NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

A Robocall Blocking Contest? You're On!

The Federal Trade Commission, overwhelmed by complaints about robocalls, is getting desperate. Come up with a winning solution and you could walk away with big prize money. No, it's not a scam.

If you've ever picked up the phone and heard an automated message you never agreed to get, that's a robocall. And it's illegal. The FTC fields more than 200,000 complaints about these calls every month -- many of which are scams, according to NPR's Lauren Silverman. In the fight to stop more than a billion robocalls, the FTC is asking citizens for solutions.

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The contest, called the FTC Robocall Challenge, will be accepting submissions until 5 pm EST January 17. According to the rules, the person or team that the judges think has the best overall solution gets $50,000 and a travel for up to two representatives to Washington, D.C. The winning solution will be announced on April 15.

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Robocallers can use Voice over Internet Protocol or VOIP from offshore locations to stay just beyond the FTC's grasp. That makes the challenge even harder. So far, hundreds of individuals and teams have submitted ideas for solutions. Some are high-tech, while others are fairly straightforward.

One submission by Ron Prosky highlighted on CNN Money proposes phone service providers offer a robocall filter called Robo Nono that asks inbound callers to enter a three-digit code in order to leave a voicemail message.

The Verge's Adrianne Jeffries pointed out that an app submitted to the contest, the Robocall Lookup Tool, allows robocall recipients to automatically submit the call details to a database and is currently free on iTunes. Another submission suggested simply turning your phone off and changing the outgoing voicemail message to say "Due to the number of robocalls I'm receiving, I've turned off my phone so that it won't ring," Silverman reported.

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Robocalls are basically phone spam, and they're awful to receive. To me, they're even worse than the early days of email spam because they tie up your phone line. That feels more personal somehow. Here's hoping someone out there has a solution that makes persistent robocalls a thing of the past.

Credit: Solarbotics

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Africa Has More Mobile Than U.S.: DNews Nugget

Africa Has More Mobile Phones than U.S.: In fact, the continent has more mobile phones than all of North America and Europe. Asia is the only place in the world with more mobile phones than Africa. There are currently 650 million subscribers in Africa, according to the World Bank. The market has grown 40-fold since 2000.

It shouldn't be a big surprise that they've boomed in popularity over the last decade or so. Landlines are expensive because they require a wired infrastructure; cellphones only require towers.

Having access to a cellular network seems to directly affect personal economic growth. And connectivity is leading to improvements in "telemedicine, mobile-to-mobile money-transfer services for people without bank accounts and climate adaptation measures like crop insurance and GPS mapping for anti-deforestation measures." via Quartz

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Funniest Auto Corrects of 2012: DNews Nugget

Funniest Auto Corrects of 2012: Thank you Buzzfeed for this wonderful list of the 25 Funniest Auto Corrects of the Year. My eyes are still watering. Chicken vaginas, poop parties, choking goats, the hamster life, happy birthday dead husband. You can't make this up. Even if you could, it still would be funny. For more, visit Damn You Auto Correct. via Buzzfeed

 

 

 

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Cellphones Are Changing School Emergency Plans

By Leslie Meredith, TechNewsDaily Senior Writer

 

Once seen as a nuisance, student cellphones now figure into school security plans. Credit: iBjorn/Flickr

In the past, schools and cellphones didn't mix. Teachers saw them as a distraction, and many schools banned their use in the classroom. But in the wake of school shootings over the past 13 years, school districts are beginning to change their policies.

Since the 1999 killings at Columbine High School in Colorado, school districts and law enforcement authorities have worked together on strategies to respond to violence in schools. Plans include how to protect students inside buildings, evacuate them and notify parents. Students and teachers practice lockdown drills, steps to secure the school so that no one can enter or exit.

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And technology is a big part of more recent plans, now that cellphone use among kids has grown. While most high school students wouldn't leave the house without their phones, children just starting school have cellphones, too. More than 1 in 10 kids between the ages of 6 to 10 already have their own cell, according to data collected during the first six months of 2012 by YouthBeat, a research firm that focuses on the use of technology by kids from preschool up to age 18.

After the Chardon High School shooting earlier this year, administrators at the small-town school in Ohio reported that students used their phones call 911 and to let their parents know they were safe. The school is now considering an update to their plan called ALICE — which stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate — in which cellphones play an important role.

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For instance, a mass text could direct students in case of a crisis. Teachers might send a text telling students to move outside if an intruder were at the opposite end of the building.

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Other uses for cellphones during an attack include sending texts to parents, teachers and students with accurate information to help quell rumors and as a way to manage traffic when parents converge on a school and can block emergency responders.

The usefulness of cellphones in a crisis is partly why many school districts now allow high school and middle school students to carry their phones.

After the Newtown, Conn., shooting, elementary schools could make the same allowance for their students. And perhaps more parents would decide to give even their youngest children phones of their own.

Interviewed on CNN, an unnamed mother of a child who survived the Newtown shootings said, "Let's go get her cellphone activated right now."

• Connecticut Shooting: How to Talk to Your Kids
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Copyright 2012 TechNewsDaily, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Oh, I WILL Find My iPhone!

If you've ever had your iPhone stolen, you have have erased it completely using Apple's "Find my iPhone." This feature, which can be accessed online or through another iOS device, allows you to remotely lock your missing device with a four-digit passcode. You can even go so far as to delete your personal data and restore your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac to its factory settings.

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Yesterday, Apple quietly released an update to the app that will show user's a road map to the exact location of a missing iPhone, iPad or iPod. When searching for the device's location on another iOS device, a tiny car icon will show up on the screen and when prompted, will provide directions to the lost device's whereabouts. The feature is only available on Apple device running iOS 6, so if you haven't already, bite the bullet and upgrade, if this kind of thing is important to you.

One would like to think this feature was added to serve as a memory jogger for those who may have left their phone somewhere and not as a tracker for a potential thief. Just be sure to have a cool head if you decide to hunt down your iPhone. It may be best to let the authorities handle it, or bring a big friend.

via PCMag

Credit: Rob Pegoraro / Discovery

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Plastic Could (Finally) Replace Glass

Everyone loves a good touch screen -- until it drops and gets cracked. The only other material that was feasible for them was plastic, but there wasn’t one that was strong and hard enough, until now.

Dai Nippon Printing, of Japan, unveiled a plastic that resists scratching as well as glass does and has the added bonus of being flexible. It would replace the glass covers that currently grace the fronts of smartphones.

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The display cover is actually comprised of separate layers: one is the resin that gives the display cover its hardness, while the other protects it from fingerprints. The company didn’t go into details about the composition of the plastic in its press release.

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How hard is the display? According to the company it has a “pencil hardness” of 9H, which means that a 9H pencil has a tough time scratching it; that’s comparable to many ceramics and enamels.

DNP also tested steel wool on it with a pressure of 7 pounds per square inch (500 grams per square centimeter) and found it still didn’t scratch after 200 scrapes.

Paper Makes Touch Screen Displays

Hardness is only one part of it, though. The fact that it's plastic means that it's slightly flexible, and that in turn means it won’t shatter when dropped. Any smartphone  owner will appreciate that. Plastic is also lighter than the same volume of glass.

On top of all that, the flexibility allows a bendy display.

DNP has said they will be shipping samples in the first part of 2013, so it isn’t clear if any smartphone makers have signed on. But anything that makes un-crackable touch screens is a welcome development for the butterfingered among us.

Credit: Dai Nippon Printing

Via TechOn, Dai Nippon Printing (In Japanese)

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Fox Steals Mobile Phone, Sends Text

When a fox nabbed Norwegian teenager Lars Andreas Bjercke's cell phone and stole away into the woods, the 16-year-old didn't anticipate hearing back from the furry animal. But that's what happened.

Bjercke had downloaded an app on his smartphone to make it emit rabbit noises, according to the site LiveLeak.com. Then he played the phone in his yard, prompting a local fox to circle the yard in response over the course of several nights.

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Bjercke and his friend Sigurd Grønvik Bachke decided to see what they could capture on video. With Bachke filming, Bjercke put his smartphone on the ground and the two watched as the fox investigated what must seem like very strange prey:

After the fox nabbed the smartphone, Bachke tried calling it using his own. According to the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang (in Norwegian), the fox apparently answered.

Bachke told the paper he heard something crunch like the fox was fiddling with the phone and then they listened for about five minutes. At first the kids thought it was funny until they remembered that the fox still had Bjercke's smartphone...somewhere. That's lame, they thought.

Then, a day after the fox took the device, one of Bjercke's friends contacted him through Facebook to say she'd received a weird text message from his phone: "jlv I øi\a0ab 34348tu åaugjoi zølbmosdji jsøg ijio sjiw." Fox language isn't on Google Translate yet, unfortunately.

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Since then, Bjercke has turned off his lost phone but told Verdens Gang reporters that he still hopes to find it one day. Who knows -- maybe the fox snapped some pics, too.

Photo: The fox, caught on video investigating Norwegian teen Lars Andreas Bjercke's cell phone. Credit: Sigurd Bachke (video).

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William Shatner's Words Are Yours To Arrange

Shatoetry for iPhone: $2.99

Over the past 50 years, a lot of things have changed in television. The shows we watch, how we watch and the people we watch have all evolved. But you know what's stayed the same? Our fascination with William Shatner. Love him or hate him, that guy has been all over TV and movies for almost half a century. The 81-year old actor has hit a new milestone with an app that lets users turn any group of words into a "Shatism."

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The Shatoetry iPhone app has a library of pre-recorded words from the original Captain Kirk for users to turn a phrases in the most entertaining of ways. Once you've created your perfect Shatism, you can share it with your friends and have them send one back. You can even up the dramatic ante by tapping each word up to three times to increase the intensity that it's pronounced with.

An update for special occasions will be available soon with extended vocabulary for the holiday season. According to the Shatoetry website, a contest will be held to find the best Shatism arranged on the app for Shatner to perform. The man himself is plugging the app in the video below. Check. It. Out. 

via: DVICE

Credit: Shatoetry 

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Bluetooth Ribbon Streams Music to Any Stereo

It's safe to say that iPod and iPhone users everywhere had a little bit of a freak out when the charger adapter went from the standard 30-pin to the smaller Lightning connector. It changes everything from docking stations to cases. But if your biggest concern is streaming music, this tiny ribbon from Blue Ant may help.

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The Ribbon is a stereo Bluetooth streamer than can pair with any device to stream music to just about any kind of player. It plays well with devices that have Bluetooth capabilities. Equipped with a 3.5MM AUX cable, the Ribbon can plug into a home or car stereo to stream music straight from your mobile device without having to connect it to anything. The device can clip onto clothes or just hangout in a cup holder in the car. It even works as a remote for playback or calls.

It's small, discreet and universally helpful for any kind of mobile device user, not just beleaguered iDevice owners.

Credit: Blue Ant

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A Household of Wi-Fi Bulbs Controlled By Remote

In one of the older "Treehouse of Horror" episodes from The Simpsons, Pierce Brosnan voiced a murderous home automation system. Back then, the idea of home automation was practically a dream (or a nightmare) to average folks, but now it's becoming an attainable reality. This set of Wi-Fi-controlled lightbulbs from Greenwave Reality will give homeowners control over their home's entire lighting system with a remote control.

The wireless LED lighting kit consists of four 40-watt equivalent bulbs, a remote control and a gateway box that connects to any home router. They won't be readily available at your local home improvement store -- instead the company plans to sell the sets through utility and lighting companies for around $200, with each new bulb costing under $20.

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Each bulb has its own IP address and once installed, automatically pairs with the gateway. Once all of the bulbs are paired and the gateway is connected to the router, lighting in the home can be controlled through the remote, which will be able to control up to 500 bulbs at one time.

An app downloaded to a smartphone or tablet controls brightness, timers or a large section of lights. Controlling lights through your mobile device might just seem like a novelty but it does serve a purpose. Setting up schedules and timers for when the lights need to come on, or setting dimmers is pretty easy and provides the same piece of mind that persnickety timers do.

via Technology Review

Credit: Greenwave Reality

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