Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are a new service from U.S. weather service and FEMA. Starting in June, they will send a text message with a strange tone to your mobile device if you are in range of a Tornado Warning, Tsunami Warning or other major event (in the U.S. only). Major events include "Presidential Alerts." You do not need to sign up.
Washington Post Capital Weather Gang has a few more details.
posted by LobsterMitten
on May 24, 2012 -
62 comments
Shopper Stalking: Starting on Black Friday and running through New Year's Day, two U.S. malls -- Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. -- will track guests' movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones. "It's just not invasive of privacy," said Stephanie Shriver-Engdahl, vice president of digital strategy for Forest City. "There are no risks to privacy, so I don't see why anyone would opt out." (
Consumers can opt out by turning off their phones.)
posted by Blake
on Nov 23, 2011 -
153 comments
A
new paper by
William J. Bruno of the Theoretical Biology & Biophysics group at Los Alamos National Laboratory argues that past arguments about the impossibility of biological tissue damage from cellphone signals have failed to consider a quantum effect whereby multiple photons in a small volume can have constructive interference, and that such an effect likely does occur in practice. Synopsis
here. (
previously)
[more inside]
posted by crayz
on Apr 28, 2011 -
40 comments
"The results were astounding. In a six-month period — from Aug 31, 2009, to Feb. 28, 2010, Deutsche Telekom had recorded and saved his longitude and latitude coordinates more than 35,000 times. It traced him from a train on the way to Erlangen at the start through to that last night, when he was home in Berlin. Mr. Spitz has provided a rare glimpse — an unprecedented one, privacy experts say —
of what is being collected as we walk around with our phones."
posted by Scoop
on Mar 26, 2011 -
45 comments
This is it. It's not the phone that would win a popularity contest in the U.S., but there are great reasons for it being the most popular phone in the world.
posted by Leta
on Oct 20, 2010 -
86 comments
Radio, RIAA: mandatory FM radio in cell phones is the future. 'Music labels and radio broadcasters can't agree on much, including whether radio should be forced to turn over hundreds of millions of dollars a year to pay for the music it plays. But the two sides can agree on this: Congress should mandate that FM radio receivers be built into cell phones, PDAs, and other portable electronics. The Consumer Electronics Association, whose members build the devices that would be affected by such a directive, is incandescent with rage. "The backroom scheme of the [National Association of Broadcasters] and RIAA to have Congress mandate broadcast radios in portable devices, including mobile phones, is the height of absurdity," thundered CEA president Gary Shapiro. Such a move is "not in our national interest."
"Rather than adapt to the digital marketplace, NAB and RIAA act like buggy-whip industries that refuse to innovate and seek to impose penalties on those that do."
But the music and radio industries say it's a consumer-focused proposition, one that would provide "more music choices."'
[more inside]
posted by VikingSword
on Aug 16, 2010 -
96 comments
The
185 billion dollar a year cell phone/wireless communication industry is coming under
increased scrutiny due to health concerns by
some decidedly non tinfoil hat wearing parties.
Earlier
industry funded studies are also being more closely examined as many early adopters of cell phones are getting tumors at an alarming rate. And where does everybody's favorite, the ipod, sit? This is funny.....Apple actually advises you on
page 7 of their product information guide to....well....not hold the thing up to your head. Or your body. But that's okay, cause the
Evo, which doubles as a wi-fi hotspot, is about to hit. Good times!
posted by jake1
on Mar 26, 2010 -
105 comments
In 2010,
Obama will have a miserable year,
NATO may lose in Afghanistan,
the UK gets a regime change,
China needs to chill,
India's factories will overtake its farms,
Europe risks becoming an irrelevant museum,
the stimulus will need an exit strategy,
the G20 will see a challenge from the "G2",
African football will
unite Korea,
conflict over natural resources will grow,
Sarkozy will be unloved and unrivalled,
the kids will come together to solve the world's problems (because their elders are unable),
technology will grow ever more ubiquitous,
we'll all charge our phones via USB,
MBAs will be uncool,
the Space Shuttle will be put to rest, and
Somalia will be the worst country in the world. And so
the Tens begin.
The Economist: The World in 2010.
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posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Nov 14, 2009 -
60 comments
Jan Chipchase is employeed by Nokia in the "corporate anthropology" field, but he considers it "design research," as he's not an anthropologist by training. His work covers researching
how people modify their phones in China, India, Ghana, and elsewhere, adding features or extending battery life. He also tracks how
cellphones are associated with personal identity and how they are playing roles far from urban and suburban centers. In some locations, cell phone numbers are written above doorways for identification, when there is no official map or organization for streets. He also blogs about his experiences, and his most recent post, he covers the rise of "
Super Fakes."
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Sep 3, 2009 -
16 comments
Cellfilms. Ithica College in New York is hosting the Cellflix Film Festival, and has asked students between 13 and 20 to submit 30-second movies shot entirely with their cell phones. They have narrowed down the nearly 200 entries they received to 10 finalists that can be found
here. (My votes to the shadow puppets and the progression of life.)
posted by onlyconnect
on Jan 27, 2006 -
11 comments
Ringtones are a growing concern and not just when people don't shut them off.
Jamster is a weekly ringtone subscription that advertises to kids on channels like Nick and MTV. Kids are attracted to
crazy frogs like a magnet and are using the service
without parental permission. Now Britain is launching a
new inquiry into Jamster's
business practices. And lawyers in California filed a
class action lawsuit against the company. But Jamster isn't just some fly-by-night operation trying to milk as much money from kids as they can before regulators crack down. Jamster is
owned by VeriSign.
It's also a fair question whether it's worth paying 3 bucks for a few seconds of a song that sounds like a player piano, when it costs less than a buck to get the whole thing on the web (especially now that that crazy frog is a
single). Why can't you just pay the 99 cents or whatever to get the
song on your phone?
posted by kenneth
on Jun 29, 2005 -
77 comments
AskGod.com Forget Jeeves. For $25 a month, you can soon call a googling "angel" from your mobile phone with
questions. According to the
press release (pdf): "Soon, with the coming of Ask God, the prayers of all the data-starved will be answered
and the prophecy of information on-demand will be fulfilled." In a country caught in the grips of religious mania, is this smart marketing or tone deaf? And with the web increasingly on our phones already, who's going to pay for this?
posted by CunningLinguist
on May 27, 2005 -
87 comments
Mobile-phone radiation damages lab DNA . Sure to be controversial and certainly not the last word, but it raises some interesting points of conversation. Government surveillance becomes much easier with wireless communications and there is a
huge corporate financial investment in the infrastructure. Could we really trust the government(s) to tell us if this particular technology
was harmful
? And at what point would
you give serious consideration to giving up a technology that had proved to be such an intrinsic part of your life
? Are you addicted beyond the point of no return
? Other media carrying the story via Google News.
posted by spock
on Dec 21, 2004 -
28 comments
Cell Phone users beware Dec 15th 2004 is the deadline According to the National Do Not Call List, you have until Dec. 15th 2004 to get on the national "Do not call list" for cell phones. They said that you need to call 1-888-382-1222 from the cell phone that you wish to have put on the "do not call list" to be put on the list. They also said you can do it online.
Registering only takes a minute, is in effect for 5 years and will possibly
save you money (definitely frustration)! Make sure you register now!
posted by Gooney
on Dec 7, 2004 -
38 comments
The Anti-Booty Call Cell Phone Because good judgment, heavy intoxication and raging libidos rarely go hand in hand, a new phone from Virgin will allow you to selectively "turn off" phone numbers you might be likely to dial while in a drunken and horny stupor. Thus saving you the embarrassment of calling your ex and instead sending you over to her place because you think her phone's busted.
On second thought, maybe this phone isn't such a great idea.
posted by fenriq
on Nov 30, 2004 -
22 comments
Dial-A-Cheater "proved what I couldn't. After he answered the call I scheduled, I asked him who it was. He lied. I totally busted him out. He was cheating with my best friend!" Kill the illusion of joy with a
cell phone (and $1.95 USD).
posted by LinusMines
on Apr 14, 2004 -
18 comments
Sky Ear will be a one-night event in which a glowing "cloud" of mobile phones and helium balloons is released into the air so that people can dial into the cloud and listen to the sounds of the sky.
The cloud will be made of one thousand large helium balloons each responding to the electromagnetic environment (created by distant storms, mobile phones, police and ambulance radios, television broadcasts, etc.) with coloured blue, red and yellow lights.
posted by schoolgirl report
on Apr 9, 2004 -
22 comments
Sidetalkin provides humorous photos that force us to ask the question: Has Nokia's
NGage redefined phone ergonomics or simply provided a
humorous diversion for a slow Friday afternoon?
posted by donovan
on Dec 5, 2003 -
14 comments
Coming to a phone near you. The creative entries you'll see here fit not only the small screen size, but the on-the-go nature of mobile use. Entries typically run up to 3 minutes. All are sized and purposed to work in small handheld formats.
Flash, live action, 3D animation, its all here at the World's Smallest Film Festival.
posted by Grod
on Oct 27, 2003 -
3 comments
Neoroscience and wireless communication An apparently non-hysterical warning from scientist Leif Salford, who cautions that by using hand-held cellular devices we're conducting "the largest human biological experiment ever."
According to the Independent (UK) article, it's been proven that microwave radiation opens 'the blood-brain barrier, allowing a protein called albumin to pass into the brain.' Lund's latest work 'goes a step further, showing the process is linked to serious brain damage.'
That in turn causes ... uh, what was I writing about? I forget.
Sorry. Seriously, is there anyone in the room competent to comment on the validity of this warning? (Via Gizmodo)
posted by mojohand
on Sep 14, 2003 -
15 comments
Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships You can register either in Freestyle or Original (the traditional over the shoulder -style). Alternatively, you can register as a team (max. three persons / team). There's also have a Junior category for competitors of under 12 years. Grading in Freestyle is based on style and aesthetics, whereas in Original the grading is purely based on length and style. In both categories theree prizes will be awarded. The current Ukranian record is
57 metres.
posted by riffola
on Jul 14, 2003 -
10 comments
