Despite releasing Android on multiple handsets, Google is rumored to be preparing its own handsetDespite releasing Android on multiple handsets, Google is rumored to be preparing its... more
California prisons have plenty of problems but one that you may not often hear about is contraband. That's the subject of tonight's Vanguard episode: Prison Contraband.
What people are sneaking into the clink has changed a bit from old prison movies. Sure, there's plenty of homemade knives and drugs, but one of the biggest problems facing California prison officials these days is actually cell phones. A report released early last month showed over 4000 cell phones confiscated across the state this year.
From the LA Times
"Investigations conducted within California prisons have supported allegations [that] cellphones have been used by incarcerated felons to participate in criminal activity," wrote Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Crimes committed by inmates using cellphones have included the planning of escapes, restraining order violations, use of stolen credit cards to purchase inmate quarterly packages and the coordination of smuggling contraband into prisons, Cate said."
Authorities have even begun training cell phone sniffing dogs.
Tune in tonight to Vanguard for an in-depth look at the fight against contraband in California prisons.
While NOT a substitute for professional medical care, an interesting application for your cellphone MIGHT help you decided whether or not to call your doctorWhile NOT a substitute for professional medical care, an interesting application for... more
"Every phone call, text message, email and website visit made by private citizens is to be stored for a year and will be available for monitoring by government bodies.
All telecoms companies and internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer’s personal communications, showing who they have contacted, when and where, as well as the websites they have visited.
Despite widespread opposition to the increasing amount of surveillance in Britain, 653 public bodies will be given access to the information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the ambulance service, fire authorities and even prison governors.
Ministers had originally wanted to store the information on a single government-run database, but chose not to because of privacy concerns.
However the Government announced yesterday it was pressing ahead with privately held “Big Brother” databases that opposition leaders said amounted to “state-spying” and a form of “covert surveillance” on the public.
It is doing so despite its own consultation showing that it has little public support.""Every phone call, text message, email and website visit made by private citizens is... more
still fuzzy on cell phonesEvidence, cancerBy Elizabeth Landau, CNN
November 10, 2009 3:26 p.m. EST
The longer you speak on the phone, the more risk you may have of getting tumors, some doctors say.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Evidence is mixed, but some experts advocate safer cell phone practices
Electromagnetic radiation given off by cell phones is too weak to cause direct DNA damage
But there could be indirect ways DNA could be harmed through phones
Corded headsets and speaker phones can help mitigate radiation effects
RELATED TOPICS
Cellular Phones
Brain Cancer
Cancer
(CNN) -- In the year since a U.S. cancer researcher's warning drew wide attention, more evidence is emerging that long-term cell phone use is associated with cancer, but there's still not a definitive explanation or proof of cause and effect.
Last summer, Dr. Ronald Herberman, then director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, issued a warning to about 3,000 faculty and staff, listing steps to avoid harmful electromagnetic radiation from cell phones. This included keeping the phone away from the body as much as possible and not allowing children to use cell phones except in emergencies.
"Since I put out that precautionary advisory in July of last year, I believe there is more indication for concern, particularly among children," he recently said.
A much-anticipated but unreleased report from the World Health Organization on a decade-long investigation called Interphone will show a "significantly increased risk" of some brain tumors "related to use of mobile phones for a period of 10 years or more," the London Daily Telegraph reported in late October. The study will be published before the end of the year, the newspaper said.
Supporting that conclusion, a recent study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology that looked at 23 case-control studies found that the research with the more scientifically rigorous methodologies suggested cell phones and tumors are linked. The eight strongest studies made sure the investigators did not know which participants had tumors when they conducted the interviews about cell phone use, and they did not receive funding from industry groups.
Studies that looked at people who had used cell phones 10 years or longer tended to find the strongest risk of tumors. Researchers found that cell phone users had a 10 percent to 30 percent higher risk than people who barely, if ever, used this technology.
A telling feature of the findings in the stronger studies was that the side of the head against which people held their cell phones was highly correlated with the location of tumors, said Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California, Berkeley.
Skeptics criticize this as "recall bias." People may be more likely to think about using a cell phone on the same side of the head as the tumor because they're asked about it in that context.
Moskowitz said he was surprised to see that a subgroup of studies found this increased risk of tumors.
The poorer-quality studies actually found that cell phones had a protective quality -- that the phones helped stave off tumors -- but could not offer an explanation for why, he said. Many of these weaker studies were also funded by telecommunications industry groups, he said.
Interphone, for example, receives some funding from the GSM Association, which represents the worldwide mobile communications industry, and the Mobile Manufacturers Forum, an international association of telecommunications equipment manufacturers.
Research that has been released by Interphone has major flaws, Moskowitz said. Some shortcomings include poor participation in the control group and a definition of "regular cell phone use" that included people who use their phones once a week for six months.
But the scope of the project is significant: Nearly 13,000 people were questioned between 2000 and 2004 in 13 coustill fuzzy on cell phonesEvidence, cancerBy Elizabeth Landau, CNN
November 10, 2009... more
The next time your batteries need a recharge, try taking a walk. A tiny Cleveland startup is trying to capture the renewable energy of your footsteps — no outlet required.
Tremonth Electronics' Personal Energy Generator, or PEG
Enlarge Courtesy of Tremont Electronics
Mobile electronic devices like the iPhone only require 2.5 watts of power to fully recharge themselves, he says. "So, in the end, all we have to do is harvest 2.5 percent of your human walking energy, without you knowing it, and put it in your mobile electronic device."
So, after years of tinkering, LeMieux's company Tremont Electric is about to launch its first product that takes a little of your walking energy and sends it to your portable electronics. It's called the Personal Energy Generator, or PEG, and it's about the size of a flashlight.
It seems that technology is not, after all, turning us into a race of socially inadequate hermits.
In fact, according to research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, people who use the internet and mobile phones have larger and more diverse social networks.
The study found that six percent of Americans feel they have no one with whom they can discuss important matters - about the same proportion as in 1985.
But the researchers found that ownership of a mobile phone and participation in a variety of internet activities were associated with larger and more diverse core discussion networks - groups of friends, to you and me.
The size of core discussion networks is 12 percent larger than average amongst cell phone users, nine percent larger for those who share photos online and nine percent bigger for those who use instant messaging.
Internet users are apparently 38 percent less likely to rely exclusively on their spouses or partners as discussion confidants. Those who use instant messaging are even less likely to do so.
"Contrary to the argument that internet use limits people's participation in the local community, local institutions and local spaces, our findings show that most internet activities are associated with higher levels of local activity," say the researchers. "However, we find some evidence that use of social networking services - for example, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn - substitutes for some level of neighborhood involvement."
A company called ReVolt claims to have developed a way to make zinc-air batteries rechargeable. The batteries use oxygen from the air to generate current. Also, they don’t contain any of the toxic materials that are found in lithium-ion batteries, which are estimated to only hold one-third as much power...A company called ReVolt claims to have developed a way to make zinc-air batteries... more
The Obama administration’s position that the government can force mobile carriers to hand over cellphone tower location information on their customers without a warrant is wrong, two legal scholars say.
"Because CSLI acquisition is hidden, indiscriminate and intrusive, and because it reveals information over a period of time, it should be subject to the highest level of Fourth Amendment oversight (the same procedures used for wiretapping and video surveillance)," the scholars wrote late Friday.
The scholars are Susan Freiwald, of the USF School of Law, and Peter Swire, of Ohio State University.
Their words, published by the American Constitution Society, came a month after the Justice Department made its claim in a little-noticed case that the Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures did not apply.
Most Americans have or will carry a mobile phone in their lifespan, so the outcome could have wide-ranging privacy ramifications. Smartphones, like the iPhone, use cell-tower information to power geo-location applications like Google Maps.
In a case pending before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the government maintains it can require federal judges to order mobile phone companies to release historical cell-tower information of a phone number without probable cause — the standard required for a search warrant.
While judges have differed on the issue, the resulting evidence can be used in a criminal prosecution. The case on appeal concerns a Pennsylvania judge who rejected the government’s position in a drug prosecution that the new administration inherited.
Mobile-phone providers keep cell-site information for up to 18 months. Historical cell-site location information includes the tower connected at the beginning of a call and at the end of the call. The government does not claim a warrantless right to cell-site information for future calls, only for calls already dialed.
"Cellular providers could, if they wanted, keep track of your cell phone’s location every seven seconds," the scholars wrote, "because your phone ‘registers’ that often with the nearest tower."The Obama administration’s position that the government can force mobile carriers to... more
This is a great article on "Cell Phone Refuseniks"--people who actually don't want to own a cell phone and how they have to organize their lives accordingly.
We've really become dependent on our cell phones!This is a great article on "Cell Phone Refuseniks"--people who actually don't want to... more
Nokia's version of the iPhone called the N900 was supposed to be released in October, is now slated for release in November. It will cost $649, have a 5 megapixel camera, and expandable memory.Nokia's version of the iPhone called the N900 was supposed to be released in October,... more
"LONG-term mobile phone users could face a higher risk of developing cancer in later life, according to a decade-long study.
The report, to be published later this year, has reportedly found that heavy mobile use is linked to brain tumours.
The survey of 12,800 people in 13 countries has been overseen by the World Health Organisation.
Preliminary results of the inquiry, which is looking at whether mobile phone exposure is linked to three types of brain tumour and a tumour of the salivary gland, have been sent to a scientific journal.
The findings are expected to put pressure on the British Government – which has insisted that mobile phones are safe – to issue stronger warnings to users."
Dell’s first Android phone, the Mini 3i, was originally a China only release. Of course there were rumors that it might find its way to American shores, but they are rumors no more. Michael Dell has come out and said the Mini 3i will be available in the US...Dell’s first Android phone, the Mini 3i, was originally a China only release. Of... more
While previously leaked specs indicated its CPU would be running at 768MHz, Acer has now said it will have a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. It’s also rocking Android version 1.6, known as Donut...While previously leaked specs indicated its CPU would be running at 768MHz, Acer has... more
A new Harris interactive survey, released today, suggests a significant number of consumers would like to receive advertising on their cell phones that they have requested, based on their location. The survey, which was commissioned by 1020 Placecast, polled more than 2,000 adults over the age of 18 years old, and found that 42 percent of those who were between 18 and 34 years old, and 33 percent of those 35 to 44 years old are at least somewhat interested in receiving opt-in alerts on their cell phones for specials at their favorite establishments.
(Berk, 2009, October 15, par.2-3)
This type of technology is even more impressive when one considers how many purchases consumers make on the fly. Even in this age of careful spending 9-in-10 Americans have made an impulse purchase when they were out shopping in a store based on a sale or a special that was going on around where they were, according to the Harris survey.
(Berk, 2009, October 15, par.8)
Among adults who own a cell phone, nearly a quarter — some 22 percent — make this type of purchase at least once per week or more often. And, if you slice the data even thinner, you will see 27 percent of the women ages 18 to 44 will make an impulse purchase once a week, however, 31 percent of men in this age group make impulse buys.
(Berk, 2009, October 15, par.9)
[more details at the link....]A new Harris interactive survey, released today, suggests a significant number of... more
