CNET Community Hot Topics weekly newsletter
April 25, 2007
Dear CNET members,
Cell phone text messaging had been around in Asia and Europe long before it reached the United States. And for others parts of the world, text messaging is a way of life. After a slow start for it to catch on in the U.S., text messaging has now exploded in popularity--especially with the younger folks. However, I've seen older folks like my mother and father-in-law who text their fingers off to oversea relatives and they do it quite often--to save on long distance calls. For me, I find text messaging at times quite useful--when my daughter was born last year I took a photo of her using my cell phone and text messaged all my family and friends a description all at the same time. But for the most part, text messaging remains a dormant feature on my cell phone as my text messaging skills are pitiful and an agonizing task. But boy let me tell ya, I have seen some text messaging teens go at it and does practice make perfect! They can peck at those keys so fast, that they can complete a message and send it before I can dial and say hello--just incredible! But enough of what I think, what do you think of text messaging? Young or old, or anywhere in between, join us in the latest Make the Call discussion, and share with us what you think of text messaging. Is it cool and useful to you, or is it just a waste of time? Do you consider it impersonal, tedious, and frustrating? Whatever your opinion, give us your thoughts and all the reasons behind them. We're all ears!

Cheers!
Lee Koo
Manager, CNET community

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This week's hot topic:
Text messaging cool or a waste of time?
In the latest Make the Call discussion, we asked our members if text messaging is cool or just a waste of time? Young or old, many of our members have come to the discussion to speak their minds and told us what they think.

"Extremely tactile tool"
"The answer to the question is rather subjective. It depends on WHAT u want to communicate. For eg, if u wanna describe ur latest vacation, it only makes sense to call up the person. However, if u have to give a 'message' or have a direct question, i guess text-msg is a nice tool. Following are the advantages..." (Read more)
--Submitted by: CNET member z5r.nxs
"Dumb or dumber"
"Text messaging, except for a few situations where it is an essential mode of communication (hearing impaired users, sending addresses and data that are too complex to read over a phone,) is dumb. I think kids love it because they can text "UR2Kewl" to one another in class, but for most users it's another service..." (Read more)
--Submitted by: CNET member fsonline
"Yet another way for telcos to pull a few more pennies."
"Let's see now: Keypad on cell phones suck. Carriers charge a premium to send. Carriers charge to receive. Screen size on cell phones suck. Eats up minutes of connection time. I could continue on ad nauseum but why waste the keystrokes (grin)? My opinion is the service is a rather cumbersome and very..." (Read more)
--Submitted by: CNET member LostValley
"The Text Age--Get with the times"
"I feel that most of these comments posted here are by people too lazy or unaware to usefully utilize text messaging service. My cell phone has a full qwerty and I can honestly say I end up texting about as much as I actually call people. I receive about as many texts..." (Read more)
--Submitted by: CNET member StefanScoon
"Cool, fantastic and definitely useful - why?"
"Well, as most people don't realize that text messaging is mainly used by deaf people including myself, it's one of the greatest way of communicating to anybody (both deaf and hearing). You can't make devices for 'perfect people' because there are a lot of people out there who have disabilities..." (Read more)
--Submitted by: CNET member Woola
Speak up!
Here's your chance to tell us if you think text messaging is cool or just a waste of time? Read the comments by our members in the latest Make the Call discussion, and give us your own opinion.
CNET cell phone resources:

• Editors' top cell phones
• Compare cell phone carriers
• Cell phone buying guide
• Cell phone radiation charts
• Cell phone tips and tricks
• Cell phones forum
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Webware is kicking off the first user-generated Web 2.0 awards program: The Webware 100. Why? Because there are more new sites and services than any mortal can possibly process, much less evaluate. And because the community of Webware users, in the aggregate, has a very good idea of what works and what's worth your time. This awards program will collate and organize that wisdom. Learn more about it and get out and nominate your favorite site or service.
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Weigh in on this week's poll:
How many cell phone text messages have you sent in the last month?
(Please click on button to vote)

 1 to 10
 11 to 30
 31 to 50
 51 to 100
 100-plus
 So many I've lost count.
 I don't do stinkin' text messages.
Last week's poll results 
What do you do when you feel you've been ripped off by a product?
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Hot products
Along with discussing text messaging, CNET members had plenty of new tech products to talk about this week.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W55
CNET member tuxedocox says:
"I bought this camera the day it came out with high expectations, but I was a little disappointed with the image quality when the camera is zoomed in. The camera picks up too much 'fuzziness' when it is zoomed in, but when not, the pictures come out very clear..." (read more)
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iRiver S10 (2GB)
CNET member saxdavew says:
"The audio quality is good, as is the FM reception. The FM radio autoscan, however, is poor and only picks up the most powerful stations. If you tune the radio yourself though, the quality is fine. You can choose between stereo and mono mode for listening to the radio, and save up to 20 preset stations..." (read more)
Read all user opinions | Compare prices

Sony VAIO UX390
CNET member Dumasnobs says:
"In summary, no this is not a device on which you would write your dissertation, create complex spreadsheets, draw detailed CAD projects or even watch the Super Bowl, but if you are looking for a portable PC that can execute the same programs as your office machine, allows you to access and update data created in your office while you are on the road, fits..." (read more)
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