Items tagged with emergency
Getting in contact with emergency services can be a matter of life and death, which is why it is incredibly easy for citizens to get in contact with dispatchers. Most countries provide a three-digit number that can be quickly dialed, with most everyone recognizing “911” for emergency services in the United...
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Following the bombing that occurred in New York's Chelsea district a couple of weeks ago, local law enforcement did something unprecedented: it sent out an alert message to everyone on local mobile networks. For a few million people, this was a capability that they didn't know was even possible.
In the message seen...
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Researchers from the Negev Cyber-Security Research Center at Ben-Gurion University recently released a terrifying piece of news. It explains that if a malicious entity decided to craft malware that infected only a few thousand mobile phones, it would be possible to cripple an entire 911 system. That means legitimate...
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Apple's Siri has long been fodder for tales of the miscommunications variety, most of them laced with humor of one ilk or another. The latest reported Siri easter egg, though, fails to bring the funny, and instead results in an immediate and very serious call to the cops.
Recent posts on Facebook, Twitter, and in...
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A new mobile app from AT&T is aimed at helping city governments and their citizens keep in touch. Governments can use the app to keep people informed about community events and road hazards, while citizens can use it to find parks and contact government departments. Perhaps one of the best things about the new...
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FEMA and the National Weather Service are looking out for you. How so? They're joining up to launch the Wireless Emergency Alert System, which is described as a free SMS system that will text users connected to cell towers in areas that are being nailed with storms or other disasters. The idea here is to broadcast...
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By early next year, the nation will have a new way to call for help--via text message. Verizon Wireless announced that it’s working on a service to provide SMS-to-911 capabilities, which it says will be operational in early 2013. Simply put, the emergency service will allow anyone to send an SMS message to a 911 call center, also known...
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If there was a city in the US that you would look to as front-runner in pioneering new emergency alert, warning and information systems, most likely one of the first to come to mind would be the great Big Apple. New York's rebuiling process since the 911 attacks is taking shape in a number of forms but...
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Ever wonder what would happen if you texted some incomprehensible message to "911?" If you're a resident of Black Hawk Co. in Iowa, you'll probably get some attention--pronto! This week, an emergency call center in the basement of the county jail in Waterloo, Iowa became the first call center in the United States to...
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Engineers from Apple have applied for a patent on an "emergency" mode for cell phones that would squeeze every last drop of energy out of the batteries.The phone would recognize emergency calls when the user dialed an emergency number, such as 911 in the United States. But a number also could be stored as an "emergency number" on the phone...
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With camera phones, text messaging, and e-mail now ubiquitous, it was only a matter of time before antiquated emergency systems were upgraded to take advantage of these technologies. Making good on a promise made during a State of the City address, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has just announced that NYC's emergency and customer service...
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It's always great when we can catch up with China, isn't it? After all, China used SMS alerts to warn citizens over Typhoon Kaemi in 2006.The plan stems from the Warning Alert and Response Network Act, a 2006 federal law that requires upgrades to the emergency alert system. The act requires the Federal Communications Commission to develop...
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Thankfully the collaboration between Ford Motor Company and Microsoft is only for the entertainment system- "Initially to be made available in twelve 2008 models across the Ford family and across the entire 2009 lineup from FoMoCo, the service will be a fully-integrated, flash memory-based system that enables drivers...
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Everybody has a cell phone. And since everybody has a cell phone, people will drive right past you on a lonely road when your car has broken down, and figure you're just waiting for a lift. And they won't know that your cell phone battery is dead and you have no way to charge it. It's a long walk to the nearest payphone these days....
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Adrian's Rojak Pot is known for their guides on everything from BIOS Tweaking to Voltage Mods. This weekend they've added to their list with the "Emergency Spyware Guide", which covers how to properly identify and remove the most annoying of programs. "Is your PC behaving strangely?...
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