You’re probably aware that your iPhone has a feature that displays previews of SMS text messages when they’re received, and if you’ve ever received something private when you’re not alone you know how embarrassing those previews can be. Fortunately there is a very simple way to disable them and keep people from accidentally seeing a conversation you’d rather keep to yourself. More »
Android: Viber is a free app we’ve previously featured for making free calls from an iPhone over 3G and Wi-Fi. Now available for Android, you can call or text other Viber users (including iPhone users) for free. More »
A vocal but seemingly small group of Android owners noticed that sometimes their SMS messages ended up going out to the wrong people. After much debate about user error versus bugs, Google has reproduced the error and is issuing fixes — which then depends on carriers to push them through. More »
We’ve already shown you how to shutdown Windows via SMS with Outlook and how to do the same on a Mac using Mail.app, but a user on the Hak5 forums demonstrates how to setup a similar SMS shutdown using the venerable Thunderbird email client. The method requires the Mailbox Alert extension and a little configuration, but once you’re done you can save some power with a quick text message next time you forget to shutdown your computer. The tutorial is Windows-specific, but I’m guessing you could mesh the Mail.app method with this one and accomplish the same thing for OS X. Remote Shutdown Via SMS [Hak5]
US-centric: Health web site Diet.com’s Nutrition on the Go service provides nutritional values for food items on popular restaurant menus via a simple text message. To use it, just text the name of the restaurant and the menu item you’re looking for to DIET1 (34381)—for example, “mcdonalds southwest chicken salad.” Diet.com will text you back with the nutritional values of your item, namely calories, fat, carbs, and protein. Granted, most restaurants (fast food, at least) should have that information available, but if you want a quick look-up in the drive-through or you don’t want to be the one who makes employees blow the dust off the nutritional info, Nutrition on the Go seems like a service worth adding to your contacts. Nutrition on the Go – diet1 (34381) [via Computer World]
