Oh, I *like* this one...

[mrph]

Tired of mobile phones in cinemas and theatres?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2067000/2067672.stm

Comments

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Phones should listen for a special radio signal that means "silence", and refuse to ring or do conversation when they get it. Cinemas and so forth could broadcast it, and that way you could still do text, which is much less intrusive, so long as your phone vibrates...

And AFAICT people really don't use their phones on the Tokyo subway. People have these *very* short conversations which I'm told mostly add up to "I'm on the train, can I call you back?"

[mhw.livejournal.com]

That's also a very good idea, except you'd get some scumbastards who'd get their oh-so-important electronica modified so that it ignored the override signal because they're So Special.

Using SMS (I abhor the term 'texting')? Perhaps, if they turn off the keybeep and the 'You have a text' jingle and they are sufficiently evolved so they don't have to vocalise while they are using SMS.