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Wi-Fi Router's 'Pregnant Women' Setting Sparks Vendor Rivalry In China
colinneagle writes: When one Chinese technology vendor, Qihoo, launched a new Wi-Fi router with a safety setting for "pregnant women," a rival vendor took offense to the implication that their routers might be dangerous. Xiamo, which also sells Wi-Fi routers, took to its page on Chinese social media site Weibo to denounce Qihoo's pregnant women mode as a "marketing tactic," and clarify that "Wi-Fi usage is safe."
Zhou Hongyi, chief executive and president of Qihoo, acknowledged in a statement to the South China Morning Post that there is no evidence supporting claims that Wi-Fi routers pose a risk for birth defects. But he said the company is appealing to consumers' beliefs, whether they are supported by science or not.
"We are targeting people who are afraid of radiation," Hongyi said. "We aren't scientists. We haven't done many experiments to prove how much damage the radiation from Wi-Fi can cause. We leave the right of choice to our customers."
Zhou Hongyi, chief executive and president of Qihoo, acknowledged in a statement to the South China Morning Post that there is no evidence supporting claims that Wi-Fi routers pose a risk for birth defects. But he said the company is appealing to consumers' beliefs, whether they are supported by science or not.
"We are targeting people who are afraid of radiation," Hongyi said. "We aren't scientists. We haven't done many experiments to prove how much damage the radiation from Wi-Fi can cause. We leave the right of choice to our customers."
...more and higher energy radiation than the wireless LAN antennas. Just FYI.
The description makes it sound like they just cut the Tx power on the router by two thirds when you enable the mode, which means it will just have a much shorter range. Even better: This would only help if the woman stayed near the router, she's going to get a lot more "radiation" from her laptop, since it has a similar radio and of course is much closer to her. Even if the science were sound, this wouldn't work. It's both dumb and pointless.
I read the internet for the articles.
"We aren't scientists. We haven't done many experiments to prove how much damage the radiation from Wi-Fi can cause."
If you haven't done any experiments to prove how much damage WiFi can cause, then how do you know that your APs are safe?
More precisely: even if you accept that WiFi damages unborn children, how can you be sure that "pregnant women mode" reduces the danger in any meaningful way if you have not done any experiments?
The Qihoo router normally emits dangerous-sounding em radiation, by default. Best to avoid their routers, but if you're stuck with them be sure to enable the safe mode. Other companies' routers always run in safe mode, which is why they don't have that setting.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways