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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."
"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?
We are targeting stupid poor people. I'm not a doctor. I haven't done experiments to see if my elixir works. We leave the right of choice to our customers.
I originally thought the warning meant pregnant women are dangerous.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
...more and higher energy radiation than the wireless LAN antennas. Just FYI.
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."
I guess the setting does absolutely nothing then.
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.
Xiamo should have just put an add that the "Pregnant setting" is for pussies.... o wait
Where's the "warm up my coffee" mode? I need that sometimes.
Me make router, make sure baby not look like flounder.
They're developing their own version with a switch that indicates full power, children present, and pregnant woman mode along with a power level LED. It will be wired completely independently of all wifi circuitry, thereby allowing you to reduce the power level LED without affecting the range or speed of the router.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
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
Hold up to wife's belly one full month! Still no baby!
.
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Because that is frankly the only thing that could be done for pregnant women in a wireless router...
Some understanding of the technology and science required though, as usual. Anybody that thinks in terms of "radiation" does not have that understanding.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Stories like this make me wonder if anyone in Korea refuses to use a desktop or laptop because they have fans in them.
I'm VERY aroused.
These "X is for Luddites" "Apping the apped appers" posts really make me long for the old days of "In Soviet Russia..." or "Does it run Linux". Hell, "OMG! Ponies!" was literary genius by comparison
wish they'd make a router with 'epilepsy' mode, where it dims/disables all front lights. I mean short of the electrical tape option of course.
The power is actually increased, not decreased, by the pregnancy mode. This is to penetrate the womb and let the child surf the net to find a new set of parents to adopt them once born. New parents that aren't afraid of technology.
I think I'll take my business of Tiger-Repelling Rocks to China. And I even have data! I have carried my own Tiger-Repelling Rock for over 2000 hours without any encounter with a tiger. To my knowledge, no one I have given--er, sold one to has encountered a tiger.
I'm sure I can find a priest who will bless my inventory as well, so people will be able to buy Holy Tiger-Repelling Rocks! Every person needs one, you never know when there will be a tiger!
They should have also included a dial that goes to 11.
The real question is: is there asbestos in their router?
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, appers app YOU!
I'm not a script, da.
If someone is really worried about radiation from wifi, they'd be well advised to not have _any_ wifi devices in the home, if not actually living some large distance from anyone else with same devices.
They'd also want to avoid cell phones too..
Actually, such a person would just become a hermit.
( cause otherwise, I'm NOT buying. )
as a qihoo wireless model 32 router owner I can say this is being completely blown out of proportion. my router has 6 very clearly labeled settings besides 'pregnant woman' mode and the article mentions nothing about them. Qihoo users like myself typically prefer to keep the router in 'surly wombat' mode to ensure best communication with devices that may be situated between an agitated or unruly wombat (as mine typically can be.) When i have company over I might set the router on 'roger whittaker' mode, which enables it to automatically emit up to 44 different songs from mellow folk sensation Roger Wittaker. You can even control time of day with different settings...for example around dinnertime ill set the router to 'defrost-reheat' which increases power levels accordingly and allows me to thaw and cook up to 15 pounds of turkey in my living room. And i challenge anyone to find a better mode than 'depeche' mode, which activates both gloomy QoS and tortured soul packet conditioning.
Good people go to bed earlier.
..and it's activated by turning the power switch to 'Off'.
If it really worries you that much then unplug the damned thing from the wall, along with turning off your cellphone, and any other RF-enabled devices you may have. Toss your microwave oven into the trash. While you're at it line the walls, floors, and ceiling with aluminum foil (don't forget the door!) and ground it to a solid earth ground, forming a Faraday cage. Be sure to have 9 month supply of food and water on hand.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Mothers of unborn babies use Wi-Fi to download apps related to pregnancy, such as My Pregnancy Today and I'm Expecting.
Medical apps!
As if your little guys get out much.
Or maybe "small apartment mode."
If I could, I would configure my WiFi router to be smart about its transmit power:
I would have a "low power" mode on the router so it could be "seen" within a relatively small radius, but it would increase power as needed to stay connected to a device once that device authenticated. Once all authenticated connections went out of range or disconnected, it would drop back to "low power" mode.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
A sucker is conceiving every second.
Bert
The problem is not the existence of a low power mode but the fact that it isn't called "Low power mode".
[X] Low power mode
Reduce the power of the gateway's Wi-Fi radio. This causes the radio to interfere less with other nearby devices and can limit ability to connect from outside a building or from a neighboring apartment. A weaker signal is also believed to reduce harm to an unborn child.
They do - It's a $300 router, but you can turn off activity lights with a button press:
http://www.amazon.com/product-...
This is the image that came to my mind when I read this heading.
http://origin.funnymeme.com/wp...
There's no scientific evidence to support that lighting a stove on Saturday for use on Sunday is better for the soul, or that having the light come on in the refrigerator when I open it Monday through Saturday is fine, but distracts me from god on Sunday. There are a lot of people that believe those things, so the manufacturer accommodates them.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
You probably want a Sriracha mode on there too. It's my understanding that Sriracha makes everything better. Even Pizza Hut offers it as an option now.
I'm sure there was a comment in there, but I'll be damned if I can find it in all the nonsensical text.
You could move here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Aren't you more comfortable knowing that your lettuce is 'gluten free'?
You wouldn't want to drink beer without the 'lead free' label, would you?
And your linens should definitely have the 'underwriters lab' approval.
I surely hope your grapes have the 'no trans-fats' designation.
Products have long had labels for consumer safety. Excessive use of similar terms, often for products that have no need of such claims, can undermine the usefulness of the labels that *are* important.
...omphaloskepsis often...
it doesn't reduce the tx power - it firewalls pizza hut online ordering.
No, no, it doesn't block them.. It prioritizes the traffic to the Pizza ordering sites higher... They are marketing to Women here....
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Tell that to the pigs..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Submitting patent for "Male Enhancement" setting now...
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Screw the pregnant women setting... tell me more about this "wall penetration" mode!
"Granulated Sugar", "Naturally Fat-Free": http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81FrZPL-AlL._SY679_.jpg
Or alternatively, cover them with a piece of electrical tape (nah, too sticky).
really if your router can truely penetrate walls then maybe “pregnant women” is actaully a useful setting... my router works the old fashioned way and bounces the signal off walls to get to the other rooms. very little penetration going on
one of three possible things is true.
1) your joke just whoooshed over my head
2) the walls in your house are extremely dense
3) you are extremely dense.
I mean, it's all files under unix. You just redirect your outputthere...
Do NOT allow Jenny McCarthy to learn of this! This is probably the breakthrough in finding out what really causes autism! It's those damned routers!
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
You mean like the person I was replying to already suggested? I think that option is well known.
Insert obligatory dihydrogen monoxide reference.
Dihydrogen monoxide is dangerous to children. It is a leading cause of accidental death. Children should be supervised when immersed in it. And absolutely beware of electron flows when immersed, both children and adults.
Yep, like that. My electrical tape must have been covering his comment and I didn't see it, sorry.
Actually, we still haven't got a clue as to what the longterm problems might be with Wifi.. There are studies which suggest it IS harmfull..
Just think back, in the past they also said for decades, living under powerlines wasn't a problem, but now we do know it IS a problem...
This reminded me of a Mr. Show sketch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
(probably nsfw, ymmv)
It's not a router, but I've got a Onkyo amplifier that has lots of lights and doodads and of course an off switch. And an associated off LIGHT that turns on when the unit itself is turned off, and vice versa.
It's among the stupidest things I've even seen. It does work correctly though, so I guess I'll give them that.
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
In Korea, only old people know those memes.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
What I had in mind was dynamic, real-time power adaptive power:
The router starts in a user-defined low-power mode that was configured during the initial customer setup or manually re-configured at any later time.
I get close enough to connect.
It ramps up power just enough to give me maximum speed.
As I move away from the router, it senses that it needs to increase power and does so.
As I move closer to the router, it senses that and reduces power, but it doesn't drop it any lower than the pre-defined "low power mode."
If more than one device is connected, it keeps the power as high as needed for the device with the weakest signal.
To those saying "but if you move out of the range of the low-power signal and disconnect, you won't be able to re-connect unless another device is connected and by virtue of that connection, the router is still in a higher-than-low-power mode." This is true, and it is by design. As an option, the router could put a short delay in the power-reduction to account for short disconnections.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
And the competition would all advertise "Absolutely NO Frog or Larks Vomit In Our Product!"