Wireless Guide News

Smartphones have changed the way we drive, both by adding new distractions and by helping us get where we’re going with GPS-assisted directions and real-time information on traffic jams.

But what if smartphones could help eliminate some traffic jams, instead of just warning us when they exist? That’s the goal of a study using cell phone records and GPS data to track drivers’ movements and identify the sources of traffic.

The Boston Globe described the study today, noting that MIT and UC-Berkeley analyzed the cell phone records of 680,000 Boston-area commuters through call logs, “which identify the towers used to transmit calls,” allowing “the researchers to trace each individual’s commute, anonymously, from origin to destination.” This helped produce “one of the most detailed maps of urban traffic patterns ever constructed.”

Boston-area roads. Red areas are the biggest sources of drivers. Yellow is next, then green, dark blue, and purple.

The study was published in December in the journal

A 33-year-old man asks a prostitute to come to his home, but can’t pay for her services. It happened early Sunday morning in the 3200 block of south Chase. 

The woman left and returned later with another man, her “business associate.” They broke into the home and stole the 33-year-old’s cell phone. A neighbor called 911 after hearing a lot of noise.

Officers arrested the man and the suspected prostitute on several charges including aggravated burglary and possession of a firearm. The 33-year-old man was also charged with prostitution.

LOS ANGELES –  The next time a child is abducted near you, your cellphone may shriek to life with an alert message.

A new national Amber Alert system officially rolled out earlier this month to millions of cellphones, and because the alerts are automatically active on most newer phones, the messages have already taken tens of thousands of people by surprise.

The newly-expanded emergency alert system is an effort by FEMA to update the way it reaches people with new technologies, but local officials and others worry that the lack of public education and some initial stumbles may undermine the program’s purpose, especially when people are startled and annoyed and choose to opt out.

Lisa Rott was jolted from her sleep at 1:44 a.m. earlier this month in her Sarasota, Fla. home. A high-pitched tone sounded in spurts for about 10 seconds while her phone buzzed multiple times.

Initially Roth, 50, was worried something had happened to her elderly mother. Then she saw the message: “Emergency Alert: Amber Alert. An Amber Alert has been issued in your area. Please check local media.”

“I thought it was spam,” said Rott, who works for AT&T as a process engineer. And because her cellphone has a New Jersey number, she wasn’t sure exactly where the alert originated. The next morning Rott searched online for both New J…………… continues on Fox News

SACRAMENTO — One of the state’s biggest technology endeavors, a $ 371-million overhaul of the government payroll system, is beset with problems and “in danger of collapsing,” according to the state controller’s office.

The company hired for the project is in over its head and may be unable to deliver on its promise to update a payroll system so old that even simple salary adjustments can tie it in knots, the controller’s chief administrative officer said in a letter.

The state has spent at least $ 254 million so far on contractors, staff salaries, software and more for the system upgrade, which is five years overdue and has nearly tripled in cost since lawmakers authorized it in 2005.

“The project … is foundering and is in danger of collapsing,” administrator Jim Lombard wrote to the contractor, SAP Public Services, in October. Lombard said the new system is not capable of processing “any portion of the state payroll population, let alone the full population of approximately 240,000 employees.”

An SAP spokesman, Andy Kendzie, said the company is meeting its contractual obligations.

“Considering the project’s complexity, and the many requirements involved in payroll processing, there have been some challenges,” Kendzie said in a statement. “Despite these, SAP remains committed to the overall success of the project.”…………… continues on Los Angeles Times

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Chicago’s Joakim Noah, center, the Knicks’ Tyson Chandler were among those ejected on Friday.

In nearly three years, new customers haven’t paid “system access fees,” but cellphone users with pre-2009 contracts who have not asked to change to updated, often pricier plans, are still paying Canada’s telecom giants the levy.

“Rogers discontinued the system access fee in 2009 for new customers and for existing customers who chose to switch to our non-SAF service plans,” said Rogers spokeswoman Leigh-Ann Popek.

Similarly at Telus and Bell, consumers on older plans are still charged the separate system access fee, which ranges from $ 5.95 to $ 8.95, unless they have requested newer plans which integrate the fee.

“Any Mobility customer is free to select a new rate plan, which would mean they will no longer pay the SAF,” said Bell Media spokesman Albert Lee.

The controversial charges are the subject of an $ 18 billion lawsuit — representing potential payments with interest since 1988 to the country’s 25 million cellphone subscribers—which charges six companies, Bell Mobility Inc., Rogers Wireless Inc. and Telus Corp., their various affiliates, and some smaller, regional players, with falsely leading subscribers to believe their system access fees were required by federal regulators.

Launched in 2004, certified in 2008 and last week given the go ahead by the Supreme Court of Canada, the suit’s allegations include, false advertising, collus…………… continues on Toronto Star

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — You can officially add Research In Motion to the list of companies that Steve Jobs, the late Apple CEO, has dispatched from the technology marketplace. This time Jobs has done it posthumously.

With Apple wielding such power, I have to wonder which mobile phone rival might be next on that list, which also includes Nokia.

Despite pioneering corporate email and text delivered to a mobile device, RIM is now toast.

The news that RIM (US:RIMM) is delaying the release of its next-generation phone is certain to be the death knell for the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry. Despite pioneering corporate email and text delivered to a mobile device, RIM is now toast.

Even though it owned the corporate and professional markets at one time, any company that gets beaten by the competition during one consumer shopping season is usually punished harshly by the fickle cell-phone market.

Consumers are always on the hunt for the latest features, and the Canadians have now been lapped by the techies from Cupertino (US:AAPL) for at least th…………… continues on MarketWatch

A new text message alert system, called Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA), was launched Thursday, June 28, by the National Weather Service (NWS) in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The alert system, which sends text messages to people in areas threatened by severe weather, has been in testing and limited use since 2010, but will now begin to see widespread use.
 
“At 2 p.m. today we open[ed] the pipes, so our warnings will flow through the system,” NWS spokeswoman Susan Buchanan said Thursday, reported InformationWeek. “Ultimately, though, it’s the wireless carriers that are implementing it; it’s happening on a rolling basis across the country.”
 
Participation in the alert service is voluntary for wireless carriers. Sprint and Verizon are ready for the system, and hundreds of smaller mom and pop carriers have agreed to ready their networks for the service as well. AT&T has the WEA service available in several cities with tentative plans for wider coverage, but iPhone compatibility with the service is limited.
 
In fact, many older cellphones are not compatible with the alert service, Buchanan said, but all new cellphones on the market by the end of 2014 are expected to have WEA compatibility. A list of compatible models is av…………… continues on Emergency Management

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada is allowing a class action against Canadian cellphone companies over system access fees to proceed.

The suit against some of the country’s biggest wireless carriers, including Rogers, Telus and Bell Mobility, was launched in 2004.

The companies appealed the certification of the suit all the way to the Supreme Court, which on Thursday dismissed the appeal — paving the way for it to proceed.

As is customary, the high court did not provide reasons for its decision.

The suit alleges the cellphone companies wrongfully collected the fees from customers, which were in addition to other monthly fees for phone service.

It calls for the respondents to be reimbursed.

The lawsuit claims that monthly “system access fees” were created in response to annual fees charged by the government.

However, “these fees amount to less than 20 per cent of the additional charges being charged to their customers under the guise of government taxes,” the claim says.

The access fee charge, typically $ 6.95, “bears no relation to any actual cost of providing wireless or cellular services, but was an amount selected … by the defendants to proliferate the misrepresentation (that) … charges were being collected as a tax on behalf of a government agency.” continues on TheChronicleHerald.ca

Google unveiled a new digital wallet program Thursday that enables a cellphone to act just like a credit card, giving the search giant its first footing in the business of providing consumer financial services.

A chip inside new Android phones — for now, only one model has it — will allow shoppers to wave their devices in front of a reader to pay for clothes and food at the mall or grocery, the company said. Eventually, Google said, it envisions the cellphone to act as a personal financial hub for coupons, merchant loyalty points, payments and receipts.

The company also announced that Google Offers, a coupon service to compete with discount sites such as Groupon or LivingSocial, will be tested in select cities.

The idea of mobile payments has intrigued smartphone makers such as