text

Most of us have sent a garbled text or two (or dozens) in our day, and probably received more than our share as well. But such disoriented messages can in some rare cases move beyond the parlance of speedy modern-day communication to signal a health emergency, Harvard scientists caution.

In a study published online in the Archives of Neurology last week, the researchers coin the term "dystexia" to describe a confused text message that may indicate neurological dysfunction.

They cite the case of a 25-year-old pregnant woman who sent her husband a series of confusing messages about their baby's due date following a routine doctor's appointment. … Read more

Sending and receiving text messages can be problematic and costly when your destination is the Philippines. Chikka Text Messenger solves this dilemma for you by providing a communication hub via online servers.

The application loads quite quickly and the account setup is simple as well. If you possess a Globe, Smart, or Sun mobile phone you may simply enter your phone number and password. All other phone providers must set up an account with a valid e-mail address. Chikka Text Messenger is free for the user who installs it. However, there is a nominal fee for the phone responding to … Read more

This story will move only those who have a heart.

The remainder -- well, perhaps they man the judicial system in Cameroon.

Jean-Claude Roger Mbede, 32, wanted to express his love by text. He sent this: "I am very much in love with you."

The only problem is that Mbede lives in Cameroon. There, as the Associated Press reports, homosexual conduct is illegal. And Mbede sent the text to another man.

The police arrested him on suspicion of homosexuality. His phone, to them, confirmed it.

So he was sent to jail for three years in 2011.

Reason appeared … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission wants to require all cellular carriers and Internet-based messaging providers to support text-to-911 messages.

While the four largest U.S. wireless carriers have already signed on to the plan, the U.S. agency today proposed guidelines that would require "over the top" text messaging apps -- those capable of sending text messages to phones -- to be part of the initiative, which is expected to operational by 2014. Apps that would presumably be part of the initiative include Apple's iMessage, BlackBerry's BBM, Android's MightyText, and Saumsung's ChatOn, among others.

While … Read more

Sure, they may only cost 10 cents a pop, but any parent of a teenager knows that text messages add up fast, creating a very large bill at the end of the cycle. Text Free with Textfree aims to lessen your phone bill with free texting and free calls, but its main selling points failed to actually work.

To begin, Textfree asks if it can have access to your contacts. From there, you'll have to create an account, which will require you to create a username and password, and enter your age, gender, and e-mail. After that, it'll … Read more

Microsoft Visio is a professional drawing tool for creating charts, graphs, diagrams, engineering drawings, networks, layouts, and schedules to use in reports, documents, and presentations. With an extensive array of top-quality templates, Visio is both easy to use and sophisticated enough for professional applications, much like Microsoft's other Office tools. Visio is part of the Office suite and integrates with it in Windows, but it's not included with most Office editions; it comes in separate releases in several versions. Visio Professional is available in a free but limited trial version. All of Visio Pro's features work, but … Read more

No matter how big of a scanned or PDF file you have, this program can handle it. Free OCR will read an otherwise uneditable document and churn out copyable text you can manipulate however you like.

With support for more than 10 different languages, this software impresses with both its accuracy and speed. It churns out an editable version of a small section of text in seconds, but only takes a minute or two to read documents with tiny text or bizarre formatting. You can even crop out sections of the document you don't need to shave seconds off … Read more

Vtok is a messaging and audio- and video-calling app for the iPhone and iPad, available free from iTunes. Using a browser plug-in you can also use Vtok on a Mac or PC. You can use a Google ID to identify yourself to Vtok, although Vtok is not a Google-provided service.

From the Vtok's clean interface you can select the person you want to chat or talk with from a list of contacts, or dial that person's number using the keypad, and then the connection is made. A small bar of icons at the bottom of the screen lets … Read more

Soon there will be more than just one way to contact 911.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced today that the four largest wireless carriers in the U.S. have agreed to fast track a service that will let people text the emergency 911 line.

AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile have all signed on and major deployments are planned to roll out in 2013 and the service should be fully available nationwide by May 15, 2014.

"Access to 911 must catch up with how consumers communicate in the 21st century -- and today, we are … Read more