The comment period for the
DRAFT Wireless code [
PDF] to address some cellular provider abuses is expiring soon (February 15th). Comments can be
made here.
Highlights of the draft code include:
- A $50 (or less) monthly cap on incurred fees.
- A limitation of cancellation fees equal to the remaining amount of the prorated incentive amount
- Mandatory unlocking at no cost for non subsidy phones with no waiting period.
- Limits on deposits and non payment cancellations.
- No termination fee, 15 day cooling off period
- Mandatory listing of limits on "unlimited" plans.
[more inside]
posted by Mitheral
on Feb 12, 2013 -
17 comments
Verizon draws fire for monitoring app usage, browsing habits: Verizon Wireless has begun selling information about its customers' geographical locations, app usage, and Web browsing activities. The company this month began offering reports to marketers showing what Verizon subscribers are doing on their phones and other mobile devices, including what iOS and Android apps are in use in which locations. Verizon says it may link the data to third-party databases with information about customers' gender, age, and even details such as "sports enthusiast, frequent diner or pet owner."
[more inside]
posted by jaduncan
on Oct 16, 2012 -
19 comments
"Maintaining this level of surveillance is very burdensome for companies. According to the letters, AT&T has more than 100 full time employees assigned just to handle law enforcement requests, Verizon has 70, and Sprint has a whopping 226. That’s a lot of people power devoted solely to surveillance."
Mobile Phone Surveillance by the Numbers.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jul 9, 2012 -
38 comments
What do you do when your viola recital gets interrupted by someone in the audience getting a call on their cellphone?
Improvise.
posted by scalefree
on Jan 24, 2012 -
26 comments
"That stainless steel band that runs around is the primary structural element of the phone. And there are these three slits in it. It turns out, this is part of some brilliant engineering which actually uses the stainless steel band as part of the antenna system... it's never been done before. And it's really cool engineering!"
Less than three weeks after Steve Jobs
announced the iPhone 4's
(previously) revolutionary signal-boosting design, the internet discovers a
fatal flaw that causes calls to drop when the bottom-left corner is touched. Jobs personally offered one customer a solution via email:
"Just avoid holding it in that way." Apple's marketing department apparently
didn't get the memo.
[more inside]
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis
on Jun 25, 2010 -
230 comments
Flash Mobs Take Violent Turn in Philadelphia [H]undreds of teenagers have been converging downtown for a ritual that is part bullying, part running of the bulls: sprinting down the block, the teenagers sometimes pause to brawl with one another, assault pedestrians or vandalize property. . . .
The flash mobs have raised questions about race and class.
Most of the teenagers who have taken part in them are black and from poor neighborhoods. Most of the areas hit have been predominantly white business districts.
In the flash mob on Saturday, groups of teenagers were chanting “black boys” and “burn the city,” bystanders said.
Bill Wasik is not proud.
posted by grobstein
on Mar 25, 2010 -
70 comments
Karsten Nohl and a team of fellow researchers has
cracked the 64-bit encryption used in 80% of the world's GSM phones.
Nohl had previously cracked the encryption in the
MIFARE smartcard system,
demonstrating that the encryption on that device can be cracked in approximately no time whatsoever. These, of course, aren't the first gaping holes in cellphone security to come to light; indeed,
lack of security seems to be part of the design spec. Perhaps all new cellphones should be just be
distributed with a deck of cards.
posted by kaibutsu
on Dec 28, 2009 -
51 comments
There's been quite a
stir in Finland about the world's biggest cell phone maker,
Nokia, after it was alleged yesterday that politicians had been
pressured by the company in order for a law on electronic surveillance of its employees would to be passed. The company
denies threats to leave the country if email monitoring laws are not introduced.
Electric Frontier Finland is considering taking the case into the
ECHR.
posted by keijo
on Feb 2, 2009 -
17 comments
"Thanks to tremendous progress achieved by the General Packet Radio System (GPRS), the wireless communication protocol, it is now possible for Africans to send articles and images (still and moving) about events taking place in their countries without using a computer and without having internet connection. Under those circumstances, the bigger the number of people expressing their opinions through that technology, the stronger becomes democracy, and the more valuable is the contribution to good governance efforts in Africa" -
Voices of Africa, Mobile stories and videos from Africa. Quote above from article
Mobile Reporters in Africa.
posted by infini
on Jul 27, 2007 -
11 comments
For four months, the Kuykendalls, the Prices and the McKays say they’ve been harassed and threatened by mysterious cell phone stalkers who track their every move and occasionally lurk by their homes late at night, screaming and banging on walls.
Police can’t seem to stop them. The late-night visitors vanish before officers arrive. The families say investigators have a hard time believing the stalkers can control cell phones without touching them and suspect an elaborate hoax. Complaints to their phone companies do no good – the families say they’ve been told what the stalkers are doing
is impossible.
posted by daninnj
on Jun 29, 2007 -
99 comments
