photo credit: 4 G in Seattle

Last month Verizon announced its plan to offer 4 G wireless service to Seattle by the end of the year. 4 G is a new-technology market already offered in Seattle by Sprint and T-Mobile, so naturally Verizon wants to join in the race. AT&T Mobility, having exclusive rights to the iPhone at this time (which is NOT 4 G), hasn’t announced plans to join the 4 G race in 2011. If they do join in the fray, can we assume then that AT&T will be pushing for 4 G iPhone? Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: 4G is Here

Sprint and its partner Clearwire finally announced full 4G service for New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. New York will roll out on November 1st, and is the test market. Los Angeles is scheduled for December 1st, with San Francisco launching in late December. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Driving Distraction

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood wants to ban all cell phones in cars. He said drivers are distracted by any in-vehicle gadget use, even the hands-free kind, and research may lead him to encourage states to ban the devices from cars, according to the report. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Driving Jabber

Will there be a nationwide ban for cell phone usage while driving? The federal administration’s stance on cell phone usage while driving is firm and may progress to an outright ban. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood believes drivers should not even use cellular phones hands-free. That may be a bit over the top, don’t you think? And would it really be enforceable? Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Driving & Texting

California State Highway Patrol says distracted driving is the #1 cause of teen driving accidents. Distracted driving includes texting as well as cell phone calls. Furthermore, California has the second-highest fatality rate nationwide involving drivers between the ages of 15 and 20. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Kenya’s Cell Explosion

Only 19% of Kenya’s 39 million people have access to a formal bank account. As a result, a cell phone-based system that allows people to transfer money and pay bills without a bank account is transforming business in Kenya. Since the introduction of M-Pesa, the first such service, three years ago, Kenyans have used it to transfer $4.4 billion. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Cell vs. Land Line

Cell phones in Chile outnumber residential land line phones by eight to one. In this Andean nation, Cell phone usage has had a 12.4% average annual growth over the last five years, but the number of land lines has dropped by 0.4%. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Cuban Cell Phones?

Cuban authorities are unhappy with the freedom that texting provides their citizens. When Raúl Castro allowed Cubans to contract for prepaid mobile phone service in 2008, I’m sure he didn’t imagine that two years later these devices would be used to broadcast news censored by the official press. Despite Cuba only having one telecommunications company, ETECSA, Cubans are finding ways to keep in touch via cell phones. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: SureCop 1.0

42Gears has released SureCop 1.0, an anti-theft and tracking software for Windows Smartphones. SureCop offers 3 features that provide added security for your Windows phone: Remote Lock, Remote Wipe and Location tracking. You can also share your location with friends and family members. Read the rest of this entry »

photo credit: Verizon to the rescue

Lost your phone and all its data? Verizon Wireless has a solution that allows you to not only recover all your data and contacts, but also to wipe out the info from the lost phone. Verizon Wireless has just announced the release of a new mobile application for its users, the Mobile Recovery software solution from Asurion, which comes as a web- and phone-based application aimed at helping users in the event they lose their devices. Read the rest of this entry »