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MICROSCOPES are invaluable tools to identify blood and other cells when screening for diseases like anemia, tuberculosis and malaria. But they are also bulky and expensive. An engineer at U.C.L.A. has adapted cellphones to do the work of microscopes in screening for diseases. Now an engineer, using software that he developed and about $10 worth of off-the-shelf hardware, has adapted cellphones to substitute for microscopes. “We convert cellphones into devices that diagnose diseases,” said Aydogan Ozcan, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and member of the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, who created the devices....

I wish I was making this up:Lifeline BenefitsLifeline Assistance is part of a program that was created by the government to provide discounted or free telephone service to income-eligible consumers. To help bring you this important benefit, SafeLink Wireless is proud to offer Lifeline Service. Through our Lifeline Service you will receive FREE cellular service, a FREE cell phone, and FREE Minutes every month! SafeLink Wireless Service does not cost anything – there are no contracts, no recurring fees and no monthly charges. Any Minutes you do not use will roll-over. Features such as caller ID, call waiting and voicemail...

The Fresno sheriff's office reported on Monday the arrest of a man who they say broke into a house in broad daylight.

As reported by United Kingdom New Sources such as the London Telegraph and UK Daily Express, Extended use of cellular phones could lead to elevated risks of developing cancer according to a 10 year long study. A report overseen by the World Health Organization which surveyed 12,800 people in 13 countries and will be published later this year, has allegedly found that heavy use of cellular phones can contribute to the development of brain cancer. According to the study, those who regularly used mobiles for longer than 10 years were almost 40 percent more likely to develop nervous system tumors...

FIVE Sydney men have been found guilty of conspiring to plan a terrorist attack using high-powered guns and homemade bombs designed to cause mass death and destruction on Australian soil. A Supreme Court jury took four weeks and three days to find Mohamed Ali Elomar, 44, Abdul Rakib Hasan, 40, Mohammed Omar Jamal, 25, Moustafa Cheikho, 32, and his uncle Khaled Cheikho, 36, guilty of conspiring to do acts in preparation for a terrorist act or acts. The Daily Telegraph reports the men, all from Sydney's south-west, were accused of stockpiling weapons and chemicals for use in the pursuit of...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California first lady Maria Shriver says she's sorry for breaking a state law that requires drivers to use hands-free devices while talking on cell phones. The celebrity Web site TMZ.com posted two photographs and a video Tuesday showing Shriver holding a phone to her ear while she was behind the wheel. That prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to write about it on Twitter, where he said "there's going to be swift action." On Wednesday, Shriver said she will donate her favorite old cell phone to a program that helps domestic violence. She added: "That's my version of swift...

Dear Gov. Schwarzenegger, While you were Twittering a few minutes ago about the "swift action" coming to Maria, your scofflaw wife was at it again -- jawing away on a handheld cell phone while driving in Brentwood. Maria Shriver: Click to watch But it gets worse ... while Maria was illegally yappin' away (the third time she's been photographed doin' it) she saw our cameraman catching the illegal activity on tape -- and that's when she dropped the phone in an attempt to cover it up! The tape does not lie.... Arnold, the fines are bad enough -- but do...

The NYPD is amassing a database of cell phone users, instructing cops to log serial numbers from suspects' phones in hopes of connecting them to past or future crimes. In the era of disposable, anonymous cell phones, the file could be a treasure-trove for detectives investigating drug rings and other criminal enterprises, police sources say. "It's used to help build cases," one source said of the new initiative. "It doesn't replace the human element, like debriefing prisoners, but it's another tool to use that we didn't have in the past." A recent internal memo says that when cops make an...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration moved Thursday to put new restrictions on the use of cell phones while driving, including banning text messaging by truck drivers and interstate bus operators.

BULLETIN -- NEW YORK POLICE AND FBI RAID HOMES IN QUEENS IN TERRORISM INVESTIGATION.6 minutes ago from BNO Headquarters

Here is a video report about Maryland Prison officials who are struggling to prevent the illegal use of cell phones by prison inmates. More than 900 cell phones were confiscated from inmates last year. Inmates have reportedly used smuggled cell phones to make extortion calls, and even order hits on witnesses. NOTE: It makes you wonder just how prevalent this problem is around the country. . . . (VIDEO)

ALERT ALERTThe LG battery that was in my wife's Verizon cellphone shorted out and became EXTREMELY HOT TO THE TOUCH and causing other items in the purse to get HOT. The battery is an LG Lithium Ion 3.7v 1000mAh, part number of LGIP-520B We contacted Verizon and I put a report into the Consumer Product Safety Commision website. I couldn't find anything online about this problem with this battery.

On Thursday’s Newsroom, CNN’s Rick Sanchez couldn’t get a straight answer out of Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee about her cell phone use during a recent health care town hall, and after he repeatedly asked why she did it and if it was disrespectful, the Texas Democrat bizarrely raised the possibility that the YouTube video of her on the phone was “doctored” [the entire interview can be viewed here; audio clips from the segment are available here].

Here is video of CNN's Rick Sanchez getting into a heated back and forth exchange with Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee over the fact she talked on her cell phone at a Town Hall Meeting while a woman was trying to ask her a question. NOTE: Video of Lee using Cell Phone at Town Hall included Sanchez asked her "What were you thinking?" Lee started rambling about everything except what he asked her about! Sanchez then interrupted Lee and said, Congresswoman, you are not answering my question." Lee actually said the video of her talking on the cell phone "may...

Shelia Jackson Lee answers her cell phone while a person in the audience is addressing her at a town hall meeting in Houston, TX.

Driving and using cell phones - we all know the dangers. But now, new evidence suggests it's not only dangerous, but deadly. Federal officials have long had the evidence that shows drivers on the roads, who are talking on a cell phone, hands free or not, are running the risk of getting involved in a deadly accident. Officials recommend talking on a cell phone while driving should only be done in an emergency. However, this evidence never saw the light of day. A long-term study the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggested to fully assess the threat was never done....

Agency Reportedly Feared Angering Congress NEW YORK -- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gathered hundreds of pages of research and warnings about the hazards of drivers using cell phones, but withheld the information from the public in part out of fear of angering Congress, a newspaper reported Monday. The former head of the traffic safety agency, Dr. Jeffrey Runge, told The New York Times that he was urged to withhold the findings to avoid antagonizing members of Congress who warned the agency against lobbying states. Runge said transit officials told him he could jeopardize billions of dollars of its...

How did I get here? That has to be the question Staten Island teen Alexa Longueira was asking when she suddenly found herself down a New York City manhole. According to MyFox New York:Alexa Longueira was walking down Victory Boulevard and getting ready to text-message when she fell into an open sewer manhole. Now the city is trying to figure out why the manhole was left open and unblocked. Alexa suffered some cuts and scrapes but is otherwise OK. So just how did Alexa end up in a manhole? Seems the young lady was too busy texting to pay attention...

A Georgia liquor store clerk credits his police officer son with giving him two life-saving gifts — a cell phone and a gun. Joseph Wescott says the phone he slipped into his shirt pocket stopped a knife to his chest when a robbery suspect attacked him at the store in a northern Atlanta suburb. He then reached under the counter for the .40-caliber handgun and shot the man. "The knife that he had looked like it was about 10-foot long," the 67-year-old Wescott exclaimed.

ROSWELL, Ga. — A Georgia liquor store clerk credits his police officer son with giving him two life-saving gifts — a cell phone and a gun. Joseph Wescott says the phone he slipped into his shirt pocket stopped a knife to his chest when a robbery suspect attacked him at the store in a northern Atlanta suburb. He then reached under the counter for the .40-caliber handgun and shot the man. "The knife that he had looked like it was about 10-foot long," the 67-year-old Wescott exclaimed. When the suspect lunged at Wescott, he fell back and the knife struck...

The IRS wants to tax the use of cell phones issued to individuals as a fringe benefit. According to The Wall Street Journal, "The Internal Revenue Service proposed employers assign 25% of an employee's annual phone expenses as a taxable benefit."

Frequent European and International travelers are well versed in Air France’s e-services and have been using these new e-services since 2007. Unfortunately, most Americans are have no idea this technology even exists simply because the American airline industry and the American Government are against passengers using mobile phones, pda., etc. aboard commercial aircraft. This post is intended for the uninformed American readers who don’t have a clue to other countries technologies… 1. Mobile phones and GPRS can be used on aircraft equipped with the relevant technology, such as Mobile OnAir that has been certified by the airworthiness authorities. The passenger’s...

Move Over, BlackBerry Thumb, Guitar Hero Wrist And Carpal Tunnel!(CBS) You've heard of Blackberry Thumb, Guitar Hero Wrist and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The latest over-use or repetitive motion injury to join the Digital Age list is Cell Phone Elbow, says CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton. It's known in the medical community as Cubital Tunnel Syndrome, Ashton said on The Early Show Wednesday. It's caused by too much bending of your arm to put a cell phone to your ear, Ashton explains. That compresses the ulnar nerve, which runs along the bony bump on the inside of the elbow. Pressure...

SNIPPET: "U.S. Airways flight 4423 was supposed to leave Lynchburg for Charlotte around 2:30 p.m., Airport Director Mark Courtney said. Instead, it was delayed for nearly three hours while Transportation Security Administration workers and local law enforcement made sure it was safe to fly. Campbell County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Kevin Schmitt said a 23-year-old man was overheard on his mobile phone making the comments while he was standing in the airport lobby. “He was overheard by a TSA official making the comment that the plane wouldn’t make it to Charlotte — that it would fall out of the sky,” Schmitt...

NEW BEDFORD — A 21-year-old man recently walked along Orchard and Hawthorn streets, when a stranger approached and asked for a cigarette. The man felt uneasy and tried to run away. However, two men appeared and assaulted the victim. They stole the man's Sidekick — a high-tech cell phone with a flashy flip screen and keyboard popular among teens and young adults. Like Air Jordan sneakers and iPods before it, the Sidekick is also coveted by criminals. According to police reports, there have been 12 to 16 robberies in New Bedford this year in which someone was accosted for a...

... Williams said he attempted to use the man’s cell phone signal to locate him, but the man was behind on his phone bill and the Verizon operator refused to connect the signal unless the sheriff’s department agreed to pay the overdue bill. After some disagreement, Williams agreed to pay $20 on the phone bill in order to find the man. But deputies discovered the man just as Williams was preparing to make arrangements for the payment. ... “I was more concerned for the person’s life,” Williams said. “It would have been nice if Verizon would have turned on his...

 While the Pennsylvania legislature passed up a ban on driving while texting or talking on a cell phone, it did pass new guidelines on the use of cell phones while driving.The legislature hopes that these guidelines will not only help make the roads safer, but pave the way for video game use on the road. Glendale White, PennDOT's driver's education spokesperson, said the state will benefit from smarter cell phone motoring."We want to raise awareness that if you must talk on a cell phone about whether Lindsey snubbed you last night, or whether you should buy Coors or Budweiser at...

Dirty Dozen Ugliest and Lamest Cell Phones Ugly only begins to describe what is wrong with these cell phones. Some of them lack such phone basics as keypads and displays. Daniel Ionescu, PC World Sunday, May 03, 2009 10:00 PM PDT Twelve Cell Phones We Love to Hate Some cell phones really look great, but are impossible to use. Other cell phones have cool features, but are ugly ducklings. Then there are those rare mobile monstrosities that fail at both looks and usability. Some have pricing issues as well. Now to be fair, many cell phone makers fail when they...

In a high-tech shift accelerated by the recession, the number of U.S. households opting for only cell phones has for the first time surpassed those that just have traditional landlines. It is the freshest evidence of the growing appeal of wireless phones. Twenty percent of households had only cells during the last half of 2008, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released Wednesday. That was an increase of nearly 3 percentage points over the first half of the year, the largest six-month increase since the government started gathering such data in 2003.

EASTVALE - A carjacker on parole was arrested Thursday after one of his victims followed him until deputies arrived. Riverside County sheriff's deputies from the Jurupa Valley station responded at 7:35 p.m. to a robbery call in a parking lot of a business in the 12600 block of Limonite Avenue, according to a sheriff's news release. Deputies got additional information that the suspect used a gun during the incident and that a wallet and cell phone were taken. The victim continued to talk to dispatch to inform them he was following the suspect who was driving a stolen vehicle. Deputies...

Original in German; here's a Babelfish translation: T-mobile had today a country wide loss in the portable radio net. Speaking and SMS services were concerned. The cause of the today's disturbance in the portable radio enterprise of T-mobile is recognized. Reason was a software fault in the so-called Home location register (HLR). The HLR is responsible to make a connection between portable radio station and the associated portable radio number. After putting the system back the first parts of the net are again available since approx. 19:00 clock. That can lead isolated to an overload in the net. We assume...

CHEYENNE — In one month, a Cheyenne teenager sent 10,000 text messages and received about the same — all while her family's plan did not include texting. That means the family's provider — Verizon — charged them for each incoming and outgoing text message. The girl's parents, Gregg and Jaylene Christoffersen, thought texting had been disabled, so one can imagine their surprise when they got the monthly phone bill and it asked for $4,756.25. "It just hit us like a rock, like you're stepping into a bus," Gregg Christoffersen said. The bill was legit. Dena Christoffersen, 13, had apparently been...

Vandals cut an AT&T fiber-optic cable in San Jose early this morning, knocking out landline and cellular phone service and the Internet to thousands of residential customers and businesses in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties, authorities said.Police used yellow tape to cordon off the area, which is near railroad tracks, as investigators and phone company workers descended into an underground vault where the cable is located. "We're treating this as a crime scene," Lopez said.The outage is affecting 911 service, meaning people who have an emergency will have to get to a police or fire station or...

China-made mobiles will go dead soon 3 Apr 2009, 0346 hrs IST, Vinay Madhav, TNN BANGALORE: China-made mobile handsets that have flooded the grey market are to be phased out within the next 10 days. These handsets are seen as a security threat, prompting the move. The department of telecommunication has sent a communication to Cellular Operators Association of India asking them to block services to handsets that have 15-digit International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers. It is only the Chinese mobiles that have 15-digit numbers; other handsets come with 16-digit IMEIs. The problem arises because on service providers’ computers,...

Inmates have devised an innovative way to smuggle in cell phones into a prison farm in Brazil: carrier pigeons. Guards at the Danilio Pinheiro prison near the southeastern city of Sorocaba noticed a pigeon resting on an electric wire with a small cloth bag tied to one of its legs last week. "The guards nabbed the bird after luring it down with some food and discovered components of a small cell phone inside the bag," police investigator Celso Soramiglio said Tuesday. One day later, another pigeon was spotted dragging a similar bag inside the prison's exercise yard. Inside the bag...

WASHINTON – Thanks to a little known provision in the recent stimulus bill, your cell phone number will soon be in the hands of any telemarketing firm willing to pay the government’s fee. Section 411 of the bill empowers the FCC to ‘raise government funds through the sale of information assets’. The language is so vague that there were no concerns at the time over the potential impact, but telemarketing firms have been beating a path to the FCC’s door since they quietly announced the availability of the information that cellular providers are required by law to file with the...

All that cell phone location-tracking technology you see on “24” really exists. The law says we can’t use it to track terror suspects or kidnappers domestically, but can use it in foreign countries. But we can’t talk about that. At least not on the record. Or attributed. (So this is off the record. And anonymous.) Here’s how Fox News explains it: ...

Ever think the airport security is a little too tight? Perhaps you have wondered why on earth you would need to have your cell phone x-rayed? Well maybe this video will shed some light on the situation: (Video on site) http://www.notoriouslyconservative.com/2009/03/hey-watch-where-your-pointing-your-cell.html Wikipedia: While most improvised firearms are single shot, multiple shot version are also encountered. The simplest multi-shot zip guns are derringer-like, and consist of a number of single shot zip guns attached together. In late 2000, European police encountered a four shot .22 LR zip gun disguised as a cellphone, where different keys on the keypad fire different barrels....

Pop singer Crystal Waters did a song many years ago called “She’s Homeless.” The hook went like this: “She’s just like you and me, but she is homeless, she is homeless.” In D.C., the homeless are just like you and me, and they have cell phones, they have cell phones.

GENEVA (AP) — Six in 10 people around the world now have cell phone subscriptions, signaling that mobile phones are the communications technology of choice, particularly in poor countries, according to a U.N. report published Monday. By the end of last year there were an estimated 4.1 billion subscriptions globally, compared with about 1 billion in 2002, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said. Fixed line subscriptions increased at a much slower pace to 1.27 billion from about 1 billion over the same period. "There has been a clear shift to mobile cellular telephony," the agency said, noting that developing countries...

  While waiting for a Caribbean cruise liner to set sail from the Port of Miami last November, a Chicago native with an AT&T wireless card and Slingbox decided to catch the Bears vs. Lions football game on his laptop. The end result? A $28,067.31 bill from for international data charges, despite the ship never leaving the harbor. Apparently the card was picking up a signal it shouldn't have, and while the bill was eventually dropped to $290.65 after a considerable number of calls to customer service, let that be a warning to mobile users traveling on the fringe...

In agony from abdominal cramps, the California Men’s Colony (CMC) inmate was bent over groaning when correctional officers discovered him, and though initially reticent, the man finally confessed to smuggling. He had a contraband cell phone and its charging unit in his rectum. Surgery was required, but that kind of solution won’t help state officials now wrestling with an exploding surge in cell phone possession by inmates of California’s state prisons. Last year alone, more than 2,800 cell phones were confiscated from inmates in the system, recipients of ever more clever methods developed to bootleg the devices into the hands...

"The investigation revealed that the suspect had forced the woman into his vehicle in front of her San Jose residence -- then struck her repeatedly as he drove toward Southern California. When Quintero-Guzman stopped at the motel, the victim was able to use his cellphone to call for help."

First Samsung Phones with Embedded Projection Based on DLP Pico Chipset Samsung Electronics in conjunction with Texas Instruments (TI) announce the first mobile phones with embedded projection in a contemporary form factor. The Samsung projector phones (Model: I7410 for European market, W7900 for Korean market) utilize the Texas Instruments, DLP Pico Chipset to remove the limitations of the traditional mobile phone screen by easily providing "big picture" viewing experiences. Building upon the recent excitement and momentum generated at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show in January, the Samsung projector phones can project content with flexible image sizes much larger than...

More analysts speculate on a Microsoft phone By John Letzing, MarketWatch Last update: 2:20 p.m. EST Feb. 5, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Analysts from Broadpoint.AmTech on Thursday became the latest to speculate publicly that Microsoft Corp. intends to release a branded cell phone, likely in the second half of this year. Analysts Rob Sanderson and Mark McKechnie wrote in a research note that "multiple industry sources are telling us that [Microsoft] is planning to launch a smartphone," or a mobile device featuring more advanced functionality and capable of accessing the Internet. "We do not see this as landscape changing,...

SAADIYAH, Iraq — Iraqi police officers found explosives planted at a polling station Sunday morning here, the latest incident in a tense run-up to provincial elections in northeast Diyala province. The officers found two anti-tank mines with cell phone detonators at a school that will act as a polling station in Saadiyah, north of Baghdad in a part of Iraq disputed between Kurds and Arabs, U.S. military officials said. An Iraqi army explosives ordnance team defused and disposed of the explosives, officials said. Two men hired to guard the school were arrested for suspected complicity in the bombing plot, an...

Seconds after BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed Oscar Grant, police immediately began confiscating cell phones containing videos that have yet to see the light of day. In fact, the only videos that have been seen by the public were filmed by people who managed to leave the scene before police confronted them.In one instance, police chased after Karina Vargas after she stepped on the train, banging on the window after the doors closed and demanding her to turn over the camera. The train sped away with Vargas still holding her camera.Her video, which did not show the...

Have you remembered to pay heed to Barack Obama worship services at his inauguration this Tuesday? If you are a Verizon customer you just might be getting an urgent reminder of this sacred duty in the form of a robocall as related by Brian Maloney of the Radio Equalizer: Yesterday, I was all set to write a smug, self-congratulatory post regarding my tremendous wisdom in finally dumping Comcast a few weeks ago for the complete Verizon Fios package, including cable. With Comcrap now establishing an all-Obama channel, isn’t it finally time to make the switch? Sadly, however, Verizon did something...

A national safety group is advocating a total ban on cell phone use while driving, saying the practice is clearly dangerous and leads to fatalities. States should ban drivers from using hand-held and hands-free cell phones, and businesses should prohibit employees from using cell phones while driving on the job, the congressionally chartered National Safety Council says, taking those positions for the first time. The group's president and chief executive, Janet Froetscher, likened talking on cell phones to drunken driving, saying cell phone use increases the risk of a crash fourfold. ``When our friends have been drinking, we take the...

The New York Police Department is looking for ways to disrupt cell phone calls and other forms of electronic communication among terrorists in the event of another terror attack in New York, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says. The need to disrupt communications is one of several conclusions that the NYPD has drawn from studying the November attack in Mumbai, India, a three-day rampage by machine gun and grenade-wielding Islamic militants in which at least 165 people were killed and 304 were wounded. Kelly is scheduled to discuss this and other "lessons learned" in testimony Thursday before the Senate Committee on...