cell

There's nothing worse than a senseless death.

Not that any death makes sense, of course. But it's easier to accept someone dying of sheer old age than a 16-year-old being crushed in a car because she was texting Polly about the dimples on Charlie's cheeks.

This week, advertising's loudest are meeting at the Cannes Advertising Festival. One campaign doing absurdly well is an absurdist effort from Australia that tries to stop people doing stupid things around trains.

Called "Dumb Ways to Die," it takes the silliness of how people die around trains and raises … Read more

You wouldn't expect high-end features in a simple phone, and you're not going to get them with the Envoy II. Not only is the low-resolution screen hard to look at from certain angles, you also won't get video recording, a flash, or any expandable memory.

True, like its predecessor, this handset is geared toward people who are mostly interested in making calls. But given that, call quality should have been better than it was.

Frankly, for a prepaid price of $49.99 and a contract price of $69.99, I'd want something more. Fortunately for U.… Read more

There has been much kvetching about the revelations suggesting that the National Security Agency might have obtained records of millions of phone calls over the years.

There has been less focus on the potential good this might have done.

No, I'm not talking about protecting the U.S.A. from bad people. I'm talking about giving you an alibi for a bank robbery.

For here is a man in Florida, Terrance Brown, who believes that the NSA should be forced to hand over any records it has of his calls forthwith.

As the Sun-Sentinel reports, Brown and five … Read more

It was first spotted in Houston. But then so many strange phenomena are.

Now it's heading your way, regardless of where you might be keeping safe in these excitable United States.

It might seem to you as if it's had a few drinks. But no amount of offering it your Jack or your Bacardi will keep it from one thing it really wants in its mouth.

Yes, your S4, iPhone 5 or, indeed, anything that smacks of electronica.

Nylanderia fulva is its name. But you, at least as far as scientists are concerned, can call it the "crazy ant."… Read more

When it comes to building out a network to deliver high-speed wireless service, size increasingly doesn't matter.

In fact, the wireless industry, which usually thinks big, has been buzzing about something a bit more diminutive. Wireless executives can't go through a public speech without mentioning them, tech conferences devote whole sections toward them, and one trade group has named itself after the technology in order to draft behind the growing hype.

They're called small cells, and they're poised to dramatically improve your wireless service, bringing higher speeds and more capacity to networks that are facing ever-increasing … Read more

"We were more behaved than kids should be."

These deeply felt words were offered to CNN by just one of the 101 students asked to leave an Air Tran flight bound for Atlanta from New York on Monday.

Some might feel that kids on planes should just sit like the rest of the adult cattle in a soporific stupor. However, this incident provoked feelings that are anything but sleepy.

Please imagine, too, the bemused thoughts of those few left behind after 101 students (and 8 chaperones) from New York's Yeshiva of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School were … Read more

I've never thought you could completely trust all cats.

Some are far too knowing, far too cynically affectionate not to be attracted to organized crime.

I could never find the proof until this year. Now, that proof is redoubling.

You might remember that, in January, Brazilian police accused a cat of brazenly crossing a prison yard with a cell phone, accessories, and a saw strapped to it.

Now, another feline felon has been caught. This time, in Northern Russia.… Read more

It's never worth it.

And yet this isn't the first time someone jumped down onto rail tracks in order to retrieve a cell phone.

As New York's 1010 Wins reports, a 22-year-old man is said to have dropped his cell phone on the tracks at White Plains Road and East 241st Street, in the Wakefield section of the Bronx.

Eyewitnesses said that it seemed like a crazy thing to do. One even speculated whether he was trying to commit suicide.

What is clear is that he was struck by the No. 2 train and killed. His identity … Read more

Contrary to its overselling name, the LG Cosmos 3 is anything but "out of this world."

True, it's just a feature device, and while it's good for anyone looking for a simple handset that's ideal for messaging, this phone brings little to the table that the Cosmos 2 didn't already offer.

And really, what's the point of making another iteration if it's nearly identical to its predecessor? Users still get the same 2-inch screen, same measly 1.3-megapixel camera, and same battery specs. It even sports the same look for the most … Read more