Prepaid Reviews Blog » Text Messaging

Using text for love and romance

Joe — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:00:33 +0000

Do you flirt via text message? Come on. I know you do. I’m guilty myself. A few carefully-crafted words can go a long way. It appears that the majority of cell phone users are doing it, according to a recent survey. Of 1,000 respondents age 18 to 55, 67 percent said they used text messaging to flirt. So don’t try to act like you don’t. Also, 68 percent said they used it to send a love note. If you’re in a relationship, this is standard practice. It’s an especially effective medium during work hours, when a phone call might be inappropriate.

“People have discovered that there are moments when just the right text, sent at just the right time, can go a long way to keeping romance alive,” said Alecia Bridgwater, director of messaging for AT&T’s wireless unit, in a statement. “We wanted to understand more deeply how our customers were using text messaging in this way, and our study turned up some interesting insights.”

I have a few friends, as I’m sure you do, who despise text messaging. They complain that no one can take the time to pick up the phone any more. This reminds me of people who complained about cell phones and the Internet — and even landlines and the fax machines — saying that it takes away from face to face communications.

Personally, I think it’s an excellent medium. You can send off a short note when appropriate, just to stay in contact. You can converse when it’s inappropriate for one of the parties to be talking on the phone. And you can try to convince a lady friend to join you at a bar. You know, the bar where it’s way too loud to talk to someone on the phone.

Of course, the younger generations are far more likely to use text messaging in this way. As we grow older, though, and new generations grow up with text messaging, we’ll see its use spread even more.

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Using text for love and romance

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Using text for love and romance

In case of emergency, don’t rely on SMS notification

Joe — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:30:36 +0000

Last year, when a bridge collapsed in Minnesota, officials advised citizens to use SMS in case of emergency, since it puts less strain on the network. It means more data can get through, which means more people stay in contact with friends and family in a time of crisis. However, according to a recent study, you should not rely on emergency communications from third parties. Not only are systems unable to deliver a large volume of messages quickly, but such a volume might become troublesome for other voice and SMS traffic on the network.

”SMS is touted as being able to deliver critical information during disaster events, and such services have been purchased by universities and municipalities hoping to protect the general public,” stated Patrick Traynor, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. ”Unfortunately, such systems typically will not work as advertised.”

Traynor even cites the Obama SMS campaign, in which he announced Joe Biden as his running mate.

”As reported by the media, we had a reasonably good demonstration of wide-scale text messaging efforts by the Obama campaign recently,” Traynor stated. ”However, even though the population participating in this campaign announcement was not necessarily as dense as a major disaster messaging effort, there were still significant message delivery issues reported similar to the ones described in my research paper.”

My question: What does this mean for the FCC? Earlier this year, they approved an emergency text message initiative.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

In case of emergency, don’t rely on SMS notification

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

In case of emergency, don’t rely on SMS notification

All sorts of text messaging records so far in 2008

Joe — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:30:18 +0000

It’s no wonder I’ve heard more than one marketer say that they covet SMS campaigns. Many disagree with them, I know, but it’s hard to deny how ubiquitous text messaging has become. In the first half of 2008, we set a few texting records, according to VeriSign Inc. (via RCR Wireless). The company delivered 95.4 billion text messages during the period, and broke records for single-day text messaging — 648 million — and the one-hour record of 42 million.

Colin Gibbs of RCR makes sure to remind us that we could be seeing a peak in SMS in the near future, as instant messaging via data plans seems to be the future of mobile messaging.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

All sorts of text messaging records so far in 2008

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

All sorts of text messaging records so far in 2008

37 percent of Gen-Yers text while driving

Joe — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:30:50 +0000

I’m not sure if everyone else’s high school did this, but back when I was 16 they brought a drunk driving simulator to the parking lot. It was a car rigged so they could delay the reaction time between turning the wheel and them actually turning. We had fun trying to beat the system, and flattened a good share of cones in the process. I’m not sure if the students at Hermitage High School in Virginia did something like that when they simulated distracted driving situations. Among the distractions: Text messaging.

Turns out, 37 percent of Gen-Yers said that they send, and presumably read, text messages while driving. This is not good, especially as the National Highway Traffic Safety Admiinstration says that “distracted drivers account for nearly four out of five crashes in the U.S.”

I’m pretty sure we all know that texting and driving isn’t the safest practice. What will it take for people to stop? Search me. I’m a notorious red light texter. Is that bad?

via Switched via textually

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37 percent of Gen-Yers text while driving

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37 percent of Gen-Yers text while driving

Texting to put criminals behind bars

Joe — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:00:05 +0000

When I was a lad, I’d always see and hear notices for Crime Stoppers, an anonymous law enforcement tip line. “Call 1-800-CRIMESTOPPERS. No one will ask your name,” was the slogan. So it appears that people are far more willing to tip off police anonymously. But with caller ID (not to mention call recording) being what it is, a good number of people might be paranoid about leaving such tips. But what if you could text message the tip? And what if your number was encrypted, so that the text was truly anonymous? That’s what TipSoft is aiming to find out.

TipSoft is making its way to 32 cities in the U.S., and sixteen in Canada. The idea is to provide law enforcement with leads to non-urgent matters. Clearly, if the situation needs immediate attention, dial 9-1-1. But for simple leads, TipSoft should do the trick.

The service also allows law enforcement to respond to these anonymous text messages. I suppose this uses some kind of shortcode routing. Officers can send messages back, even without knowing the information of the tipster. That seems to be the overarching theme of TipSoft: Complete anonymity.

“Due to the massive popularity of text messaging, we felt it was necessary to develop a secure and anonymous means of easy communication between mobile phone users and law enforcement,” said Kevin Anderson, CEO of Anderson Software. “With TipSoft SMS, everyday citizens will have the opportunity to offer an anonymous tip when they are mobile to a variety of law enforcement agencies via a simple text message.”

You can check out TipSoft for yourself at Crimestop.com.

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Texting to put criminals behind bars

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Texting to put criminals behind bars

Voting by text message

Joe — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:03:57 +0000

It seems Samsung is in the survey business nowadays. Their latest one regards the upcoming presidential race. The idea of voting via text message has been brought up more than once. Clearly, this would increase the voter turnout. However, given the nature of the best, there’s plenty of room for abuse. This country can ill afford a situation where an election is called into question because of someone or someones tampering with the results. But according to Samsung’s survey, the abuse issue isn’t at the forefront of most people’s minds.

Sixty-one percent of respondents said they’d be open to voting by text message. Yeah, I’m open to it, too. I just have some big issues with how it will be implemented.

Samsung also polled 300 teenagers. And guess what? Eighty percent of them said that they’d rather text message their presidential vote — if they were allowed to vote in the first place — than go to the polls. Not exactly an optimistic voicing from the future of our country.

It’s not that text message voting is bad. It’s that we shouldn’t care about the ease of voting. And really, it’s not that hard. Or it shouldn’t be. You walk into the polling place, you go to your district, you show your ID, you go into the booth, and you pick your candidates. I understand that the process might be convoluted in some places. But simplifying it with text messaging just isn’t the answer.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Voting by text message

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Voting by text message

How to block incoming text messages

Joe — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:13:06 +0000

In the cellular world, spam isn’t free. On your computer, it’s a mere annoyance. But when you receive unsolicited messages on your cell phone, it costs money. So if you’re not one of the many who have text messaging bundles, you’re going to need a way to filter out these messages. But how?

The problem is that this varies by carrier. Surprising as it may be, many carriers don’t offer you the option of blocking text messages from a certain number. Logic dictates that this should be a service offered by carriers, if for no other reason than to curb harassing communication.

Some carriers don’t even allow you the option to block text messages at all. This seems a bit odd as well. Some people genuinely do not want to use text messaging. Since they clearly would not be subscribing to a messaging bundle, they’d be charged for each text sent to them.

Take my mother for instance. She hasn’t a clue how to text message. But when I went to help her with her phone, I found a number of them in her inbox. They were from friends and family, and with good intentions. However, my mother was not aware of their presence. She was obviously charged for these text messages. If she had the ability to turn text messaging off — which makes sense, because she doesn’t use the feature — she wouldn’t have been charged.

Blocking texts from a specific phone number

Did you know that of the carriers I talked to from our pay-as-you-go phone providers, only one has the ability to block text messages from an individual number? That would be Alltel. They have a feature called Message Register, which allows you to block communications from specific people. Why other carriers don’t implement this kind of feature, I’ll never know.

So if you’re getting harassing text messages, you’d better hope you’re on Alltel. If not, your options are precious few. Actually, there’s only one option: Turn off text messaging completely. And even then, there’s no guarantee that your provider can do that.

Turn it off totally

A few carriers do allow you to completely turn off your text messaging functions. With it turned off, you’re effectively blocking text messages, and thereby will not be charged for them.

So if you’re a customer of Verizon, AT&T, or Virgin Mobile, you can call customer service and have them shut off your text messaging feature. And that will be the end of that.

The prepaid unlimited carriers are similar. You can turn off text messaging in total, but not block from certain numbers. Not that turning off text messaging will save you money. It’s all unlimited with Cricket and MetroPCS, so turning off text messaging only serves to hinder annoyances.

You’ll get text messages whether you like it or not

Are you a customer of T-Mobile or Boost? Well, then you’re just going to have to deal with annoying text messages. Neither company will shut off your text messaging, no matter how many harassing text messages you receive.

I don’t understand how this is good company policy. Yes, there is money to be made in SMS. But there’s further money to be made in customer satisfaction. This goes doubly for prepaid. If a customer does not like a service, he or she can walk away.

So if you don’t plan to use SMS, it might not be a good idea to go with Boost or T-Mo. Even if you don’t give out your number — which could help ensure that you don’t get charged for text messages — there’s always the possibility that you’re inheriting the number of a big texter.

What about Tracfone

What would an article about prepaid providers be without the nation’s No. 1 carrier? They’re left off to a section of their own because I found it difficult to get a straight answer out of them. Yes, they said, you can block SMS messages. “There are ways to do it,” said the representative. But when I pressed for specifics, I was stonewalled.

The solution with Tracfone: Buy one of their old phones which don’t support SMS. Yeah, they’re archaic, but they ensure that you won’t incur charges for unwanted messages — because you won’t be able to receive them in the first place.

A note about shortcodes

I’ve seen forum posts which claim that you can text message “B [phone number you wish to block]” to shortcode 8888. I have not heard any confirmation of this, nor have I tried it myself. Has anyone else? It seems to me that if this does work, it doesn’t block the text message at the carrier’s switch. Which means that you’ll still be charged, even if you don’t ever receive the message.

Blocking text message spam

If it’s not an individual you’re after, but rather it’s text message spam you want to stop, there is a way. Carriers do offer an option where you can block emails coming to you via an Internet protocol. Since spam is mostly sent en masse through teh Internet, blocking Internet-based messages will curb your daily dose of SMS spam.

You can also block text messages coming to your phone number @ your carrier.com (e.g., 1234567890@t-mobile.com). This is another frequent source of spam.

Report spam

In any event, should you receive text message spam, you should immediately report it to your service provider. Many of them, like Verizon, will give you a credit for the spam message. Not all carriers do this, but even if they don’t, still make sure to inform them of spam. Hey, maybe it will help them wake up one day and do more about it.

We all hate spam. So let’s do all we can to eradicate ourselves of it.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

How to block incoming text messages

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

How to block incoming text messages

Can text messaging bring together parents and teens?

Joe — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:44:26 +0000

When you’re not a teenager, communicating with one is a hassle, to say the least. If you’re younger, you’re considered a lesser being and accordingly scorned. If you’re older, you’re out of touch — and that’s a nice way of putting it. Really, teenagers think that their elders are a bunch of idiots who have clearly never gone through what they’re going through. (It feels good when they finally come around, right?) Apparently, though, if you communicate via their medium of choice — that is, text messaging — they might actually be receptive. Go figure.

This comes from the results of a survey by Samsung. They find that 68 percent of parents communicate with their kids via text message. And over half of teenagers say that they communicate with their parents more often through text messaging. This is about the same percentage that think that their relationship with parents has been improved since they started texting. Slightly fewer parents agree, but it’s still very close.

I can see how this makes sense. Text messaging is a passive communications medium. You can tap out a quick text message to your parents letting them know you’re okay, and no one is the wiser. Whereas if you have to call to update your parents, you have to leave the group for a moment.

Teens don’t want their peers to know that they’re attached to their parents. They want to seem independent. So by communicating via text, teens can keep in touch with their parents, and at the same time retain their veil of independence among friends.

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Can text messaging bring together parents and teens?

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Can text messaging bring together parents and teens?

Telus reiterates: Don’t respond to spam

Stuart — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:33:21 +0000

It’s a pretty well-known mantra, but it’s worth repeating. When you receive a spam message, do not respond. There is nothing worse than letting a spammer know that the address they hit is correct. I’d expect to be on a thousand mailing lists after that, effectively increasing spam total. It’s much worse on cell phones, of course, because many of us get charged per message. Thankfully, this happened with Telus in Canada, where incoming texts are free. Still, to save yourself the annoyance, just ignore the spam.

Telus spokesman Chris Gerritsen backs it up:

They’re likely not targeting anyone specific; they’re going ‘phishing’ to see if anyone bites,” said Gerritsen. “We always tell our customers not to respond to unsolicited messages.”

Telus assures us that they’re using anti-spam protection, and the latest technology at that. But as any of you with Hotmail accounts know, it’s very easy to open the floodgates of spam. Don’t let it happen on your cell.

[Edmonton Journal]

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Telus reiterates: Don’t respond to spam

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Telus reiterates: Don’t respond to spam

Unwanted texts means class action suit for T-Mo

Joe — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:38:11 +0000

This haven’t been going so well for T-Mobile in court lately. Late last week we learned that they’ll face a class action suit over improper billing practices. This comes after they lost an appeal to uphold their mandatory arbitration clause. Not wasting any time, another class has filed suit against the nation’s No. 4 wireless carrier. This one is over unwanted text messages and the charges associated with them.

“T-Mobile refuses to disable the texting messaging feature on its customers’ accounts, even when the customer has no interest in sending, or, more importantly, receiving text messages,” stated plaintiffs representing Maria Detwiler and others. “Moreover, T-Mobile requires each of its customers who have not subscribed to one of T-Mobileâ€™s Messaging Value Bundles to pay for each and every unsolicited text message they receive. In sum, T-Mobile, the party with the superior bargaining power, has carried out a wrongful business scheme regarding text messaging to deliberately cheat a large number of consumers out of individually small sums of money.”

I never really understood why it was so tough to turn off SMS. Some people just don’t want the feature. But carriers see SMS as a huge revenue cow — see those increasing per-message rates as proof. What they’re failing to understand is that you can’t force someone to use text messaging by mandating that they have the service active. People get ticked when they receive things they didn’t want in the first place, and then get charged for those things.

It also helps avoid SMS spam, which could lead to your unaware enrollment in monthly services. They’ll merely show up as “download” on your monthly bill, and they’re easy to skip over if you don’t scrutinize your bill. Many people could be saved from these types of scams if carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile allowed customers to forego SMS.

If you do get a spam text message, call your carrier immediately to try and arrange for a refund. Because of cases like this, they are likely to grant you the 20-cent pardon. And if they’re not, well, they might find themselves in the same position as T-Mobile.

[RCR Wireless News]

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Unwanted texts means class action suit for T-Mo

This post originated at PrepaidReviews.com - The number one resource for NET 10 Prepaid information on the web!

Unwanted texts means class action suit for T-Mo