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The Telecom Digest
Volume 29 : Issue 87 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Monitoring Kids' Cellphone Activity (Monty Solomon)
Re: Monitoring Kids' Cellphone Activity (Bill Horne)
This Is Why People Hate the Phone Company, AT&T (Monty Solomon)
iPhone App to Sidestep AT&T (Monty Solomon)
Re: iPhone App to Sidestep AT&T (David Clayton)
Changes to Moderation (Telecom digest moderator)
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Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 02:11:32 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Monitoring Kids' Cellphone Activity
Message-ID: <p0624086dc7d4a2040bef@[10.0.1.4]>
WORTH IT?
Monitoring Kids' Cellphone Activity
By JONNELLE MARTE and LAUREN GOODE
MARCH 26, 2010
Does your child or teenager's cellphone appear to be an extra
appendage? Do his or her thumbs fly over the qwerty keypad or
touchscreen the way a concert pianist's fingers fly over keys? Is her
language now filled with text acronyms gleaned from text messaging?
OMG, you're not alone.
According to a recent report from the Kaiser Family Foundation,
two-thirds of all kids ages 8 to 18 have their own cell phone. But
few of those youngsters' parents have imposed rules on their
cellphone usage, according to the same study.
As ever more children and teens carry cellphones, some parents may
opt for mobile monitoring software. But as Jonnelle Marte and Lauren
Goode find, one provider, Net Nanny Mobile, has some changes to make
before parents can sleep a little easier at night.
So, something like Net Nanny Mobile, a tracking service that aims to
help parents remotely monitor their kids' mobile phone activity,
might have broad appeal.
Users must download a software application directly onto their
child's phone, and it tracks texts, emails, photos and phone calls,
reporting that activity to an online dashboard at Net Nanny's Web
site. Net Nanny Mobile also allows mom and dad to remotely lock
handsets, wipe out data and track a phone's GPS location - all for a
$29 annual subscription fee.
Net Nanny Mobile currently doesn't work on the iPhone but it is
compatible with a large variety of smart-phones and operating
systems, including BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian (Series 60)
and Google Android.
The service sends alerts to an online dashboard where parents can log
in and view emails, texts, photos and a record of calls sent and
received by the phone. They can also use the dashboard to view the
phone's contacts, GPS updates and to send commands, such as locking
the phone in case it gets stolen.
Parents who don't want to see every last text can instead set up
keyword alerts for terms like "beer," and the software filters out
messages with only those terms. (Net Nanny Mobile also emails parents
when one of those terms appears in their kids' communications.)
We decided that for testing purposes, Jonnelle would play the
protective parent; Lauren, acting as turbulent teenager, gamely
agreed to have her BlackBerry activities monitored for a week or so.
...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704100604575146012393386350.html
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 02:08:28 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Monitoring Kids' Cellphone Activity
Message-ID: <20100329060828.GA28004@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 02:11:32AM -0400, Monty Solomon wrote:
> The service sends alerts to an online dashboard where parents can log
> in and view emails, texts, photos and a record of calls sent and
> received by the phone. They can also use the dashboard to view the
> phone's contacts, GPS updates and to send commands, such as locking
> the phone in case it gets stolen.
This service offers parents the chance to increase the range at which
they make the same old mistakes: much like computers arrived just in
time to save American business from needing to change, but speeding up
the rate at which it made the same old mistakes.
The fact is, there is no substitute for parents being involved in
their children's lives. The idea that parents can, or even should,
construct a virtual fence around their kids and trust the rest to luck
is absurd.
IMNSHO.
Bill
--
Bill Horne
(Filter QRM for direct replies)
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 02:57:16 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: This Is Why People Hate the Phone Company, AT&T
Message-ID: <p06240871c7d4ae12df25@[10.0.1.4]>
This Is Why People Hate the Phone Company, AT&T
by Will Smith
March 24, 2010
Reading AT&T's announcement that the nationwide rollout of its
femtocell product--called the Microcell 3G--is about to begin called
into sharp relief the level at which I expect to get screwed by the
phone company. About halfway through decoding the PR doublespeak, I
had an epiphany. It was if I suddenly saw the words on the page for
the very first time. I'm so used to the phone company selling me
services I don't need at a price that's unreasonable (bordering on
ludicrous) that I'd moved beyond apathy to blind acceptance. Let's
break down the femtocell announcement, one paragraph at a time.
...
http://www.tested.com/news/this-is-why-people-hate-the-phone-company-att/60/
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 11:08:04 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: iPhone App to Sidestep AT&T
Message-ID: <p06240884c7d521233cae@[10.0.1.4]>
IPhone App to Sidestep AT&T
By DAVID POGUE
March 24, 2010
For a little $1 iPhone app, Line2 sure has the potential to shake up
an entire industry.
It can save you money. It can make calls where AT&T's signal is weak,
like indoors. It can turn an iPod Touch into a full-blown cellphone.
And it can ruin the sleep of cellphone executives everywhere.
Line2 gives your iPhone a second phone number - a second phone line,
complete with its own contacts list, voice mail, and so on. The
company behind it, Toktumi (get it?), imagines that you'll distribute
the Line2 number to business contacts, and your regular iPhone number
to friends and family. Your second line can be an 800 number, if you
wish, or you can transfer an existing number.
To that end, Toktumi offers, on its Web site, a raft of Google
Voice-ish features that are intended to help a small businesses look
bigger: call screening, Do Not Disturb hours and voice mail messages
sent to you as e-mail. You can create an "automated attendant"
-"Press 1 for sales," "Press 2 for accounting," and so on - that
routes incoming calls to other phone numbers. Or, if you're
pretending to be a bigger business than you are, route them all to
yourself.
The Line2 app is a carbon copy, a visual clone, of the iPhone's own
phone software. The dialing pad, your iPhone Contacts list, your
recent calls list and visual voice mail all look just like the
iPhone's.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/technology/personaltech/25pogue.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
Since details on just about every business are now available online
for free, I don't see where the demand for "make you business look
bigger" features comes from. It may be a selling point for
entrepreneurs with large egos, but it's not going to fool any
purchasing manager worth his salt.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:44:14 +1100
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: iPhone App to Sidestep AT&T
Message-ID: <pan.2010.03.28.21.44.10.909971@myrealbox.com>
On Sun, 28 Mar 2010 11:08:04 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote:
> IPhone App to Sidestep AT&T
>
> By DAVID POGUE
> March 24, 2010
.........
> To that end, Toktumi offers, on its Web site, a raft of Google Voice-ish
> features that are intended to help a small businesses look bigger: call
> screening, Do Not Disturb hours and voice mail messages sent to you as
> e-mail. You can create an "automated attendant" -"Press 1 for sales,"
> "Press 2 for accounting," and so on - that routes incoming calls to
> other phone numbers. Or, if you're pretending to be a bigger business
> than you are, route them all to yourself.
.........
And we all know that the worst way to do IVR messages is to lead with
"Press 1..." etc don't we?
People remember the last item in a group, which is why most (if not all
these days) IVR prompts are structured "For sales press 1" etc so if they
want "sales", they are then ready to note the method to actually get
there.
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 02:11:50 -0400
From: Telecom digest moderator <redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Changes to Moderation
Message-ID: <20100329061150.GA29043@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
I have accepted a postion with a different company, and will begin
work there today. Until my indoctrination is complete, I'll have less
time for the digest than I used to. Please be patient.
Bill
--
Bill Horne
Moderator
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End of The Telecom Digest (6 messages)
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