A fake report on CNN's iReport site alleged that AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson had been found dead.
(Credit: iReport, screengrab from Business Insider)Reports began to surface Sunday charging that AT&T had blocked broadband access to parts of the notorious (and powerful) Internet forum site 4chan, which the telecom company confirmed on Monday. Late in the evening, a fake story surfaced on CNN's iReport citizen journalism site alleging that AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson had been "found dead in his multimillion dollar beachfront mansion" after a cocaine overdose.
Suffice it to say that the two events are likely connected. Access to 4chan has since been restored for AT&T broadband customers.
For those who stepped in late: 4chan is sort of like the Internet's equivalent of a league of pirates, den of thieves, or whatever other sort of anarchic analogy you prefer. Decentralized and relying on anonymity, the participants issue large-scale pranks both online and offline, from teaming up with video site eBaumsWorld to launch the "Porn Day" campaign on YouTube to spamming Twitter's trending topics.
The fake iReport disappeared from CNN quickly, perhaps because it read that Stephenson was found "delirious" when "a friend called 911 after a night of what he called, 'male dancers everywhere and the best blow west of the Mississippi.'"
Last October, iReport was the victim of a prank in which a more believable user-submitted story reported that Apple CEO Steve Jobs--who has a well-publicized history of health problems--had suffered a heart attack. It wasn't true, but it was online long enough that Apple's stock took a dip.
AT&T spokesman Michael Coe told CNET News in an e-mailed statement that a denial-of-service attack was what stemmed the temporary block of 4chan traffic and that it has since been restored. "Beginning Friday, an AT&T customer was impacted by a denial-of-service attack stemming from IP addresses connected to img.4chan.org," Coe wrote. "To prevent this attack from disrupting service for the impacted AT&T customer, and to prevent the attack from spreading to impact our other customers, AT&T temporarily blocked access to the IP addresses in question for our customers. This action was in no way related to the content at img.4chan.org; our focus was on protecting our customers from malicious traffic."
"Overnight Sunday, after we determined the denial-of-service threat no longer existed, AT&T removed the block on the IP addresses in question," the AT&T statement continued. "We will continue to monitor for denial-of-service activity and any malicious traffic to protect our customers."
This post was updated at 9:25 a.m. PT.
MLB is now streaming all games via At Bat app to MLB.tv subscribers.
(Credit: MLBAM)Major League Baseball took another step in proving its technical superiority over the other three major sports leagues Wednesday, by connecting its wired MLB.tv subscription package with its At Bat iPhone application.
Beginning Wednesday, MLB will stream every single regular and postseason baseball game to fans via the $9.99 iPhone and iPod Touch application it initially released last year. Customers who already subscribe to MLB.tv and MLB.tv Premium packages--its online baseball viewing service--can now watch any game live from their phone or computer. The games will be streamed over the iPhone or iPod's Wi-Fi connection or 3G network. Games can be paused and rewound while playing.
Just after the iPhone OS 3.0 update was released in June, MLB added the feature that any purchasers of the At Bat app would get one free streamed game per week chosen by MLB, no MLB.tv subscription required. It took a little over a month to add the MLB.tv package, which streams 15 live games at a time.
The same rules of MLB.tv still apply however: if a game is blacked out in a local broadcast area, it won't be available to be streamed live, though the game will appear in the video archives at the conclusion of the game.
The most curious part of all this, however, has nothing to do with MLB, but AT&T. MLB is streaming 15 three-hour baseball games live every single day of the week, which is great for fans of the game, and AT&T is apparently cheering for it, too. So why is the carrier OK with this, but has restricted Sling's SlingPlayer Mobile application to Wi-Fi only?
SlingPlayer was not approved for the App Store with 3G streaming capability because streaming live broadcast TV over its 3G wireless network "violated the company's terms of use." MLB At Bat is now doing the same thing, but with AT&T's approval.
Cell Minute Tracker monitors your AT&T minutes.
(Credit: CNET)On Thursday, Pageonce released a native application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that AT&T might have considered when it won the iPhone's exclusive carrier rights in the U.S. Cell Minute Tracker (99 cents) keeps tabs on your cell phone usage, data plan, rollover minutes, SMS costs, and payments on a relatively compact page that has additional features AT&T doesn't provide you on the phone.
You'll need to register for a MyAccount login from AT&T.com for Cell Minute Tracker to work. The app speaks directly to AT&T's online minutes-tracking service to bring you a native experience from the iPhone, though you can certainly get the information for free by visiting AT&T's site on Safari, or by finding a shortcut to this page in the iPhone's Settings menu. What the app's nominal price point boils down to is convenience and an early warning system if you're about to go over your allotted minutes or are nearing billing time. If you've got limited minutes or are monitoring the usage of family members or employees who are also gathered under the same plan, seeing those details gathered in one place is a boon.
The same goes for those who frequently miss payment due dates. Cell Minute Tracker automatically flies a red badge when you open to app to alert you when you've hit 90 percent of your plan limits, or when your bill is due. In the future, the app will e-mail you this information.
You're also able to pay your AT&T bills from the iPhone (or iPod Touch if you have an AT&T cell phone in addition to your Touch) from another tab, although the 'Make a Payment' button is actually only a shortcut to AT&T's site, not an integrated feature. However, it appears to transfer your log-in info, a big help on keeping time-consuming typing down. Cell Minute Tracker also employs 128-bit encryption to shield your details.
Also on our wish list is a way to view a detailed copy of your bill, and break-downs of call and SMS activity, unlike CallCounter, a similar app for jailbroken iPhones. If all you want to do is view your minutes or pay your bill, there are free ways to do them separately online or via a call. Cell Minute Tracker gets its greatest value from bringing the summary to you in a pretty package. When it builds in the additional features on our wish list, the application will appeal to even more U.S. users.
AT&T is offering a new service that allows parents--or potentially jealous spouses/boyfriends/girlfriends--to track loved ones using their phones.
(Credit:
AT&T)
AT&T's service, called FamilyMaps, allows people to track the location of any cell phone on AT&T's network from a mobile phone or PC. The person being tracked receives a text message informing him or her that he or she is being watched. The service periodically informs the tracked individual that he or she is being watched, just in case one text message reminder wasn't enough.
Users can either track someone in real time by viewing the location on a map or they can set up the service to send them text message alerts or e-mails with location information. For example, a parent may get an alert each day that his child made it home from school. Or perhaps a jealous girlfriend looking to keep tabs on her boyfriend could set up the service to notify her if her boyfriend happens to wander into a bar or over to his ex-girlfriend's apartment after work.
Users can only track phones that are part of their family plans. This means that stalkers looking to keep tabs on their old flames won't simply be able to type in their ex-lover's phone numbers and start tracking. (I suppose those people will just have to settle for stalking via Facebook and Twitter updates.)
The service uses satellite GPS technology and cell tower triangulation to pin-point the location of the phone. The service is not supported on prepaid or AT&T Go Phones. And the service costs $9.99 for two phones and $14.99 for up to five phones.
Location-based services are nothing new. They've been around for years and are expected to generate a lot of money for carriers in the future. Already, most major mobile operators are offering some kind of location-based service, such as GPS-enabled navigation or tracking.
Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and Alltel have each been offering "tracking" services for more than a year. Sprint Nextel has even lowered the price of its service from about $10 a month to $5 a month.
The social-networking company Loopt also offers a "friend finding" application that can be downloaded on certain phones. Loopt is offered as a free application on Apple's iPhone, which operates over AT&T's network. It's also offered on some Verizon and Sprint Nextel phones.
There are several other social-networking services that use location information to track or find friends or share information via a cell phone. Google also offers a tracking/friend finding application it calls Latitude. There are also other services, such as FourSquare, Whrrl, and Brightkite.
What's different about these social-networking location services from the service AT&T is offering is that these other services often require those being "tracked" to also run the application on their phones. These services also typically have privacy settings controlled by the person being tracked that allows him or her to turn off their "friend-finding beacon" and to hide from certain individuals.
No more SMS two-step.
"They wrote this for you," Josh said in IM to me about Devicescape's Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T, an app that directly addresses my complaints about the free Wi-Fi that AT&T now provides to iPhone users at Starbucks and various airports.
As I wrote, I dislike the Safari/SMS two-step required to authorize the iPhone to use the AT&T free Wi-Fi. Yes, it's looking a gift horse in the mouth. But I am a professional crank. I really do get paid for this.
Anyway, the Easy Wi-Fi app bypasses the SMS process with a single button. You do have to pre-load the app with your phone number. But only once. And you also have to connect to the AT&T access point through the iPhone's control panel first, but once you've done that, you just press the big Log In button and you're connected.
I tried this app at a Starbucks. I downloaded the app over my phone's cellular connection, put in my phone number (both things I'll never have to do again), connected to the store's Wi-Fi router, fired up the Easy Wi-Fi, pressed Log In, and I was connected. Much better than the old way. Thank you, Devicescape.
Easy Wi-Fi is free through Friday. Then it goes up to $1.99. So grab it now (iTunes link).
First spotted: Gizmodo.
AT&T announced Wednesday that it has formed a strategic partnership with ChaCha, a mobile service that allows users to submit questions via text message or phone and receive their answer in a text message.
The deal calls for a co-branded greeting and AT&T promotion when consumers call ChaCha's answer hotline or text message the company a question.
More important from a business standpoint, the two companies will also work together to improve ChaCha's mobile-answers service and develop both text and voice ad-based services.
The partnership between AT&T and ChaCha is interesting, to say the least. At first glance, the deal makes some sense, given both companies are working in the mobile space and want to maximize monetization. But after further inspection, I don't see how a clunky mobile answers service with less than ideal accuracy can provide greater value to AT&T customers. And if the companies can't develop a viable advertising solution, it seems all AT&T will get for its troubles is the chance to have its name mentioned whenever a user calls or text messages ChaCha to ask a question.
AT&T isn't the brand that comes to mind when you think of online video search, but let's get past that point: the telecommunications company has announced a beta version of a site called VideoCrawler, which can search more than 1,600 online video outlets. AT&T hasn't released a full list of compatible video sites, but Google's YouTube is one of them.
VideoCrawler was developed in conjunction with start-up Divvio, a search company that constructed the VideoCrawler platform.
VideoCrawler doesn't host any videos, but members can still compile playlists and share them through embeddable widgets.
Other players in this space include Blinkx and the AOL-owned Truveo.
Hoop jumpage. Totally hot.
I finally got the SMS alert on my iPhone telling me that I now have access to the Wi-Fi hot spots at Starbucks, for free. Cool. But the images I had of just sauntering in to a Starbucks, selecting the local Wi-Fi network and jumping on the Internet were busted when I read these ridiculous instructions for getting access:
- Activate Wi-Fi from the settings icon on your iPhone.
- Select "attwifi" from the list of available networks.
- Enter your 10-digit mobile number and check the box to agree to the Acceptable Use Policy. Tap 'continue.'
- You will receive a text message from AT&T with a secure link to the AT&T Wi-Fi hot spot. You will not be charged for the text message.
- The SMS link will only be valid for 24 hours at the location it was requested. Another request must be submitted when using another hot spot location.
- Open the text message and tap on the link for 24-hour access to the AT&T Wi-Fi hot spot.
To get on Wi-Fi, I need to tell you my phone number and then authorize over SMS? That's just goofy. I get that the method that I think should work to authorize an iPhone on the network--a check of the phone's MAC address by the AT&T Wi-Fi authorization system--might be more hackable than this closed-loop authorization system that checks to see if you're an AT&T iPhone subscriber in good standing via your phone number. But so what? It's not like the value of the network connection that someone would be appropriating if they hacked this system is that high to begin with.
Adding this "hoop jumpage" (as our writer Stephen Shankland calls it) just punishes the rest of us who only want to do a quick check of a Web site or map, thank you very much. It appears that for anything less than a long Web browsing session, we'd be better off just living with the cellular data coming into our phones.
See also: Meraki is offering free Wi-Fi to San Francisco. Why?
A 5.4 earthquake hit Tuesday while Verdell Wilson was having an exam in her gynecologist's Los Angeles office.
Given it was her first earthquake experience, Wilson did what comes naturally--she twittered it.
"As soon as I got dressed, I twittered my experience from my cell phone," Wilson said. "I usually twitter to 80 friends, but I now have 274 messages from people commenting on it."
Twittering and texting may be the way to go in an emergency, given landline and cellular phone networks were heavily congested as callers jammed the lines, creating frustration for some users who had difficulty getting calls through.
"If you're on a wireless network and you can't get a call through, often the texting network won't be as congested," said John Britton, an AT&T spokesman.
He also advised users to forgo making non-emergency calls when natural disasters strike, in order to free up network resources for emergency calls.
The earthquake not only created network congestion for AT&T callers, but for Verizon customers, too.
"There were no outages, but what we did see was a big spike in calls. It was about 40 percent higher than our projections of what we might experience in a natural disaster," said Ken Muche, a Verizon spokesman.
Other tech companies, however, were more fortunate.
Security software giant Symantec, for example, was able to escape any damage to its nearby research lab in Culver City, Calif., said a company spokesman.
Despite a "good long shake," nothing fell in the facility and cell and phone services were not interrupted.
You can fly through your bookmarks and the "collections" they are categorized in.
The AT&T browser project, Pogo, continues to move towards wide release. Today we've got a few hundred golden tickets to give out to people who want to try the current beta.
Pogo is a much better product than I expected. It's familiar in the right places but innovative in how it handles search results and bookmarks. See preview: AT&T launches its own browser, Pogo. Surprise: It doesn't suck.
Unfortunately, this version, while based on Mozilla code, is based on old Mozilla code--the stuff that Firefox 2 was built on. The move to the Firefox 3 engine (Gecko 1.9) won't happen until "post GA" (general availability), which means, basically, the next major rev.
I am too smitten by Firefox 3 right now to recommend Pogo as a primary browser, but it certainly does take the concept in new directions. Check it out if you like experimenting.
There are 500 invites earmarked for Webware readers. Go to www.pogobrowser.com, enter the code bTHTRjv1 in the "I've been invited" section, and go through the sign-up process. You will eventually land back on the Pogo browser page again, but this time you'll have a username and password. Use those to go to the download page. Fortunately, the product itself is more straightforward.
