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The Telecom Digest for May 14, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 117 : "text" Format
====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
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Date: Sun, 13 May 2012 00:18:55 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Facebook Shares More About How It Uses Your Data
Message-ID: <p0624088bcbd4e1bd5098@[10.0.1.5]>
Facebook Shares More About How It Uses Your Data
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
MAY 11, 2012
How does Facebook use all the words, pictures and clicks of its 901
million users?
A group of European college students first raised that question last
year. The Irish Data Protection Office, which regulates all of
Facebook's European data policies, took it up. On Friday, Facebook
shared a bit more.
"We're adding more examples and detailed explanations to help you
understand our policies," Facebook's new chief privacy officer, Erin
Egan, a veteran privacy lawyer in Washington, wrote, in a blog post.
Facebook users can give feedback and talk to Ms. Egan on Monday in a
video chat.
The new explanations, available by clicking on the Help tab on the
bottom of the Facebook home page, include one on how cookies work on
the site and what information application developers receive when you
download an app on the Facebook platform. The explanations also
inform users about who can see what kinds of posts on their timelines.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/facebook-shares-more-about-how-it-uses-your-data/
Date: Sun, 13 May 2012 00:18:55 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: European Parliament Approves Lower Roaming Charges
Message-ID: <p0624088fcbd4e390be6b@[10.0.1.5]>
European Parliament Approves Lower Roaming Charges
By KEVIN J. O'BRIEN
May 10, 2012
BERLIN - European lawmakers on Thursday approved a plan to extend and
lower the Continent's limits on mobile phone roaming charges paid by
consumers for another five years, and added the first controls on
mobile Internet use.
In addition to the caps, the legislation adopted by the European
Parliament will allow E.U. residents to buy roaming services from a
carrier besides their regular operator beginning in 2014, an attempt
to create competition in the market that will lower prices and
supplant the need for price controls.
The Parliament voted 578 to 10, with 10 abstentions, for the
politically popular measure. The European Council of Ministers, which
acts as the legislative upper house, has already agreed to adopt the
same proposal at its next meeting in June.
The new lower price caps will take effect on July 1. Neelie Kroes,
the European commissioner for telecommunications, said the reductions
in retail price caps, especially the limit on data roaming, could
save some European families EU300, or $390, during a one-week summer
vacation outside their home countries.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/technology/european-parliament-approves-lower-roaming-charges.html
Date: Sun, 13 May 2012 00:18:55 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Facebook Is Killing Text Messaging, Report Says
Message-ID: <p0624088ccbd4e21966a3@[10.0.1.5]>
Facebook Is Killing Text Messaging, Report Says
By BRIAN X. CHEN
MAY 11, 2012
Apple's iMessage, the free, Internet-based text-messaging service,
isn't the only thing AT&T's chief executive should lose sleep over.
Facebook is also eating into text-messaging revenues for carriers,
according to a report.
Strand Consult, a telecommunications consulting firm, released a
research note on Friday saying that based on measured minutes of use,
smartphone users were spending more time on Facebook and thus
probably sending more messages with its service than they are text
messages.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/facebook-killing-sms/
Date: Sun, 13 May 2012 00:18:55 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Facebook Says, Lower Your Expectations About Mobile
Message-ID: <p06240891cbd4e486f816@[10.0.1.5]>
Facebook Says, Lower Your Expectations About Mobile
By NICK BILTON
MAY 9, 2012
Here an ad, there an ad, everywhere an ad ad. Except on Facebook's
mobile app, that is.
Facebook amended its public offering prospectus on Wednesday to note
that it is showing fewer ads per user on the site because of its lack
of mobile advertising. It is the sixth amendment to the document
since Facebook filed for an initial public offering in February.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/facebook-amends-its-s-1-filing-to-lower-mobile-expectations/
Date: Sun, 13 May 2012 00:18:55 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: The Push to Make Cab Rides Smarter
Message-ID: <p0624088dcbd4e27a7d54@[10.0.1.5]>
The Push to Make Cab Rides Smarter
By JOSHUA BRUSTEIN
May 11, 2012
When it comes to technology, 2007 was the last big year for taxis.
That year, New York City began requiring that cabs be fitted with
devices so that customers could pay with credit cards and with GPS
devices so that they could track their progress on touch screens in
the back. (Cabbies went on strike twice before the gadgets were
finally installed.) Also that year, Apple introduced the iPhone,
although the cab connection was not immediately apparent.
It became clear, though, as developers created a number of
taxi-related products. Report a Taxi allows riders to complain about
bad drivers directly to the Taxi and Limousine Commission (or praise
good ones) with an iPhone app. The ratio is about four complaints for
every compliment, the company says. (Riders can also complain to
Facebook or Twitter.) Another app, Cab Sense, used the data being
collected by in-cab computers to put together a map showing which
corners are best for hailing a ride, although it has not updated its
data since 2010.
The most ambitious projects are smartphone apps that book and pay for
cars directly. Uber, which began operating in New York last year, has
become a darling of the technology industry for an app that allows a
rider to call for a car and charge it directly to an online account.
It has spurred a number of competitors. Taxi Magic , which operates a
similar service in 35 cities, introduced a new app last week called
Sedan Magic, bringing it to New York for the first time.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/nyregion/taxi-rides-are-getting-smarter-by-the-app.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
As an Engineer at Verizon, I flew into LaGuardia on a regular
basis. The company had a trip marshall at the airport who would direct
employees to whichever transports were available, matching passenges to
destinations.
Sometimes, we'd be put into cabs, sometimes limos. The cab drivers
always complained that the "Tattlers" their bosses put on the cars
deprived them of the chance to use their experience to find the
fastest route. I used to make jokes about how I always wanted to see
Grant's tomb, but I had to stop because most of them took offense.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Sun, 13 May 2012 00:18:55 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: When You Text Till You Drop
Message-ID: <p0624088ecbd4e347ad54@[10.0.1.5]>
When You Text Till You Drop
By BRYAN BURROUGH
May 12, 2012
I DON'T know about you, but I've always found the debate about what
our mobile devices are doing to us - to our behaviors, our manners,
our minds - at least as interesting as reports about what we're doing
with these devices.
What about that gent who was talking loudly into his Android phone on
the Metro-North train this morning? Was he really that obnoxious
before we all went wireless - or did the device somehow change him?
And what about all those young people who spend hours upon hours
texting and sexting and Facebooking? What kinds of adults will they
become?
Is the casual anonymity of Internet discussion turning us into boors?
What did we once do with all the hours we now spend obsessively
checking e-mail and texts? Smoke?
Larry D. Rosen, a California psychologist, is less concerned with
techno-boorishness than with the very real possibility that all these
new personal gadgets may be making some of us mentally ill -
especially those who are prone to narcissism, for example, or to
depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In "iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession With Technology and
Overcoming Its Hold on Us" (Palgrave Macmillan), Dr. Rosen surveys
the existing research, throws in a bit of his own and suggests ways
that users of new technologies can avoid behavioral pitfalls.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/in-idisorder-a-look-at-mobile-device-addiction-review.html
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