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After a week of intense media foreplay, Obama has finally embarked on his magical mystery tour. As he boarded the plane that took him on the first leg of his anxiously awaited Middle East and European tour, a pair of uniformed Air Force officers saluted simultaneously, as they do each time President Bush boards Air Force One. As the media-anointed President in waiting, Obama is virtually guaranteed superstar non-stop media coverage as he makes his taxpayer financed 'fact finding' tour this week. Joining him on this excellent adventure are all three of the major network anchors who will cover his...

Drivers who cause fatal accidents while on mobile phones face up to 14 years in jail Last updated at 11:09am on 15.07.08   Getting tough: The new sentencing rules target mobile phone use by drivers. Posed by model. Motorists who cause fatal accidents while texting or talking on mobiles could face up to 14 years in prison from today. Drivers involved in death crashes after drinking or taking drugs face similar penalties, as will those who were driving at greatly excessive speed over long distances. Under new sentencing guidelines sent to the courts today which come into immediate effect, there...

Over the years I have read stories on FR about reports of muslim males buying huge numbers of pre-paid cell phones, often triggering calls to law enforcement. While I don't generally discount reports from local media outlets (remember the OU bombing?), it seems crazy that this would be going on with nary a peep from other sources. Here is my odd story about this. ~3 months ago I was in New Orleans, and purchased a prepaid cell phone at a story on Royal street almost at canal (quarter-side). The store proprietors were obviously muslim, don't know if pak. or arab....

Mobile phones have become an essential component of modern living. However, the marked increase in the use of wireless mobile telephony throughout the world has also raised some serious health concerns, as mobile phones utilize electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range. While currently available data does not show any negative health effects resulting from the low levels of electromagnetic energy emitted by mobile phones, there is some conflicting scientific evidence that may be worth additional study, according to FDA. "We don't see a risk looking at currently available data, but we need more definite answers about the biological effects of...

I can't get cell phone service where I live because of environMENTALists' restrictions (cell towers aren't pretty), but would like to have a cell phone in my car for emergencies. Since I can't use the phone at home, I'd like the least expensive phone possible. Any suggestions?

Washington is poised to make driving while talking on hand-held cell phones illegal. New Jersey has already been down this road. The cell-phone ban for Washington will start Tuesday and will be similar to a New Jersey law that went into effect in 2003. Washington's law makes it a secondary offense. That means police must find a driver committing another violation such as speeding before stopping drivers for holding a cell phone up to their ear. New Jersey's law also began as a secondary offense. State officials there found the law toothless and difficult to enforce, said William Cicchetti,...

SACRAMENTO - Drop the iPhone and listen up, because the rules of the road are changing. Starting Tuesday, it's against the law to use a hand-held cell phone while driving in California. If you want to make a call, you're going to have to use the speaker phone or some hands-free device. Otherwise, tickets start at $20 and rise to $50 on subsequent offenses. But with that said, don't worry too much if you forget – the only hit is to your bank account. A ticket for this won't add points to your license. It'll be an infraction, not a...

Cell-phone-driving ban takes effect July 1 in Washington On July 1, the new law takes effect in Washington that bans driving while using a hand-held cell phone.   OLYMPIA, Wash. — On July 1, the new law takes effect in Washington that bans driving while using a hand-held cell phone.Drivers caught holding a mobile phone to their ear risk a $124 ticket. To talk on a phone drivers should use a handsfree headset or speaker phone. But, the law allows exceptions for people reporting an emergency or crime.The violation is a so-called secondary offense. That means an officer must...

Seven ninth-graders at Pascack Valley High School have been suspended for the rest of the school year for distributing racy photos of middle school girls via cell phones and school-issued laptops. A student who saw the photos on a laptop tipped off a teacher, and the administration alerted Hillsdale police last week, district Superintendent Benedict Tantillo III said today. More than 20 girls who are now in ninth grade were in the photos, the superintendent said. Some pictures appeared to have been taken two or three years ago, and some of the subjects moved to private high school instead of...

What it all means According to the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA), specific absorption rate, or SAR, is "a way of measuring the quantity of radiofrequency (RF) energy that is absorbed by the body." For a phone to pass FCC certification, that phone's maximum SAR level must be less than 1.6W/kg (watts per kilogram). In Europe, the level is capped at 2W/kg while Canada allows a maximum of 1.6W/kg. The SAR level listed in our charts represents the highest SAR level with the phone next to the ear as tested by the FCC. Keep in mind that it is possible...

WASHINGTON - From Jeannie Harrison's perspective, the social lives of most teenagers tend to revolve around their cell phones -- even when they are behind the wheel. "People don't want to be inaccessible for even 15 minutes driving up the street," said Harrison, 19, a sophomore at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. "They're so used to being accessible all the time." Targeting inexperienced motorists, several states have passed laws during the past five years restricting cell phone use by teenage drivers. But an insurance industry study being released Monday that looked at whether teens are ignoring such restrictions contends enforcement...

What do brain surgeons know about cellphone safety that the rest of us don’t? Last week, three prominent neurosurgeons told the CNN interviewer Larry King that they did not hold cellphones next to their ears. “I think the safe practice,” said Dr. Keith Black, a surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, “is to use an earpiece so you keep the microwave antenna away from your brain.” Dr. Vini Khurana, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Australian National University who is an outspoken critic of cellphones, said: “I use it on the speaker-phone mode. I do not hold...

Good news for luxury mobile phone lovers. Following Prada and Giorgio Armani’s example, Christian Dior is making their Diorphone available in their boutiques. For only €3,500, you can score yourself two phones for the price of one. Yes, the special thing about this phone, is you receive a mini phone with it.

<p>Sometimes, simpler is better — even in war and counterterrorism. Who would have guessed that a secret weapon in the fight to defeat terrorists and insurgents would turn out to be ... the mundane cell phone?</p> <p>As a general rule, insurgents worldwide don't much like the sight of a civilian holding a cell phone. All it takes is one quick phone call, and here comes the cavalry.</p>

A Texas service member and his son recently found themselves separated not only by an eight-hour time difference, several bodies of water and hundreds of miles, but by a teacher who tried to come between the two as the military dad called his son in his time of need during class.

London, March 30: Puffing kills. But a new study, led by an Indian-origin researcher, claims that mobiles phones are more dangerous than fags. "Though mobiles can save lives in emergencies, there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours (which can lead to cancer). "It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking," the study`s lead author Dr Vini Khurana was quoted by `the independent` newspaper as saying. Smoking kills some five million worldwide each year, according to the world health organisation....

Dr. Khurana says there may be broader health ramifications than asbestos or smoking. What? Now just think about that. Again, I foresee a huge higher tax on cell phone use and a higher health and life insurance premium. And maybe people (like me) that don't use cell phones unless its an emergency, would rather not be seated in bars and restaurants where cell phones are in use. Ah, can you say ban?

Study: Cell Phones Could Be More Dangerous Than Cigarettes Sunday , March 30, 2008 A study by an award-winning cancer expert shows that cell phone use could kill more people than smoking, it is reported. According to the U.K.'s Independent newspaper, the study, headed by Dr. Vini Khurana, shows that there is a growing body of evidence that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Khurana — one of the world's top neurosurgeons — based his assessment on the fact that three billion people now use the phones worldwide. That is three times...

The Hemisphere: Raul Castro is making hay from "reforms" allowing his subjects access to toasters and cell phones. Big deal. What Cubans need is cash to buy them. That can only come with real economic freedom.As befits a new dictator seeking to win some popularity, Castro is lifting ownership restrictions for ordinary Cubans on mobile phones, computers, DVD players, even toasters. But unlike the toasters that U.S. banks used to give away, these don't come free. Each of Raul's offerings to buy goods comes with a state-set price most Cubans have no realistic prospect of affording. Average Cuban salaries, minus...

Raul Castro is making hay from "reforms" allowing his subjects access to toasters and cell phones. Big deal. What Cubans need is cash to buy them. That can only come with real economic freedom.

HAVANA - President Raul Castro's government is allowing ordinary Cubans to have cell phones. The luxury was previously reserved for those who worked for foreign firms or held key posts with the communist-run state. Friday's decree officially lifts a major restriction on daily life in Cuba.

Former presidential candidates John Edwards and Fred Thompson will deliver keynote addresses on the final day of CTIA WIRELESS 2008®, Thursday, April 3 at 9:30 a.m. at the Las Vegas Hilton, Barron Room. CTIA WIRELESS 2008 takes place April 1 – 3 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. John Edwards was a candidate for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President. Edwards served as U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1999-2005 and was John Kerry’s vice presidential running mate in 2004. Fred Thompson was a candidate for the 2008 Republican nomination for President. He served as U.S. Senator from Tennessee from...

You might not know it, but as of January it became illegal in California for companies to require workers to have devices implanted under their skin that would reveal their whereabouts at all times. State Sen. Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) called his legislation a safeguard against "the ultimate invasion of privacy." Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the bill into law in October. But your privacy may not be completely safe. The same chip-based technology that California won't allow to be forcibly placed under people's skin will soon be ubiquitous in cellphones, which the telecom industry believes will be increasingly used as...

KABUL–Taliban attacks on telecom towers have prompted cellphone companies to shut down service across southern Afghanistan, angering a quarter million customers who have no other telephones. Even some Taliban fighters now regret the disruptions and are demanding that service be restored by the companies. The communication blackout follows a campaign by the Taliban, which said the United States and NATO were using the fighters' cellphone signals to track them at night and launch pinpoint attacks. About 10 towers have been attacked since the warning late last month – seven of them seriously – causing almost $2 million in damage, the...

Myth: If you use your Blackberry or cellphone in flight, the plane will crash. False: The FAA has tested all sorts of electronic devices for 25 years, at 100 times the RF interference levels—and nothing happened. The FAA simply states that no link between operating the devices has been proved. It's been left up to the airlines to determine their own policy—and that policy is to put away your Blackberry. By using your cellphone during flight, you risk interfering with a flight crew—but the plane won't crash.

A Harvard biology professor’s fascination with seafloor microbes has led to the development of a revolutionary, low-cost power system consuming garbage, compost, and other waste that could provide light for the developing world. Assistant Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Peter Girguis has developed a fuel cell run by the natural activity of anaerobic microbes. The cells can be manufactured for just a few U.S. dollars, putting them within reach of many of the world’s poor who today do not have access to electricity. Though the power output is relatively low, Girguis said it should be sufficient to run low-energy...

A burqa may not be the flirtiest garment ever invented for women. The highly modest head-to-toe robe even shrouds the eyes, so for centuries it's been difficult for women wearing them to send suggestive signals to men. But now a German designer has debuted a digitally-enabled burqa that can broadcast a photo of the wearer to nearby mobile phones. Markus Kison calls it the "CharmingBurka," and says it isn't forbidden by Islamic law. A model demonstrated a prototype of Kison's garment at the Seamless 2008 design and fashion show in Boston, a high-tech fashion event run with support from the...

Radiation From Mobile Phones Changes Protein Expression In Living People, Study SuggestsA new study on effects of mobile phone radiation on human skin strengthens the results of the human cell line analyses: living tissue responds to mobile phone radiation. (Credit: iStockphoto/Luis Pedrosa) ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2008) — A new study completed by the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) on effects of mobile phone radiation on human skin strengthens the results of the human cell line analyses: living tissue responds to mobile phone radiation. Earlier studies have shown that mobile phone radiation (radiofrequency modulated electromagnetic fields; RF-EMF) alters protein...

The Taliban has made some strange demands before, but the latest has everyone scratching their heads. They now want cell-phone networks to go dark at night, and if they refuse, the Taliban will begin blowing up cell phone offices and masts: The Taleban have threatened to blow up telephone masts across Afghanistan unless mobile phone companies agree to switch off their signals at night. They say that US and other foreign troops are using the signals to track down insurgents. The Taleban have warned the masts and offices of the mobile companies will be destroyed unless their demands are met....

Is the U.S. Failing in Afghanistan? It was malice in wonderland at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday as Bush Administration envoys insisted things are getting better in Afghanistan, while angry lawmakers from both parties cited facts and figures showing just the opposite. Even the senior Republican on the panel, Senator Richard Lugar, found the Administration's claims wanting. "I'm not sure that we have a plan for Afghanistan," he said. Long seen as the "forgotten war" eclipsed by Iraq in U.S. priorities, Afghanistan is in the Washington spotlight this week with the release of three independent reports concluding...

It's been dubbed the Mystery of the Missing iPhones. On Jan. 22, Apple reported that it sold 3.7 million units of its smartphones worldwide through the end of 2007. But AT&T, the exclusive U.S. iPhone reseller and by far the largest buyer of the devices, reported that its subscribers activated fewer than 2 million units last year. The big question on the minds of Apple watchers is: Where have the other 1.7 million iPhones gone? The uncertainty has helped sink Apple's (AAPL) stock price to $130 a share, down 34% since the beginning of the year. That is far worse...

Cell Phone Sensors Detect Radiation To Thwart Nuclear TerrorismPurdue physics professor Ephraim Fischbach, at right, and nuclear engineer Jere Jenkins review radiation-tracking data as part of research to develop a system that would use a network of cell phones to detect and track radiation. Such a system could help prevent terrorist attacks with radiological "dirty bombs" and nuclear weapons by blanketing the nation with millions of cell phones equipped with radiation sensors able to detect even light residues of radioactive material. Because cell phones already contain global positioning locators, the network of phones would serve as a tracking system. (Credit:...

An Israeli doctor participating in an international study, has found a link between cellular phone use and cancer, and recommends that cell phone use be limited among children. The study was conducted in 16 countries, with Israel's Dr. Sigal Sadetzki, director of the Gertner Institute of Epidemiology and Health Policy Research at Sheba Medical Center concluding that standards should be reassessed and tightened to prevent radiation from cell phones. She said that current cell phone regulations do not relate to cancer caused by radiation, but rather to health risks posed by heat. The study, published Friday in the American Journal...

In the "no kidding?" hall of fame, a special place has been reserved for the just-released Transportation Research Board study that found cell phones (wait for it, now...) addle drivers. "The distracted driver tends to drive slower and have delayed reactions," said University of Utah psychology professor David Strayer, who coauthored this puppy. It's just incredible that we need a National Academy of Sciences-funded research project to belabor what ought to be obvious to anyone who's been out on the roads recently, and who has a smidgen of observational power and a dollop of common sense. How many times have...

Drivers talking on cell phones are probably making your commute even longer, concludes a new study.

...Like virtually everyone in America under 35, and like virtually no one over 35, I am now using only a cellphone. I have given up my land line. It happened almost by accident. One day, I changed my home phone service from Verizon to Comcast because Comcast had lowered its prices for a Special Introductory Offer. Right from the start, though, there were problems: People whom I phoned were telling me that my voice sounded like it was coming to them across a parking lot from the drive-through speaker at a Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits. ...soon afterward my phone went...

Rumors spread by cell phone text-messaging flew through a school after a student's suicide, rumors that other kids planned to kill themselves, that students planned to bring weapons to school, that there was going to be "a shoot 'em up." Panicked parents rushed to take their children home. But police and officials at Augusta High School say the panic turned out to be only a way for students to avoid taking semester-ending exams. ...An existing ban on cell phones at the school will be enforced when the winter break is over......Panicked parents headed to the campus, and by 10 a.m....

If you're over 50, you've probably had this experience: You're standing at a checkout counter, ready to pay, and the twentysomething behind the register is talking on her cell phone. So you wait, and wait, and wait, and when the clerk finally finishes her conversation, she offers not an apology, but a grimace that suggests you've interrupted. Sound familiar? It has a name: the Service Gap. That's not a hip clothing store for soldiers. Or a new motto for the London subway system. It's business-speak to describe a phenomenon fueling plenty of holiday-shopping frustration: the difference in how baby boomers...

Thoughts on Growing Cell Phone Use, Polls, and Election Integrity Will the growth in households with no landlines and only a cell phone begin to skew poll results in the near future? Some pollsters are concerned: With more American households giving up their old-fashioned land lines and using cellphones for all calls, public opinion researchers are facing a challenge of how to make sure they are getting representative samples when conducting polls. Since the 1970s, pollsters have relied on sampling techniques that depend on talking with people on their home land line telephones. For the most part, the polls sample...

SAN LEANDRO -- A teenager who was struck and killed by an Amtrak train in San Leandro while apparently absorbed in a cell phone call was identified by the Alameda County coroner's office today as 16-year-old Daniel Segundo. Segundo, a San Leandro resident, walked around a lowered crossing gate and onto the tracks before being hit at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday by a northbound Capitol Corridor train at the Alvarado Street crossing, about 8 miles south of the Oakland station, authorities said. The circumstances of Segundo's death remain under investigation. None of the 20 passengers or crew aboard the train was...

The ubiquity of the cell phone has finally prompted AT&T to pull out of the pay-phone business, the company announced on Monday. By the end of 2008, AT&T says, it will have exited the business completely. The nation's No. 1 wireless-network operator, AT&T says it expects independent operators to pick up service contracts on its pay phones, which, over the past 10 years, have shrunk in number to about 1 million nationwide from 2.6 million.

In the coming months, you'll see campaign ads everywhere: On billboards, bumpers, lawns, Facebook profiles. But did you ever think you'd hear one on a friend's cell phone? Did you ever think you'd want to? A company called YouMail launched a page last week with nine campaign-related voicemail recordings available for free download. Fans of certain candidates can set their greetings so they play to their whole address book or assign them only to a few select contacts. The idea hasn't yet taken off in any big way; only greetings supporting Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Rudolph Giuliani have been...

Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers. In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives...

WASHINGTON – Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers. In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.

That ringing in Becky Strawn’s ears came from her cell phone bill. Buried in the minutiae was a $9.99 charge for “Premium Features.” When she called her provider, Verizon, to learn what that meant, she was told it was for ringtones. Because she never ordered ringtones, that was news to Strawn, a Kansas City resident. It’s also news to other cell phone users who are learning to their chagrin that they are being targeted by unscrupulous text message spammers and now cell phone “crammers.” Cramming is when mysterious and unauthorized charges show up on your phone bill, courtesy of aggressive...

"All the complaints and feature requests we've had can be fixed and added by software upgrades"- Apple has confirmed that it has plenty more upgrades to come for the Apple iPhone. "All the complaints and feature requests we've had can be fixed and added by software upgrades", a spokesman for the company told Pocket-lint. The news will come as a relief to new customers who bought the company's mobile phone over the weekend and may have been disappointed by some of its limitations. Apple representatives told Pocket-lint: "We didn't want to include something for something's sake". Since its launch in...

Beginning March 1, people who send text messages or use hand-held cell phones while they drive should be prepared to fork over $100. Gov. Jon Corzine signed a bill yesterday that makes talking on a hand-held cell phone a primary offense, according to the National Council of State Legislatures. New Jersey becomes the fourth state to enact such a measure, joining California, Connecticut and New York. Currently, a law enacted in 2004 allows New Jersey police officers who spot drivers talking on a hand-held cell phone to ticket them, but only if they were caught committing another motor vehicle offense....

NEW YORK (AP) ― Cell phones are already banned in New York City public schools, but Mayor Michael Bloomberg would like to take it a step further and "jam" the signal for the kids who still bring them. Problem is, it's against the law to do so. "Just put it in every school, and even if the kid carried the cell phone in, they couldn't use it during the day," Bloomberg said Friday on his weekly radio show. "And I'd love to do that ... but I'm told that technology is illegal." Cell phone jamming is prohibited in the United...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A force as insidious as Dracula is quietly sucking a nickel of every dollar's worth of the electricity that seeps from your home's outlets. Insert the little fangs of your cell phone charger in the outlet and leave it there, phone attached: That's "vampire" electronics. Allow your computer to hide in the cloak of darkness known as "standby mode" rather than shutting it off: That's vampire electronics. [snip] In California, lawmakers passed a proposal last year -- dubbed the Vampire Slayers Act -- to add vampire electronics labels to consumer products, detailing how much energy a...

    Mobile phone firms plan to find out what you’re talking about . . . and tell advertisers   Elizabeth Judge   Mobile phone companies have drawn up plans to monitor text messages and voice calls and pass the information to advertisers. Companies such as Motorola have developed technology to scan messages for information about where customers are and what they are doing. They claim that the service would be used only with customers’ consent. But privacy groups had deep concerns about the technology and the potential for phone companies to abuse it. Under the Motorola plans, software...