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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."
The summary should say "jailbroken iPhones" instead of "unlocked iPhones". Jailbreaking allows unauthorized apps, unlocking allows SIM freedom.
It's not a Trojan Horse if you leave a note on the side saying: "This horse is full of armed Greek warriors. By bringing this horse into your city, you also agree to allow said warriors to kill and pillage any and all occupants of the afore-mentioned city". Either that, or the Trojans just didn't have good lawyers.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
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.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
The asians have been selling anti-radiation maternity cloths for years now. My wife purchased one herself. Surprisingly, they work...at blocking cell reception at least. I tested it out with two cell phones. Both had full bars. As soon as I covered one of the phones all the way around, the signal dropped. It was instant and the test could be repeated over and over again. So the clothes do was they're advertised to do. The question is, does it really impact the safety of fetal development? Doubt it. But there you go.
http://www.amazon.com/Radiation-Maternity-Preganat-Protection-Shielding/dp/B0053ZPB6U
Life is not for the lazy.
While the fear mongering and data collection is a bit worrisome, they might actually be on to something here.
It would be very useful to have crowd-sourced maps of cell coverage, speeds, dropped calls, etc... Would certainly make the choice of provider a much more informed decision, instead of relying on their own coverage maps.
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