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Teen Wins Back-to-Back Speed-Texting Titles

'America's fastest texter' takes home $50K

(Newser) - Austin Wierschke and his furiously fast thumbs have won the National Texting Competition for the second year running. The 17-year-old from Wisconsin will take home $50,000 in prize money after out-texting ten rivals at the competition in New York City's Times Square, reports AP . "It feels incredible,...

OMG Is Way Older Than You Think

Abbreviation first appeared in letter to Winston Churchill

(Newser) - The next time you tap out the letters OMG, take a moment to give a nod to British Admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher. The now-ubiquitous abbreviation may have first appeared in his correspondence with Winston Churchill back in 1917, reports io9.com by way of Letters of Note . It located the...

Olympics to Fans: Please Stop Tweeting

Overwhelmed networks causing problems with TV coverage

(Newser) - Excited Olympics attendees have been overwhelming mobile networks, and now the International Olympic Committee is urging spectators to cool it with the texting and tweeting. "Of course, if you want to send something, we are not going to say 'you can't do it', and we would certainly...

Stop With Those Awful Exclamation Points

Steve Macone says they replace real friendliness

(Newser) - Who could hate a friendly little punctuation mark? Steve Macone could, and does, even though he's addicted to using it. "I've come to hate" exclamation points in texts and emails, he writes at Salon . "'See you at 1:00 for the meeting,' I type,...

Half of Teen Drivers Text Behind Wheel

 Half of Teen 
 Drivers Text 
 Behind Wheel 
CDC survey
Jun 8, 2012 5:35 PM CDT

Half of Teen Drivers Text Behind Wheel

Feds are renewing crackdown on distracted driving

(Newser) - More than half of high school seniors have texted while driving, according to a federal survey that collected the data for the first time ever. In the survey, 58% of 12th-graders admitted to texting or emailing while behind the wheel, while 43% of 11th-graders said they did also, reports AP...

NHL Fan Sues Penguins for 3 Texts Too Many

Fred Weiss says he agreed to only 3 a week, got 9 in 2 weeks

(Newser) - Fred Weiss signed up to get text message alerts from the Pittsburgh Penguins, and was assured by the promotional agreement he would only receive up to three texts per week. When he started receiving more than that, rather than simply unsubscribing, he filed a lawsuit. Weiss alleges that the NHL...

Sexting Solution? App Kills Image After 10 Seconds

Snapchat might help prevent post-text embarrassment

(Newser) - Good news for naked celebrities: A new app lets people send sexts with less chance they'll leak online. Snapchat allows users to set potentially embarrassing photo messages to delete themselves within seconds. It even warns senders when a recipient tries to take a screenshot of a message, the website...

4.5B Spam Texts Flooded Our Phones Last Year

Consumers fume, FTC files lawsuits

(Newser) - Getting spam on your cell phone? You're not alone: Spam text messages in the US soared 45% to 4.5 billion last year, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. "I don't even get that much junk mail in my Gmail account," says a journalist in Washington, DC....

Good-Bye, Phone Call: Texts Rule Teen Communication
Good-Bye, Phone Call: Texts Rule Teen Communication
survey says
Mar 19, 2012 1:30 PM CDT

Good-Bye, Phone Call: Texts Rule Teen Communication

Text messages rising as phone calls fall

(Newser) - So much for the olden days of talking on the phone for hours: Texting is now the "dominant daily mode of communication" for teens, according to the results of a recent Pew Research Center survey. The median number of texts per day is now 60 for teen users, up...

Teen Sends Extremely Unfortunate Text to Cop
Teen Sends Extremely Unfortunate Text to Cop
pranks gone wrong
Mar 15, 2012 9:52 AM CDT

Teen Sends Extremely Unfortunate Text to Cop

Pinterest-inspired prank goes quite wrong

(Newser) - A northwest Arkansas teenager thought it would be funny to text a random phone number saying she hid a body, but the joke backfired ... to say the least. Of all the local phone numbers she could have chosen, the 15-year-old Rogers girl picked one that belonged to a police detective....

School Locked Down After Auto-Correct Texting Mishap

Phone changes 'gunna' to 'gunman' in message sent to wrong number

(Newser) - A Gainesville high school student who apparently flunked Texting 101 caused a school lockdown yesterday. The West Hall student intended to peck out "gunna be at west hall today," but his cell phone's automatic spelling correction feature changed "gunna" to "gunman" in a text message...

Bill Would Let Parents Peek at Kids' Texts

Arizona lawmaker pushes for change

(Newser) - An Arizona lawmaker wants to force cell phone companies to let parents read their kids' phone texts, reports the Arizona Republic . State Sen. Rich Crandall says his motive is safety, not snooping. "If I have a 13-year-old being harassed via text, I can't call and get those texts,...

Verizon 'Emergency' Text Spooks New Jersey

Customers ordered to 'take shelter now,' but it's just a test

(Newser) - Verizon sparked panic in central New Jersey yesterday by sending thousands of customers a text message reading: "Civil Emergency in this area until 1:24 PM EST Take Shelter Now US Govern." Verizon says the message, which caused 911 dispatchers to be swamped with calls, was part of...

Texting While Driving Surges
 Texting While Driving Surges 
survey says
Dec 8, 2011 10:48 AM CST

Texting While Driving Surges

Up 50% last year: survey

(Newser) - Despite 35 states now banning it, the practice of texting while driving continues to increase, according to new research. An observational study conducted at selected stoplights and intersections last year found that at any given moment, 0.9% of drivers were using a hand-held device; that's up from 0....

How Your Discarded Phone Can Improve Global Health

It can send texts, and one advocate says the Third World can benefit

(Newser) - Text messages could be the key to successful health care in poor countries. At least 24-year-old Josh Nesbit thinks so. He's the CEO of nonprofit startup Medic Mobile, which disperses old cell phones to create a text messaging network that can connect doctors to patients, monitor the spread of...

Skype Buys GroupMe for More Than $50M
 Skype Buys GroupMe for $50M+ 
Aug 22, 2011 8:58 AM CDT

Skype Buys GroupMe for $50M+

Group-texting firm will stay in New York

(Newser) - Skype has purchased group text-messaging firm GroupMe in a deal worth somewhere between $50 million and $100 million. The startup will remain independent but will likely play a major role in Skype’s mobile and social arenas. It’s a big success for the year-old firm, writes Ben Popper for...

Sexting: 4 Out of 5 College Students Sext
 4 in 5 College Kids Sext 
study says
Jul 25, 2011 12:15 PM CDT

4 in 5 College Kids Sext

And a fifth of the messages get forwarded

(Newser) - Racy text-messaging is simply a part of college life, a study suggests: Some 78% of 200 students in a University of Rhode Island survey say they’ve received sexts, and 56% have gotten sexts containing pictures, Time reports. Most of these messages, it should be noted—about 73%—weren’t...

Jenn Sterger: 'I'm Not a Gold-Digger'

She hasn't 'made a dime' from Brett Favre scandal

(Newser) - Jenn Sterger, the former New York Jets employee who accused Brett Favre of sending her racy text messages , has something to say: She's "not a gold-digger." "I haven't made a dime off anything in this whole situation," she tells ABC News in an interview airing on...

Stabber: Text-Message Typo Made Me Kill

'Mutter' morphs to 'nutter,' triggers clash

(Newser) - One British man is dead and another faces prison for stabbing him to death, all over a text message typo, reports the Daily Mail . Neil Brook said in court that he sent a message to his friend last July, calling him a "mutter" (local slang for a mild insult),...

This Text Message Will Self-Destruct in 60 Seconds

Vanishing text service new friend to the stars

(Newser) - It's too late to help Tiger Woods cover his tracks, but the creators of a text message auto-delete service say other celebrities trying to keep their lives private are among its half-million users. TigerText—no connection to the golfer—sends texts that disappear from both a user and sender's phone...

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