Even with academic research indicating the consequences of texting while driving can be as dangerous as drunk driving, some teens don’t see it that way, according to a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of State Farm.

Among 14-17 years olds who intend to have or already have a driver’s license, the survey found 36 percent strongly agree that if they regulary text and drive it could lead to a fatality. In contrast, more than half (55%) of teens strongly agree that drinking while driving could be fatal.

Texting by American adults has increased significantly over the past year, but still does not approach the level of text messages exchanged by young people, according to a new report from Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Nearly three quarters (72%) of adult cell phone users send and receive text messages now, up from 65 percent in September 2009. The majority (87%) of teen cell users text. Teens text 50 messages a day on average, five times more than the typical 10 text messages sent and received by adults per day.

State Farm Insurance said today it will release an Android widget on Monday, August 23, aimed at reducing the problem of distracted driving.

The “On the Move” widget allows Android users to write and preload customized messages that can be sent as automated responses to incoming text messages. The service if free to anyone with an Android smartphone.

American adults are just as likely to have texted while driving as teenagers and are significantly more likely than teens to have talked on their cell phones while driving, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

More than a quarter (27%) of American adults say they have texted while driving, about the same proportion as the number of teens (26%) who say they have texted while driving.

Text-to-phone phishing attacks saw significant a drop in the first quarter of 2010, decreasing 62 percent compared to the previous quarter, according to a new report from security firm Internet Identity (IID).

Even with the drop, the number of credit unions being spoofed in text-to-phone cases stayed the same, meaning these organizations were the most targeted by industry. In these attacks, cyber criminals impersonate companies by text message and try to get people to call a fake interactive voice response (IVR) system designed to steal account information.

Cell-phone texting has become the preferred form of basic communication between teens and their friends, according to a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Daily text messaging among teens has increased in the past 18 months from 38 percent of teens texting friends daily in 2008, to 54 percent of teens texting daily in 2009. The average teen sends and receives 50 or more messages per day, or 1,500 per month.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced today federal guidelines to prohibit texting by drivers of commercial vehicles such as large trucks and buses.

"We want the drivers of big rigs and buses and those who share the roads with them to be safe," said Secretary LaHood. 

Answers service ChaCha announced today that it has closed a $7 million E round of funding. The service lets users go online, call, or text questions on mobile phones and receive answers "within minutes" for free. The service has an iPhone app and lets people ask questions via Twitter as well.

This round of funding might be particularly significant for the company. "We believe this latest round provides ChaCha the cash required to reach profitability," says CEO Scott A. Jones.

Motorists who write text messages while driving are six times more likely to crash than those who don’t text while driving, according to a new study by University of Utah psychologists.

Crowd Science revealed some interesting findings from a survey on Twitter use today. It would appear that Twitter is the most used social network by drivers. I’m not sure if that’s the kind of endorsement Twitter wants (the most dangerous network), but its short-form texting-like format caters to the mobile user.

A group of Democratic senators are co-sponsoring legislation that would ban texting while driving nationwide.

The four senators co-sponsoring the legislation – Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Kay Hagan (D-N.C.). The legislation would force states to ban texting while driving or risk losing all federal highway funds. The legislation is set to be announced at a press conference today.

Wireless revenues showed solid year-to-year gains, as wireless data service revenues for 2008 rose to more than $32 billion, according to a survey from CTIA-The Wireless Association.

This represents a 39 percent increase over 2007, when data revenues totaled $23.2 billion. Wireless data revenues for 2008 amounted to nearly 22 percent of all wireless service revenues, and represent what consumers spend on non-voice services.

Skype has introduced a new feature that converts voicemail to text via speech technology firm SpinVox.

SpinVox converts voice messages to text in English, Spanish, French, and German. The messages are sent by Skype as an SMS text directly to a mobile phone for users to read.

I think perhaps in all times of technological, societal flux elders immediately worry about the skills and capabilities of the generations that follow. But I think the opposite happens: technology makes us better by stretching our capacities.

As mobile operators have seen the average revenue per user (ARPU) fall, they have looked to increase revenue with value added services; however the most profitable data service is still text messaging, according to In-Stat.

Inexpensive, reliable, and easy for mobile users to operate, Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) provide solid revenue streams for Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

Texting has been commonplace among younger people for a while but it is now leading to older adults adopting the practice as well, according to new research from Sprint.

The number of adults who are texting has increased from just two years ago, when a Pew Research study found that 13 percent of adults ages 50-64 used the text messaging function on their mobile phone. Sprint found that now 20 percent of adults ages 55-64 send text messages.

Americans now send and receive more SMS text messages than they do mobile telephone calls, according to the latest research from Nielsen Mobile.

In the second quarter of 2008, the average mobile subscriber sent or received 357 text messages per month, compared to placing or receiving 204 phone calls.

The European Union Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding has supported reducing the price of sending a mobile text message from one EU country to another by 16 cents.

Reding’s proposal is now being distributed to all other EU Commissioners before they formally implement it in early October. The EU’s 27 member states and the European Parliament must also approve the measure.

The increasing popularity of social networking sites and other forms of communication, including text messaging and cell phone use, are beginning to impact the effectiveness of email marketing, according to a new report from JupiterResearch.

In the report, titled "The Social and Portable Inbox: Optimizing E-mail Marketing in the New Era of Communication Tools," researchers found emerging forms of communication are reducing the use of email.

A UK based organization, The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP), is warning young people who are heavy text message users about text message injury.

The group found text message injuries are common among young people. In a recent survey of 177 people between the ages of 16 and 24 found that 34 percent send 20 or more text messages a day.

Sixteen percent of 16-24 year olds said they had experienced discomfort in their hands when they text and a small number have felt pain in their wrists, arms, neck, and shoulders.

Verizon Wireless has partnered with cinema advertiser Screenvision to launch a text message-polling program for movie audiences.

The text message-polling program will be introduced in mid-June in 10 markets across the U.S. and during 3,500 show times.

The polling program will ask moviegoers questions about their music preferences and give them an option to text their responses. After submitting their text messages the audience results will be displayed on the movie screen in a bar chart.