An Arizona appellate court ruled Tuesday that a 1991 federal law's ban against using autodialers to call cell phones applies to sending e-mail text messages with unsolicited advertisements -- a technology not in vogue when the law was enacted.
The unanimous ruling by a three-judge Court of Appeals panel upholds a trial judge's pretrial ruling in favor of a man who had sued a mortgage company in 2001 after it sent two unsolicited text messages to his cell phone. Rodney L. Joffe claimed that the calls by Acacia Mortgage violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991.
The Court of Appeals rejected Acacia's argument that the 1991 law was an infringement on the company's First Amendment rights to free speech. The law's prohibition on use of autodialers to call cell phones was a narrowly drawn restriction that did not hinge on content, the ruling said.
Acacia also said the 1991 law did not apply to cell-phone text messaging and that Congress first restricted use of that technology in a 2003 law against spam sent to wireless devices, but the Court of Appeals said Congress wrote the 1991 law in a way that anticipated advances in automatic telephone dialing technology.
When Acacia filed its appeal, the case was awaiting a ruling by the trial judge on the man's motion to make the case a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 90,000 other cell-phone users.
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Dell's Ditty: Dell launched a new flash-memory digital music player designed to compete with the iPod shuffle.
Dell billed its DJ Ditty as a better value than the shuffle. Both devices are $99 and come equipped with 512 MB of memory, but because the Ditty uses an audio format that compresses digital music files more efficiently, Dell asserts the Ditty can hold up to 220 songs while the same size shuffle stores about 120.
The biggest difference between the devices is the Ditty's 1-inch LCD display screen, which helps users navigate their music lists. In addition, the Ditty can receive FM radio.
Like many electronics companies, Dell is trying to chip away at Apple Computer's enormous lead in the digital-music player market. For every 10 digital music players bought in the United States, seven are iPods.
The shuffle -- Apple's least-expensive model -- is likely the most vulnerable of any of the iPod products to competitive pressure.
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Ford slightly greener: Gas-electric hybrid engines will be available in half the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury lineup by 2010, Ford Motor chairman and CEO Bill Ford said Wednesday.
He said the automaker will be able to produce 250,000 hybrids in the next five years. It currently has two sport utility vehicles on the market.
"We know that our customers are concerned about energy," Ford said. "Our job is to alleviate some of their concerns with viable options in their choice of transportation."
Ford also said the company will be releasing four vehicles that can run on fuel-efficient ethanol in 2006: the F-150 truck and Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car sedans.
Ford said the automaker plans to produce 280,000 ethanol-capable vehicles in 2006.
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Wafer phone: NEC has launched the world's thinnest foldaway mobile phone in Hong Kong in a bid to underscore its technological prowess.
The new cell phone, which is 0.46 inches thick when folded and slimmer than a AA battery, is equipped with a 1.3-megapixel digital camera, 1.9-inch color display and music player function, the Tokyo-based company said.
Following the Hong Kong launch in mid-September, NEC plans to offer the mobile phone soon in Italy, Australia, Russia and China.
NEC, a pioneer of high-speed, third-generation phones, is the largest cell-phone supplier in Japan's domestic market, with a 16.2 percent share in the first half of 2005.
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Compiled by Keith Axline. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
