Sad news out of Tampa Bay, Fla. this afternoon: Local news outlets there are reporting that two people were shot inside a movie theater today during a screening of Lone Survivor. It appears there was some kind of dispute between two couples, with at least one report saying that a man was upset at the noise made by the victims while texting during the previews. [More]
texting
Man Texts While Driving, Crashes Into Tractor Transporting Manure
By 8.22.13
Everyone knows that that you shouldn’t text while driving, but most people do it anyway. Need an incentive not to? Consider the man in Wisconsin who, according to police, was tapping away on his phone when he hit a tractor pulling a trailer filled with unfathomable quantities of liquid manure. Neither driver was seriously injured, but there was a trailer filled with liquid manure. [WFTV] [More]
New York State Wants Drivers To Put Their Smartphones Down Already
By 7.29.13
The authorities are on to you. Yeah, you. The person who thinks that you can totally get away with texting and driving as long as you keep your phone in your lap. In order to catch you, the Empire State spent a million bucks to launch a shiny new fleet of Chevy Tahoes that let state troopers stare at motorists’ crotches. [More]
N.J. Bill Would Allow Police To Search Drivers’ Cell Phones After Car Crashes
By 6.10.13
It isn’t just drunk drivers police in New Jersey are worried about — one state senator is introducing a bill that would allow authorities to search through drivers’ phones after an accident, likening the act of texting on them while driving to having an open bottle of booze in the car. [More]
This May Not Be The Best Way To Stop A Theatergoer From Using Her Phone, But It Makes A Great Story
By 5.16.13
Imagine you’ve paid good money to see a play but someone nearby won’t stop talking and using her phone. You complain to a manager during intermission, but the distraction continues. You make a comment to the woman hoping she’ll either leave or cut it out, but to no avail. So what’s next? If you said, “grab her phone and throw it against the wall,” you wouldn’t necessarily be right, but you’d make yourself a hero to some folks out there. [More]
Cinemark Will Bribe You Not To Text For An Entire Movie
By 11.15.12
People are rude. They just won’t put down their phones in movie theaters. Some movie houses have taken to throwing texters out, but Cinemark is trying a different tactic. The chain’s smartphone apps now have a module that will reward moviegoers for the arduous experience of watching an entire movie without texting. [More]
Alamo Drafthouse Giving Everyone Chance To Make Their Own “Shut Up, Stop Texting & Watch The Movie” PSA
By 10.25.12
The Alamo Drafthouse chain of movie theaters has long had a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to texting and talking on the phone during a film, as commemorated in maybe the greatest anti-texting PSA ever. Now the company is asking you to unleash that annoyed auteur that’s dying to get out and tell people to shut the &*#( up. [More]
Lawsuit Seeks $1 Billion From Florida Text Spammers
By 6.12.12
Thousands of people in Florida have apparently been plagued with unwanted text messages for a scrap metal business looking to buy junk cars. Now on lawyer says he’s found the people responsible for the text spam — and that they owe at least $1 billion in fines. [More]
One In Three Teens Admits To Texting Or E-Mailing While Driving
By 6.7.12
As the evidence piles up showing that teens are still distracted behind the wheel to an unsafe degree, Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has introduced a new initiative aimed at ending the dangerous habits of texting or emailing while driving. [More]
Police In New Jersey Town To Slap Walking Texters With $85 Tickets
By 5.14.12
Police in Fort Lee, N.J. want you to watch where you’re walking — and since doodling around on your phone, texting/emailing/Tweet/whatevering can cause people to
totally tune out their surroundings and cause a disruption, $85 jaywalking tickets will be applied to pedestrians caught doing so. [More]
What's Worse Than Missing A Cool Text? How About Involuntary Manslaughter?
By 11.2.11
Pull over if you’re driving and need to respond to or send a text message. Otherwise, that witty reply can wait. Because death won’t. [More]
Walgreens Now Lets You Refill Your Prescription By Texting
By 10.6.11
Ordering a refill on your prescription meds at Walgreens can now be as easy as texting a single word. [More]
Philly To Warn Those Who Text And Walk
By 7.19.11
Don’t text and walk at the same time without looking ahead in Philadelphia. The city is giving out warnings to pedestrians who walk down the street with their heads down while tapping into their phones at the same time. [More]
This Caller Is Incredibly Unhappy With Movie Theater’s No-Texting Policy
By 6.6.11 — Updated: 4.14.16
There are few things more annoying than someone so selfish she thinks it’s perfectly okay to text in the middle of a dark movie theater. On the flipside, there are few things more amusing than when said texter gets kicked out of the theater and later calls back to leave a lengthy, profanity-laced rant on the theater’s voicemail. [More]
Texting Woman Who Fell Into Fountain May Sue Mall
By 1.20.11
A woman who was so focused on texting that she fell into a fountain is suing is hinting that she may sue the mall after leaked security footage of the incident went viral. [More]
Theater Chain Fights Back Against Texting During Movies
By 9.21.10
I don’t go to the movies much these days because I’m in NYC, and I don’t want bedbugs crawling all over me like that scene in Peter Jackson’s King Kong remake. But if I did go to the movies, I wouldn’t, because the last several times I went there was always some fool texting within my line of sight. Now a theater chain based in Arizona is launching a nationwide campaign to try to get through to these self-involved types that texting in a darkened theater is wrong. [More]
Walmart's New Cellphone Plans Are Great If You Skip The Data
By 9.14.10
Yesterday, Walmart announced that starting next week it will offer a new wireless plan under its own brand, but running on T-Mobile’s network. The rates are good compared to national carriers: $45 per month for unlimited texting and minutes, and $25 per month for each additional line. There’s also no contract, and you pay the bill at the end of each month instead of loading up a pre-pay account. It’s one of the better family-style deals available, except for one thing: the data plans are actually more expensive than AT&T or T-Mobile. [More]
Hypocritical Adults As Likely As Reckless Teens To Text While Driving
By 6.19.10
Great news, teens! Next time an adult tells you not to text while driving, call them a dangerous hypocrite. For authority, tell them about the recent Pew Internet & American Life Project, which found that being in a car could be much more dangerous than you thought. [More]
