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Is there a difference between using a "hotspot" and having your phone become a hotspot? Is there a difference between phones/carriers or just carriers. I had an AT&T HTC phone, my friend had an AT&T I-Phone and got coverage where I could not. I need to have an internet connection for may laptop at an upcoming event and am considering getting a hotspot. Please offer info/suggestions/etc. (Serious please) yeah right!

The richest man in the world, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, is making millions in profits from a government program that supplies poor Americans with free cell phones. Mr Slim, who is worth an estimated $69billion, owns the parent company of both the service provider and phone producer which creates the phones used in the Lifeline program. The government program was originally enacted under President Reagan's administration in an effort for poor Americans without access to phones to have a way to contact prospective employers, arrange for healthcare, and be in touch with their children's schools. Republicans have since attacked...

In 1978, my college tuition was about $1,200 per year. In 1985 my first cell phone also cost me $1,200, and its sole function was that it could make phone calls -- at about a buck per minute. (Motorola's first cell phone hit the market at $3,995!) But something interesting happened to both products on the way to the year 2012... Today, my daughter (and her parents) are staring down college tuitions in the range of $22,000 to $40,000 per year to prepare for her declared career interest. My new iPhone has moved in exactly the opposite direction -- purchased...

As a recovering pollster (I worked for Democratic pollster Peter Hart from 1974 to 1981), let me weigh in on the controversy over whether the polls are accurate. Many conservatives are claiming that multiple polls have overly Democratic samples, and some charge that media pollsters are trying to discourage Republican voters. First, some points about the limits of polls. Random sample polling is an imprecise instrument. There's an error margin of 3 or 4 percent, and polling theory tells us that one out of 20 polls is wrong, with results outside the margin of error. Sometimes it's easy to spot...

The Kodiak Daily Mirror reports she slipped as she was texting on her phone at the same time she tried to toss a cigarette butt over the cliff edge. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/09/27/alaska-woman-falls-off-60-foot-cliff-while-texting/?test=latestnews#ixzz27lhu2uif

Oakland officials say they and federal investigators have discovered a major source of disruption to the city's police radio communications system: interference from cell phone towers. Specifically, officials said, cell phone towers operated by AT&T Wireless have been interfering with the city's public safety communications frequency and causing radio failures among police and firefighters on city streets. AT&T, notified by the city of the problem last week, is cooperating and has partially disabled 16 towers. A company spokesman said the impact on customers will be minimal, affecting only those on the company's oldest phones. The towers constantly interfered with the...

Rep. Dennis Kucinich has introduced a bill that would require cell phones to warn consumers how much radiation is coming from their phones, saying that until science can disprove a link to cancer, the public should be told more information. His bill, the Cell Phone Right to Know Act, would also demand a study of cell phones and health, looking at a broad array of signals that smart phones now send out, ranging from the phone to bluetooth to WiFi. "Consumers have a right to know the radiation levels of cell phones and whether they are buying the phone with...

How to Use a [BUSTED] Cell Phone to Meet 5 Basic Survival Needs by A Manly Guest Contributor on June 14, 2012 · 69 commentsin Manly Skills This content series is brought to you by Dockers. Take the adventure of a lifetime! What’s this? Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Creek Stewart.Last week we talked about the many survival uses of the tampon. But unless he specifically packed one in a bag or car, a man’s unlikely to have one on him in a pinch. So today we’re going to explore the survival uses of an everyday item...

Today the ACLU is launching a nationwide effort to find out more about automatic license plate readers (ALPR). By snapping photographs of each license plate they encounter—up to three thousand per minute—and retaining records of who was where when, license plate readers are fundamentally threatening our freedom on the open road. You may have seen the recent New York Times op-ed that admonished us to start referring to our mobile devices as “trackers” instead of “phones.” Perhaps as ALPR technology spreads we should start saying “tracker” in place of “car,” too. We need statutory protections to limit the collection, retention,...

Learn how to fight this abuse and find out more about Congressman Tim Griffin's bill to end it:http://griffin.house.gov/lifeline

1. Thou shalt give top priority to those who are with you. Listen intently when you are with friends, family members and coworkers. When you constantly check messages, you send the message that other people and things are more important to you.

In an announcement falling somewhere between a suicide note and an expression of optimism for the future Finnish cell-phone has-been, Nokia (NOK) announced yesterday that it would be laying off 10,000 employees between now and the end of 2013. Obviously the negative part was the plan to lay-off nearly 20% of its existing work-force. The upside was that Nokia seems to truly believe the company will exist as a freestanding concern in 18 months. Unwilling to see the glass as anything but half-empty, Wall Street sent NOK shares down 16% Wednesday. Nokia shareholders should be used to such pain by...

NEW CANAAN, Conn. (CBSNewYork) — A high school junior is facing homicide charges after being accused of running down a [] jogger in Fairfield County. Police said the accident was as simple as it was deadly. The cell phone was out in the driver’s hand and the car veered for just a moment over the white line at the edge of the road before a sickening impact that left 44-year-old Kenneth Dorsey dead. Now, the 16-year-old driver who hit him has been charged with negligent homicide. The juvenile was called in by Norwalk Police for an emotional reckoning. ..." [snip]...

You have to turn off your cell phone on an airplane, but at least you get to keep it. That's not the case when high-flying donors pony up for first-class access to hear President Barack Obama at exclusive fundraisers -- his campaign takes the devices away. So much for live-tweeting or videotaping Obama's pitch. The Washington Post's David Nakamura -- the "pool" print journalist representing his colleagues and reporting back to them on Obama's trip to New York -- noticed the practice as the president wooed group of about 60 wealthy contributors Monday at the home of Hamilton "Tony" James,...

In its relentless never-ending quest for more power to track and follow American citizens through their cellphones, the Department of Justice (DoJ) requested last week that Congress give them easier access to location data stored by cellphone service providers. Jason Weinstein, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s criminal division, argued that requiring a search warrant to gain such access would “cripple” his department’s efforts to investigate crime and criminals. Said Weinstein, There is really no fairness and no justice when the law applies differently to different people depending on which courthouse you’re sitting in. For that...

Fines For Texting While Walking In US Town 1:13pm UK, Saturday May 12, 2012 People caught texting on their mobile phones while walking face being fined by police in a US town. The clampdown comes after a rise in the number of jaywalking incidents, where pedestrians cross roads illegally or recklessly, instead of using marked routes. Officers in Fort Lee, New Jersey, have said some people are constantly putting themselves at risk of being hit by vehicles because they do not pay attention. Police are stepping up patrols looking for "dangerous" walkers who are not obeying the rules of the...

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act forbids advertisers, bill collectors and the like from calling your mobile phone, without your consent, using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice. * * * The Seventh Circuit panel said consent doesn’t transfer from the people who owe money to the [the telephone subscribers who subsequently] happen to inherit their numbers. Judge Easterbrook offered this analogy to support his reasoning: "Borrower agrees with Bank, as a condition of a loan, that Bank can enter Borrower’s garage and repossess his car if he does not keep current on payments. After signing...

The Obama Administration is demanding Congress pass legislation granting law enforcement greater access to personal cell phone records. “Right now we have to show probable cause to obtain a warrant for these kinds of records,” complained Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein. “This demands that we must present some evidence that we have reason to believe a crime has been or will be committed before we can get a judge to issue that warrant. This standard is too strict.” Weinstein argued that “a broader, more general authority to scrutinize cell phone activity would help us uncover crimes and other undesirable...

If you havn't heard, Verizon is starting up a new fee. It was all over the radio yesterday, and now I am seeing it on the internet. I am currently with Verizon but I am off contract and using an old flip phone. I've been doing this purposely in anticipation of the day when I would kick Verizon to the curb. What Cell carrier are you with and what advantages do they offer? How many ways are there to get cell phone like service without using an actual cell phone(if any)? I'm thinking maybe VOIP on a wireless modem or...

Last year, a federal program paid out $1.6 billion to cover free cell phones and the monthly bills of 12.5 million wireless accounts. The program, overseen by the FCC and intended to help low-income Americans, is popular for obvious reasons, with participation rising steeply since 2008, when the government paid $772 million for phones and monthly bills. But observers complain that the program suffers from poor oversight, in which phones go to people who don’t qualify, and hundreds of thousands of those who do qualify have more than one phone.