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cell-phones
cell-phones
Have You Tried Swapping Your Wireless Plan With Someone Else? We Want To Hear From You
By Chris Morran on January 30, 2012 11:15 AM
56 Comments
We're constantly being asked for advice on how people can get out of cell phone contracts early without being knocked upside the noggin with a brass-knuckled early termination fee. More »
NTSB: You Shouldn't Be Using Your Cell Phone While Driving, Even Hands-Free
By Mary Beth Quirk on December 13, 2011 3:00 PM
154 Comments
The day could be coming when it would be illegal for that girl yapping on her headset in the lane next to you on the freeway to be yapping at all, even on a hands-free cell phone. The National Transportation Board said states should ban all cell phone use for drivers More »
(elle_emm)
Minneapolis Looking To Stop Cabbies From Using Cell Phones
By Chris Morran on November 30, 2011 3:30 PM
42 Comments
Most of us who've lived in major city for long enough have had those experiences of sitting in the backseat of a cab, irritated and possibly concerned by the driver's incessant yammering on his/her phone. Wouldn't it be nice if such distracting chit-chat was illegal? More »
Seattle-Area Theater Will Encourage Texting During Performances
By Phil Villarreal on November 29, 2011 9:00 AM
47 Comments
If you're the type of audience member who feels the need to make the performance a sideshow to your nonstop texting and social network updating, you might want to make plans to move to the Seattle area by 2014. A theater there that's slated to open that year will embrace technological obsession rather than discourage it, encouraging customers to text during shows. More »
Malls Cancel Plans To Track Shoppers' Movements Via Cellphone
By Maggie Shader on November 29, 2011 8:30 AM
63 Comments
Remember how two malls annoyed more than a few people by announcing that they would be tracking shoppers' movements via their cellphone signals? Yeah, well that's no longer happening — at least for now. More »
Malls To Track Shoppers' Movements Via Cellphone Signals This Holiday Season
By Chris Morran on November 22, 2011 3:15 PM
83 Comments
Because you as a shopper are nothing but a lab rat to be tracked, measured, quantified and dissected so that retailers can market to you in a more efficient manner, at least two malls will be using shoppers' cellphone signals to map out their routes from Sbarro to the Spencer Gifts to Chess King (okay okay... so I haven't been to the mall in a while). More »
AT&T Says Hackers Tried To Swipe Account Info
By Phil Villarreal on November 22, 2011 9:30 AM
13 Comments
According to AT&T, hackers tried to break into some users' accounts and make off with some private information. The company calls the attack an "organized and systematic attempt," but more importantly, a failure. More »
Android Reigns As King Of The Smartphone Hill
By Phil Villarreal on November 16, 2011 10:30 AM
92 Comments
Apple may be the media darling that grabs most of the headlines, but the sprawling monolith that is Android is the phone of the 99 percent. Or at least the 52.5 percent. Android devices garnered the majority of global market share in the third quarter, while the iOS market slipped from 16.6 to 15 percent in that span. Quickly-fading Symbian — the operating system for Nokia phones — plunged to 17 percent from 36.3 percent last year. More »
Deciding Whether Or Not To Insure A New Phone
By Phil Villarreal on November 15, 2011 9:30 AM
84 Comments
There are some hard and fast rules about what is and is not worth insuring. Blackjack hands in which the dealer is showing an ace — no. Cars — yes, as is required by law. Health — only if you don't want to go bankrupt. It's a trickier proposition when it comes to smartphones. More »
Reader Gets AT&T To Admit It's Their Towers That Suck, Not The iPhone
By Ben Popken on November 11, 2011 5:00 PM
49 Comments
Melissa couldn't get any reception around her home on her iPhone, despite living only 25 miles from downtown Chicago. Zero bars. It wasn't just annoying to always miss calls, it was also damaging her rental business. But thanks to a detailed, and snarky, email to the CEO of AT&T, she was able to get the wireless provider to reset its towers and fix the service around her house. More »
Verizon Class Action Settlement: Get Refunds For Accidentally Pressing "Get It Now" Button
By Ben Popken on November 4, 2011 2:00 PM
27 Comments
If Verizon "erroneously" charged you for accidentally pressing the "Get it Now" or "Mobile Web" buttons on your phone, you can file for a refund, thanks to a recent class action settlement. More »
Verizon To Offer "Turbo" Button To Users To Speed Up Apps, For A Price
By Ben Popken on November 3, 2011 10:00 AM
43 Comments
App on your Verizon phone going too slow? Just press the "turbo" button and get a temporary speed boost for $.99. That's the idea behind a new feature Verizon will be releasing to software developers in 2012. More »
What's Worse Than Missing A Cool Text? How About Involuntary Manslaughter?
By Ben Popken on November 2, 2011 5:00 PM
90 Comments
Pull over if you're driving and need to respond to or send a text message. Otherwise, that witty reply can wait. Because death won't. More »
(Jezz)
Mother Somehow Runs Up $1500 Verizon Bill
By Ben Popken on October 12, 2011 5:00 PM
151 Comments
Despite not knowing how to use her phone for anything other than making calls, Michelle's mother somehow racked up a $1500 bill for 2,888 MB worth of "music or video streaming." It certainly wasn't the latest Justin Bieber video on loop. Michelle is trying to negotiate with Verizon but all they've done so far is offer a 50% discount. That's still about $600 more than Michelle wants to pay. More »
(Ross)
Obama's Debt Reduction Plan Includes Letting Debt Collectors Robo-Call Cellphones To Collect On Federal Student Loans
By Ben Popken on October 4, 2011 5:00 PM
79 Comments
One part of the debt-reduction bill Obama sent to Congress is a provision that would let debt collectors robo-call cellphones to collect on what's owed to the government, like federal student loans. More »
Senators Introduce Bill To Ban Mandatory Binding Arbitration Clauses In Cellphone Contracts
By Ben Popken on October 4, 2011 4:00 PM
89 Comments
When you buy a new cellphone you have to sign a contract where you give up your right to sue. You agree to what's called, "mandatory binding arbitration." This is a bad thing to give to an industry that has high levels of complaints about hidden fees and abusive anti-consumer practices. Because if their crummy customer service fails to remedy an issue, your last resort option is to participate in a kangaroo court system that is paid for out of fees paid by the cellphone companies themselves. So Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Al Franken (D-MN) have today introduced The Consumer Mobile Fairness Act that would ban mandatory arbitration clauses in cellphone contracts. More »
(50 Watts)
Bill Introduced To Let Robots Call Your Cellphone
By Ben Popken on September 29, 2011 3:00 PM
104 Comments
Since '91, it's been illegal for telemarketers to use autodialers and other robot-like devices to call your cellphone. Last week, a bill was introduced to change that. While in the past email hoaxes have gone around saying that your cellphone could be opened up to telemarketers, HR 3035 seeks to let businesses contact your cellphone "for informational purposes." More »
(andy_57)
SoCal AT&T Cell Customers Suffer Weekend Outage
By Phil Villarreal on September 26, 2011 9:15 AM
10 Comments
AT&T cell phone users in Southern California have an excellent excuse not to return calls received over the weekend, thanks to a nasty outage that eliminated that voice-chatting feature that some people still use. Data and text messages were unaffected. AT&T had its service back online for almost all customers by Sunday evening. More »
(Dan Zen)
Growth Of Texting Craze Starts To Slow
By Phil Villarreal on September 21, 2011 10:15 AM
32 Comments
Likely thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and the way they facilitate on-the-fly email and instant messaging — as well as widespread social network use — text messaging is no longer the growth cottage industry it once was. According to researchers, adults sent and received a median average of 10 texts per day this spring, the same figure as last spring. The previous fall, the median average was five per day. More »
How About Some Customer Service, Cricket? Response: Chirp... Chirp...
By Ben Popken on September 2, 2011 2:00 PM
43 Comments
Cricket is perfectly capable of selling reader skokieguy a smartphone for several hundred dollars, but when it comes time to replace his defective battery for free under warranty, all of a sudden they become powerless. More »
