Texting Competition?!

The nation’s newest texting champion has a message for parents across the land — although they might not want to hear it.

“Let your kid text during dinner! Let your kid text during school! It pays off,” 15-year-old Kate Moore said Tuesday after winning the LG U.S. National Texting Championship.

After all, she said: “Your kid could win money and publicity and a phone.”

For the Des Moines, Iowa, teenager, her 14,000 texts-per-month habit reaped its own rewards, landing her the competition prize of $50,000 just eight months after she got her first cell phone.

Moore, with a speedy and accurate performance, beat out 20 other finalists from around the country over two days of challenges such as texting blindfolded and texting while maneuvering through a moving obstacle course.

In the final showdown, she outtexted 14-year-old Morgan Dynda, of Savannah, Ga. Both girls had to text three lengthy phrases without making any mistakes on the required abbreviations, capitalization or punctuation. Moore squeaked through by a few seconds on the tiebreaking text, getting the best two out of three. As she anxiously waited for confirmation of her win, tears streamed down her face.

The teen dismisses the idea that she focuses too much on virtual communications, saying that while she has sometimes had her phone taken away from her in school, she keeps good grades, performs in school plays and socializes with friends — in person — on the weekends.

In between, she finds time to send about 400 to 470 texts a day. Among her uses of the text messages? Studying for exams with friends, which she says is better done by text because she can look back at the messages to review.

The finalists, all 22 or younger, were among 250,000 people who tried to get spots in the competition. Some won their spots at the Manhattan finals by being the fastest people to text responses to televised ads.

It’s the third year for the texting competition, sponsored by LG Electronics Inc.’s mobile-phones division.

I WAS GOING TO BUY GM STOCK, BUT….

No car experience is necessary to take a top spot at the bankrupt icon of Detroit’s automobile industry. Believe it or not, the newly appointed chairman of GM, Edward Whitacre, Jr., has zero experience with cars — and he’s okay with that. According to Bloomberg:

“I don’t know anything about cars,” Whitacre, 67, said yesterday in an interview after his appointment. “A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars. I’m not that old, and I think the business principles are the same.”

Business principles may be universal, but it must come as a shock for some to hear that a key figure in charge of building the new GM is vowing to “learn about cars.” GM and Detroit have long been criticized for being out of touch with the latest in automobile design, and for failing to anticipate industry trends.

Whitacre, formerly the CEO of AT&T, is certainly a top-notch executive. But his appointment is certain to raise some eyebrows. Besides claiming that they plan to jettison several brands during the bankruptcy process, GM has said little about how the restructured automaker will reinvigorate its R&D and engineering departments.

DID AT&T SWAY AMERICAN IDOL RESULTS?

AT&T, one of the biggest corporate sponsors of “American Idol,” might have influenced the outcome of this year’s competition by providing phones for free text-messaging services and lessons in casting blocks of votes at parties organized by fans of Kris Allen, the Arkansas singer who was the winner of the show last week.

Representatives of AT&T, whose mobile phone network is the only one that can be used to cast “American Idol” votes via text message, provided the free text-messaging services at two parties in Arkansas after the final performance episode of “American Idol” last week, according to the company and people at the events.

There appear to have been no similar efforts to provide free texting services to supporters of Adam Lambert, who finished as the runner-up to Mr. Allen.

Since then, angry supporters of Mr. Lambert have flooded online chat boards with messages claiming irregularities in the competition’s voting.

Representatives of AT&T helped fans of Mr. Allen at the two Arkansas events by providing instructions on how to send 10 or more text messages at the press of a single button, known as power texts. Power texts have an exponentially greater effect on voting than do single text messages or calls to the show’s toll-free phone lines. The efforts appear to run afoul of “American Idol” voting rules in two ways. The show broadcasts an on-screen statement at the end of each episode warning that blocks of votes cast using “technical enhancements” that unfairly influence the outcome of voting can be thrown out.

How does yours compare?

6 craziest phone bill charges
1.    Football fan charges $27,000 for streaming the Beats battle the Detroit Loins
A Chicago Bear’s fan to the core, Wayne Burdick of Schaumburg, Ill., had to cheer on his team — even while on a Caribbean cruise.
So using his laptop, a wireless card and Slingbox device that let him watch the game via an Internet connection, he tuned into watch the Bears battle the Detroit Lions.
2.    A teenager racked up a $4,800 bill in text messaging
Gregg Christoffersen called it a “heart attack in an envelope.”
When he saw the bill his 13-year-old daughter Dena had racked up by text messaging her friends, the Cheyenne, Wyoming, man was stunned.
In just one month, she sent and received enough text messages to justify (at least to the cell phone company) a nearly $4,800 bill.
3.    A man in Canada was charged $83,7000 for using the internet instead of his home computer
In 2007, a 22-year-old Canadian oil-field worker faced an astronomical $83,700 (C$85,000) cell phone bill, according to Reuters.
Piotr Staniaszek, who lived in rural Alberta, made headlines when his father brought his story to the media.
4.    Class action law suit over a $5,000 due to data usage
In March, an Oklahoma woman filed a lawsuit against AT&T and RadioShack after a new netbook landed her with a $5,000 bill for exceeding her monthly data cap.
For $99.99, Billie Parks purchased the lighter and cheaper laptop cousin from RadioShack in December, according to the popular technology blog Ars Technica. With her new Acer Aspire One she signed a two-year contract for AT&T’s mobile broadband service. For about $60 a month, the company offers 3G Internet access on the go.
In her complaint, Parks said that though she was warned by RadioShack that her first monthly bill might be a bit higher than expected, she was unaware that Internet data usage over 5GB would result in “astronomical additional charges running into the thousands of dollars,” Ars Technica said.
5.    The world record: a 218 Trillion dollar phone bill
Whenever you start to sweat the sight of your phone bill, think of this.
In April 2006, a Malaysian man received a $218 trillion phone bill and was ordered to fork over the money within 10 days or face prosecution, The Associated Press reported.
After his father died earlier that year, Yahaya Wahad said he disconnected his late father’s phone line. But Telekom Malaysia, the country’s largest telecommunications provider, later sent him a 806,400,000,000,000.01-ringgit (U.S. $218 trillion) bill.
The company said the bill was for recent phone calls and said if he didn’t pay up within 10 days he’d face legal proceedings.

John McCain Loves Telecommunications Lobbyists – I Bet He Gets Free Rollover Minutes!

People who work, advise or raise campaign money for Republican presidential candidate John McCain who have lobbied for telecommunications companies since 1999:
Rick Davis
Presidential campaign manager
As a lobbyist at his former firm, Davis Manafort, Davis represented BellSouth (2001-02), SBC Communications (2001-05) and Verizon Corporate Services (2001-05). Davis and other Davis Manafort employees and their spouses gave $36,150 to McCain’s campaigns in the past 10 years. BellSouth political action committees, employees and their spouses gave $78,050. SBC political action committees, employees and spouses gave $41,300. Verizon political action committees, employees and spouses gave $59,650

Christian Ferry
Deputy campaign manager
Ferry partnered with Davis in representing SBC and Verizon from 2003 to 2005

Charlie Black
Unpaid chief adviser
Black, chairman of lobbying firm BKSH && Associates, has represented AT&T for the past decade. Black and other BKSH employees gave $9,600 to McCain’s campaigns over the past decade. Employees, spouses and political action committees of AT&T and its subsidiaries and merger partners gave $251,850

Mark Buse
Senate chief of staff
Buse became a lobbyist for ML Strategies in 2002 after working for McCain on the Senate Commerce Committee staff. Buse represented AT&T Wireless from 2002 to 2005. Buse and his co-workers at ML Strategies gave $3,750 to McCain during the past decade. Employees, spouses and political action committees of AT&T Wireless gave $24,500

Former congressman Tom Loeffler of Texas
Campaign co-chairman
Loeffler, now a senior partner of the Loeffler Group, has represented AT&T since 2001 and Qualcomm since 1999. Loeffler, his co-workers and their spouses gave McCain’s campaigns $64,908 in the past decade. Qualcomm employees, spouses and political action committees gave $55,600

Susan Nelson
Campaign finance director
Before joining the campaign last year, Nelson represented AT&T and Qualcomm for the Loeffler Group in 2006 and 2007. She also represented Verizon in 2004 while working at Ogilvy Government Relations

Wayne Berman
Campaign national finance co-chairman
Berman, the managing director of Ogilvy Government Relations, has represented AT&T since last year, and Verizon and Verizon Wireless since 2004. Co-workers and their spouses at Ogilvy, formerly known as the Federalist Group, gave McCain’s campaigns $38,550 in the past decade

John Green
Plans to take a leave of absence next month from his job at Ogilvy to work for campaign, coordinating efforts with Republicans in Congress
Green has represented AT&T since last year and Verizon since 2004 and represented the United States Telecom Association (1999-2002), the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (2001) and BellSouth (1999-2006)

Tim McKone
Campaign fundraiser
McCone, a former lobbying partner with Davis, joined SBC Communications as a lobbyist in 1999 and became a vice president of AT&T after it merged with SBC in 2005. McCone was last listed as an AT&T lobbyist in 2006

David Crane
Fundraiser and former aide to McCain at the Senate Commerce Committee
Crane’s clients at the Washington Group included BellSouth (2003-05). Crane left the Washington Group to form his own lobbying firm, Quadripoint Strategies, in 2007. Crane and his co-workers and their spouses at the Washington Group and Quadripoint gave McCain’s campaigns $9,350 in the past decade

Carlos Bonilla
Campaign economic adviser
Bonilla is a lobbyist with the Washington Group, which represented BellSouth 2003-05. The Washington Group’s employees and their spouses gave $7,050 to McCain’s campaigns in the past decade

John Timmons
Fundraiser for McCain and former aide in his Senate office
Timmons, a lobbyist at Cormac Group, represented AT&T (1999-2005) and Allegiance Telecom (2002-04). Cormac Group employees and their spouses have given $13,600 to McCain’s campaigns in the past decade

Judy Black
Fundraiser
Black is a lobbyist at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, which has represented Global Crossing Ltd. since 2004 and represented AT&T from 2003 to 2005 and again in 2007. Employees and their spouses have given $17,950 to McCain’s campaigns in the past decade

Bryan Cunningham
Fundraiser
Cunningham, a lobbyist at Barbour Griffith && Rogers, has represented AT&T since 2007, Qwest Communications since 2006 and Verizon since 2006. Barbour Griffith employees and their spouses gave $24,700 to McCain’s campaigns since 1998. Quest employees, spouses and political action committees gave $53,350

Juleanna Glover Weiss
Fundraiser and former spokeswoman for Vice President Cheney
Glover Weiss is a lobbyist at the Ashcroft Group, where she registered to lobby for AT&T in 2006. Glover Weiss also represented AT&T from 2004 to 2005 while working at another lobbying firm, Clark && Weinstock. The Ashcroft Group’s employees and their spouses gave McCain’s 2008 campaign $4,600

Peter Madigan
Fundraiser
Madigan, a lobbyist at Johnson, Madigan, Peck, Boland &Stewart, represented BellSouth (2003-06), SBC Communications (2003 and 2004), the United States Telecom Association (2001 and 2002) and Verizon (2001-06). Madigan Peck employees and their spouses gave McCain’s campaigns $43,200 in the past decade

James Pitts
Fundraiser
Pitts, a lobbyist at DC Navigators, has represented Qualcomm since 2006 and AT&T since last year and represented BellSouth (2004-06). DC Navigators employees and their spouses gave McCain’s campaigns $12,100 in the past decade

Kirk Blalock
Fundraiser
Blalock, a lobbyist at Fierce Isakowitz && Blalock, has represented Sprint Nextel since 2003 and represented the former MCI from 2002 to 2005. Fierce Isakowitz employees and their spouses have given $14,800 to McCain’s campaigns in the past decade. Sprint employees, spouses and political action committees gave $11,750

Kirsten Chadwick
Fundraiser
Chadwick, a lobbyist at Fierce Isakowitz, represented MCI in 2004 and 2005 and has represented Sprint Nextel since 2004

Aleix Jarvis
Fundraiser
Jarvis, a lobbyist at Fierce Isakowitz, represented MCI in 2005 and has represented Sprint Nextel since 2005

Alison McSlarrow
Fundraiser
McSlarrow, who has her own lobbying firm, McSlarrow Consulting, represented Nextel Communications in 2003 and 2004 and Qwest in 1999 and 2000. McSlarrow and her husband gave $8,000 to McCain’s campaigns in the past decade

Michael Meece of The Meece Group
Fundariser
Meece has represented Qualcomm since 2006. Meece gave $2,300 to McCain’s 2008 campaign

Eric Burgeson
Fundraiser
Now a lobbyist with Barbour Griffith, Burgeson registered to lobby for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association in 2001 with Orion Strategies

Hey Johnny, we know you love your cellphone, but jeeeeeeez