Online chat

Call it Big Brother or call it being a conscientious employer, but there’s a new kind of software that monitors your use of email and online messaging. It’s called Cataphora and it is used to find out how useful an employee you are.

Taking a phone call during a date is one thing. But is it okay to write a text message? What about emailing, or tweeting? Kate Dailey, writer of Newsweek’s Human Condition Blog, and her friend Steve Calachman join The Takeaway to voice their opinions.

Google is rolling out a free phone management service, making phone use more like email and instant messaging. Join The Takeaway and New York Times personal technology editor Sam Grobart in playing with a powerful new means of communicating.

Teenagers send thousands upon thousands of text messages each month (some as many as 24,000!). So researchers are beginning to wonder: what’s the effect of the furious finger work? Reporter Katie Hafner joins The Takeaway with answers.

The World’s Clark Boyd reports that Zimbabweans have been using text-messaging and cellphones to stay up-to-date as they await word on the results of their presidential election.