Electronic Privacy and the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court will soon weigh in for the first time on the permissible scope of employer monitoring of employees' electronic communications. Such monitoring activity raises many issues that remain the subject of uncertainty in this developing area of the law. Law.com reports.

The case under consideration by the Court, Ontario v. Quon, arises in the context of government employees, who are protected from unreasonable searches by the Fourth Amendment. Private-sector employees have no such constitutional protection. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court's forthcoming ruling will likely have implications for private employers who face employee claims alleging an invasion of their common-law privacy rights.

Read full article.

Text messages in Nigeria urge people to murder

Text messages that urged people to murder and then burn their victims' bodies helped stoke inter-religious violence in central Nigeria that killed hundreds of people last week, police and rights activists said on Tuesday. iAfrica reports.

Rights activists have identified at least 145 texts that circulated on mobile phones in the central city of Jos, the epicentre of four days of Muslim-Christian clashes that authorities said killed 326 people.

"The messages helped escalate the violence in Jos in that some of them instructed people on how to kill, dispose of and burn bodies," said leading rights activist Shehu Sani.

Read full article.

Clickatell to Extend Free SMS Services for Relief Efforts in Haiti

Global text messaging company Clickatell has reportedly announced that with its goal to provide relief to earthquake victims in Haiti, it is going to extend its free SMS service to organizations offering aid there.

According to Pieter de Villiers, CEO at Clickatell, people in Haiti are showing tremendous courage and determination and the company is seeing SMS play a significant role in scaling the efforts of the people on the ground and around the world.

Villiers noted that Clickatell invites relief agencies to make use of its SMS Gateway into Haiti and offer such services for the remainder of February as a small contribution on behalf of Clickatell and its staff.

[via TMCNet]

China. 'Sexting' among acquaintances not targeted

According to China Daily, an official from the Supreme People's Court clarified Friday that the crackdown on pornography on mobile phones targets those who "sext" to the public, not amorous couples who text each other.

Chen Guoiqing, director of the research center of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said the law punishes those who spread pornography "in public" and "in serious cases". The director added that "serious cases" referrs to a large quantity of texting and receivers.

Related: - Chinese government launches crackdown against online and cell phone porn industry

Motorola is back in the (ad) game for Super Bowl

The Chicago Tribune reports that after a four year absence from advertising on the Super Bowl, Motorola - from second largest phone manufacturer in the world, in 2006, to fifth in 2009 - is back in the game.

The company has put an ambitious turnaround strategy in place, hoping to reposition itself as a maker of smart phones as it releases 20 such devices this year, with nearly all of them powered by Google's Android operating system.

The Super Bowl ad is an important part of the turnaround strategy.

You can view teaser ad here.

Read full article.

Expanding the Law: text messages need to be included as sexually explicit material

State Rep. Peter Koutoujian said the House will work quickly to close a legal loophole that led the state’s high court Friday to overturn the conviction of man accused of sending sexually explicit messages to a minor. The Daily News Tribune reports.

Matthew Zubiel of Beverly was convicted in 2007 of attempting to disseminate harmful material to a minor after being arrested in Marshfield the year before.

Authorities said Zubiel thought he was going to meet a 13-year-old girl for sex after sending her sexually explicit instant messages.

The girl was really a Plymouth County Deputy Sheriff.

Zubiel's attorney argued instant messages were not illegal because state law bans only printed material, handwritten or "visual representations”, but not typewritten words.

The Supreme Judicial Court agreed, and in a unanimous decision Friday said only the Legislature could expand the law to include instant messaging.

Solar-powered handsets a boon for Haiti

The Telegraph reports that though cell phone networks were up and working within days in earth shaken Haiti, the crucial issue for many was not being unable to communicate, it was being able to keep their phones charged.

Some entrepreneurs immediately saw a business opportunity – thousands were prepared to pay for 15 minutes connected to a car battery to recharge their mobiles.

Dutch mobile phone firm Intivation, however, has long realised that its solar powered handsets were a solution to the problems of Haiti’s unreliable infrastructure. Mobile phones that use this technology have been deployed worldwide since 2009, predominantly in regions that do not have reliable electricity girds. Over half a million of these devices have been sold worldwide in the last six months.

And Intivation donated 1,000 of its solar-powered handset to the earthquake-stricken Caribbean country.

Read full article.

AT&T waives wireless charges for Haiti workers

AT&T Inc. said Tuesday it will be waiving wireless charges for relief workers who are receiving voice and text messages on their wireless devices while helping Haiti citizens.

The relief on charges will be retroactive to Jan. 12, which is the day the earthquake hit, the company said in a statement.

[via Dallas Business Journal]

Google adds multi-SMS support to Google Voice

Google added the ability to send text messages to more than one person (to up to 5 different recipients separated by commas) using its Google Voice software.

[via Mobile Burn]

Nokia and Publishing group Pearson offer English to Chinese

Publishing group Pearson and phone maker Nokia have formed a joint venture to deliver English-language learning materials to mobile phone users in China, the two companies said on Monday, reports MoneyControl.

The new joint venture, named Beijing Mobiledu Technologies, builds on a service that Nokia launched in 2007, providing content from a variety of publishers, which so far has about 20 million subscribers and 1.5 million active users each month.

Mobile phones are crucial for access to information in China, which has at least 720 million mobile subscribers, double the amount of Internet users it has.

In Denmark, firing by SMS still rampant

According to the Copenhagen Post Online, though management has been warned against the practice and we haven't seen such headlines in years, more and more companies are firing their employees by text messaging.

Jeanette Hahnemann, legal consultant for HK, Denmark's largest labour union, old JydskeVestkysten newspaper: ‘We really believe it’s not an appropriate way to do things,’ She added, however, that firing by SMS was not illegal.

Related firing by SMS incidents around the world:

-- Home from Dubai for Eid, Indian workers fired by SMS

-- Lecturer may sue after SMS sacking

-- Comedian sacked by SMS

-- 23 sport newspaper staffers fired by SMS

-- Economics lecturer in Bangladesh suspended by SMS

-- Romanian Football manager sacked by SMS

-- English Headmaster expells pupil by SMS

-- Belgian School Principal Fired by SMS

-- South Korean credit card firm sacks staff via SMS

-- UK Insurance company fires thousands by SMS

-- An Australian traffic controller is fired by SMS

Recharging cell phones in Haiti

A man rents mobile phone chargers by the hour in downtown Port-au-Prince, where twelve days after the earthquake there is no power grid and no landlines.

[via MSNBC]

Individual sends $10 Haiti SMS donation using live phones in AT&T store

According to PhoneArena, an individual made a gesture to help Haiti by texting HAITI to 90999 and donating $10 not from his own phone, but one of the demo phones in a carrier store.

Egypt's mufti says Koran ringtones inappropriate

Using Koranic verses and the call to prayer as mobile phone ringtones is inappropriate and violates the sanctity of the word of God, Egypt's highest religious legal authority, Mufti Ali Gomaa, said on Wednesday.

[via Reuters]

Related:

-- India. Fatwa Issued Answering Cell Phone during Aayat - A Muslim organization has issued a fatwa over using verses from the Koran as ringtones, saying that answering the call while the aayat (verses from the Koran) is going on is a sin.

-- Saudi Arabia. A Fatwa Against Ringtones - An imam at a Mosque in Saudi Arabia issued a fatwa against mobile phones after one rang during prayers on Saturday, playing Arabic pop music.

Saudi girl, 13, sentenced to 90 lashes for taking a camera phone to school

The Daily Mail reports that a 13 year-old Saudi school girl is to be given 90 lashes in front of her classmates after she was caught with a mobile camera phone and assaulted her teacher when she caught her with the phone.

Read full article.

Related:

-- Saudi Arabia. Stiff punishments awat camphone misusers

-- Kuwait's approves Bluetooth sanctions

-- UAE - Police sound warning over obscene SMS

-- Saudi jails three for filming rape with mobiles

-- Saudi to punish "immoral" use of 3G phones

-- Female Students With Mobile Phones Face Campus Ban, Fines- Saudi

-- Will Saudi Arabia lift ban on cam-equipped mobiles?

-- Religious edict bars camera phones in Saudi Arabia

-- Saudi women beaten for mobile phone snapping

-- Mobile pictures spark violence

-- Footage of an assault in Saudi Arabia through cameraphones

-- Woman fired over mobile snapshots

-- Saudi Arabia and phonecams

-- Saudi Arabia enforces ban on camera phones

-- Banned Camera Phones Selling Like Hot Cakes in Jeddah's Black Market

Also

- Kuwait: Three years jail proposed for misuse of Bluetooth

Lost and found: a lorikeet that imitates ringtones

A red-collared lorikeet found in Brisbane and brought in to the RSPCA shelter turns out to be a wonderful mimic, performing at least three different ringtones. You can listen here.

[via ABCNet.au]

Related:

-- Birds Mimic Ringtones - Birds have learnt to imitate the ring tones of the omnipresent mobile phones, say German ornithologists, backing up a Danish gentleman's similar claim a few years ago (in 2001, the sparrows in his garden were chirping the Nokia classic tone).

-- Mockingbird Sings Ringtones - Combining tunes from other birds along with the disparate notes from doorbells and cell phones, the mockingbird can render up to 200 unique harmonies. It can also mimic the songs of 36 different songbirds.

China. Text messaging suspended if any "illegal or unhealthy" content found

According to China Daily, cell phone users in Beijing and Shanghai will not be able to send text messages if they are found to have sent "illegal or unhealthy" content.

China Mobile said on its website that the automatic rating is based on "key words" provided by police. And the standard for determining whether a message is unhealthy or not is based on 13 criteria handed down by nine central government departments. No details of the criteria were given.

... When a suspected unhealthy message is detected, China Mobile will temporarily suspend the message function of the user and wait for the evaluation from police authorities, it said.

Read full article.

Text messaging services resume in Xinjiang six months after riot

Text messaging services have been "gradually" restored since midnight Sunday for mobile phone users in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, six months after the July 5 riot in the regional capital of Urumqi, when services were cut down to prevent further violence.

[via China View]

South Korean team wins text messaging world cup

Two South Korean teenagers with speedy thumbs have been crowned the fastest texters in the world after winning an international messaging competition. The BBC reports.

Bae Yeong-ho, 17 and Ha Mok-win, 18, share a prize of $100,000 (£61,000). Teams from the US and Argentina came in second and third place.
The New York competition was sponsored by South Korean firm LG Mobile.

Links related to "fastest texter competitions" here and here.

Woman trapped under Haiti rubble sends SMS

A Canadian woman trapped under rubble after the recent earthquake in Haiti managed to send out a text message to the Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa, a place nearly 3,000 miles away. And it saved her life, reports Gizmodo.

Once received, the text message was "relayed to Canadian diplomats back in Haiti" who then provided aid in the search for the woman.

[via Techeblog]

China Mobile to ban users from text messaging if found with illegal content

Today China's state media told the press that China will begin to ban its citizens from sending or receiving SMS texts if they are using their phones to distribute pornography or other content deemed illegal by the Chinese government.

[via MobileBurn]

Parts of Darkness: The other side of CES

A wonderful piece on the other side of CES, by engadget's Contributing Editor, Joseph L. Flatley.

Every January, the consumer electronics industry (and those of us who write about it for a living) descend on Las Vegas for the undisputed Champion of American trade shows. CES has come to mean many things to many people, and let's be honest here -- most of us are a little conflicted. After all, this event is our raison d'etre, and while there is plenty of geeky fun to be had, Las Vegas and the milieu of consumer electronics in general can be creepy and unsettling -- at least as creepy and unsettling as a city that feels the need to simulate the New York City skyline within spitting distance of the Sphinx. ...

To the whole engadget team and Gizmodo, thanks for the coverage.

UK Vicar Blesses mobile phones and laptops

Rev. Canon David Parrott of England's St. Lawrence Jewry church, which dates back to the 17th century, bestowed a blessing upon a collection of laptops and smartphones. Switched reports.

Parrott, who actually welcomes gadgets during services (as long as the mobiles are on "vibrate"), said that technology is "our daily working tool, and it's a technology we should bless."

Related: - Japanese Shrine Blesses our Gadgets

BMI sues T-Mobile USA over ringbacks

Performing rights organization BMI has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against T-Mobile USA, alleging the operator sold ringback tones without the necessary licensing agreements in place. FierceMobile Content reports.

The BMI suit follows on the heels of a 2009 ruling that ringtones played aloud in public do not constitute a true performance, rejecting copyright violation charges lodged by ASCAP which filed a lawsuit against AT&T in June 2009.

Read full article.

Related:

-- Court Approves Ringtone Lawsuit Settlement

-- Links to ringtones and lawsuits

Apparatgeist: Mobile-phone culture

A very lengthy but disapointing article from The Economist on mobile phones. Usage, facts, figures... Everything but the kitchen sink. Too much yet too little.

Estate of fiction writer Philip K Dick to sue Google over Nexus phone name

According to The Guardian, the estate of the science fiction writer Philip K Dick – whose book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was filmed as Blade Runner starring Harrison Ford – plans to sue Google over its decision to brand its new mobile phone the Nexus One, on the basis that the brand already exists in Dick's books.

Read full article.

Google's online store, and what it means for the US wireless industry.

According to arstechnica, the most significant part of Google's Nexus One announcement, is their online store.

In short, what Google announced today wasn't just the Nexus One, but the world's first carrier-independent smartphone store; the Google store is now the only smartphone store in the US where, for every phone on offer, you first pick which phone you want, and then you pick a network and a plan on that network. So you can comparison shop among networks based purely on plan price and network quality, because you already have your phone picked out.

engadget exclusive: hands on Nexus One

engadget got their hands on Google's Nexus One Android powered phone.

Read on for hands-on first impressions and view video and photos.

Text can help save lives with meningitis alerts

People are being urged to be on their guard against meningitis and septicaemia with the help of text messages, reports lep.co.uk.

As early recognition and treatment provide the best chances of recovery, UK National charity Meningitis Research Foundation has launched a text messaging short code to receive symptoms by SMS. Users simply text "MRF" to 82088.

Naked conference calls

Businessmen and women take part in telephone conference calls wearing pyjamas, underwear - or nothing at all, according to a new study conducted by BT.

[via Ananova]