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Sprint Now Offering Vanity Phone Numbers Aliases With **Me Service
MojoKid writes "Sprint has announced a new vanity phone number alias service called **Me. In a nutshell, **Me lets you create a custom name that people can use to call you if they don't have your actual number programmed into their phone. For example, if your name is Jerry, you can use **Jerry as your handle. Or perhaps if your nickname is "Mad Dog", you can opt for **MadDog. Monikers must be at least 5 characters in length but no more than 9, not counting the two stars. The service costs $2.99 per month, but there are no additional usage charges beyond your normal Sprint plan. Currently, **Me will only accept calls from Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and other Sprint customers, and doesn't accept text messages yet."
I have Verizon (the service which during a recent trip to Travis Air Force Base really sucked big time), I think Iâ(TM)ll ask for âoeFuckMeRawâ.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
>> Some new phone service called **Me
Anyone else read that as "F*** Me"? Better question - did anyone NOT see that?
Want to see the reaction of the HR department looking at **MadDog as a phone number on a job application.
There's no such thing as "illegal download"
I can safely say they will fuck this up and by the way it's sure evidence that Sprint is on the ropes and dying a horrible and inevitable death. I can't WAIT to hear about the thousands of requests they 'lost' or flat out denied or better yet, changed to something else w.o. your knowledge.
Here's my suggestion
F-U-C-K-S-P-R-I-N-T (382) 577-7468
heres my phone number to call me from your cell phone, and here's my other number for when you want to call me from a landline or send me a text
Star-star-me? Asterisk-asterisk-me? Just "me"?
"Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded." -Archbishop Fulton Sheen
"...service called **Me..."
I've got a girlfriend for that. I don't need my phone offering that service, thank you very much...and the ladies don't need it either; their phones already vibrate on command.
Is it innovation to create a half-assed version of centralized single-provider DNS for phones?
Why do we not have phones in DNS yet?
I think Sprint missed a real opportunity using "star" instead of "pound".
##Mom
*slight crashing sound*
Let me pay for the oppretunity to be easily reached by any and all marketing companies with scketchy products and willingness to violate the do not call list? Where do I sign up? Can I have two for three times the price? Is sprint really charging enough money for this? Can they possibly sell these lists to such marketing companies that will promise to offer me worthless crap with a robotic message recorded by a non native english speaker, to make up for the low, low price for such awesomeness?
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Soon you will get some really weird "**ME" handlers because all the sane names and acronyms or abbreviations will be taken...
Whats your handler?
eekkkbrr1 ...
Me Inc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darl_McBride
http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=2010090209355689
Phone numbers are a relic from the early 20th century, when it was incredibly difficult to transmit information in a machine-readable format across wires. 10 digits was about the extent of the "character set" you could use while keeping pulse dialing times relatively short.
We need a system like DNS which will automatically convert an easier-to-remember text string to your phone number, much like domain names are converted to IP addresses. Smartphone phone books automatically do this to some extent, linking people's email addresses with their phone numbers. But there needs to be a universal methodology for doing this. (And require each text string be linked to an owned phone number, to prevent squatting on good phrases like has happened with domain names.)
Would Louis C.K be able to get "**ck"?
McDonald's will just use the fine print in the job app to take that from you.
In this day and age where you store numbers on your phone and call them by reference,
Why?
I've already registered 50 common names. I'll sell you the rights to one for $5/mo.
That is all.
Is it just me, or did they just create DNS for phone numbers?
Anyways, I would be dink and register **Star :)
I think it is better for people to have phone numbers
1) phone numbers use less keystrokes than the hypothetical text strings
2) most people don't want other people to know their phone number, unless they give it out. There is a do not call list.
3) the presence of area codes makes routing easier, not a biggie these days
4) phone numbers are changed less frequently than IP address.
as long as phones still use a 0-9#* dialpad for dialing, vanity numbers will be numbers that are easy to remember AND dial, like 111-1111. Having to dial **ME XYZ is hardly an easy thing to dial, particularly if you are doing it by touch (no seeing) and with one hand. And worse, its not your real number, just an alternative alias. Texting, etc still comes under your real number.
finally, I think speed dialing combined with contact lists pulling up the caller's identity, plus CID pretty much has all the bases covered.
But I like my "vanity number", a XYZ-9000 and wouldn't give it up anyways...
sometimes numbers are just easier
It's not **me xyz, it would just be **xyz in that instance. No, it's really not hard to dial that.
The whole purpose aside from pure vanity is to ease situations where it is easier to give an alphanumeric name opposed to digits of numbers. Obviously there are going to be situations where this does not really help anything, but people can more easily digest this type of information than numbers. It's not as though it's replacing the old number system.
The whole concept of "vanity numbers" is not extremely easy to deal with anyway. Have you tried to get a number in the past 10 years? I know where I live, the free numbers that are available for the taking would rarely qualify for "vanity". You can't just demand a specific whole number (you can try, but the odds of getting it are zilch). Numbers and combinations of numbers are often reserved for different types of use such as commercial or residential.
This just gives you some options.
Having to dial **ME XYZ
I think it would just be **XYZ, if I am reading the summary correctly.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
The service costs $2.99 per month... Currently, **Me will only accept calls from Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and other Sprint customers, and doesn't accept text messages yet.
So, it's almost useless and costs just $2.99/mo, PLUS the confusion of explaining to people that they need to dial with ACTUAL letters and not the letters that overlay the numbers that we've been using for decades? SIGN ME UP!
Seriously, what moron thought this up? When I get someone's number, I dial it ONCE. If I don't create a new contact right away, I press the little '>' next to their number in "recents" and save it later. Usually you can depend on companies to snatch up a few good names in schemes like this but what's the point? "To order, call **OXICLEAN from your Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, or Sprint mobile phone TODAY! But not **69425326 -- dial star star, then switch keyboards (if your phone lets you*) and dial letter O, letter X, letter I..." Yeah. Good luck with that.
* as far as I can tell, it's not even possible to enter plain old letters with an iPhone.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Nothing more needs to be said. its stupid.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Even more than why anyone would pay for this I wonder why all the tech sites are running this. Slow news day I guess?
Other person: **# .....this doesn't work ...wtf?
Me: that's OK, try my other line STAR STAR STAR STAR
Other person: ****
Me: No, press the star button twice, then spell STAR twice. It's like 1111 or 0000 only much easier!
Other person: Tell you what, why don't you call me instead?
Me: OK, what's your **ME number?
Other person: **POUNDSAND
I like microcars
it appears to use this it requires the installation of an app.. imho that defeats the whole purpose. and it doesnt help that i have a very wrll known 4 letter moniker - not that i want the world to easily call me.
I'll take **MeKitten, please.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
H-T-T-P colon slash slash slash dot dot org
Of course, you'll still have to keep paying $2.99/month
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
... **0118 999 881 999 119 725... 3.
^ yep.. really matters.
I'm waiting for the first lawsuit by someone famous or some corp for a normal user utilizing a name like **Apple or **Microsoft or **Google.
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