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NEWS ABOUT: cell phones

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AT&T to Make $500M ... by Charging You 61 Cents

New administrative fee went into effect May 1

(Newser) - If you're an AT&T wireless customer, your May bill will feature a new charge: a 61-cent monthly administrative fee. Before you pooh-pooh it as small potatoes, consider this: The Wall Street Journal reports that the move could tally up to an extra $518 million for the company in... More »

Help Gingrich Find a New Name for 'Cell Phone'

Like 'handheld computer'

(Newser) - Newt Gingrich is launching a new campaign: to find a better name for the cell phone. In a new YouTube video, the former presidential candidate urges followers to suggest a new name for the device we don't really use as a phone much anymore, ABC reports. He likens it... More »

San Francisco Loses Fight to Put Warnings on Phones

Industry sued to avoid listing potential radiation risks

(Newser) - San Francisco is giving up its fight to become the first city in the US to require that cell phones come with warnings about the potential health risks of radiation, reports Reuters . The city tried to put such a law on the books in 2011, but the industry blocked it... More »

Facebook Phone Now Costs $1

AT&T's deep discounts don't bode well for HTC First and Facebook Home

(Newser) - Ouch. The "Facebook phone"—aka the HTC First phone running Facebook Home —is now selling for just 99 cents. AT&T was offering the phone for $99 on a two-year contract, but has now reduced the price to under a buck, Mashable reports. That's an absurd-sounding... More »

Carriers Ignore, Profit From Phone Thefts, Say Cops

Critics complain that industry isn't trying to curb rising crime numbers

(Newser) - Cell phone thefts are on the rise across the country, and police say the people swiping them aren't the only ones to blame. "The carriers are not innocent in this whole game," Washington DC's police chief tells the New York Times . "They are making profit... More »

Judge Holds Self in Contempt of Court

Fines himself $25 over cellphone interruption

(Newser) - Judge Raymond Voet is nothing if not a man of his word. The Michigan justice has a strict "no cellphones" rule posted in his Ionia County courtroom, and has a history of confiscating phones from witnesses, lawyers, spectators, and police officers during trials. So when his own phone went... More »

40 Years Ago Today: World's 1st Cell Phone Call

NYC call was made on a 'brick'

(Newser) - Give someone a call on your smartphone today, and you'll be celebrating history: It's been 40 years since the first mobile phone call was made, the Guardian reports. That first call was placed by Motorola worker Martin Cooper in New York City on April 3, 1973, using a... More »

T-Mobile Eliminates Contracts

But company's new wireless plan also nixes phone subsidies

(Newser) - T-Mobile is ditching a once-inescapable part of wireless life: the contract. The company had been offering contract-free plans as an option alongside two-year contracts, CNET reports; now, according to the T-Mobile website , contract plans are a thing of the past. An example of a new plan: For $50 a month,... More »

Your iPhone Could Have Been the ... Telepod

Apple also considered 'Mobi' and 'Tripod'

(Newser) - Would you have bought a Telepod? Or a Mobi? Turns out those are two names Apple considered for its original iPhone, 9to5Mac reports. Ken Segall, former chief of Apple advertising, revealed the names to a marketing crowd at the University of Arizona last week. Apple's reasoning:
  • Telepod: It sounded
... More »

Phone Thief Posts His Pic on Victim's Facebook Page

... by mistake, smoking dope

(Newser) - Talk about dopey: Cops say a New York man stole a woman's cell phone, photographed himself smoking dope with it, and posted the pic on her Facebook page by mistake. She had apparently set up the phone to post photos automatically on Facebook. He allegedly grabbed the 27-year-old victim'... More »

Petition Gets Obama to Back Unlocking Cell Phones

FCC backs legal unlocking, too

(Newser) - It now takes 100,000 signatures to get an official White House response to a We the People petition—and angry cell phone users got more than 114,000 after it became illegal to unlock your cell phone on Jan. 26. That's the day the Librarian of Congress ruled... More »

Google's Brin: Smartphones 'Emasculating'

His issue: 'Rubbing featureless piece of glass.' Critics pounce

(Newser) - Sergey Brin thinks smartphones are "emasculating." "You're standing around and just rubbing this featureless piece of glass," the Google co-founder told a TED audience yesterday. That contrasts, apparently, with his Google Glass project, which has come a long way. It began as essentially "a... More »

FCC Puts Kibosh on Cell Phone Signal Boosters

Tells owners they may have to turn them off

(Newser) - The FCC today ordered the 2 million Americans using wireless signal boosters to turn them off—then quickly backpedaled, saying only that they might have to turn them off. The FCC adopted new rules governing the devices, which are designed to boost cell phone reception, but which regulators fear will... More »

Don Juans Have a Secret: the 'Infidelity Phone'

Japanese cheaters stick with the Fujitsu F-Series

(Newser) - Japanese philanderers know their weak spot: the smartphone. Afraid that girlfriends and wives will spot incoming calls from certain secret someones, Lotharios in Japan are sticking with Fujitsu's old "F-Series" flip phones, the Wall Street Journal reports. The so-called "infidelity phones" can easily be programmed to conceal... More »

Indian Village Bans Cell Phones for Women

Council elders worry about elopements

(Newser) - A village in north India has outlawed the use of cell phones in public by women because the (male) council elders say they're leading to elopements, reports Reuters . "It always gives us a lot of embarrassment when someone asks who has eloped this time," explains the head... More »

McAfee: Belize PM a 'Dictator'

Fugitive also stops by message board to ask for tech support

(Newser) - John McAfee fired back at Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow yesterday, after Barrow called the antivirus pioneer-turned-murder suspect " bonkers ." "You know, I think he himself is bonkers if he can throw away the constitution of the country and become dictator without the world catching on," McAfee... More »

Smartphone Thefts Soaring

Carriers moving to make stolen phones worthless

(Newser) - Police departments, lawmakers, and wireless companies are scrambling to tackle a crime wave veteran cops call "the new purse-snatching," the AP reports. Cell phone thefts, especially of the priciest smartphones, are soaring nationwide and now make up close to half of all robberies in cities including New York... More »

Cell Phone Gave Man a Brain Tumor: Court

Italy's Supreme Court stuns with 'landmark' ruling: newspaper

(Newser) - Italian businessman Innocente Marcolini developed a brain tumor after using his cell phone heavily for 12 years—and Italy's Supreme Court says that his phone is to blame, the Sun reports. Evidence from a respected oncologist and a neurosurgeon convinced the court that electromagnetic radiation from cell phones—and... More »

RadioShack Sells Kid, 13, Porn-Filled Cell Phone

Mom is unamused, suing RadioShack, Sprint

(Newser) - Here's today's big "oops": Marcia Jones says she visited her local RadioShack to purchase what she thought were two new cell phones for herself and her 13-year-old daughter. But upon booting up the phones, they found pornographic images uploaded from the phones' previous owners, reports the Atlanta ... More »

WiFi? Phhhh. Try Sending Data by a Light Bulb

Physicist Herald Haas calls it 'Visible Light Communication'

(Newser) - Think WiFi is amazing? How about LiFi, a technology in the works that could transmit data at amazingly high speeds from everyday light bulbs, CNN reports. German physicist Herald Haas is working on the process that could revolutionize movie downloads, cell phone calls, and anything that uses radio wave signals... More »

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