Startup Uses Radiation Fear To Map Cellphone Coverage

judgecorp writes "Fears that mobile phones cause cancer have never had strong backing from scientific research, but Israeli startup Tawkon is using those fears for an interesting business model. Its free app (banned from Apple's App Store, but on Android, BlackBerry and unlocked iPhones) tracks how much radiation your phone is emitting. This lets concerned users hold their phones away from their heads or whatever — but it also gives Tawkon a useful map of cellphone coverage around the world, which is the real asset it is monetizing — for the benefit of everyone, it says."

Comments

Jailbreak vs Unlock

[retaj]

The summary should say "jailbroken iPhones" instead of "unlocked iPhones". Jailbreaking allows unauthorized apps, unlocking allows SIM freedom.

Re:Banned from Apple?

[pushing-robot]

I'd imagine it's "banned" for the same reason as wardriving apps: because they use undocumented calls to get low level info from the radios. It sounds like they appealed to Jobs himself, but he turned them down. I can't really blame him, as the app's two functions seem to be (a) scare you with BS and (b) spy on you.

App Store restrictions are a bit annoying, but less annoying than having to run an antivirus program on your phone. Power users can, at least, jailbreak.