pittsburgh during the G-20 summit, a special ringtone is now available on the Internet, reports wpxi.com

Comedian Jon Stewart joked about protesters using the sound produced by the L-RAD sonic cannon as their ringtone.

Pittsburgh police used the cannon to get the attention of protesters, and now a local Web site offers the sound as a ringtone for your cell phone.

Locallytoned.com offers the piercing noise for download. You can listen here.

France Telecom replaces deputy chief amid suicide storm

France Telecom, which faces a political storm over a spate of employee suicides, on Monday appointed Stephane Richard, a former top aide of France’s economy minister, as deputy chief executive of the telecoms group.

[via The FT]

Padang. SMS sent from rubble offers hope of survivors

According to Sky News, a text message was sent Friday night asking for help, from a trapped guest under the remains of the ruined Ambacan hotel.

"We think there are eight people alive in there. One sent an SMS to a relative in a village, who got the text at 3pm yesterday," said Arkamelvi Karmani, an army officer involved in the rescue operation.

The official said the text message had called for help and also begged rescuers: "Be careful that the excavator doesn't cause the building to collapse on us."

App Store Anonymous (cartoon)

[[intomobile via Geek Culture]

French Finance Minister Backs France Telecom CEO

According to The Wall Street Journal, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde Thursday voiced her support for France Telecom's chief executive, who is coming under increased pressure from French unions and opposition politicians over 24 suicides at the company in 18 months.

In a statement released after the meeting, Ms. Lagarde said she had "full confidence" that Mr. Lombard could get the company through "this difficult and painful moment."

French daily Le Monde in an article titled "France Telecom: Daily Humiliations" interviews France Telecom employees about their working conditions and the suicides. Devastating.

Previously:

-- France Telecom mobilizing managers after suicides

-- France Telecom staff stage protests over wave of suicides

-- 24th suicide at France Telecom

-- Smartphones blamed for suicide at France Telecom

-- France Telecom mobilizing managers after suicides

-- France Telecom staff stage protests over wave of suicides

Cell Phones Auctioned off Contained Data

Missouri’s athletic department sold 25 cell phones at a university surplus auction over the summer, and buyer Mike Bellman of Columbia, who paid $190, discovered the phones had not been erased. KansasCity.com reports.

Information on the phones hadn’t been erased. Bellman found himself in possession of all kinds of information, including text messages, contact numbers and e-mails from folks like football coach Gary Pinkel, basketball coach Mike Anderson and athletic director Mike Alden.

Bellman’s original intent was to sell the phones for parts on eBay. Now, he’s asking for $3,000 for the phones as a collector’s item.

But it comes with a caveat. Bellman said he’ll require any buyer to sign an affidavit claiming to be a fan of the Missouri Tigers and won’t sell them to, say, operatives from Kansas or Nebraska.

Related: - Sold Cell Phones Share Your Secrets

Communist Ringback Tones

State-controlled mobile service providers in China are offering communist ringback tone music, the tone that you hear while waiting for someone to pick up the line.

According to Trendhunter, the song played instead of the waiting tone is called ‘Guo Jia,’ which means ‘Country’ in Chinese.

These ringback tones were made to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China.

24th suicide at France Telecom

A 51-year-old father of two has become the 24th France Telecom worker to commit suicide in 18 monts, reports EuroNews.

He leapt to his death from a motorway overpass after leaving a note blaming “the atmosphere at work”.

The company’s Chief Executive, Didier Lombard, was booed as he arrived at the call centre in Annency close to where the suicide took place.

Local union leader Jean-Claude Portello blamed the company’s restructuring program. “Today the entire France Telecom board must resign,” he said. “This means the people responsible for these decisions only defend the interests of the shareholders, the interests of profit, but as for the the human aspect, they do not defend the workers at all.”

Previously:

-- Smartphones blamed for suicide at France Telecom

-- France Telecom mobilizing managers after suicides

-- France Telecom staff stage protests over wave of suicides

Apple ends iPhone exclusive distribution deal in the UK ... US next?

Cellphone provider Orange has announced a deal with Apple to sell the iPhone in the UK, a move which will see the end of O2’s exclusive deal. How long until Apple does the same in the US?

[via ZDNet]

'Trauma' used dramatic mock 911 calls as part of campaign

The Hollywood Reporter on NBC's series of radio ads for its upcoming medical drama "Trauma", premiering next Monday night, that dramatizes mock 911 calls.

The radio ads depict an emergency, a call to a 911 operator and then the aftermath, complete with voiceover from the point of view of the responding paramedic.

Smartphones blamed for suicide at France Telecom

A top executive at France's biggest telecommunications company, which is dealing with a spate of suicides, warned that the barrage of emails from smartphones and personal computers was stressing out employees. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

France Telecom chief financial officer Gervais Pellissier said workers in all big companies were under more pressure in the age of the BlackBerry.

Today for people working in business, whatever the level, whether they are CEO or even first- or second-rank level employees, they are always connected," he said.

France Telecom, which operates under the Orange brand, has come under public scrutiny after 22 workers committed suicide and another 13 attempted to kill themselves since the start of last year.

Previously:

-- France Telecom mobilizing managers after suicides

-- France Telecom staff stage protests over wave of suicides

Mexican Tax May Cost Mobile Carriers 5 Million Users

President Felipe Calderon’s budget proposals, including a tax on telecommunications, could force as many as 5 million Mexican mobile-phone customers to drop their lines, NII Holdings Inc. is telling lawmakers.

Lower-income subscribers wouldn’t be able to afford the service, and the decline in subscribers could slow Mexico’s economic growth, according to documents the company is providing to legislators.

[via Bloomberg]