Skip to Content

Make smart financial decisions with DailyFinance
AOL Tech

Posts with tag jamming

Oh, by the way: August 7, 2009

Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of mobile for Friday, August 7th, 2009:
  • In addition to the BL40 and BL42, it looks like LG's upcoming Chocolate series is also going to include a lower-end BL20 according to a newly-uncovered user agent profile. Whatever it is, it's got a QVGA display -- a far cry from the epic 21:9 unit on the BL40. [Via PhoneArena]
  • Motorola's W562 candybar for China has broken cover, and needless to say, you won't find any Android here. CDMA and a 2 megapixel camera, yes, but no Android.
  • More baby steps are being taken in states' fights to jam phone signals in and around prisons. This time around, a Senate subcommittee has sent a bill to the full Senate that would allow individual states to plead their jamming case to the FCC, which -- as of right now, anyway -- seems pretty lukewarm to the idea in general. [Via Phone Scoop]
  • Acer -- like Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, RIM, Palm, Google, LG, Samsung, and your cousin Ralph -- is opening an app store. It expects the store to be ready in the next few months as it ramps up the barrage of new WinMo devices it's been pimping over the course of the year. [Via PHONE Magazine]
  • South Korea's KT has confirmed that it'll carry the iPhone at some point, though it's refusing to spill details on exactly when or how that'll go down. SKT's apparently still in the mix, too, so we could end up without carrier exclusivity here. [Via Unwired View]

Prison phone jamming demo canceled, inmates promptly order more pizza

There's been a little bit of drama brewing out in DC lately, and for good reason: prisoners' ability to order pizza, drugs, and hits from the comfort of their cells is at risk. After ordering an in-prison signal blocking demo using equipment provided by infrastructure firm CellAntenna, the Washington DC Department of Corrections promptly earned the wrath of the CTIA which took its complaint to the FCC, arguing that such a demo violates the law. The FCC twiddled its thumbs (as federal agencies tend to do), so the association went to court where it sued to block CellAntenna from doing its thing. Before it had a chance to respond, though, the jail canceled its demo -- problem solved. The CTIA agrees that prisoners aren't the type of folks you want toting phones, but suggests that blocking signals from prisons altogether isn't the right way to solve the problem; if we were a guard, we'd probably agree.

Cellphone jammer crammed into key fob, ends texting / talking while driving


Face it, kids. You missed the best time to be a teenager by around five or so years. As it stands now, technology is cutting into that adolescent fun, with device like Ford's MyKey and this one here ensuring that you're actually safe behind the wheel. In all seriousness, the terribly named Key2SafeDriving is a fine concept (at least in the parent's eye), as it fuses a cellphone jammer (of sorts) into a key fob in order to put the kibosh on freeway conversations. Essentially, the signal blocking kicks into action anytime the "key" portion is flicked out, connecting to a handset via Bluetooth or RFID and forcing it into "driving mode." No actual jamming, per se, is going on; it's more like a manual override of the ringer. Anyone who phones / texts you while you're safely driving will receive an automated response informing them of such, though we are told that handsfree devices can be utilized. Researchers at the University of Utah are hoping to see it on the market within six months via a private company "at a cost of less than $50 per key plus a yet-undetermined monthly service fee."

[Via Gadgets-Weblog]

Quigo ad placement

Japan installs cellphone jammers near ATMs to prevent fraud


If you're tired of being scammed at ATMs by kind, gentle-hearted con artists (and then forgetting it ever happened), you'll be stoked to know that Japan is looking out for you. Chiba Bank has installed phone signal jammers at four unnamed ATMs at bank branches in the Tokyo region, and while it has gone down as the first institution to go to such lengths, we highly doubt it'll be the last. It's not entirely clear what exactly the criminals were able to convince people to do via mobile, but it's probably something like "psst... get me out some cheddar and meet around back." Not that we have any experience in the field or anything...

[Via textually]




    AOL News

    Other Weblogs Inc. Network blogs you might be interested in: