Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Countless people send and receive sensitive information via SMS text messages every day.
If you’re one of them you might be surprised to learn that the content of your texts are wide open to anyone who manages to intercept them, and that’s incredibly easy to do.
Truth be told, there are LOTS of folks out there who can, and do intercept SMS text messages, and as the article I linked to above explains, it isn’t limited just to law enforcement. [Read more…]
Have you ever received an important text message but didn’t know it until much later because you didn’t hear the audible alert? Me too, and it’s rather annoying. But there’s an easy way to prevent this from happening in the future.
A nifty free Android app called SMS Wakeup will turn on your phone’s screen momentarily whenever a text message hits your inbox. Whenever the app is active, as long as you keep your phone where you can see it you can rest assured that you won’t miss another important text message that really needs to be answered ASAP.
SMS Wakeup also comes in a paid version ($0.99) that has some extra features, but the small and lightweight free version is all you’re likely to need. You can read more about SMS Wakeup (and download it) from the Google Play Store.
In 2012 more text messages were sent via free texting apps on smart phones than by traditional SMS Text Messaging services, and the number of free texts vs. paid texts is growing at a fast rate. This is a great thing for consumers, but the cell carriers are taking a major financial hit because of it.
SMS text messages have always been a major source of easy profit for the carrier. They cost virtually nothing to transmit but bring in boatloads of cash.
But the immense popularity of apps such as Heywire, iMessage and WhatsApp have cut those profits by huge margins. And the bleeding is likely to continue and even pick up the pace as more users find out about these apps and begin using them. [Read more…]