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Aussie Cops Bust Hundreds Of Drivers In Mobile Phone StingIf you’re a business, delays in getting your phone services connected or fixed costs money. If you’re a regular customer, it’s still a pain in the arse. Minister for Communications, Stephen Conroy, says a new Customer Service Guarantee will set “timeframes to be met by providers for the connection, fault repair, and keeping of appointments.” More »
Telenoid R1, the robot brainchild of designer Hiroshi Ishiguro, is what I imagine it would look like if Casper the Friendly Ghost got lucky with a sperm. It could also be the future of communication in Japan. More »
Every ISP’s discussions of pricing plans, net neutrality or piracy invoke the same faceless villains: the bandwidth hogs. Benoît Felten, analyst and blogger, has been working in telecom for over a decade, and he wants proof these monsters even exist. More »
The chatter surrounding a Google Voice launch was downright feverish Thursday, prompting many to speculate the event was imminent. Details were sparse, and the launch didn’t come, but Google is definitely ready to do something based on new info. More »
Things were neat and tidy before the breakup of AT&T in 1984, but after the 7-way split things got a little out of control as you will see in the Telecommunication Company Family Tree compiled by the folks at Neatorama. By their own admission, the tree is “woefully incomplete and grossly oversimplified” given the omission of minor subsidiaries, independent local phone companies and the like. However, the bare bones tree is still fairly complex—and it gives you a decent overall picture of how much things have changed over the last 24 years. Hit the link to see a detailed version of the tree. [Neatorama]
Elephants are text messaging themselves out of trouble, thanks to an SMS system implemented in a Kenyan nature reserve. The gentle-ish giants are outfitted with SIM cards in their collars, which automatically alert wildlife rangers if they get too close to nearby farms. Rangers can then shoo them away before they do damage to interspecies relations by, say, eating the season’s harvest.
