Blog | News & Information on Wireless Services & Telecommunications
Posted: 07/23/10 by Jonathan Spalter
Lost your home to flooding, a tornado or other disaster? If you have a smartphone and a wireless connection, help just got a lot easier.
This week, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) unveiled an addition to its mobile site allowing disaster victims to apply for assistance directly from their smartphone. FEMA's rationale is clear: In a life-threatening emergency, seconds count. Residents are more likely to have a mobile phone on their person, or may have just enough time to grab one before heading to safety.
"More and more, I think we are reorienting our focus... to really developing tools that are useful to you in a mobile environment," FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate told Politico's Morning Tech.
(You can watch him run a demo of the new mobile site on multiple PDAs here.)
Fugate added that FEMA is exploring additional ways to deliver services via mobile and GPS technology. The agency already processes an average of about 40 percent of disaster applications online; this seems like a common-sense way to further streamline FEMA's operations.
Furthermore, FEMA's announcement is a timely reminder of the lifesaving capabilities of mobile communications. Five years ago next month, Hurricane Katrina slammed into Louisiana. The government's disjointed response in assisting the maintenance and repair of mobile communication links contributed significantly to the extended chaos.
Three years later, look at the improvement: During Hurricane Gustav, wireless technology provided real-time communication links vital to the rescue efforts. Among the examples, Tulane University kept more than 10,000 students aware of storm developments through Twitter. Mobile users accessed Gustav-related pages on social network sites such as Ning for real-time news alerts, on-site posts, and videos.
Looking to the future, mobile platforms are already linking voice, video, IM, and other data for first responders at federal, state and local levels. Just think how first responders could use mobile phones and GPS to organize a large-scale rescue operation with a location-based networking application (example: BrightKite), which would allow authorities to divide a region into smaller areas, directing volunteers in each one as necessary.
This would be particularly helpful in the aftermath of a serious earthquake. As reported last week in The Orange County Register, a new early-alert system in the O.C. could give residents up to 70 seconds warning of a major San Andreas earthquake. Through the use of mobile apps, that would be enough time to slow high-speed trains, shut down power plant generators and take other precautionary steps.
The augmented incorporation of mobile technologies into government-led relief efforts is already saving lives and resources. In the five years since the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, wireless has grown up as an industry, with the government recognizing the powerful organizational capabilities immediate access to mobile technology affords Americans stuck in disaster areas. FEMA's recent addition to its mobile site is one of many demonstrations that the government takes seriously the positive ramifications of amplifying its use of mobile devices, which are now inextricably linked with the day-to-day lives of Americans.
This article was orginially published on Huffington Post.
Posted: 06/21/10 by Mobile Future Team
Whether you use your mobile device to work, play, or a little (or a lot) of both, you are undoubtedly one of millions who has taken to tapping and typing away on your phone to communicate. Well users, before you get too comfortable with your tap-to-type lifestyle, check out this YouTube of Swype, a new way to craft messages on touch screen phones. The technology is the brainchild of research scientist Randy Marsden and inventor Cliff Kushler (Kushler is the same man who revolutionized our last century lives with T9), and is already available on seven smartphones across the US and through all major wireless carriers.
With Swype, users no longer type a word letter by letter, but rather slide a finger across the screen’s keyboard to spell words, thereby slashing their overall text-time from 20 to 30 percent. For a more detailed look at Swype, visit Jenna Wortham’s article in Sunday’s New York Times, or just head directly to the official website.
Posted: 06/14/10
It’s beginning to seem like no feat is too large for the wonderful world of wireless. So in the future, don’t be surprised when the latest wireless advancement isn’t merely something you can text or tweet, but something you can… wear?
Sure enough, developers have introduced prototypes for a new ‘smart’ clothing, which use wireless biosensors to measure a wearer’s physiological conditions throughout the day. The information is sent to the user’s smartphone or PDA that maps the findings in an emotional database, and in turn responds with a pre-determined message depending on the wearer’s emotional state.
The inspirational sayings can come in the form of text messages scrolling across the garment’s sleeve, via video streaming across the corresponding handheld device, or as sound clips spoken by loved ones that come from speakers embedded in the clothing.
The technology is still in its nascent stages, but the potential positive ramifications it could have across varying industries—including its medicinal uses—are already being explored.
So while it may be a while before Mobile Future shows at Bryant Park, we’re certainly not surprised that wireless may soon be wearable (and no… we’re not talking something like this).
Posted: 05/04/10 by Mobile Future Team
One of the really exciting emerging uses of mobile technology involves healthcare. This holds remarkable potential for everything from the pretty straightforward (automated text messages that remind you to take your pills) to the truly remarkable (wireless in-home monitoring for seniors that send an alert if there’s a chance they’ve fallen).
Now for any expectant Moms, there’s even a pregnancy app. WCBS in New York recently profiled this method, which allows doctors to monitor vital signs such as the blood pressure and heartbeat of mothers and their infants using mobile technology. If something becomes abnormal, the technology alerts the doctor.
Incidentally, if you need help choosing a name, here’s a handy app that gives you about 15,000 options.
Posted: 04/21/10 by Mobile Future Team
A long time ago – 2006, to be exact – barely half of teens who had cell phones were texting. Today almost 90 percent are taping the keys, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center and the University of Michigan.
Texting has now overtaken every other form of interaction, including instant messaging and talking face-to-face. The survey also found that three-quarters of teens own cell phones, up from 45 percent in 2004.
What seems especially interesting is the impact of parents on cell phone use. Many parents limit cell phone usage; the parents of 12 to 13-year old girls were most likely to say they monitor its use. One upside: Teens whose parents put boundaries on their phone use were less likely to report regretting a text they sent or texting while driving.
Posted: 03/01/10 by Mobile Future Team
Earlier this year, mobile users donated more than $40 million via text messages to help Haiti's earthquake victims. Now our friends at the Mobile Giving Foundation, who spearheaded the texts-for-Haiti effort, are doing the same for the Chileans. All you need to do is text "Chile" to a five-digit number and you can make a donation of $5 or $10 to Habitat for Humanity, the Salvation Army or World Vision.
For more information, click here.
Posted: 02/23/10 by Mobile Future Team
“Along with the State Department, the Pentagon and aid groups, as well as Haiti’s leading cellphone carrier and countless volunteers, the Coast Guard is part of an emergency contact network for Haitians to send text messages requesting aid.”
Amid all the destruction, according to this New York Times report, mobile phones are helping aid workers’ rescue efforts in Haiti. The decision to focus on text messaging resulted from the damage Haiti’s telecommunications system suffered from the earthquake. Broken transmitters and overloaded networks made telephone calls nearly impossible. However, text messaging was still available.
Among the successes according to a Coast Guard volunteer cited by The Times, text messaging helped identify a tent city that the American military and relief workers were previously unaware of.
Posted: 02/18/10 by Allison Remsen
In a recent CNET article, Lance Whitney explores the exponential growth of wireless on a global level. With the ITU predicting that wireless subscriptions will reach 5 billion in 2010 (or 74 percent of the world’s population), it’s pretty clear mobile devices have become ubiquitous in today’s society. And the applications offered by mobile technology are in great demand.
This week at the Mobile World Congress, held in Barcelona, International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Toure discussed the growing role that mobile plays in providing Internet access:
"Even during an economic crisis, we have seen no drop in the demand for communications services and I am confident that we will continue to see a rapid uptake in mobile cellular services in particular in 2010, with many more people using their phones to access the Internet."
This increase in mobile connectivity can have positive implications for people around the globe.
"Even the simplest, low-end mobile phone can do so much to improve health care in the developing world," said Toure. "Good examples include sending reminder messages to patients' phones when they have a medical appointment, or need a prenatal check-up. Or using SMS messages to deliver instructions on when and how to take complex medication such as anti-retrovirals or vaccines. It's such a simple thing to do, and yet it saves millions of dollars--and can help improve and even save the lives of millions of people."
Posted: 02/12/10 by Mobile Future Team
CNN has an interesting commentary from Larry Rosen, Cal-State psychology professor and author of a new book which explores how Americans of different generations approach new technology.
Rosen cites a recent Neilsen Mobile survey showing that from 2007 to 2009, the number of texts sent by the average teen increased by more than 600 percent. “If you have a teenager (or even a preteen),” he writes, “You must learn how to text, or you two will never ‘connect.’”
More generally, he says, America’s youngest two generations “are defined not by a letter or by their birth year but by their use of technology and media, their need and ability to multitask, their rapid acceptance of anything new and their view of the meaning of technology.” Any way you look at this, it means more texts, more social networking, more streaming videos – increasingly on a mobile network.
For more of Rosen's CNN commentary, click here.
Posted: 02/09/10 by Mobile Future Team
Last week, the White House unveiled a great step forward in the fight to reduce birth defects. It's a public-private effort called the Text4baby campaign and according to the Associated Press, it is the U.S.'s first free, pre-natal education program to use mobile phone text messages.
Expecting parents should text "BABY" (or "BEBE", for Spanish texts) to 511411. They'll receive weekly texts geared to the baby's birth date that cover nutrition, immunization and birth defect prevention. The texts, which have been vetted by government and nonprofit health experts, continue through the baby's first birthday.
An added benefit: Several major wireless carriers have waived text fees for the service.
For more information, click here
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Tags: Broadband, GPS, Mobile Future, Mobile Future Board, Jonathan Spalter, Mobile Phone, Public Safety, Smartphone, Text message, Wireless Devices, Wireless Innovation