Wireless Guide News

WASHINGTON — The largest wireless carriers are banding together with regulators and law enforcement officials to launch an effort to make stolen cellphones and other mobile devices as useless as an empty wallet.

The goal is to cut down on increasing thefts of smartphones by making them less appealing to criminals.

AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel Corp. said Tuesday they will create a central database to track stolen devices and prevent them from being reactivated.

The move is part of a broader effort to educate consumers about how to secure their devices through passwords and apps that can allow them to remotely delete the data in the case of a theft.

“Now carriers with the push of a button will be able to take highly prized stolen instruments and turn them into worthless pieces of plastic,” said New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. “It’s like draining the swamp to fight malaria….We think this is going to have a significant impact.”

Kelly joined other big-city police chiefs at news conference in Washington announcing the new effort, which was organized by the Federal Communications Commission and CTIA-The Wireless Association, the top industry trade group.

Law enforcement officials such as Kelly and Cathy Lanier, chief of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, have pushed the indu…………… continues on Post-Bulletin

The largest wireless carriers are banding together with regulators and law enforcment officials to launch an effort to make stolen cellphones and other mobile devices as useless as an empty wallet.

The goal is to cut down on increasing thefts of smartphones by making them less appealing to criminals.

AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel Corp. said Tuesday they will create a central database to track stolen devices and prevent them from being reactivated.

The move is part of a broader effort to educate consumers about how to secure their devices through passwords and apps that can allow them to remotely delete the data in the case of a theft.

“Now carriers with the push of a button will be able to take highly prized stolen instruments and turn them into worthless pieces of plast…………… continues on Chicago Tribune

The largest wireless carriers are banding together with regulators and law enforcment officials to launch an effort to make stolen cellphones and other mobile devices as useless as an empty wallet.

The goal is to cut down on increasing thefts of smartphones by making them less appealing to criminals.

AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel Corp. said Tuesday they will create a central database to track stolen devices and prevent them from being reactivated.

The move is part of a broader effort to educate consumers about how to secure their devices through passwords and apps that can allow them to remotely delete the data in the case of a theft.

“Now carriers with the push of a button will be able to take highly prized stolen instruments and turn them into worthless pieces of plastic,” said New York Ci…………… continues on Los Angeles Times

JOHANNESBURG –  Getting AIDS test results from labs to remote villages once took weeks in Mozambique, with the information sent by courier along the impoverished country’s terrible roads. The delay could mean death.

Now, communications engineers have adapted office printers and cell-phone technology to wirelessly and immediately relay test results. Britain’s Sequoia Technology Group and Telit Wireless said Tuesday the printers are being rolled out elsewhere in Africa after initial success in Mozambique, where the project has been running for a year.

Phillip Collins of Telit said in an interview that his company’s technology is more often used for monitoring electricity meters than saving lives. It took on the printer project at the Clinton Foundation’s request.

Tim Clayton of Sequoia said he has visited Mozambican clinics where printers have been installed, and learned about the push to ensure AIDS does not kill children.

“It’s pretty significant impact when you see it firsthand,” Clayton said in an interview.

It’s another innovative use of cell-phone technology, which Collins called the “single most common means of long-range technology being used today” around the world. In Africa, cell-phone technology is used to transfer money from customer to vendor, and wildlife researchers have put no-frills cell p…………… continues on Fox News

Two women in their 30′s and their dogs found themselves lost on Ragged Mountain Sunday night and it was their cell phones that helped them lead Fire and Rescue workers to their location.

The call came in around 7 p.m. and South Kensington and Kensington Fire Departments responded.

“Luckily we have GPS and we can lock onto their cell phone coordinates pretty quickly,” said South Kensington chief Brian Chapman. “We got the call that two young women were lost with their dogs. It was a two-company call with us and Kensington.”

The first crew went up the trails on motorized equipment and then three followed on foot later.

“We thought we had a pretty good idea where they were but some of the information they were giving us by what they could see was leading us to another location,” Chapman said. “It took us just over an hour to get to them and there were no injuries so it was just a search and not a search and rescue. Sometimes it takes 10 minutes and sometimes it takes longer. The trails are all marked pretty well so if they are on one of the trails we can usually find them pretty quickly. If they stray off the trails and start doing their own thing, then it can become complicated.”

Chapman said the early October snowstorm and Hurricane have left a lot of trees down over the trails. He said his department has spent a Saturday morning clea…………… continues on Patch.com