1010Computers Staging

text messaging

Auto Added by WPeMatico

1 2 3

Google Fi turns 6 and gets a new unlimited plan

Published April 22, 2021

Google Fi, Google’s cell network, is turning six today and to celebrate, the team is launching a new pricing plan, dubbed “Simply Unlimited” starting at $60 per month for a single line (down to $30 per line for three lines or more). The new plan features unlimited calls and texts in the U.S., plus unlimited data and texting in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Image Credits: Google

You may recall that Fi’s original promise was a single, affordable pay-as-you-go plan where you would pay a fixed price per month for the basic call and texting service and then pay an extra $10 per GB of data you used per billing cycle, capped at $80 per month. In 2019, Google then turned this into what is essentially an unlimited plan, dubbed Fi Unlimited, starting at $70 per month for a single line, with discounts for additional lines.

The new “Simply Unlimited” plan is a pared-down version of the original Unlimited plan, which is now called the Unlimited Plus plan (yeah, that’s a lot of names). Now, that plan has still a lot of extra features that power users aren’t likely willing to give up for a slightly lower price. In addition to everything in the new Simply Unlimited plan, this plan still features free international calls to more than 50 countries and international data in more than 200 destinations, plus full-speed hotspot tethering and 100 GB of Google One cloud storage.

The Flexible plan is also still an option, with its base fee of $20 per month for texting and calling for a single line (down to $17 per month for three lines) and $10 per GB of data, no matter whether you use if abroad or at home — or for hotspot tethering. Google says that’s the plan to choose if you’re mostly on WiFi — as most of us are right now.

Basically, if you’re not planning to use your phone outside of North America, the new Simply Unlimited plan looks like a good deal that, depending on your use case, compares favorably with similarly priced plans from other carriers — especially if international data is important to you.

Image Credits: Google

Powered by WPeMatico

T-Mobile customers report outage, can’t make calls or send text messages

Published August 21, 2019

T-Mobile customers across the U.S. say they can’t make calls or send text messages following an apparent outage — although mobile data appears to be unaffected.

We tested with a T-Mobile phone in the office. Both calls to and from the T-Mobile phone failed. When we tried to send a text message, it said the message could not be sent. The outage began around 3pm PT (6pm ET).

Users took to social media to complain about the outage. It’s not clear how many customers are affected, but users across the U.S. have said they are affected.

A T-Mobile support account said the cell giant has “engaged our engineers and are working on a resolution.”

In a tweet two hours into the outage, chief executive John Legere acknowledged the outage, adding that the company has “already started to see signs of recovery.”

T-Mobile is the third largest cell carrier after Verizon (which owns TechCrunch) and AT&T. The company had its proposed $26.5 billion merger with Sprint approved by the Federal Communications Commission, despite a stream of state attorneys general lining up to block the deal.

Updated with acknowledgement by chief executive John Legere.

Powered by WPeMatico

LTE flaws let hackers ‘easily’ spoof presidential alerts

Published June 21, 2019

Security vulnerabilities in LTE can allow hackers to “easily” spoof presidential alerts sent to mobile phones in the event of a national emergency.

Using off-the-shelf equipment and open-source software, a working exploit made it possible to send a simulated alert to every phone in a 50,000-seat football stadium with little effort, with the potential of causing “cascades of panic,” said researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder in a paper out this week.

Their attack worked in nine out of 10 tests, they said.

Last year the Federal Emergency Management Agency sent out the first “presidential alert” test using the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. It was part of an effort to test the new state-of-the-art system to allow any president to send out a message to the bulk of the U.S. population in the event of a disaster or civil emergency.

But the system — which also sends out weather warnings and AMBER alerts — isn’t perfect. Last year amid tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, an erroneous alert warned residents of Hawaii of an inbound ballistic missile threat. The message mistakenly said the alert was “not a drill.”

Although no system is completely secure, many of the issues over the years have been as a result of human error. But the researchers said the LTE network used to transmit the broadcast message is the biggest weak spot.

Because the system uses LTE to send the message and not a traditional text message, each cell tower blasts out an alert on a specific channel to all devices in range. A false alert can be sent to every device in range if that channel is identified.

Making matters worse, there’s no way for devices to verify the authenticity of received alerts.

The researchers said fixing the vulnerabilities would “require a large collaborative effort between carriers, government stakeholders and cell phone manufacturers.” They added that adding digital signatures to each broadcast alert is not a “magic solution,” but would make it far more difficult to send spoofed messages.

A similar vulnerability in LTE was discovered last year, allowing researchers to not only send emergency alerts but also eavesdrop on a victim’s text messages and track their location.

Powered by WPeMatico

Developers can now verify mobile app users over WhatsApp instead of SMS

Published April 30, 2019

Facebook today released a new SDK that allows mobile app developers to integrate WhatsApp verification into Account Kit for iOS and Android. This will allow developers to build apps where users can opt to receive their verification codes through the WhatsApp app installed on their phone instead of through SMS.

Today, many apps give users the ability to sign up using only a phone number — a now popular alternative to Facebook Login, thanks to the social network’s numerous privacy scandals that led to fewer people choosing to use Facebook with third-party apps.

Plus, using phone numbers to sign up is common with a younger generation of users who don’t have Facebook accounts — and sometimes barely use email, except for joining apps and services.

When using a phone number to sign in, it’s common for the app to confirm the user by sending a verification code over SMS to the number provided. The user then enters that code to create their account. This process can also be used when logging in, as part of a multi-factor verification system where a user’s account information is combined with this extra step for added security.

While this process is straightforward and easy enough to follow, SMS is not everyone’s preferred messaging platform. That’s particularly true in emerging markets like India, where 200 million people are on WhatsApp, for example. In addition, those without an unlimited messaging plan are careful not to overuse texting when it can be avoided.

That’s where the WhatsApp SDK comes in. Once integrated into an iOS or Android app, developers can offer to send users their verification code over WhatsApp instead of text messaging. They can even choose to disable SMS verification, notes Facebook.

This is all a part of WhatsApp’s Account Kit, which is a larger set of developer tools designed to allow people to quickly register and log in to apps or websites using only a phone number and email, no password required.

This WhatsApp verification codes option has been available on WhatsApp’s web SDK since late 2018, but hadn’t been available with mobile apps until today.

Powered by WPeMatico

Presidential alerts we really hope Trump won’t send…

Published October 4, 2018

Move over Twitter, President Trump now has the power to send every phone in the land a simultaneous message — thanks to the new “presidential alert”, tested by FEMA yesterday.

What’s it for? The idea is to enable the president of the United States to warn the nation of major threats — such as a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

FEMA did already have the power to mass text US phones, via the National Wireless Emergency Alert System devised by the Bush administration in 2006, which has been used for sending alerts about national emergencies like weather events or missing children at a local level.

But now the system has been expanded to allow for the White House to compose and send its own ‘presidential alert’ to all phones in a national emergency situation.

There is no opt-out.

Repeat: No opt-out.

Fortunately Congress did limit the substance of these alerts — to “natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters or threats to public safety”, further stipulating that:

Except to the extent necessary for testing the public alert and warning system, the public alert and warning system shall not be used to transmit a message that does not relate to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster or threat to public safety.

But bearing in mind the ‘rip it up’ record of the current holder of office of the president of the US, there are no copper-bottomed guarantees about how ‘threat to public safety’ might be interpreted by president Trump.

So it remains a slightly mind-bending concept that the president could, say after a 3am binge-watch of his favorite TV show, fire out an alert entirely of his framing to EVERY US PHONE.

Technology is indeed a double-edged sword.

Here are a few ideas of presidential alerts we really hope Trump won’t be sending…

  • an accidental photo of a body part after he couldn’t figure out how to use the system and hit send accidentally
  • a text message intended for his son-in-law
  • “Donald Trump”
  • covfefe
  • an even worse spelling mistake, e.g. mangling the name of another world leader — like French president “Manuel Macaroon”
  • actual insults directed at other world leaders, e.g. suggesting Emmanuel Macron has a dandruff problem
  • threats of thermonuclear war
  • an unfortunate spoonerism, e.g. ‘the rockets are cot numbing’
  • a love sonnet to president Kim Jong-Un
  • encouragement to Russia to hack political opponents’ emails
  • a recipe for a “beautiful” chocolate cake
  • his golf handicap
  • an affiliate link to a brochure of Trump Tower
  • US stock market numbers
  • investment advice
  • an affiliate link to buy The Art of The Deal
  • any other book recommendations at all
  • a love sonnet to Ivanka Trump
  • a claim that the hurricane isn’t actually as bad as FEMA’s alert says it is
  • #MAGA
  • “Lock her up”
  • “His testimony was very credible, very credible”
  • “You also had some very fine people on both sides”
  • any claim about the size of the crowds at his inauguration
  • any claim about historical precedence and what his administration has achieved
  • all forms of self congratulation
  • his thoughts on the UN
  • his thoughts on NATO
  • his thoughts on the EU
  • his thoughts on China
  • his thoughts on the Queen
  • anything at all about women
  • “Melanie”
  • all insults about “the failing New York Times”
  • a heart emoji + the words “Tucker Carlson”
  • any text that includes the words “Fox & Friends”
  • any text that includes the phrase “America first”
  • a photo of Melania reclining on gilt furniture, in a gilt room, with some gilt statues
  • a selfie with anyone, especially Nigel Farage
  • any text written in ALL CAPS
  • any text ending with the word “Sad!”
  • his travel itinerary for his next trip to the Winter White House
  • a love sonnet to president Putin
  • ‘exciting’ real estate opportunities
  • credit for Brexit
  • a threat to Twitter not to shadowban conservative voices
  • “You’re fired!”
  • “Build the wall!”
  • “Mission accomplished!”
  • anything at all about president Obama
  • all sports commentary
  • anything containing the word “winning”
  • his thoughts on climate change
  • his thoughts on environmental protection
  • his thoughts on the safety of radioactive substances
  • a list of reasons why the Iran deal was a mistake
  • his thoughts on anything at all to do with the rest of the world
  • a photoshopped picture of Justin Trudeau to make him look ugly
  • diet advice
  • travel advice
  • fashion advice
  • complaints that Google is biased
  • anything about tax — unless it’s his own tax returns
  • a message to Peter Thiel asking him to come back
  • a message asking where the nearest KFC is
  • a message asking where he left his last bucket of KFC
  • a really boring and slightly blurred photo of the inside of Air Force One
  • any message about anything at all he saw on TV last night
  • “Ha-ha you can’t opt out!”
  • “Genius”
  • his thoughts

Powered by WPeMatico

Google says more than 40 carriers and device manufacturers now use its platform for RCS, the next generation of SMS

Published February 22, 2018

 Rich Communication Services (RCS) is basically the standard for the next generation of text messaging, with apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, LINE and others now offering features that go far beyond the standard SMS-based messaging apps that tend to ship with your phone — unless, of course, you are an Apple and iMessage user. Read More

Powered by WPeMatico

Shine is rolling out on-demand life coaching via text message

Published October 12, 2016

screen-shot-2016-10-12-at-11-47-09-am A startup called Shine is rolling out a new service offering on-demand life coaching via text messages as a paid tier to its free, daily texting service. While a number of today’s chatbots and SMS-based concierge services have been focused on helping people shop via text message, Shine to date has instead focused on helping you become a better person. Through automated texts,… Read More

Powered by WPeMatico

An interview with the anonymous founder of PostGhost

Published July 12, 2016

57464295 PostGhost was a service that stored and displayed the deleted Tweets of celebrities and politicians. Created as a way to keep public discourse honest, Twitter shut it down with a cease and desist warning citing a failure to comply with API rules. The resulting brouhaha led me to track down the anonymous founder and ask him or her a few questions about what happened. TC: Who are you? How… Read More

Powered by WPeMatico

Deleted Tweet archive PostGhost shut down after Twitter cease and desist

Published July 9, 2016

twitter-eats-newspaper2 PostGhost was a nascent website that archived the tweets of the famous, rich, and important. The site got popular for finding and storing the deleted Tweets of politicians and even Lindsay Lohan who plead with the English PM to #remain. “We created the website postghost.com to provide the public with a more accurate history of public statements made by the most influential public figures… Read More

Powered by WPeMatico

1 2 3