at&t

AT&T turns parents into big brother

AT&T rolled out a new security portal today called Smart Limits. Designed for parents who want to monitor all aspects of their children's activities, the site provides instructions for parental controls of the Internet, cellular phones, television watching, and regular landline telephone calls. There is one catch, though: all the information is for AT&T's services, so it's not going to work on your Comcast cable box or Verizon cell phone.

There's obviously a big push for parental controls, as Windows Vista and Web services like MySpace recently have pushed out new child protection initiatives. … Read more

News Roundup: Live mail gets hotter, Mobile ESPN resurrected, Last.fm + Warner, Job Resumes on Facebook

>> Microsoft sticks with Hotmail name. First it was Hotmail, then it was Windows Live Mail. Now it's Windows Live Hotmail. Will people still call it plain ol' Hotmail? Probably. The name change is reminiscent of the Cingular/AT&T debacle of late. Microsoft is choosing to keep the Hotmail moniker in its upgraded e-mail service, despite the vastly different interface.

>> Verizon breathing new life into Mobile ESPN. The Web-to-phone service that was originally offered as an MVNO and got axed less than a year later has been resurrected by Verizon as a part of … Read more

Stephen Colbert explains Cingular and deregulation

The AT&T acquisition of BellSouth and Cingular is final, and even though we haven't seen signs of it on Cingular's front page yet, AT&T will slowly roll out an ad campaign to phase out the Cingular brand. It won't be an overnight change, but much like the AT&T Wireless change to Cingular a few years back, subscribers will definitely see a change on their wireless bills within the next few months.

All this changing of hands from AT&T to the various Baby Bells to BellSouth and SBC and all … Read more

Cingular man, we hardly knew ye

It seems not too long ago that AT&T Wireless users everywhere were complaining about the switchover to Cingular. Well, with the FCC approval last Friday of AT&T's acquisition of Bellsouth, prepare for some serious deja vu coming your way early this year. Yep, we're finally about to go through the whole rebranding rigmarole, but the other way 'round. See ya, orange Cingular man; it was nice knowing you.