back to article Toilet texting not a faux pas, declares Intel

Intel has published a helpful guide to mobile use during the holidays, ruling that Americans believe it's rude to surf the web at the dinner table, but OK to slip off to the john for a swift Google. The chip giant commissioned research firm Harris Interactive to define the unwritten rules of mobile etiquette, just as Americans …

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  1. The Original Ash

    Taking a leaf from Slashdot...

    Oblig Penny Arcade reference:

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/4/23/

  2. EddieD

    Hygiene

    By contrast, "despite hygiene considerations and potentially awkward explanations, 75 percent feel it is perfectly appropriate to use Internet-enabled devices, including laptops, netbooks and cell phones, in the bathroom"

    This finnicky hygiene concept always intrigues me.

    At work, I see everyone placing their (empty) coffee mugs in the corridor outside the toilet facilities, then collecting it on their way out.

    I always wonder - where do they keep their toothbrushes? Most domestic bathrooms I've seen have both toilets and toothbrushes, and I've yet to see a portable steriliser for use prior to dental cleansing.

  3. Darren B 1

    Toilet texting

    While working for Symbian, in the early days, we each received a Nokia 7650, a few of us were in the pub when I received an MMS from a collegue with a photo of the pan in trap 1.

  4. Ted Treen
    Happy

    Obviously

    It'll soon be bog-standard to text from the lavvy...

    Mine's the one with the Andrex in the pocket, please.

  5. Evil Auditor Silver badge

    Use of mobile during date

    is actually a good method of selection. So, if she (the date) uses a mobile device it will be the last date. Just make sure her mobile rings... It's that simple.

    First, I wanted to post anon but then I thought what the heck, there aren't any women on El Reg anyway.

    EA

  6. Matt 21

    I don't know how to put this

    but looking to America for etiquette is a bit like asking Gary Glitter for child care advice.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Oops

    Oh yeah i txt while sitting on the bog its ok, oops was that the camera , oh shit i just MMSd my dick to my boss again, ah he'll understand he's a great guy, he's been so good to me, man these pills are kickin in hard, fuck what was i doing with my phone again, have i finished with it or was i gonna txt someone...

  8. Graham Marsden
    WTF?

    If you text in the toilet...

    ... I hope you wash your hands afterwards...!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Toilet texting

    Best time to check facebook. When theres nothing else more interesting going on.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Christmas e-cards

    a) Delete them because half the sites are full of malware

    b) Write the sender of your card list

    It's the only way to stop this degradation of the Christmas spirit (ie spending money on useless tat and exchanging it with people you only think of once a year).

  11. peyton?

    Needs a bit more targetted questions

    If you can't text, etc., from the table, then the next logical place to do so would be from the lav - doesn't necessarily mean while on the bog (especially for the ladies - considering they often get the nice little couch area).

    I'm surprised by surfing/texting from the table. Seems like you really aren't bugging anyone with this. I do it often enough if I'm dining solo - beats staring at the wall :\ Perhaps the grotesquely offensive act of answering the phone while at the table has tainted all the mobile functions.

    btw EddieD - I'm with the 'leave it at the door' crowd. Yep, my toothbrush is in my bathroom at home - but then again, I know *exactly* who uses my bathroom. Can't say the same for public facilities.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @EddieD

    Surely though, an office toilet would have a higher "traffic" rate than a domestic crappery?

    The concentration of faecal colliforms would be much higher as would that of urine suspension from the atomising effect of the toilet flush.

  13. Richard Porter

    Toilets and toothbrushes

    "Most domestic bathrooms I've seen have both toilets and toothbrushes, and I've yet to see a portable steriliser for use prior to dental cleansing."

    Yes of course. I often brush my teeth whilst having a pee.

  14. Ben Rosenthal
    Go

    wow

    first thing I did when I first got wireless and a laptop was to have a good session forum posting and e-mailing from the crapper, just to see what it was like :D

  15. Adam Salisbury
    Joke

    Doug never saw it coming

    Those Golgrafrincham phone sanitisers would have had a use afterall!

  16. bRick
    Thumb Up

    say what

    Brings a whole new meaning to "Surf and Turf"

  17. Ray0x6
    FAIL

    hey, of course it's fine.

    check this for proof.

    http://hawtness.com/2009/09/26/wtf-girl-photo-shooting-a-deuce-cant-stop-the-tweets/

  18. Bod

    Toilet texting

    I frequently hear the beeps of texts going on behind the trap doors, and it's not that they've gone in there just to text, I can hear the whole event of them taking a dump also! Worse is some are doing voice calls. I'd rather not be on the receiving end of one of those with those noises in the background!

    Texters in the urinal must have some special ability to be able to concentrate on the two tasks and direct with one hand whilst texting with the other, but I've seen it done. Weird as they're blokes and everyone knows we can't multi task.

    Just avoid borrowing their phones after though.

    p.s. there is of course ratemypoo.com for those with camera phones ;)

  19. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Don't mind people texting from the bog...

    ...it's when they're having a LIVE conversation, somehow thinking that the person on the other end can't hear the cacophony of splashing/farting/hand dryers, that 'rotates my fruit'.

    (Reminds me of an episode of Friends where one of the lads has a landline extension installed next to the toilet :-

    JOEY: That's right, I have a phone in here.

    MONICA: Joey, promise me something.

    JOEY: Yeah.

    MONICA: Never call me from that phone.

    (AC because obviously I don't want ANYONE to know that I've ever sat through an episode of Friends....)

  20. Charles Manning

    re:Toilet texting

    "Best time to check facebook. When theres nothing else more interesting going on."

    Taking a dump has to be more interesting than trawling FB.

  21. Kevin 9

    Always

    You know, I never use the can without my trusty laptop....

  22. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    txting from the toilet...

    is fine, who can it hurt (apart from yourself if you happen to drop your phone)

    however, voice calls from the the crapper, is WRONG.

    My building hosts conferences, and i have witnessed people 'entering the facilities' pacing up and down while making a phone call, then leaving.

    WTF!! if its a private call, go outside, not to the crapper.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bogmobile

    I never do calls while in the crapper. But I've had INCOMING calls there ... and sometimes they're the kind of calls you just can't leave unanswered. These cases are embarassing, and I try to make 'em real quick. If the caller in question is my girlfriend, well, I'll tell her "I'M IN THE BOG!" as a warning signal.

    I do surf with my Blackberry on the crapper ... but that might have to do with the fact that the bog is the only place where nobody's checking what you're doing. Personal space!

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    There are so women!

    "First, I wanted to post anon but then I thought what the heck, there aren't any women on El Reg anyway."

    Hey! I'm a girl! And no, not the 'typical' geek girl either - I wear skirts/heels and sometimes even makeup... AND I know what a date is! :)

    Sorry guys, but if we're on a date and you pull out your phone/whatever, you're obviously not that interested in me. There won't be a second date, and unless you're extremely lucky there will be an expedited end to the first one. Unless someone is dying, you can wait to answer it until the date is over. Besides, I can do better.

    For those doing it in the bathroom stall, yuck! You put that thing up by your mouth! Voice calls are out of the question. The company I work for makes hotel reservations and you'd be shocked how often I hear "EW! He was in the bathroom!" after somone gets off a call. Really? You couldn't wait to make that call?

    Oh, and someone said something about us having a nice little couch in there? No women's bathroom I've ever been in has had a couch. Ever.

  25. Evil Auditor Silver badge

    @(female)AC 21st October 2009 20:28

    I didn't mean to upset you or anybody else and I consider apologising for the slightly wrong assumption. At least you've got the right attitude - almost a shame that I'm never going to prove it.

    The thing is, I wouldn't even find out if someone is dying or died. If I knew it before and the soon to be dead person was that important to me I'd rather cancel a date. If it happens _during_ the date, well, wouldn't it be too late anyway?

    EA

  26. cloudberry

    mobiles, crappers, and churches

    "Of course, being texted from the toilet is possibly more hygienic than receiving a letter written from the lav" reminded me of the following quote, supposedly written by George Bernhard Shaw to one of his critics (though it's been attributed to others, too): "I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. Your critique is in front of me. Shortly it will be behind me."

    As for "Religious services are a definite no go for mobile technology": aren't religious services exactly the correct occasion for communing with unseen entities?

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