Well yes...
HTTP via SMS is actually old, back in the short period in the 1990s when SMS was free in Germany, there were projects to do that. The big problem of course is that SMS is horribly expensive in most countries.
A project that's just landed on github aims to let users in the developing world access Web pages over text messages alone. It's not as absurd an idea as it might first seem, to those of us whose first-world-problems include “how do I delete the U2 album from my iTunes library?” While the number of mobile phones in the world …
If this kind of technology exists - presenting as a normal web browser to the server, then filtering out all the javascript, pictures and audio - then the first person to release an App based on it will make a fortune!
Yes, you will still rack up the data charges, but the signal/noise will be INCREDIBLE!
@Charles 9, you've missed the point.
"TXT messages can carry 140 characters, at eight bytes a character, which is 1,120 bytes per message."
Most sensible character encoding uses eight BITS per character (=one byte).
But then most SMS systems support 160 characters per message. (presumably the other 20 are used as headers in this system? This could be clarified)
It should have been bits.
Though, the only two encodings I know in use by SMS messages are UCS-2 (16 bits * 70 characters) and GSM 03.38 (7 bits * 160 characters)...
While apparently there /is/ a mode for 8-bit bytes, it's meant for raw data and generally not used for regular text messages.
I hate web-mail forms in websites. They are even more fire and forget than email. They are just about acceptable if, and only if, there is an option to send a copy to me. If I make a complaint, query etc I would like a record of what I sent in my email client, not some eminently forgettable random txt file that I have saved somewhere on one of my disks.
Every phone that does MMS does exactly that.
At the time, with texts costing ~10p a go, WAP over SMS offered very little in the way of advantage over WAP over dialup, except for small data transfers where connectivity might be intermittant, such fire-and-forget packets used in Push messaging
A California Right to Repair bill, SB 983, died in committee last week, despite broad consumer support for fixable products.
It's not clear who killed the bill, but Right to Repair advocates point to the usual suspects – the tech companies that benefit by controlling who can repair their goods and that have lobbied against Right to Repair bills all over the US.
"It happened in the most shadowy, unaccountable part of the process, so it's hard to know exactly what happened," said Nathan Proctor, US Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG) senior Right to Repair campaign director, in a message to The Register.
New York City this week ripped out its last municipally-owned payphones from Times Square to make room for Wi-Fi kiosks from city infrastructure project LinkNYC.
"NYC's last free-standing payphones were removed today; they'll be replaced with a Link, boosting accessibility and connectivity across the city," LinkNYC said via Twitter.
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said, "Truly the end of an era but also, hopefully, the start of a new one with more equity in technology access!"
A very-literally-mobile museum boasting over 2,000 exhibits is to go online and on the streets this year to show off the evolution of the mobile phone from 1984 to the present day - and its founders are looking for donations to fill a few gaps in the collection.
"I've been collecting phones for more than 25 years. Over the last three decades the mobile phone has become part of the fabric of society and the design diversity, from early transportable phones to the latest smartphones with flexible displays, is something to behold," museum founder Ben Wood explained in a prepared statement.
"When the online museum launches later this year, we want it to be a rich learning resource and a way to inspire young people to go on to create incredible mobile innovations of their own in the future."
Mobile networks across the UK are once again set to panic their users this afternoon as part of a test of the government's Emergency Alerts system – causing selected mobiles to "make a loud, siren-like sound."
Due to launch for full operation this summer, the government Emergency Alerts system is a messaging platform designed to get information out to as many people as possible as quickly as can be.
"Emergency alerts work like a radio broadcast," the government explained. "In an emergency, mobile phone masts in the surrounding area will broadcast an alert. Every compatible mobile phone or tablet in range of a mast will receive the alert. You will get alerts based on your current location – not where you live or work."
LG Electronics' board has tired of its loss-making smartphone business and ordered its closure.
The South Korean electronics titan announced the decision on Monday, after enduring six years of operating losses totaling an estimated US$4.4bn.
"LG’s strategic decision to exit the incredibly competitive mobile phone sector will enable the company to focus resources in growth areas such as electric vehicle components, connected devices, smart homes, robotics, artificial intelligence and business-to-business solutions, as well as platforms and services," reads a canned statement.
Biting the hand that feeds IT © 1998–2022