messages

AT&T is digging in behind its February promise of eco-ratings for phones sold with the carrier's service with the sale of the Pantech Renue.

The Renue is built from 67 percent recyclable components, and its packaging is constructed from 95 percent recycled paper and printed with soy ink, which isn't a petroleum industry byproduct. The onboard power-saving app is another nod to Earth's resources. In addition, the Renue has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 3.2-inch touch screen, and a 3-megapixel camera. It costs $69.99 with a new two-year service agreement.

AT&T'… Read more

It may be "good to talk," as telecom giant BT's ads put it in the early '90s. But two decades on, the U.K. has evolved into a nation of texters.

According to research published Monday by U.K. communications regulator Ofcom, text messaging is outstripping actually making a call. Last year 58 percent of people communicated via text messaging on a daily basis, while only 47 percent made a mobile call at least once a day, the watchdog found.

Voice calling is seeing something of a drop in popularity: mobile call volumes were down by 1 … Read more

Police did not violate the privacy rights of a Washington state man who responded to a text message from the iPhone of his suspected drug dealer only to get arrested on drug charges after arranging to meet up, a Washington appeals court says.

Police had arrested Daniel Lee on drug charges and one officer searched through the text messages on Lee's iPhone, found some suspicious messages from a "Z-Jon" and texted from Lee's phone to ask if Z-Jon "needed more." Then, according to court papers, Z-Jon followed up with a message using drug slang … Read more

Apple and Google removed an app from their app stores after it was revealed to be harvesting users' phone contacts as spam targets.

The Find and Call app was originally thought to be an SMS worm but later discovered to be a Trojan, according to Kaspersky Lab. The Russian software security firm said it alerted by Apple and Google to the presence of the malware in their stores, leading to the app's removal.

Apple confirmed it removed the app for violating App Store rules.

"The Find & Call app has been removed from the App Store due to … Read more

Since installing the beta version of Messages (on day one), I have quite enjoyed its capability to sync with my iOS device messages as well as Google Chat, AIM, and other Jabber accounts. Today though, Messages did not open as expected.

At first I thought it had something to do with the beta version running out. Recently, Apple took down the capability to download Messages, so perhaps disabling the beta version was part of the plan all along. But, that doesn't really make sense without a clear replacement intact.

With Mountain Lion still being tested, I needed to find … Read more

PanteraSoft's HDD Health is a compact piece of freeware based on a good idea: monitoring your hard drives' S.M.A.R.T. data to alert you when temperatures get too high, disk space gets too low, or signs point to impending disk failure. HDD Health then issues pop-up, audible, or e-mail alerts in any combination you choose. But while the latest build claims compatibility with Windows 7, we found that HDD Health wouldn't display S.M.A.R.T. data in 64-bit Windows 7 installations, something other users have had issues with as well.

HDD Health is … Read more

Live in an area prone to flash floods, hurricanes, blizzards? Smartphone users will soon get a severe-weather alert from the National Weather Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The new nationwide emergency alert system, called the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), sends 90-character text messages to smartphones of people facing extreme weather conditions. Severe weather defined by the NOAA includes tornadoes, flash floods, hurricanes, extreme wind, blizzards and ice storms, tsunamis, and dust storms. Note that thunderstorms aren't on the list because they occur so frequently. … Read more

Mountain Lion, originally seeded to developers in February, will be available from the Mac App Store in July for $19.99.

Apple's new operating system takes the Mac OS in a new direction, with Apple integrating a number of iOS-inspired features from its mobile devices. Apple SVP Craig Federighi says the new OS has over 200 new features, including notifications, Reminders, Game Center, Documents in the Cloud, and Messages. Many of these features are standalone programs, but some such as the Notification Center and sharing tools are systemwide services. Apple is also enhancing security options with its Gatekeeper technology, … Read more

AT&T is trotting out a new QWERTY messaging phone, the Pantech Swift, going on sale today.

With its lavender accents, there's little question of Pantech's young audience, and the compact phone is appropriately priced at $69.99 with two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

The QWERTY keyboard, by the way, supplements the otherwise too-small 2.8-inch QVGA touch screen. Pantech has also added some curvature -- a slightly curved screen that also angles up when you slide it open. Button-pushers will also get a single hardware select button beneath the phone's face.

The … Read more