telephone

Stories 41 - 52 | << Prev 

T-Mobile Brings Cell Phone Service Home

New plan would combine mobile, landline accounts

(Newser) - Cell phone giant T-Mobile is moving into the landline business. The company is trying out a service that ties cell phones to landlines that if successful in Seattle and Dallas could go nationwide within months, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company's new service uses a special router to tie...

AT&T's 4Q Numbers Bolstered by Cell Sales

Other operations lagging behind

(Newser) - AT&T's quarterly numbers indicate strong wireless sales, the Wall Street Journal reports, though unimpressive figures from its landline and Internet divisions have left some analysts and investors concerned. AT&T enjoyed a quarterly revenue of $3.14 billion—up from $1.94 billion this time last year—bolstered by...

Verizon Sues Alltel Over Guinea Pig Ad

Wireless giant says claims made in commercial are untrue

(Newser) - Verizon Wireless is suing rival Alltel for false advertising over a television commercial featuring a vicious guinea pig, the Register reports. In the ad, a caged rodent named Alice is compared to Verizon customers who lack the freedom to change calling plans without extending their contracts. Released from her cage,...

Tough Call: Book Says Bell Ripped Off Rival

Phone inventor likely copied competitor's patent application

(Newser) - Telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell ripped off the idea from his rival Elisha Gray, a new book claims. In The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret, journalist Seth Shulman uncovers evidence that Bell took a sneak peek at Gray's patent documents with the help of his lawyers and a...

Cell Bills Trump Land Line Charges for 1st Time

Americans have 250M mobiles, 170M home lines

(Newser) - US households racked up bigger cellphone than land line bills in 2007 for the first time ever, analysts say. Only 6 years ago, households spent three times more on residential phone bills than on mobiles, a disparity that shrank to an average difference of only $28 by 2006. Now, with...

AT&amp;T Disconnects Pay Phones
AT&T Disconnects
Pay Phones
Dec 3, 2007 12:12 PM CST

AT&T Disconnects Pay Phones

Call a friend on your cell to report end of 129-year-old business

(Newser) - In 1878, one of AT&T’s ancestors introduced the first pay phone—an ordinary phone with an attendant nearby to take callers’ cash. Now the company is discontinuing its pay-phone operations, it announced today, 129 years later. With roughly 80% of Americans owning cellphones, pay phones had shrunk to...

Microsoft Sees Office Phone as Next Frontier

Software giant likely to butt heads with Cisco in lucrative market

(Newser) - Microsoft is famous for ever-more-complicated programs for ever-faster computers, and now it's taking aim at an overlooked piece of hardware: the phone. Yesterday, Bill Gates launched a line of software designed for office telephones that aims to make phone tag a thing of the past. It's a multi-billion-dollar sector, Fortune...

Strip-search Costs McD's $6.1M
Strip-search Costs McD's $6.1M
Oct 6, 2007 10:03 AM CDT

Strip-search Costs McD's $6.1M

Jurors say franchise negligent in hoax

(Newser) - A Kentucky jury has ordered McDonald's to pay $6.1 million to settle the case of an employee who was strip-searched in the fast-food restaurant as part of a hoax. Jurors gave Louise Ogborn, 18 at the time, hefty punitive damages because McDonald's didn't seem all that concerned about warning...

Free Phone Service Listens In, Tailors Ads

Startup sparks privacy concerns with marketing that draws on conversations

(Newser) - In much the same way that Gmail scans emails to push relevant advertising, a California start-up is using voice-recognition software to translate the strategy to Internet phone calls. Puddingmedia offers free phone service if customers allow eavesdropping on their conversations, the AP reports. The data isn't recorded, but privacy advocates...

Gabbers Can Make (Mostly) Free Calls With New Gadgets

Each connects home phones to the 'Net

(Newser) - Gabbers have a couple of new options if they want to use the 'Net to make free (or cheaper) phone calls. Each is a box that connects to a home phone and a computer to route calls through cyberspace. One is a modest and low-cost, the other a chic machine...

Smartphones Flunk IQ Test
Smartphones Flunk IQ Test
Sep 8, 2007 9:31 PM CDT

Smartphones Flunk IQ Test

Joe Nocera concludes that packing in features is making many phones dysfunctional

(Newser) - In a New York Times piece sure to resonate with frustrated smartphone owners everywhere, Joe Nocera unspools a Treo horror story that runs the gamut from weird, intermittent glitches to a lethal software upgrade. After turning in his moribund phone for a new one, and finding the replacement  as balky...

More Americans Go Wireless
More Americans Go Wireless
May 15, 2007 11:10 AM CDT

More Americans Go Wireless

Landline use falls; one-eighth of US households rely on cellphones only

(Newser) - More and more Americans are bypassing landlines and using only cellphones, a new CDC survey says. The trend encompasses people of all ages and incomes, and it's especially pronounced among the young and the poor. One-eighth (12.8%) of all households use only a cellphone—up from 3.2% in...

Stories 41 - 52 | << Prev