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PowerPhone patent approved for sending MMS messages to 911
We've seen 911 call centers that accept text messages, and now if PowerPhone gets its way you'll some day be able to use MMS messages to further pinpoint the source of your distress. Patent number 7,764,769, "Integrated Call Handler and E-Mail Systems and Methods," has just been approved by the Patent and Trademark Office, detailing the use of the company's Incident Linked Multimedia (ILM) software to receive and prioritize multimedia messages at a call center near you. There is also something there about the software integrated with "existing Computer Aided Dispatch and Records Management Systems," which we imagine must be good news for someone looking to implement these features. But let's be honest: we're just looking forward to watching the inevitable "World's Most Embarrassing Drunken Videos to 911" special on Fox. PR after the break.
Vibrating auto seat alerts driver when cars get too close
Every time we turn around, auto manufacturers are developing loads of new displays and sensors. At what point does the driver hit sensory overload? That's the question that prompted John Morrell, an Associate Professor at Yale School of Engineering, to position twenty vibrating cellphone motors in a rectangular array inside the driver's seat. Several different warnings were devised, including positional warnings (someone approaching closely behind will set off the center of the array, while a car approaching from the left or right will set off the motors on your left or right, respectively). Preliminary tests were done on a simulator based on The Open Racing Car Simulator (TORCS) platform, and so far things look promising. "[T]he vibrotactile feedback improved drivers' performance over that attained by using the rearview mirror alone," according to Gizmag, "and also helped warn of vehicles hidden by the mirror blind spot." Now, if this could do double duty as a massage chair? Then we'd be onto something.
My trip through Time Capsule Hell leads to a different backup approach
I bought a one terabyte Time Capsule shortly after it hit the market, along with an external 1.5TB drive. I use the Time Capsule's internal drive to back up two smaller capacity Macs, while the external disk backs up my two larger capacity Macs. Working with Time Machine in Leopard or Snow Leopard, the Time Capsule updates its backups every hour. This makes perfect sense if you're just dealing with one Mac wired into the Time Capsule, since it really doesn't slow anything down. But if you are using it to wirelessly back up multiple Macs, hourly backups slow everything down to a crawl. TimeMachineEditor (a free utility that I highly recommend), allows you to set Time Machine to back up as frequently or infrequently as you like. I created a setup where, with staggered backups starting between 2am and 4am, each Mac gets backed up once a day. Outside of some errant sparse image problems that required a reformat, all was well. I had long beaten the 18 month Time Capsule funerals that were recently reported... but then things turned ugly.
iTriage provides mobile health advice with style
As the clock ticks down on World Health Day, there's an app that we should tell you about: the free iTriage 2.0 for iPhone (now also available for Android, and with a version coming soon for iPad). It's a provider locator, a symptom and disease database, and more. The iTriage story is intriguing enough; the app was created by Dr. Peter Hudson and Dr. Wayne Guerra, practicing emergency physicians who realized that patients and healthcare consumers were facing information deficits at the moments when they most needed clear and accurate guidance around symptoms, conditions and available care facilities. Patients might have to make several calls to different providers -- a PCP, a specialist, and an ER or urgent care location -- to identify the best pathway of care. Hudson & Guerra's approach to reducing this inefficiency was to break down the complexity of more traditional health resource tools and give users several pathways into the massive taxonomy of medical information. With iTriage, the app starts from the most urgent possibilities (the "Call 911" button). It then works its way down through finding immediate care (ER, specialists, etc.), locating a physician, looking up symptoms and conditions, and an exhaustive library of procedure information (including medical web searches, images & video, and eventually average cost details). Beyond the informational bounty of the app, there's a separate layer that combines location awareness and a connection to the hospital systems for certain areas (mostly HCA hospitals in Colorado and Florida for now, but Hudson says the coverage areas are expanding). Hospitals that partner with iTriage's parent company can choose to list additional information, like ER waiting times or areas of excellence, within the app.
AT&T redirecting 911 calls from Salt Lake City to Seattle, working on a fix (update: fix is in)
Ready for a surreal way to start your day? Salt Lake City's KSL News has a report out this morning detailing the baffling experience of AT&T subscribers trying to access emergency services in the city. Instead of being routed through to their local dispatcher, the urgent calls somehow found their way to Seattle's 911 response center. Brought to the news team's attention by one Tony Sams, this issue was originally thought to originate in his iPhone's GPS system, as he was being identified as being located in the Seattle area, but then his local police also tried dialing their own number only to find themselves chatting it up with their Emerald City colleagues. Until they figure this out, we'd recommend using your landlines -- if you still have one of those antiques -- or just yelling at passersby for help. Hit the source for the full video report and the 10-digit direct number for Salt Lake City general dispatch. Update: AT&T has been very nippy in getting this routing problem sorted out, and proper service has been restored. The company is now investigating the cause of this problemo. [Thanks, Ryan]
Drama Mamas: Suicide threats
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com. Warning: This week's topic is very much on the serious side and has nothing to do with WoW except that it occurs in-game a lot. Because it brings up some sensitive subjects and is very close to home for me (as you will see), I may be very heavy-handed with the moderating. I would appreciate it if you kept all of the comments constructive and non-trollish so I don't have to. Making fun of me, Robin, is ok though. I'm already laughing at me, so you can only laugh with me. Drama Mamas, I recently went to ToC5 with my RL friend, and in the party there was a mage. A very chatty mage. I humored him and chatted away. Today the guy whispered me and talked about wanting to do some instances etc.. Nothing out of the ordinary, I guess. I think he said something about not having any friends as well. But later the same day, he started talking to me about how he hates his life because he has no friends, and his girlfriend just broke up with him.. He actually started talking about wanting to kill himself.
Caption contest: iPhone as a CPR device
Alright, we'll leave all the zingers for you and our mercurial staff to deliver, and just use this space to dish some info on the hardware. Ivor Kovic, an emergency physician from Croatia, has recently demoed a new iPhone cradle that turns the already multifunctional handset into a CPR assistance device. By using an app titled Pocket CPR and the built-in accelerometer, he can get audio and visual feedback to tell him if he's doing it correctly, while his basic (but awesome) cradle allows for longer CPR sessions if necessary. Check out the video after the break, then hit the comments with your finest witticisms. Paul: "Come on Luke Wilson's Career, stay with me now, you're not going to die on me!" Darren: "Man, I could really get a better look at what's going on if this thing had a 9.7-inch IPS panel..." Chris: "Everyone is either dying or staying alive these days, and we began to ask ourselves: is there room for something in the middle?" Nilay: "He then died." Vlad: "Our other cradle also measures rhythm and depth, though its purpose isn't entirely medicinal." Andy: "A rare case where a lack of multitasking is actually helpful to the task on hand." Thomas: "Can you stop dying for a second, I have to take this call." Joe: "This actually adds an intriguing level of complexity to Super Monkey Ball 2." Richard Lai: "Come on... COME ON!! Wait a tick... AT&T? No wonder it isn't working. Dammit." Tim: "Looks like this guy's heart (puts on sunglasses)... has dropped its last call." Yeeeaaaaaahhhh...
Rogers rolls out fixes for 911 problems with Dream and Magic, cuts off data for non-upgraders
So Rogers and HTC have worked with the kind of hustle you don't normally see from carriers or manufacturers to fix a rather dangerous glitch in their branded versions of the Dream and Magic causing calls to 911 to fail with GPS enabled -- and needless to say, you're going to want to apply the upgrade on the double. Why? Well, the problem's so dangerous that Rogers has taken the unusual step of vowing to disable internet access altogether for anyone failing to apply the "mandatory" patch by 6AM today (but don't worry, you should get it back as soon as you've upgraded) which actually allows emergency calls to go through. For their troubles, affected customers will be credited one month's worth of data -- and Magic owners will be delighted to discover that their phones have magically received HTC's Sense UI as a result of this whole ordeal. All's well that ends well, right?
Rogers' HTC Magic having 911 call problems on Rogers, too
Turns out it doesn't matter if you took up Rogers on its offer to swap your Dream to a Magic after all, because the bug's spreading: Canada's first keyboardless Android set is confirmed to be suffering from the same dangerous malaise as its older brother. Basically, neither model can complete emergency calls to 911 with location-based services enabled, and until HTC is able to spit out a patch, the only fix is to disable GPS altogether -- not exactly an awesome solution. In the meantime, a quick check of Rogers' site confirms that both the Dream and Magic have been pulled from retail, so let's hope this gets cleaned up on the double. And try not to have an emergency, of course. Ever... but especially right now. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Rogers yanks HTC Dream from shelves for urgent emergency call fix
Some of you Rogers subscribers have probably already taken your carrier up on its offer to upgrade your Dream to a Magic, but if not, pay very close attention here: calling 911 doesn't work right now without making some changes. Basically, there's an issue that prevents emergency calls from being completed if location-based services are enabled, which means you've got to head into Settings and disable GPS -- not an optimal solution by any stretch of the imagination. Rogers and HTC are said to be working on a patch as we speak, but in the meantime, don't expect to waltz into a Rogers store and pick up one of these bad boys.
Maintenance for several realms tomorrow morning
Blizzard poster Rishgur has announced emergency maintenance for select realms, starting at 3:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 a.m. EST Friday morning and lasting approximately four hours until 7:00 a.m. PST / 10:00 a.m. EST. There is no indication as to what this maintenance corrects, and there hasn't been any widespread reports of realm or connectivity issues (at least that we've heard). So who knows why the realms are getting fixed tomorrow morning, but they are. The realms will remain active and playable during this maintenance, but some stability issues may occur! The maintenance appears to involve multiple battlegroups. The specific realms include the ones listed below and after the break.
GuidePoint Connect car kit promises to be "OnStar for everyone else"
It may not exactly look like much, but GuidePoint Systems is making some pretty lofty claims about its new GuidePoint Connect hands-free Bluetooth kit, which it says is nothing short of "OnStar for everyone else." To that end, the device adds emergency dispatch and roadside assistance services to the usual Bluetooth hands-free calling, the former of which is tied into Guidepoint's own response centers, while the latter can also be paired with GuidePoint's optional GPS tracking device for location-based services. Like OnStar, all of that is also simplified about as much as possible, with just four buttons on the main unit used to handle calls and the two emergency services. Look for the unit itself to set you back a somewhat hefty $399, which includes the emergency dispatch service for free, along with a one-year subscription to the GuidePoint Silver service that includes roadside assistance and other services.
Iowa 911 call center now accepting texts; Twitter and Facebook status updates can't be far behind
As of this week, callers can now text their requests for fire, police, or ambulance, to the emergency call center in Black Hawk County, Iowa -- both a nationwide first and a definite improvement for deaf and hard-of-hearing residents who have thus far had to rely on TDD devices. Unlike voice calls, however, the 911 operator can't get your location from a text message, meaning that the caller must first respond to a request for their city or zip code before the call gets routed. Currently, only i wireless subscribers (a local carrier affiliated with T-Mobile) can use the service, but plans are afoot to bring other carriers on board as well. Other future upgrades include the ability to accept video and picture messages. All the operators ask is that you refrain from sending them those silly chain text messages -- that sort of thing can be really distracting when you're busy saving lives.
BMW's Emergency Stop Assistant halts your vehicle if you can't
While it may seem as if BMW and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany just hate seniors, we kind of doubt that's the prevailing mentality behind the admittedly brilliant Emergency Stop Assistant. Said technology is being testing as part of the Smart Senior project, and in theory, it will be able to detect medical emergencies, activate hazard lights and autonomously pull the car over safely if the driver cannot. Of course, we're still anxiously awaiting details on how the system plans on detecting said calamities and figuring out how to pull over without crashing, but one thing's for sure: OnStar just got a lot more outdated.
Jitterbug issues recall to fix emergency calling in "no service" areas
When we first saw this, our immediate reaction was, "trust us, Jitterbug, we appreciate your extra-mile attitude here, but it's not your fault that 911 doesn't work without a signal." Turns out that's not quite the issue, though -- in reality, Jitterbug is recalling phones sold after March 1 of last year because they maybe be unable to place calls to 911 in areas where the company doesn't have MVNO or roaming agreements in place. In other words, the phone is showing "no service," but you've still got a signal -- and whenever a phone's got a signal, it should be able to dial the cops. Jitterbug is offering affected customers the option either of taking their handset into a local Samsung service center or mailing it in, at which point a software update will be applied. Too bad these things don't do firmware updates over the air, isn't it? [Via Phone Scoop]
Calling all iPhones! Emergency scanner apps on the loose!
Sometimes it's uncanny how many similar iPhone apps appear at about the same time. Over the past week or so, we've heard about a number of new apps that "tune you into" streaming police, fire, and emergency medical service radio services. Apps like this can be useful to volunteer firefighters, off-duty policemen, news crews, scanner enthusiasts, and the occasional ambulance-chasing lawyer. The first out of the box is Police Scanner 1.1 (US$2.99, click opens iTunes) from Juicy Development. This app now features over 1,100 streams from 7 different countries and a streamlined interface for getting to your favorite local emergency radio, The developers will add any compatible stream to their app within hours of being notified of that stream, so if there are no local radios listed now, there may be soon. Next in the queue is Emergency Radio 1.1 (US$0.99, click opens iTunes) from Edge Rift. It's available in a free "Lite" version if you want to try it out on a handful of major cities, or you can spend a buck to get over 900 feeds from all over the US. I personally thought the code lists (see photo) are a nice touch.If you prefer a little music with your police calls, Wunder Radio 1.6 (US$6.99, click opens iTunes) not only captures the same emergency radio streams from ScanAmerica.us as the other two apps, but is also the best (IMHO) iPhone app out there for listening to local radio stations. It also gives you NOAA weather information for US locations, not to mention railroad crew and dispatch calls. Regardless of which scanner app you select, it's sure to give you hours of fun, and it's definitely worth listening in on why the cops visited your neighbor's house at 3 A.M.
Researchers develop flying WiFi robots for disaster relief
Researchers at Germany's Ilmenau University of Technology are developing flying quadcopter robots that can be used to form a self-assembling ad-hoc wireless network in the event of disaster. Built with off-the-shelf parts (including VIA's Pico-ITX hardware and a GPS unit) the robots are designed to provide both mobile phone and WiFi access -- and they can do it far more quickly than a technician on the ground might be able to. The device comes in a kit for €300 (about $380), which includes all but the battery -- the batteries currently run around €1,000 (over $1200) and only offer up 20 minutes of flight time. Once the device has found a perch, however, it can operate for "several hours." If you'd like to see some more of this guy, be sure to head on over to FutureParc hall at CeBIT. Either that, or check out the additional picture after the break.[Thanks, David]
LG recalls 30,000 830 Spyder handsets for crappy 911 connections
While things like copy and paste, multimedia messaging and video calling are nice extras to have, there's really only one thing that's most important when it comes to a reliable cellphone: the 911 functionality. Evidently, around 30,000 LG 830 Spyder handsets aren't having the easiest time dialing for help, with a product recall noting that a huge swath of 'em have "difficulty sustaining a connection or have poor voice quality on calls to emergency 911." It should be noted, however, that LG's actually being really, really proactive here, as it has only received a single report (and no injuries) to date. The Spyder phones affected have software versions T83LGV03 and T83LGV04, and you can hit the read link if you suspect yours is amongst that 30,000.[Via textually]
London Police launch SMS service to call for help
The London City Police -- or Bobbies, cuz that's infinitely cuter -- has launched a new service whereby the citizenry can drop an SMS to the law in an emergency instead of calling it in. The new SMS service is replacing the typetalk and textphone systems for people with speech, and hearing difficulties. Of course, the service is open to all city residents by just SMSing 07940 500 500, leaving details of who you are, what's happening, and where. The SMS system will send out a reply as soon as the Police get your message. We think this could actually prove handy if your situation requires stealth, or you're hiding in a dumpster after being chased, or something.[Via Textually.org]
E-paper signs being tested in Tokyo for disaster prevention
While we're still waiting for our electronic broadsheet (hell, we'll settle for a tabloid) it looks like folks in Toshima will be seeing quite a bit of the e-paper as they hit the streets of this Tokyo ward. In a test conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the signage has been installed in the proximity of the Toshima Life and Industry Plaza, where a wireless network was established to provide updates in case of an emergency. There are currently two signs: one in the lobby of the post office measures over three meters across and sports 240 x 768 resolution (the paper has 4mm pixels), and holds down power consumption at about 24W. Stationed at the Higashi-Ikebukuro bus stop, the second sign is 60 x 40 centimeters with 144 x 96 resolution, and power consumption here is about 9W. The test will run until January 29th, after which point the city will have to rely upon its usual civil defense repertoire -- which is believed to include the vigilant eye of Honda's 49-foot ASIMO.
