Chris Pirillo » text

Android Text Message Bug

Chris Pirillo — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:03:49 +0000

The newly discovered SMS bug in Android sure makes “Antennagate” look like it was much ado about nothing. This interesting little snafu will have you sending messages to the wrong contacts. Think about it for a moment – this could be disastrous, depending on who your intended message ends up going to. This issue has been going on for about six months already, so why are we just hearing about it?

On the Android Developer’s Forum, this issue is rated as “Priority – Medium.” MEDIUM? Seriously? Let’s say you called off of work today and want to brag to your BFF about it – but your Android device wings the message to your boss, instead. How fun would that be? I can only imagine all sorts of scenarios in which this wouldn’t be good.

The problem is perhaps not only limited to Android, though. My assistant Kat is a proud iPhone 4 user, and tells me that she’s had this happen on her phone at times, as well… both with the 4th gen and the 3GS she had up until late October. Could this issue be something that just sometimes happens on all operating systems?

This is a very serious issue that Google seems to have been ignoring for the past six months. For a flagship mobile OS capturing such a big market in such a short space of time, this reluctance to acknowledge and fix such a critical issue reflects badly on Google’s stewardship of the Android platform.

Have you ever had this occur on your device? What phone and operating system are you using? Has anyone been able to help resolve the problem?

Android Text Message Bug

Would You Text Your Emergency to 911?

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:18:48 +0000

Would You Text Your Emergency to 911?

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Mashable reported that the FCC may allow you to send text messages to 911, as well as images and video. They feel that this would lead to better, faster responses. I feel that it’s stupid and lazy. I mean, the time it would take to type out the text of what the situation is, what you need, and where you are, you could have just called! Why are we so unwilling to talk to people nowadays? Are we really going to text, “OMG I’M Being Killed”?

No one likes to talk to anyone these days, I know. As Lamarr points out, it’s pretty pathetic if we cannot make a phone call to emergency services. He feels this is the death of everything that is American. If someone is chasing you down the street with a gun, are you going to text that in?

Video, audio and pictures may be a good idea, yes. But typing out an issue and location will likely take a lot longer than simply calling them to begin with. Also, imagine the poor non-tech-savvy older person who is a dispatcher trying to decode your l33t sp34k. Seriously? Does no one else see this is a potential dangerous issue?

What are your thoughts? Is Lamarr way off base here? Or is he on to something?

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Would You Text Your Emergency to 911?

How Often Do Teens Text?

Chris Pirillo — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 17:34:32 +0000

How Often Do Teens Text?

Researchers show that U.S. teenagers on average send or receive a half-dozen texts every wakening hour, which amounts to 3,339 messages per month. The Neilson Company shows that teens aged 13-17 text more often than people in any other age group. In this age group, girls exchanged the most texts, at 4,050 a month, while boys averaged 2,539 texts a month.

More than half of teens with cellular devices list texting as the most important thing they use their phone for. In fact, they list having a good QWERTY keyboard as their number one priority when buying a new cell. With so much attention on texting, voice calling among teens has fallen 14% from last year to an average of 646 minutes per month.

An older study shows that teens – or people of any age – who become obsessed with texting (or checking email) may have a compulsive-impulsive spectrum disorder and a form of addiction. Warning signs include:

Excessive use of the computer or of texting to the extent that you lose track of time or neglect eating and sleeping.
Feelings of withdrawal when your computer is not nearby that lead to anger, tension and depression.
A constant need for more time with your computer and to upgrade your equipment.
Experiencing a negative repercussion of the addiction such as ignoring others, fatigue, poor achievement, lying and getting into arguments.

94% of teenagers turn to their mobile phones for messaging, Internet, multimedia, gaming, and other activities, such as downloads. Software downloads increased 12 percentage points from a year ago, from 26% to 38%. Popular apps among teens include Facebook, YouTube, and Pandora, which streams music to mobile phones.

How many texts do you send and receive every month? Do you feel that that number is a good one? How do you feel about your texting habits?

How Often Do Teens Text?

Who Texts While Driving?

Chris Pirillo — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 06:27:17 +0000

Who Texts While Driving?

According to a new study, it’s not teens who text the most while driving. The guilty parties, actually, are adults. The Pew Research Center says that of those adults polled, 47 percent of respondents admit they either send or read messages while at the wheel of a vehicle.

Amongst teens aged 16 and 17, only about 34% tend to text while driving. Pew’s senior researcher, Mary Madden, said “There’s been a lot of focus on young drivers, and for good reasons. But this research provides an important reminder that adults are setting a bad example.” Several states already have a ban on texting while driving, and seven have banned the use of cell phones altogether while driving. However, the U.S. Senate is voting right now on banning texting nationwide.

You don’t have to worry about crashing when you grab the latest software and apps from our download center.

Who Texts While Driving?

How to Understand Teenagers

Chris Pirillo — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:00:26 +0000

How to Understand Teenagers

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Have you ever wondered what those teenagers are saying when they type acronyms like LOL, WTH, etc? Community member Lamarr Wilson created this video to showcase a website that will help you figure out what the heck (WTH) your kid is trying to say.

Teen Chat Decoder is a free service that helps you make sense of the gobbledy-gook that is rampant in text messages and IMs from teenagers. Heck, I even know many adults who type this way! If you’re constantly confused when reading these types of messages, then this site is going to help you.

To use the service, you only need to start typing the acronym in the white box and then wait for the database to return results. For example, if you type in LOL, you’ll see that it is a way of saying they are currently Laughing Out Loud. The service will also give you other results that are similar (or which use portions of that same acronym).

Lamarr will be doing a video for us every Monday, talking about things relating to technology and social media. He’s entertaining as heck, so keep your eyes peeled for his contributions.

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How to Understand Teenagers

Do Teens Text Too Much?

Chris Pirillo — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 07:17:27 +0000

Do Teens Text Too Much?

According to a study done by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, young people between the ages of 12 and 17 send more than 100 texts a day. This may be due in part to the many unlimited plans offered by most cell companies. Texting beats out every other form of communication for this age group, including instant messaging, phone calls and face-to-face conversations.

Texting is also easy to get away with in certain situations. Kids text right under the noses of their teachers during school hours. Most of these kids are so good with their keyboards that they don’t even have to look at the device while composing and sending a message. Text messaging has become so much a part of teenagers’ lives that 87 percent of those who text said that they sleep with – or next to – their phones.

“It’s a way that their friends can easily and discreetly reach them at tiny moments during the day,” said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew. “It allows them to stay constantly in touch with people who are important to them. Texting is a much different experience than calling somebody on a land line, where you might get their parents. There’s an element of ownership for teenagers around texting.”

Teens feel that it’s easier to communicate with people when they cannot hear their voices or see their faces. As evidenced in several reports about this subject, teens will confront each other more often over issues via a text. It’s a good thing that they are talking more to each other, and seemingly becoming able to work through differences and difficulties without the hindrance and nerves that come with face-to-face confrontations.

However, I can’t help but wonder how this will affect these kids’ verbal communication skills later in life. We grew up having to talk to people… in person. Kids today are relying more heavily on digital methods of communication. Their “speech” is now defined with easy-to-remember word abbreviations, such as “wut r u doing.” I cringe every time someone sends me an email full of “language” such as this.

Another concern has to be privacy. Teens likely cling to their phones due to the fact that they feel they have more control over their content. It’s not as easy for parents to see what’s going on as it was when they could listen in on phone conversations. I admit that my mouth hit the floor when I read where one teen stated that his mom gave up trying to read his texts when she couldn’t crack his phone password. If this were my child, they would no longer HAVE a cell phone. While parents don’t necessarily need to “police” their children and know every single thing they are doing, they DO need to be aware of what’s going on in their child’s world.

What are your thoughts? Is widespread teen texting a good thing? Do you wonder how these kids will communicate in the “real world” when they become adults? Heck, will we even stop needing to communicate face-to-face in the future? Maybe I’m a fuddy-duddy. Perhaps everything will be digital one day, and we’ll never hear another human voice.

Do Teens Text Too Much?

Text Generator

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:26:46 +0000

Text Generator

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If you follow me on Twitter, or you’re a fan on Facebook, then you may have seen some funny-looking text flow through my stream recently. You may have even wanted to try it out for yourself! Well, I’m happy to report that now you can. fUNICODE is an all-new ultimate fun text generator! Type anything you want into the box on the page, and it will automagically be transmogrified for you, right before your very eyes! Copy and use this text anywhere you want to.

As you’re typing, the text is transformed immediately in the boxes down below. Any application – desktop or web-based – that supports Unicode text will be able to handle the output. That’s the key here… it has to be pasted into a Unicode-supported application. You can type in upside-down text, have it transformed into l33t sp34k, and even put it into all caps for you!

It’s a free service. Yes, there’s an ad on the page. However, it costs you nothing to use the site. It’s fun, and it’s easy. You don’t have to register, or give out any type of information. Simply start typing in the text box, and then paste your information wherever you want it to show up.

The site also gives you the opportunity to Tweet directly from the page if you wish. It will, of course, give credit back to fUNICODE. However, you can say anything you wish in your tweet.

Leave a comment on this blog post… but you have to use fUNICODE to leave it! I will delete any comments on this post that are not done in fUNICODE, so be warned!

Thanks to Jake for his hard work on this project! You, too, can become a part of it. Simply submit your code for possible use. If they validate, we’ll add your set (with credit)! Your characters should be visible on all operating systems.

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

Text Generator

What Did You Get for the Holidays?

Chris Pirillo — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:26:30 +0000

What Did You Get for the Holidays?

I’m curious to know what you got for Christmas! Did Santa bring you everything you asked him for? Were you happily surprised by anything? What pieces of technology were you ecstatic to open this year, or find in your stocking?

Everyone in our community is abuzz with glee over gifts they received. Some were luckier than others, I’m sure. But all in all, everyone seems to be quite pleased with their holiday goodies! How about you?

Be sure to check out our downloads center today! There are tons of new games, applications and software available at excellent prices!

What Did You Get for the Holidays?

Are You Ready for the Holidays?

Chris Pirillo — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:28:33 +0000

Are You Ready for the Holidays?

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and Christmas is but a few weeks away? I was aghast yesterday when I walked into a store that was playing Christmas carols… until I realized what the date was. Holy crap where did the year go? I haven’t even started to think about holiday shopping yet, never mind actually DOING any shopping.

After I had my little panic attack, I sat down to check out what was going on around out community. Low and behold… people are talking about the upcoming festivities. They’re figuring out what to cook with their turkeys, and what the hottest new gifts are for this year. Geez I’m way behind, aren’t I?

I was happy as hell to see that the holidays aren’t the only thing that people are chattering about. Thankfully, I found many interesting and informative blogs and threads on a huge variety of topics to keep me busy… and to get my mind back OFF of the holiday season. I’m just not ready quite yet!

Every day we bring you the newest and hottest software deals that we can find. Make sure you check back every day so that you don’t miss a single deal!

[awsbullet:thanksgiving recipe book]

Are You Ready for the Holidays?

Make Your Life Easier When Working With Text

Chris Pirillo — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:22:30 +0000

Make Your Life Easier When Working With Text

If you are working with text material frequently on the computer, you really should consider a text editing program. One that we recommend is created by a long-time supporter of Lockergnome. It is an award-winning software program from Eric Fookes called NoteTab. This program has won numerous awards and it is recognized as one of the very best text and HTML editors available.

We are very careful to put programs that we recommend through a vigorous assessment process. We use it and have people with varying skill levels evaluate it for us. The assessment process for Eric’s program goes far beyond the normal review process. There are Gnomies we know who use this program every day for all their text editing – and they have used NoteTab for years. One long-time NoteTab fan likes using the multiple text document feature. Think of it as a text editor with a tabbed browsing feature. People are truly loyal to this program, and they would not be without their NoteTab.

Perhaps you have not been exposed to a great text editing program. You need a text editor because it is essential for organizing your work and, at the very elementary level, it saves you time. This probably has happened to you: on some email correspondence or blog comment, you spend time composing and putting down your thoughts in exactly the way that you want. You hit “send” or “post” and something (or nothing) happens. The browser tries to work… and then there is an error. All that work is gone – lost! If you use a text editor, all you would do is go back to the text editor and copy your work again. Then you can try to paste it in the email or blog a second time – without having to rethink and redo the whole process again. A good text editor makes it easy to save all that work.

For the students out there, this will help you organize your term papers, lecture notes, and library research. This will help in pulling material together in an easy, simple, efficient manner. You know that even after a month of school, the material is becoming overwhelming. And if you are not the most organized person with your text material, this definitely will help.

There are really too many features to this program to mention adequately. It really is one of the best text and HTML editors available.

Eric is allowing our readers a special, time-limited discount on his programs:

This offer expires on October 14, 2009. NoteTab can be used on all Windows versions, as well as OS X / Linux in conjunction with Wine.

If you are doing text work, your editor should really be a tool that makes your work as easy as possible. NoteTab does that and you will find that it is the program that you will want to have when doing any writing.

Make Your Life Easier When Working With Text

You Never Know What People are Going to Type

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 01:49:56 +0000

You Never Know What People are Going to Type

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You know that I record in front of a live audience. I invited them to participate on a site I came across for this video. It was a successful experiment, but it’s quite obvious that you just never know what someone will type when they feel they are “anonymous” on the Internet.

Your World of Text is a free site where you can go and just start typing. You can put anything you want – anywhere on the page you want. Your World of Text is an infinite grid of text editable by any visitor. The changes made by other people appear on your screen as they happen. Everyone starts in the same place, but you can scroll through the world using your mouse.

If you want to start your own World, just add any letters or words you wish to the end of the site URL. For instance, we added the word Geeky to the end. You can still head over there and check out what was typed, and change it as you wish. If you choose a hard-to-guess word or letter combo, chances of keeping your World private from others are much higher. This allows you to have your own private little place on the net to type whatever is on your mind. Since you don’t need to register to use the site, no one will ever know it was you!

The next time you want to get something off your chest, good OR bad, why not consider using Your World of Text?!

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You Never Know What People are Going to Type

How to Send SMS Text Messages to Groups of Friends

Chris Pirillo — Sat, 02 May 2009 09:19:57 +0000

How to Send SMS Text Messages to Groups of Friends

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So what is Tatango? It’s a free site that allows you to text message umpteen-billion people at once. Standard texting rates will apply, of course. If you have something important to say, why not tell everyone all at once?

There are some other nifty little features as well. For instance, you can broadcast your group messages on a site like Facebook or Twitter – but only if you want to! You can use this for business, to quickly and efficiently get a message to everyone on your team. Oh, and did I mention you don’t even need a phone to send the messages? Oh no – you can send them to your group right from your computer!

One other cool feature is that a keyword allows anyone to join your group from their cell phone. For example: there is now a Geeks group! If you want to join that group and receive all the messages from the people in it, simply text the word GEEKS to 68398 to get started! Or alternately, you can head over to Geeks Text Group to join up.
There’s no easier way of sending one SMS to several people. Try out Tatango today!

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How to Send SMS Text Messages to Groups of Friends

How to Organize Text and Programming Code

Chris Pirillo — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:44:29 +0000

How to Organize Text and Programming Code

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Managing text in a single text file is a bit of a kluge. Let’s say that text happens to be code, such as PHP or CSS. You may want color highlighting, so that if you make a mistake you’ll be able to detect it easier. You want to have a text management tool at your disposal, no matter what operating system you happen to be using.

The free Snippely is just what you’re looking for. It’s an Adobe AIR app, made by the folks at Google Code. Snippely is a basic text and code organizational tool. Instead of storing bits of code, quick notes, and memos in text files all over your hard drive, this application will let you save and organize “snippets” in one convenient location. A snippet is a collection of one or more pieces of code and notes. Snippets are stored in groups for organization and quick retrieval.

You set up groups, and you have sub-groups within those. You can add notes and colors to different parts of your group areas. It’s really easy to do, just drag-and-drop things where you need them to be. You can even choose to make the notes appear in plain text!

Whether you’re managing plain-text snippets, or code snippets, Snippely is going to work great for you.

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How to Organize Text and Programming Code

How to Convert PDF Files

Chris Pirillo — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:33:27 +0000

How to Convert PDF Files

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Oh, PDF you are so beautiful there in my viewer, but I cannot edit you! I have to convert you somehow to a format that I can edit. Or I can head over to a new website that I came across last night! On Convert PDF to Word, I don’t have to sign up for anything – and I don’t have to pay anything, either!

It’s quite simple, really. Just browse to your PDF file, and open it. Then click the “convert and download” button. And uhm… you’re done. Seriously! No, I mean it! It’s done for you!

There are a few other conversion services available on this website, as well. You’ll find:

PDF to Word
PDF to Text
PDF to Image
PDF to HTML
Text to PDF

All of them are simple to use, and absolutely free. The next time you need to edit a PDF, just head over to Convert PDF to Word. Within moments, you’ll have a text file that you can work with. Things like this just make our lives simpler, and make me happy.

Let me know of other cool and free services you find that help people get things done.

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How to Convert PDF Files

Which Do You Use More: Mouse or Keyboard?

Chris Pirillo — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:10:53 +0000

Which Do You Use More: Mouse or Keyboard?

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Which input device do you rely on more – the keyboard or the mouse? Are you someone who uses them equally? I still use a keyboard more than my mouse. I love keyboard shortcuts. They increase my productivity by quite a lot. There’s a really cool website I found that doesn’t require me to use a mouse ever. Simply type in the search query, and the results fill themselves in automatically. You can use your keyboard arrow keys to navigate through the results, as well. keyboardr allows you to search without ever using your mouse.

keyboardr is a homepage. It speeds up your Internet experience. And if you like, it helps you keep your hands on the keyboard.

In the first place, keyboardr is a meta-search. You get Google, Wikipedia, and Youtube search results all together in one easy place. The instant search and the keyboard navigation are replacing the feeling of “searching” with the feeling of “launching”.

keyboardr will utilize many more Web services. Apart from usual web search services like Google, we are planning to support Friendfeed, De.li.ci.ous, Twitter, Flickr, Google Docs and many more. And in the final stage, we will have an extension system, open for any developer, to integrate any web service into our interface. So keyboardr will be a central station for you to get all your common Internet tasks done much faster.

This is nice and clean, which I love. It’s very simple to use, of course. And the developer is right – it’s much faster. Why not try it out today? You might end up making it your homepage, as well.

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Which Do You Use More: Mouse or Keyboard?