Chambersburg, PA—One local mother is concerned and doing something about teen texting while driving. When Pamela Rajtik learned of the statistics that 40 percent of young Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 have been in a car while the driver was texting and driving, she thought, “someone should do something about this.” As the mother of teens, she was more than just a little concerned. After waiting and learning, researching and taking notes, and talking with other parents, Pamela has started a new non-profit organization to help educate kids about the dangers of texting while driving.

New Non-Profit: Parents Against Texting Teens

“For awhile I waited for someone to come up with an idea or answer to the problem as I saw it,” she said. “Then I realized I was the ’someone’ I was waiting for to do something about texting and driving,” she said.

While Pamela’s organization (Parents Against Texting Teens) is just local to Chambersburg, PA, more awareness about texting while is growing. So far, 19 states have banned texting while driving, and for good reason; the statistics are horrific. According to the National Safety Council, 1.6 million accidents a year are caused by cell phone use. The Christian Science Monitor reports that 1.4 million crashes are caused by people talking on their cell phones, while conservatively estimated, there are another 200,000 caused by people texting while driving. Texting takes a driver’s focus away from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. According to an article written by Vicky Taylor, PublicOpinion.com, this is enough time to travel the length of a football field at 55 mph—enough time to have or cause an accident.

Concerned parents are banding together to help. PATT (Parents Against Texting Teens) is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing awareness through education and community visibility of the dangers of texting while driving. According to Taylor’s article, the group is developing 10-second video messages that will be shown in school. Before the videos are shown, the plan is to distribute “text only” cell phones to the students. While the videos are being played, the students would randomly receive brief text messages such as “LOL.” They would have instructions to quickly read the messages when the phone they have been assigned receives it. The messages would always be sent to part of the class while a video was being shown. After the video was finished, the students, including the students who received the text messages, would be asked questions about the video. The aim would be to show how taking or sending a text message can distract an individual from the task at hand, including driving. PATT would like to see the program taken to not just high schools and driver education programs, but to middle schools as well. The idea is that early education is the key to preventing this dangerous behavior.

Texting, a major part of distracted driving, needs to be addressed. Even with the new laws against it, it is alarming to drive around and see people texting or talking on their cell phones. More awareness, more education, or perhaps just more common sense is needed. See my blog, Still Texting While Driving? (http://www.cellplaza.org/blog/2095/still-texting-while-driving/). How can we personally help cut down on the texting? We can each of us, personally, just stop!

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With the popularity of tablets rising, mobile television is fast becoming a favorite pastime. Last week’s trade show in Las Vegas for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) shows that the technology is making progress. According to an article written by Maisie Ramsay, WirelessWeek, “The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), the main proponent of mobile broadcast television in the United States, announced that 76 television stations in 32 markets are now doing mobile television broadcasts.” Using a WiFi hotspot or at home, you can download TV episodes and store them to watch later. If you are using a Smartphone, it gets stored on the MicroSD card, so make sure you have at least 2 GB free per show.

Mobile Television is Gaining Ground

Streaming TV and Movies over 3G or Wi-Fi to your phone is so cool. There are a slew of apps available to enable you to watch shows. I have downloaded and used both Android TV and TV.com apps for my Droid X. I wasn’t sure I would like watching a show on the tiny screen, but it really is good quality. See my blog TV Apps for your Smartphone on technewscorner.com for a list of apps for both the Droid phones and the iPhone/iPad.

Droid TV is a good free app. The paid version of Droid TV is really just a subscription so you have more shows on the menu. All in all, I like the app. The only real downside to the app is that the shows are older. Still if you have missed an episode of one of your favorite shows, it’s a good app. Streaming live TV would be better, but being able to watch favorite shows is great.

Mobile TV apps will become more prevalent soon. With all the attention mobile television is getting at the trade shows, you can see the trend. As more stations become available, app developers will focus more on providing apps. It is the law of supply and demand. With iTunes and Pandora apps for music, and YouTube for short videos, mobile TV apps will fill in the gap.

Have you tried watching mobile TV on your phone or tablet yet? I think with the tablets getting more popular, it will be the device of choice for mobile TV. Which are your favorite apps for mobile TV? Had any trouble with the functionality of the apps? Let us know.

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AT&T is the last of the cell phone service providers to offer a Droid Smartphone in their pre-paid lineup. Beginning April 17th, AT&T is offering the LG Thrive for $180. The Thrive is a mid-range Droid, running on the Android OS 2.2 (Froyo). It only has a 3.2 megapixel camera and 160 MB of memory, although it can be expanded to 32 GB with a MicroSD card. The customers will have to pay pretty dearly for using this phone however. Customers can choose the “Smartphone 10 cents per minute” plan or “Smartphone $2 USD per day for unlimited talk and text” plan. Their choices for data plans range from $5 for 10 MB to $25 for 500 MB. There is no contract, which is probably a good thing since customers may dump AT&T once they find out how poor the service coverage areas are.

AT&T Finally Gets On Board

Verizon has a whole bevy of Droid pre-paid Smartphones available. They include the Motorola Original Droid, Motorola DEVOUR, Motorola Droid X, Motorola Droid 2, HTC Droid Eris, HTC Droid Incredible, LG Ally, BlackBerry Curve 8330, BlackBerry Curve 8530, BlackBerry Storm 9530, BlackBerry Storm 9550, BlackBerry Tour 9630, BlackBerry Bold 9650, Palm Pre Plys, and Palm Pixi. Rumor has it that Verizon’s unlimited talk, text AND data plan will run about $80 per month. And Verizon certainly has better service coverage than AT&T. Of course this is just a rumor so far.

US Cellular is also in the game with the LG Optimus U and the LG Apex as their prepaid Android phones. The Optimus U features a 3.2mp camera, Android OS 2.2, 3.2″ display, and 140 MB of storage. The LG Apex runs on Android 2.1, features a 3mp camera, 3.2″ screen, and has 256 MB or Storage. The Prepaid Plans include: $70-Unlimited Talk & Text with 2GB of data, $60-450 minutes, unlimited text, and 2GB of data, $50-Unlimited Talk & Text, $50-2GB of data.

Sprint’s BoostMobile offers Droid and BlackBerry Smartphones. With the best deal in town, they offer a plan with unlimited talk, text and data for as little as $45 per month once you have paid your bill on time for 6 months. With $18 months of payments on time, your plan drops to $35 per month.

AT&T’s announcement of offering Droid Smartphones on a pre-paid plan just isn’t all that exciting. But they have to do something to stay in the game. They are losing customers and not signing up new ones. If they are able to buy T-Mobile, it may breathe some life into the company, but for now, they come in last on my list.

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A $500 AMEX card is up for grabs in the new RIM BlackBerry Retail Reps Theme Contest. Five winners will receive an AMEX gift card for $500 USD. The top winner’s theme will be developed as a BlackBerry theme and upon release, made exclusively available for 3 months to authorized retail salespeople. After 3 months, the winning theme will be made available on a non-exclusive basis in BlackBerry App World. Pretty sweet deal, or so it seems. However, royalties and income from the sales of the theme don’t actually go to the person submitting the theme idea. Hmmm…. Maybe not so sweet a deal.

RIM BlackBerry: Retail Rep Contest

The BlackBerry PlayBook is available in stores April 19th. Staples has the PlayBook available for pre-order for $499 for the 16 GB version. Unlike other BlackBerry products, you do not have to go through your wireless service provider to get your BlackBerry PlayBook. It will be available through retail outlets like Staples, Best Buy, Office Depot and other stores. There hasn’t been much advertising done other than the ads put out by the stores themselves. Here is the list released last month by RIM of the retail locations where the PlayBook will be on sale:
United States: AT&T, Best Buy, Cbeyond, Cellular South, Cincinnati Bell, Office Depot, RadioShack, ShopBlackBerry.com, Staples, Sprint, Verizon, and BlackBerry from Wireless Giant.
Canada: Bell, Best Buy, Chapters / Indigo, Costco, Future Shop, Mobilicity, MTS Allstream, Rogers, Sasktel, Sears, ShopBlackBerry.com, Staples, Telus, Tbooth Wireless, The Source, Videotron, Walmart, WIND Mobile, WIRELESS etc., and WIRELESSWAVE.

BlackBerry PlayBook Specifications (according to RIM’s Press Release)
• 7″ 1024×600 WSVGA capacitive LCD touch screen
• Ultra-portable at less than a pound, less than 1/2 inch thick: 0.9 lbs (425g), 5.1″ x 7.6″ x 0.4″ (130mm x 194mm x 10mm)
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• BlackBerry® Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
• MP3, AAC and WMA audio playback
• Support for high resolution video playback (H.264, MPEG4, WMV)
• 1080p HDMI output
• Dual 1080p HD cameras for video conferencing and video capture (3MP front and 5MP rear)
• 1 GB RAM memory
• Up to 64 GB internal storage (16, 32 and 64 GB models)
• GPS, Orientation Sensor (Accelerometer), 6-Axis Motion Sensor (Gyroscope), Digital Compass (Magnetometer)
• Stereo speakers and stereo microphones
• Wi-Fi® (802.11 a/b/g/n) connectivity
• Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR support

The PlayBook will be running on operating system called QNX. One of the downsides to the PlayBook is that is to get your music on the PlayBook you have to drag and drop the files from your computer to your PlayBook. The tablet comes with a wild, wireless Bluetooth connection feature called BlackBerry Bridge, enabling the tablet to view your BlackBerry phone on the tablet screen. Unfortunately this is the only way you can access the email, calendar, address book and BlackBerry Messenger on the tablet.

It sounds like the BlackBerry PlayBook is not ready to compete with the tablet “Big Boys.” What’s your take on it?

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BlackBerry should be renamed LeakBerry. Photos, videos and technical specifications have been “leaked” over and over in the past few weeks. Rumors are flying. There are now stories of four new RIM Smartphones (BlackBerry Bold Touch, Torch 2, Orlando, and Touch), all of which have new capacitive touch screens. Mostly they seem to be “re-made” versions of the Curve and Torch, although there is a touch only phone as well.

BlackBerry Enters the World of Touch

The BlackBerry Orlando is mostly a Curve Sedona with a touch screen. It is supposed to ship with the new OS 6.1, have a physical keyboard and a trackpad. With the touch screen and the keyboard, it is kind of a “mini-Bold Torch.”

The new touch screen only BlackBerry is called the “Touch” or the CDMA version, the Monaco Touch. It appears to be more like an Android or iPhone device, using capacitive technology. It is reported to be coming with a 3.7 inch screen, 800×480 pixel resolution, 1.2 GHz processor, 768 MB of RAM, a MicrosSD slot, and a 5 megapixel camera.

The Bold Touch has some nice new features, including a new battery type. It’s a GSM device with a 5MP camera, 4GB of internal storage, 768MB or RAM, a 2.8-inch screen (640×480), and according to an article written by Jeffrey Van Camp, DigitalTrends, it has built in NFC technology. Since Apple has decided not to include the NFC yet, this will be a bonus for RIM. NFC is “near field communication” which allows your Smartphone to communicate with terminals like cash registers, helping you to avoid long lines in restaurants and such.

“The unit itself is extremely solid and the touchscreen is very responsive,” said BGR (Boy Genius Reports). “And who could forget that great and spacious BlackBerry keyboard? The BlackBerry Bold Touch also uses a new battery from RIM, so hopefully the addition of a touchscreen to this famous BlackBerry form factor won’t have too much of a negative impact on battery life.”

The Storm 3 Touch is also known as Blackberry Touch 9860. Here’s a short video preview of the new Storm 3:

BlackBerry has die-hard fans. If you are one of those BlackBerry users and like the BlackBerry keyboard, you will probably want to upgrade to the new Smartphones with both the touch screen and the keyboard. If you are new to BlackBerry and have been an iPhone user or an Android user, you will probably want to try the new BlackBerry Touch Smartphones. Will the new efforts by BlackBerry to stay in the market be enough to keep up with the Androids and iPhones? Google reports that there are currently 350,000 new device activations per day, and 3 billion apps overall have been installed. iPhone is trying to keep up. Will BlackBerry succeed? Let us know what you think.

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Mobile data usage grows almost exponentially. With more and more Smartphone usage, Wi-Fi hotspots and mobile technology in general, how to handle growing mobile data usage is the focus of wireless companies. Wireless companies are spending billions each year to maximize capacity. As their research and development costs grow, so do our cell phones bills. Costly cell phone towers being built at alarming numbers not only push our wireless bills up, but are unsightly as well. A tiny little device the size of a Rubik’s cube is being developed by Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) that may be the answer to both cost and more cell phone towers.

Tiny lightRadio Cube Could Be a Cell Tower that Fits in Your Hands

lightRadio cube technology was introduced in February 2011. It takes all the parts of a cell tower and reduces it down to a 2.3 inch cube. It is easy to maintain, holds a lot of data and takes a small portion of energy unlike cell phone towers which are expensive to maintain, large and ugly, and inefficient in their use of energy. According to an article written by David Goldman, CNNMoney.com, the global wireless industry is spending over $210 billion per year to operate their networks and over $50 billion per year to keep upgrading these systems to keep up with the growing demands of mobile data usage. Mobile data usage is expected to grow 30 times in the next four to five years and 500 times in the next ten years, according to Alcatel-Lucent. The lightRadio cube could be effective in reducing costs and providing more data capacity.

With a combination of miniaturization and cloud technology, lightRadio cubes are more efficient. According to Goldman’s article, “Alcatel-Lucent’s engineers stripped out all the heavy power equipment that controls modern cell towers, and moved them to centralized stations.” This allows the lightRadio cubes to be placed just about anywhere. The can be attached to the top of bus station awnings, the sides of buildings or even on lamp posts. They are small and inconspicuous. Instead of those unsightly cell towers, these little cubes contain multi-generational antennas that can relay 2G, 3G and 4G network signals all from the same cube. It also reduces signal interference, as well as doubles the number of bits able to be sent. But probably the best news is that it will help cut the cost of service in half.

“We need to think differently about this, because no one wants limits,” said Tod Sizer, head of wireless research at Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Laboratories. “We hope to solve this problem so that the AT&Ts, Verizons and Sprints of the world will be able to provide the data capacity that is needed by the customer.”

lightRadio cubes are set to begin trial usage in September 2011. ALU expects to be mass producing them by 2012. Sprint Nextel is plans to start using the technology later this year.

“Sprint is talking to Alcatel Lucent about this technology and we will be working with them to test and evaluate it,” a Sprint spokeswoman said. “We have been aggressive in smaller factor cell sites to help us support the growth in data traffic.”

Size does matter. The wireless companies are finding that not only are cell phone towers expensive to build and maintain, but they are exhausting room to build these monstrosities as well. According to Goldman’s article, “Each 1.5-Watt lightRadio cube powers about a two-block radius, so in urban areas, they can be deployed throughout the city and stacked like Lego blocks in stadiums or other areas that need extra capacity. In rural areas, they can be deployed atop existing cell towers in arrays.”

Are you as excited as I am about this innovation? It would be nice to actually tear down a lot of the obsolete towers. They are unsightly and not all that efficient. I remember when Nextel created cell phone tower sheaths, coverings that disguised the tower to look like a native grown tree. It was some improvement in aesthetics, but not by much. They were actually pretty funny looking trees. Having little cubes instead is much better.

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Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay $93.5 Million to the US government. According to an article written by Brad Reed, ITWorldCanada, the original complaint was filed against Verizon in 2007. MCI (starting in 1999) began overcharging the government by “submitting invoices for payment to the United States for certain surcharges … that it is prohibited from charging the United States under Federal Acquisition Regulations … and the FTS 2001 contract.” Since Verizon and MCI merged in 2006, the courts found Verizon liable for MCI’s actions.

Verizon Loses Case to US Government

“Verizon was not only charging the government for the costs associated with communication services, but it also was pumping up its revenues by charging the government for Verizon’s own property taxes and other costs of doing business,” said attorney Colette Matzzie of the law firm Phillips & Cohen LLP, which filed the original complaint against Verizon. “Under federal law, Verizon was responsible for paying those costs, not the government.”

This is the 2nd time in less than a year that Verizon has agreed to pay millions for overcharging. Last fall, Verizon had to pay the Federal Communications Commission $25 million for charging its customers with unexpected “mystery fees.” Apparently Verizon was charging customers fees for data plans when they didn’t have data plans. Verizon had to pay $52.8 million to consumers for overcharging them.

Nearly 1 in 5 US cell phone subscribers had their cell phone bill rise unexpectedly. According to a survey done last year by the FCC, conducted by research firms Abt/SRBI and Princeton Survey Research Associates, 17% of US cell phone users had an unexplained rise in their bills even though they hadn’t changed service plans. The survey didn’t single out any particular cell phone service provider.

Do you watch your cell phone bill closely or just pay it automatically? Apparently Verizon was counting on your inattention. I for one, will be watching very closely now. Verizon is already one of the most expensive carriers out there. Unfortunately for me, Verizon has the best coverage in my area. AT&T and Sprint really fall short in my rural area. But I will be watching the bills for any sudden increase.

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Federal prosecutors in New Jersey are investigating mobile app companies. The Wall Street Journal reported that popular applications on the iPhone and Android mobile phones, including Pandora, transmit information about the phones, their users and their locations to outsiders, including advertising networks. Have you ever wondered how the ads on your mobile apps seem to know exactly what to target? Here’s the clue. The app companies are sharing your information.

Pandora’s Box—Mobile Apps Under Investigation

Pandora’s Box is opened. According to an article written by the Daily Mail Reporter, dailymail.co.uk, “Pandora along with other major Smartphone application developers are under federal investigation for illegally obtaining and transmitting user information without consent.” Pandora Media, Inc. said it received a subpoena that involved a federal grand jury investigation of information sharing practices of Smartphone application developers. The investigation comes after federal investigators in New Jersey found violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a law passed in 1986 intended to reduce cracking of computers and to address computer-related offenses. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Makers of apps could also face complaints of unfair and deceptive trade practices from the Federal Trade Commission. Such complaints can be aimed at companies that fail to tell customers how they are collecting information. “Anthony Campiti, creator of the Pumpkin Maker iPhone application, told the Wall Street Journal that he also received a subpoena.

“They’re just doing information-gathering to get a better understanding”, Campiti said. “We’re not doing anything wrong and neither is anyone else doing anything wrong.”

Apple and Google have been asked to provide information. Both Apple and Google are supposed to be monitoring the application developers who list their apps in the Apple and Google app stores. Both companies have refused to comment about the investigation. In a study conducted by the Wall Street Journal on 101 Smartphone applications, 56 transmitted the phone’s unique device identifier to outside companies and firms. Apparently these 56 companies did so without the consent of the users. Uh oh!

Are you concerned about your privacy? Do you feel mobile app companies have the right to share your information? What about the information shared on your computer? Have you ever noticed that when you are shopping online that ads appear on web pages that seem specifically targeted to you? This is also done by sharing your information. If you shop for a new pair of running shoes, ads will pop up suggesting those same shoes, or perhaps running gear or sports clothes. Target marketing is not new. Mobile apps have just joined the fray.

Let’s keep an eye on the federal investigation.