cellphone

Happy Birthday SMS

HappyBirthday SMS

15 years ago, the first ever recorded cell phone based text message was sent, to an employee at Vodafone. The message was “Happy Christmas“. 15 years ago in the first week of December, Airwide engineer Neil Papworth sent the test message to Vodafone’s Richard Jarvis.

Fast forward to today, and everyone and their mother, no pun intended is text messaging. The BBC reports that SMS messages in Britain are being sent at a rate of one billion per week. Compare that with the U.S. where 10 billion text messages are sent every month and thats only on the Verizon network.

How many of those text message do you think involve Twitter?

Man on cell phone killed by train

A pedestrian apparently absorbed in a cell phone call was struck and killed by an Amtrak train in San Leandro today after he walked around a lowered crossing gate and onto the tracks, authorities said. The victim, a man who was not immediately identified, was struck at 12:30 p.m. by a northbound Capitol Corridor train at the Alvarado Street crossing, about 8 miles south of the Oakland station, Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said.
Man talking on cell phone killed by train in San Leandro

Hmm. Since this happened in the States, there is a high probability that some sort of lawsuit may come out of this. On the other hand, how in the world does a cell phone conversation become so engrossing that you can’t hear the train horn going off? The man actually walked around the lowered gate. At that point, you have to think the guy knew a train was coming or else the gate wouldn’t of been lowered?

What do you guys think? Legitimate or suicide?