Cell Phones = Bad News In Hospitals
A new study from Amsterdam contradicts earlier findings and details how newer cell phones negatively interfere with bedside medical equipment.
If you’re a traveling nurse or physician, take note. It’s probably best to switch off your cell phone before visiting patients in the hospital.
Though you probably already did that as a precaution, a team of Dutch scientists discovered that newer cell phones broadcasting GPRS signals can interfere with ventilators, pace makers and syringe pumps.
Apparently the GPRS signals create electromagnetic interference when brought within a meter or so of the equipment.
Some of the bad things that happened? How about ventilators that became switched off, or pacemakers that went on the fritz and pulsed irregularly.
Not exactly what you want happening to patients when making rounds or when you’re visiting Grannie or your uncle Bob.
These findings are the exact opposite of those reported by a Mayo Clinic study from earlier this year.
Many hospitals and medical facilities already ban cell phone use.
How this new study will impact medical professionals who are equipped with smartphones to help them with their daily tasks is probably something that should be determined on a facility level.
Even so, it’s best to take the safe route until the studies can be sorted out and proper policies put in place.
Symbian Gains Market Share Thanks To Japan
Symbian reported a huge jump in the number of mobile phones shipping with its operating system on board. It claims the 52% increase is due to larger sales volumes in Japan.
Another reason Symbian-based phones are likely making waves is because they are the platform behind many smartphones and smartphones are gaining steam in the market.
In fact, sales of smartphones leaped 70% between the third quarter of 2006 and the first quarter of 2007. Damn Gina! That’s a pretty big increase. Over 80 million smartphones were sold in 2006 and 47.5% of them were based on Symbian.
A total of 18.7 million Symbian handsets were shipped in the second quarter, which contributed to a 7% increase in revenues for Symbian.
Symbian is software licensing company that is owned by Nokia (47.9%), Ericsson (15.6%), Sony Ericsson (13.1%) Panasonic (10.5%), Siemens (8.4%) and Samsung (4.5%).
Japan’s market is the most advanced mobile market in the world. Symbian is the platform behind the FOMA MOAP phones in Japan, S60 from Nokia and Sony Ericsson’s UIQ.
Canalys says that Symbian represents fully 72% of the world’s smartphone market. RIM is a distant second with 7.5%.
Despite these figures, Symbian has yet to really make a strong presence in the U.S.
A Clean New Internet
Sometimes, when things aren’t going your way, the best way to handle things is to simply walk away.
At least, that’s the philosophy being followed by the Japanese communications ministry, which apparently intends to build a new Internet.
According to an Associated Press story, the Japanese government, concerned about growing “quality and security” problems, is working to set up a research organization by the fall of 2008. With luck, they’re hoping to have the new network up and running in 10 to 15 years.
It will be interesting to see how the new network will keep out the hackers, spammers, and loudmouths who are causing it to be built in the first place.
My own experience, as a confirmed packrat, is that if you create a nice, clean space in order to escape an overcrowded room, that space will eventually accumulate the same amount of junk as the first.
I strongly suspect that a new Internet, no matter how carefully planned, will be prone to the same phenomenon or will be so controlled that it will lack the creativity that the current whirlpool offers.
Thoughts?
Google Earth Adds Star Gazing
Google’s desktop terrestrial mapping software now features extra-terrestrial data, detailing what you might see when you look up.
Today, I’m excited to announce we are launching Sky in Google Earth. You can now explore the universe from the comfort of your chair. Zoom in to distant galaxies hundreds of millions of light years away, explore the constellations, see the planets in motion, witness a supernova explosion; it’s like having a giant, virtual telescope at your command — your own personal planetarium!
A Sky button in the latest version of Google Earth, currently available for download, toggles the view from planetary to celestial. The new data set includes 100 million stars and 200 million galaxies. Google has prepared a video primer for novice virtual astronomers.
Google has updated the Google Earth Gallery with several astronomical images that detail the motion of our solar system, exoplanets, and Hubble Space Telescope pictures. The gallery includes links to KMZ files that open in Google Earth.
Sky in Google Earth includes several data layers that highlight specific celestial bodies including the moon, the planets, and the life of a star.
While Google Local ads can be seen on Google Maps and on Google Earth, the sky remains ad-free, at least for the time being.
In September 2005, Google and NASA announced that they’d signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in the development of large-scale data management and distributed computing technologies.
At the time, CEO Eric Schmidt cited making images from the Apollo space mission more accessible to Internet users as one possible benefit of the arrangement.
Adobe Flash Player Goes High-Def
Adobe announced in a press release today an update to its Flash Player multimedia player, now in beta testing, that will support higher quality audio and video than previous versions via standard H.264 video - used in cable boxes and high definition DVDs - and High Efficiency (HE-AAC) AAC audio.
The update, code-named Moviestar, is a likely welcomed step toward better performance by Flash Player, especially in the wake of Microsoft’s announcement earlier this year that its Silverlight technology would support high definition by using the VC-1 codec used by Windows Media.
Also supporting H.264 and High Efficiency AAC going forward are Adobe’s AIR rich Internet application runtime and Adobe Media Player, the company’s new desktop multimedia player.
The H.264 standard also is used by Blu-Ray and HD DVD discs, a number of set-top cable boxes and by Apple QuickTime. The use of H.264 enables hardware acceleration in most video cards.
Though Adobe’s support of higher definition video comes after Microsoft’s announcements, Adobe has been working on H.264 support before the company was even aware of Silverlight, doing research into codec support more than a year ago.
High Efficiency AAC, a standard audio technology developed by the creators of MP3, also will add to the increased quality of Flash Player media capabilities.
The reason for this is because even at a lower bit rate, it will bring better audio quality than the technology Flash Player currently uses. That frees up space for higher bit rate video and thus better quality there as well as in audio.
Man Fakes Death to Get Out of Verizon Contract
Fed up with dropped calls and a string of defective cellphones, Corey Taylor said he became irate when he learned he’d have to pay $175.00 USD to get out of his long-term contract with Verizon Wireless.
So Corey Taylor resorted to a rather extreme measure. He faked his own death.
After reading on a blog that wireless companies would cancel the contracts of deceased customers, “I thought, ‘What have I got to lose, besides a cellphone I despise?’ ” Taylor said.
The Chicago consultant fashioned a fake death certificate and had a friend fax it to Verizon Wireless, his cellphone service provider. He thought he was in the clear — until the company caught on.
Read the entire store via the Washington Post.