Tag: mobile

Expensive Friends

A month ago, Brandy McDowell sat down with her longtime friend, Kezia Chandler, and told her she had switched phone carriers. Their relationship has not been the same since. Now, they barely speak. Ms. Chandler rushes Ms. McDowell off the phone when she calls during her lunch break. And long conversations about schoolwork and relationship woes have been reduced to sound bites. But what was set up as a purely business strategy is having an unintentional social effect. It is dividing the people who share informal bonds and bringing together those who have formal networks of phone “friends.”

Beating congestion

Researchers from MIT are using data from mobile-phone networks to create real time maps of people moving around the city. Networks keep track of subscribers to ensure signals stay strong, and because so many people have mobiles, this data can give an accurate picture of where people are in a city.

this is not new research, but nice to see it getting some airplay

Hotspot@Home

To use the service just pop your T-Mobile SIM into the phone and connect to your WiFi network. If you’re using T-Mobile’s router, you have one button access to secure and encrypt the connection. That’s it. Once you have connected, your calls will be routed over WiFi and you’ll suddenly find your phone works in places of your home that it didn’t work before. Your talk time will still come out of your minutes plan however. But that’s not all. For an extra $9.99 a month (that’s an introductory rate but will be grandfathered in so you won’t see a rate increase over time) every call you make over WiFi (in the US) is now free.

timid. they are not cannibalizing themselves fast enough. guess someone else will do it for them.