NotePage SMS, Texting and Messaging Blogs

Not many tech-savvy teenage drivers will be LOL (laughing out loud) after their parents download a new smartphone application planned by the Iowa Department of Transportation.

The state transportation agency’s app will be called TXTL8R, which is smartphone parlance for text later. The goal is to prevent young drivers from texting while behind the wheel.

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This month Imperial College London launched a clinical research program into how diabetes sufferers can improve their quality of life through SMS. The three year study will be the first of its kind in the UK, looking at the concept of motivational text messages and seeing if they are an effective way of preventing the development of the disease.

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Dougherty County educators are seeing more slang and grammar mistakes in students writing and they say cell phones are to blame.

Almost every student in Andrew Sadlers 7th grade reading and language arts class at Radium Springs Middle has had a cell phone for quite some time.

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A security researcher has developed a technique that could significantly improve the secrecy of text messages sent in near real time on iPhones. The technique, which will debut in September in an iOS app called TextSecure, will also be folded into a currently available Android app by the same name.

The cryptographic property known as perfect forward secrecy has always been considered important by privacy advocates, but it has taken on new urgency following the recent revelations of widespread surveillance of Americans by the National Security Agency. Rather than use the same key to encrypt multiple messages—the way, say PGP- and S-MIME-protected e-mail programs do—applications that offer perfect forward secrecy generate ephemeral keys on the fly. In the case of some apps, including the OTR protocol for encrypting instant messages, each individual message within a session is encrypted with a different key.

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We have been contacted by Rogers and informed that Rogers Wireless Canada will shut down TAP dial up to SMS service by Sept 1st, 2013.

The TAP dial up to Alphanumeric pager service will remain untouched.

Customers are encouraged to switch to SNPP and WCTP for sending SMS. The settings can be found at: SNPP Settings, and WCTP settings.

You may have heard of Phillips Hue Lightbulbs that connect over Wi-Fi and let you adjust them via your smartphone. While a bit pricey for most, if you happen to have one you can access an open API to hack them to do more than standard operations.

The folks over at design firm Freshly Tilled Soil decided to explore the Hue API and change the color of the light with just a text message.

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USA Today reported last week on a survey of 1,500 single smartphone users, ages 21 to 50, who date or have been in a relationship less than two years. The study found that more than 35 percent of those ages 21 to 34 use their mobile device to plan and schedule dates; even among the older set, nearly one-third did the same.

About a third of those surveyed said it was less intimidating to ask for a date via text message as opposed to a phone call.

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Text4Baby is a free service of National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition. It was created in response to a growing health crisis nationwide in which an estimated 500,000 babies are born prematurely and an estimated 28,000 children in the United States die before their first birthday.

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Researchers have discovered that bilking people by infecting Android mobile phones with viruses has become a cottage industry in Russia in a criminal model that could be replicated elsewhere. While the text-messaging malware industry appeared centered in Russia, the model could be duplicated in other countries where conditions allow, according to Lookout Mobile Security.

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It  is called My Community Alert, a Wellington-based company that allows HOAs, community managers and resident to send and receive alerts and bulletins. It can be anything from an approaching storm to a lost dog.

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