‘Do Not Disturb’ Coming in Mountain Lion

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I was really happy when Apple revamped notifications in iOS 5. Back in December, though, I wrote about the need for a Do Not Disturb setting for times when you need to silence push and local notifications, without necessarily silencing your entire phone. Like when you are sleeping. I could care less about email and texts overnight, but want the phone to ring if the crap were hitting the fan.

Well, according to 9to5Mac, Mountain Lion’s Notification Center is getting a Do Not Disturb setting. I wouldn’t be surprised if that made it to iOS 6, where I think it is needed more.

‘Why the iPad Is My New Laptop’

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Shawn Blanc:

Within my circle of friends, I know several people who are also using their iPad as their portable computer. I even have a handful friends who have an iPad as their only computer.

It is not a sacrifice to use the iPad as a primary device.

[…]

The iPad is a compelling computer, and it is quickly maturing right before our eyes.

My MacBook Pro sits at home more than it used to. Like Shawn, I wouldn’t go back to a desktop computer, because the times I do need to take my Mac somewhere, it is really nice to be able to do so.

That said, I can do the majority of my daily computing tasks done on just my iPad.

¶ Countering Text Message Spam on AT&T

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Since around Christmas 2011, I have noticed a marked uptick in text message spam on both my iPhone and my wife’s iPhone on AT&T. For me, all of the spam has come from full 10-digit phone numbers, and it is never the same one twice. My wife has had mostly the same type of spam, save for one occurrence.

Just before Christmas my wife received a message from a subscription service’s short code. It was called ChalkboardIQ, and the initial message was an ad to receive daily quiz questions. It said nothing about what to do if she wanted to actually subscribe, but it did say to send STOP to cancel. Seeing as she had never received a message like this before, she did just that.

And then our AT&T bill was charged $10.

A quick phone call with AT&T cleared the charge from our bill, and unsubscribed my wife’s phone from the scam service. I also said to the AT&T customer service rep that I thought it was crazy that this sort of thing was allowed. She agreed, and I could tell from her tone that she deals with removing a lot of charges such as these. I thanked her.

The best thing to do if you get a text from a short code is to never reply to it. You really shouldn’t reply to any spam text message, but biting the bait on a short code will subscribe your account and charge you.

Recently, spam has increased at a steady clip. I’m getting three or four a week now. Since I have an ancient 200 texts/month plan, that doesn’t make me happy.

So what can a person do to curtail text message spam? There are a couple things I have seen for AT&T customers.

Report Messages to AT&T

This will work on any AT&T phone, but I’ll go through how it works on my iPhone.

  1. Receive a spam text message.
  2. Tap the Edit button, and tap the message. A red circle with a white checkmark should appear to the left of the message.
  3. Tap the Forward button.
  4. Address the message to 7726 (which is SPAM on a phone’s number pad).
  5. Tap Send.
  6. You’ll now receive a message labeled as ATT FREE MSG from 772-6. It will prompt you to reply with the phone number of the spam sender.
  7. Go back to the spam text. The easiest way to grab that phone number — besides writing it on paper to reference or using your short term memory — is to tap the Add Contact button, then Create New Contact. I then copy the phone number to the clipboard and hit Cancel on the contact creation.
  8. Now return to the message thread from 772-6. Paste in the phone number and tap Send.
  9. You’ll get another free message thanking you. You’re now done.

That is admittedly a long process, which could be easier. I’m not sure if this has really helped, because so far I have not received a spam text message from the same number twice. And that was before I started taking the time to report it.

Also, it is worth noting that if you report a message from a subscription short code, the reporting service tells you so and tells you to refer to your bill and to call customer service for further assistance.

Check Your Account for Subscriptions

You can visit att.com/db to check your account for any active subscriptions. This is much easier than sifting through a couple months of 11-page bills.

If you do have an active subscription, it’s time to dial 611 on your AT&T phone and chat with a support rep.

Block Subscriptions Entirely

While you are on the phone an AT&T support rep removing that subscription, be sure to ask for Purchase Blocker, which is a free parental control that blocks any and all “premium content purchases” such as ringtones, games, and subscriptions that are directly billed to your AT&T account.

If you’re on an iPhone, you should be using iTunes for all that stuff anyway.

Remember, dial 611 and ask for Purchase Blocker.

I don’t know whether or not Verizon and Sprint offer ways to combat spam text messages. AT&T does. While a carrier is a carrier to me, I’m glad to know that AT&T is doing something about spam. Hopefully it works.

The Kid's Table

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Rene Ritchie at iMore reports that Apple has replaced the iMacs at the kid’s table with iPads at their retail stores.

Whenever I go to the Apple Store, my son runs straight for the kid’s table. I was always amazed that at three years old he learned how to use a mouse pretty quickly at that table (he has an old iPod touch, and uses my iPad often).

I had been wondering at each visit for some time now when Apple would make such a move, as it seemed like a natural fit. When I told my son a few moments ago that the Apple Store now has iPads at the kids table, he replied, “When can we go play with them?”

Verizon Wireless to launch shared data plans this summer

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BGR:

Now, during the company’s first-quarter earnings call on Thursday, McAdam clarified that shared data plans will become available to Verizon Wireless subscribers by the middle of the summer.

Both times I have bought an iPhone, AT&T was the only option. A family data plan would be great for my wife and I. Not only that, but it would ensure I would always buy the cellular wireless model of iPad in the future.

I’d be surprised if my wife and I stay with AT&T when the next iPhone comes out.