FCC confident in its mobile phone radiation limits, seeks second opinions

FCC confident in its mobile phone radiation limits, seeks second opinions

Cast your memory back to last summer. Sweep away memories of iPhone 5 leaks galore, and you might remember that the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) asked the FCC to reevaluate its radiation limits for mobile phones. Now a few seasons later, the FCC has finally wrapped up a report that responds to the GAO, and there are no changes to its RF radiation levels in sight because it feels comfortable with its current caps. "We continue to have confidence in the current exposure limits, and note that more recent international standards have a similar basis," reads the report. However, given that its guidelines were adopted in 1996, new research on radiation and the proliferation of mobile devices, the FCC would like some feedback regarding its restrictions. It's put out a call for comments from concerned parties and even federal health and safety bodies.

Though the freshly-released document didn't rock the proverbial boat, it made one change worth noting. The pinna (outer ear) is now classified an extremity, which means the FCC allows devices to hit the tissue with more radiation. Feel like poring through 201 pages of regulatory minutiae? Click the source link below for the commission's full dossier.

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Via: The Verge

Source: FCC

These boots were made for talkin’: O2 teams up with artist for ‘walkie talkie’ footwear

These boots were made for talkin' O2 teams up with artist for 'walkie talkie' mobile footwear

Sorry, Ms. Sinatra, but the headline parody was all too obvious to ignore. As part of its mobile device Recycle program, which allows users to trade in old handsets for cash, British telco O2 has commissioned local designer Sean Miles to give discarded featurephones a new lease on life. The end result? Four footwear designs - made from the likes of Christian Louboutins, Nike Airs, Hunter Wellingtons and a classic Brogue men's shoe -- replete with a fully functional phone embedded in the sole. We know exactly what you're thinking: Why would anyone want to hold a shoe to their face? Whether it's for the love of the arts, a penchant for public ridicule or a closer whiff of the ground below, we can't say for sure. What we do know is that this truly "mobile" kit(sch) will be up for auction later in March at a planned exhibition. But that won't be the last you'll see of Miles' unholy meshing of tech and apparel -- the artist also plans to branch out into gloves and handbags as part of the fuller O2 Recycle Collection. You paying attention, Weird Al? This one's for you!

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Via: The Sun

Source: PSFK

IDC: Samsung and Apple still kings of the smartphone market, Nokia loses top five spot to RIM

IDC Samsung and Apple still kings of the smartphone market, Nokia loses top five spot to RIM

IDC's third quarter figures are in, complete with a few unexpected shake-ups. The entire cellphone market grew 2.4% over the same time last year, but smartphones drove the majority of that, showing growth of 45.3% and beating the analysts' expectations. Of the 179.7 million smartphones shipped, Samsung and Apple devices accounted for almost half of them, with the companies retaining their number one and two positions in the market, respectively. IDC notes that iPhone shipments didn't increase, but this is somewhat expected given the latest iteration was released only a short time before the end of the quarter. What we find particularly interesting is that Nokia was ousted from the top five smartphone players and replaced by RIM. Whether Nokia's upcoming Windows Phone 8 devices will put it back in contention remains to be seen, as does the effect BB10 and RIM's new handsets will have on the market. ZTE finished fourth in the list thanks to increased sales in North America, with HTC rounding up the top five vendors with continued uptake of its power devices. With a bunch of new handsets coming to the table and the holiday season fast approaching, look out for even more surprises in the fourth quarter numbers, due early next year.

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IDC: Samsung and Apple still kings of the smartphone market, Nokia loses top five spot to RIM originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Oct 2012 03:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jolla’s Marc Dillon takes over as CEO, Jussi Hurmola to focus on Sailfish

Jolla's Marc Dillon takes over as CEO, Jussi Hurmola to focus on Sailfish

Following big news from Jolla almost two weeks ago, it's reluctant to go quiet, instead taking to Twitter to announce that Jussi Hurmola is no longer its CEO. This isn't a story of scandal or corporate dissent, but merely a restructuring to allow Hurmola to focus on Sailfish, the MeeGo-based OS currently in development. It's no great surprise that Marc Dillon is stepping up to be the new big cheese -- he's another of the company's founders and was acting COO prior to the shuffle. Sailfish is due to be demoed for the first time in a little over a month, where we imagine Hurmola will be eager to flaunt its progress now that he's managed to palm off all that paperwork.

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Jolla's Marc Dillon takes over as CEO, Jussi Hurmola to focus on Sailfish originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TonisTechBlog  |  sourceJolla (Twitter)  | Email this | Comments

Acoustic barcodes store data in sound, go on just about anything (video)

Acoustic barcodes store data in sound, go on just about anything

Technologies like NFC, RFID and QR codes are quickly becoming a normal part of everyday life, and now a group from Carnegie Mellon University has a fresh take on close-quarters data it calls acoustic barcodes. It involves physically etching a barcode-like pattern onto almost any surface, so it produces sound when something's dragged across it -- a fingernail, for example. A computer is then fed that sound through a microphone, recognizes the waveform and executes a command based on it. By altering the space between the grooves, it's possible to create endless unique identifiers that are associated with different actions.

It's easy to see how smartphones could take advantage of this -- not that we recommend dragging your new iPhone over ridged surfaces -- but unlike the technologies mentioned earlier, not all potential applications envisage a personal reading device. Dot barcodes around an area, install the sound processing hardware on site, and you've got yourself an interactive space primed for breaking freshly manicured nails. We're pretty impressed by the simplicity of the concept, and the team does a good job of presenting scenarios for implementing it, which you can see in the video below. And, if you'd like to learn a little more about the idea or delve into the full academic paper, the source links await you.

[Thanks, Julia]

Continue reading Acoustic barcodes store data in sound, go on just about anything (video)

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Acoustic barcodes store data in sound, go on just about anything (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Oct 2012 00:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Hack a Day  |  sourceChris Harrison (1), (2) (PDF)  | Email this | Comments