Showing posts with label Cell Phones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cell Phones. Show all posts

Trump in your face

SUBHEAD: Local governments, corporations, organizations and individuals need  push back against Trump.

By Juan Wilson on 9 October 2018 for Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2018/10/trump-in-your-face.html)


Image above: The test message from President Trump to all cell phones as illustrated by FEMA. From (https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/02/politics/cell-phone-presidential-alert-fema/index.html).

A week ago today FEMA was used to send a test "Trump Alert" message to all US cell phones capable of receiving it. Thank God I have no "smart" phone to be so imposed on by a tyrannical egoist.

From CNN:
The "presidential alert" headed to Americans' cell phones won't actually be written by President Donald Trump, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Tuesday.

Wednesday afternoon's message is the first nationwide test of the system built by the government and cell phone carriers to push an emergency message to nearly all cell phones in the US, a senior FEMA official told reporters on a Tuesday conference call.

Despite the name, "the president will not originate this alert, say, from his mobile device," the official said. "You would not have a situation where any sitting president would wake up one morning and attempt to send a particular message."

That name had generated questions about how and when the system can be used. The official said the uses are limited, such as to a "coordinated attack on our major cities across the country" or "some other type of public peril that is ongoing in the country at the time."

The FEMA official spoke to reporters on a conference call the agency arranged on the condition of anonymity. FEMA did not elaborate on why the official could not be named.
 
The official said the system includes safeguards. In a real emergency, a FEMA official using a device "very similar to a laptop computer" will receive information from multiple federal agencies and the White House, and select one of several pre-written messages and update it to fit the circumstances.

The system requires passwords and the text will be "checked by two people before that message is sent. 
Donald Trump's first 'Presidential Alert,' an unblockable wireless alert warning to cellphones in the United States, was deployed last Wednesday, October 2nd at 11:18 a.m. PT/2:18 p.m. ET.

"THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed,"

No emergency, just testing. Now a group of New Yorkers are suing the President and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to stop the new practice, which many fear Trump will abuse.

From CNET:
Three New York residents last week filed a lawsuit in the Southern District Court of New York against President Donald Trump and William Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The residents want to halt FEMA's new Presidential Alert messaging system, which enables Trump to deploy alerts of national emergencies.

"Plaintiffs are American citizens who do not wish to receive text messages, or messages of any kind, on any topic or subject, from defendant Trump," the lawsuit (posted below) reads. "[Trump's] rise to power was facilitated by weaponized disinformation that he broadcast into the public information sphere via Twitter in addition to traditional mass media."

The White House, FEMA, and plaintiffs didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

(..) The plaintiffs' main complaint is that Presidential Alerts are compulsory -- there's no way to opt-out of receiving them. They argue that under civil rights law, government cannot use cellular devices to compel listening, "trespass into and hijack" devices without a warrant or individual consent.

The plaintiffs are also concerned Trump might use the alerts to spread disinformation because IPAWS doesn't regulate the content of the messages. That means Trump may be free to define "act of terrorism" and "threat to public safety," and may broadcast "arbitrary, biased, irrational" messages to "hundreds of millions of people," the plaintiffs say in the lawsuit.
If you do not think this is an unwarranted intrusion you've already taken the "Blue Pill" from the Matrix and everything is just fine:
"You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember: all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."
If you have read Ea O Ka Aina: Final call to save the world (10/8/18) and Ea O Ka Aina: Scientists outline paths to survival (10/4/18) then you know that Donald Trump will be in office and and in a daze of self delusion until it is too late to save the "Earth" from a transition to what Bill MCKibben has named "Eaarth"- a planet inhospitable to life as we know it.

States, counties, municipalities, corporations, organizations and individuals need to act on their own to push back against Trump's stranglehold on federal regulations and activities. For the moment the nation is lost. Trump has embraced worldwide extinction for a moment in the spotlight and in your face.

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AT&T and Amazon Cloud outages

SUBHEAD: Some have joked that AT&T has activated the downtime to remove embedded CIA eavesdropping features.

By Tyler Durden on 11 March 2017 for Zero Hedge -
(http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-03-11/widespread-att-outages-reported-across-us)


Image above: Chart of number of reported outages on night  of March 9th. From original article. Click to enlarge.

[IB Publisher's note: See Ea O Ka Aina: Off the Web from 3/5/17 for a preview of this affliction. We have had internet yet no telephone service since then. And by the way, Hawaiian Telcom has said its widespread phone outage problems will continue through 3/16 in Hanapepe Valley on Kauai.]

Two weeks after a massive Amazon Cloud outage crippled numerous websites on the East Coast, this morning users of AT&T across the nation are reporting widespread outages in their cellphone service.

This appears to be confirmed by the current downdetector.com/status/att data on reported problems with the cellphone carrier. (IB note: checking this site indicates problems still exist at 9:00am HST 3/11/17).


Image above: Map of intensity of AT&T outages in the United States the night of March 9th. From original article.

Twitter users from around the country have confirmed the interruption in service.

While some have joked that AT&T has activated the downtime to remove embedded CIA eavesdropping features, for now there has been no official statement from AT&T... or from the crack team of Kremlin-controlled spies for that matter.

See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Making the internet safe for anarchy 5/1/12
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Kissenger is a Kiss messenger

SUBHEAD: The Kissenger allows your iPhone to simulate kissing your long-distance lover.

By Rob Beschizza on 30 December 2016 in Boing Boing -
(http://boingboing.net/2016/12/30/kissenger-simulates-kissin.html)


Image above: The hardware that allows an cell phone to replace a lover.   From original article.

Touted as Earth's "first mobile kiss messenger," Kissenger is a rubbery-looking dock that humans put their phones in. It has a tactile surface they depress with their meat. The movements are then transmitted in realtime over the internet, so that a replica of them may be experienced by another human.

Plug in to your phone and give your loved ones a kiss over the Internet. Kissenger can sense your kiss and transmit realistic kissing sensations to your partner in real time. You can also feel the force on your lips when your partner kisses you back. Share an intimate moment with your friends and families while chatting with them on your phone.

The device comprises six sensors, corresponding actuators, and a meat-colored silicone sheath. There's an app that goes with it so the humans can interact on a audiovisual-discursive level at the same time. It's at the prototype stage with nothing to buy, yet, but obviously we should keep an eye on this. It should suffice to say that our previous recommendations with respect to establishing contact with this species have not changed.


Image above: Obviously, for two lovers lips to meet requires one's partner to also have a Kissenger. From original article

High precision force sensors are embedded under the silicon lip to measure the dynamic forces at different parts of your lips during a kiss. The device sends this data to your phone, which transmits it to your partner over the Internet in real time. Miniature linear actuators are used to reproduce these forces on your partner's lips, creating a realistic kissing sensation. Kissenger provides a two-way interaction just like in a real kiss. You can also feel your partner's kiss on your lips when they kiss you back.


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Is Apple Flying Or Dying?

SUBHEAD: A closer look at iPhone 7 indicates the evolutionary development of our wireless future.

By Ewan Spence on 18 September 2016 for Forbes-
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2016/09/18/iphone-7-big-question-apple-doomed/)


Image above: iPhone7 promotional photo in fragile Jet Black finish. From original article.

What do the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus smartphones tell us about Apple’s future? Let’s start this discussion with a simple premise that I think we can all agree on. Apple is not in stasis, it will change.

 Companies are always in transition, they hope to end up in a better place but in many cases the path of good intentions may eventually lead to a painful end.

The iPhone 7 handsets are pivotal phones for Apple. Tim Cook and his team are taking a number of gambles with the hardware, the software, the distribution, and its corporate attitude.

They believe that these changes will help Apple retain its leadership role in the technology space for the second decade of its smartphone (the original iPhone announcement was January 9 2007, so the birthday party is imminent).

The fact that I don’t think the iPhone 7 or 7 Plus change a huge amount for the end-user is a point I may return to in a later article, but my thoughts on why can be found in my ‘First Impressions’ review of the iPhone 7 here on Forbes.

In any case, let’s see what road signs are inside the iPhone 7 family and where they point to.

Everyone will have an opinion on the removal of the headphone jack, and while I wouldn’t want to go as far as saying that the decision was powered by “courage” it does illustrate that Apple is capable divining a future and has the willingness to proactively push towards it.

The move to lightning audio and wireless bluetooth is a ‘typically Apple’ attitude. There’s no point waiting for the combined might of the music industry  and various consumer electronics companies to throw away its comfort blanket, even if bluetooth headphones are starting to be in the majority of sales in some markets. Apple has forced the issue.

Assuming the removal of the jack is a success (and a genteel press corps will help smooth the rough edges of the transition), the opportunities in terms of handset design, reliability, lowered build costs and the potential for improved margins on peripheral sales are all positive benefits for Apple. It’s hard to see the basic shape of a smartphone changing now, so design is going to be focused on the edges.

Losing as many ports as possible will help evolve the smartphone. Switching the home key to a virtual button is more radical, but less likely to annoy the purists.

Again it lowers the count of physical parts on the device which will reduce the bill of materials to Apple, it reduces the number of warranty repairs required, and it will act as another point of difference against the raft of Android smartphones.

Perhaps more importantly, and staying in tune with the approach in audio, it reduces the number of extrusions in the basic chassis and offers far more ‘futuristic’ design choices for next year’s handed. Shorn of the need to prove the lack of a headphone jack or a physical home key, the tenth-anniversary iPhone 8 can bring forward a revolutionary look.

The release of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will also generate a vital data point for Apple’s sales team. Last year’s launch of the iPhone Upgrade Program allowed consumers to buy an iPhone direct from Apple in return for two years of monthly payments.

After one year they have the option of extending the payments by one year and trade up to the latest iPhone model. How many people take up this option will help plan the release of ‘the big one’ next year.

Apple has laid out the broad brush strokes of how it sees the future – a world with minimal use of wires, with fewer moving parts on the iPhone, and consumers that treat their smartphone as a monthly lease with ongoing payments rather than a huge investment every twenty-four months.

But Cupertino needs to watch out, because the new iPhone handsets also exhibit traits that could easily derail the company.


iPhone7 Jet Black finish scratches
SUBHEAD: Apple admits its iPhone 7 Jet Black finish is easy to mar.

By Ashley Carmin on 9 September 2016 for The Verge - 
(http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/9/7/12836762/iphone-7-announced-black-scratch)


Image above: The low contrast Apple webpage that admits easy scratching of new Jet Black finished iPhone7.

Can you read that? Let me sum up: the jet black version of the iPhone 7, the one we the people wanted, scratches.

So if you don’t like a scratched iPhone, you’re going to need to invest in a case. People probably won’t be able to see your jet black iPhone 7 through that case. Do you love your phone’s color enough to let it be scratched?

Apple doesn’t have the same footnote for its simply "black" color. It comes in a matte finish and might be more on the gray side, but I think it’s the color we have to go with to avoid scratches.

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