cell-phones

De Blasio Overturns Cell Phone Ban at NYC Schools

Dayna Evans · 01/07/15 01:28PM

Heyyyyy, teens, here's an SMS direct to your heart signed with the winking face emoji from Bill de Blasio: the mayor of New York City announced on Wednesday that the ban on cell phones at NYC schools has been lifted. All 1.1 million kids enrolled will now get to bring their phones and tablets onto campus.

Misconnected: A Personal History of Voicemail

Joe Veix · 12/09/14 10:43AM

I once played phone tag with a heartbroken stranger. She had the wrong number. She'd call late at night while I was sleeping, I'd miss the call, and she'd be greeted by the grandmotherly voice of AT&T's Pat Fleet, who I let be my generic voicemail message. The woman would leave long messages. I'd try to call back, only to encounter an endless series of rings, never to be picked up. This continued for three weeks. I briefly wondered if she was a ghost.

Michelle Dean · 06/25/14 09:48AM

The Supreme Court has also unanimously ruled that police must obtain a warrant to search your cell phone. "Modern cell phones are not just another technological convenience. With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans 'the privacies of life,'" Chief Justice Roberts writes.

Awful New Technology Beams TV Ads Onto Your Cell Phone

Hamilton Nolan · 04/22/14 09:06AM

At long last, advertisers are ready to "solve" the "problem" of you rudely ignoring the television ads that they spent so much effort crafting, by looking at your cell phone when the commercials come on.

Adam Weinstein · 04/08/14 02:16PM

What's the deadliest job in America lately? Working on cell phone towers! How much responsibility do cell phone companies and their contractors assume when a worker falls and dies? Virtually none! Mike Rowe, call your office.

Gabrielle Bluestone · 02/27/14 10:52PM

Talking and texting are still illegal, but a California court of appeals ruled today that it's perfectly ok to use a cell phone while driving if you use it as a map. The court reasoned that because cell phones could only text and call when the handheld laws were enacted in 2006, only those functions are banned.

Most Households Bizarrely Still Have a Landline

Hamilton Nolan · 09/06/13 08:55AM

In the olden days, in order to make a phone call to someone farther than shouting distance, you had to stand in one place and speak into a receiver wired to a wall, and if someone called you, you had to dash from wherever you were to wherever the phone was anchored. Most people still do this, apparently??