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The Telecom Digest for November 16, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 291 : "text" Format
====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:16:05 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Cracking Siri
Message-ID: <p06240819cae85c022849@[172.19.0.77]>
Cracking Siri
On October 14, 2011, Apple introduced the new iPhone 4S. One of its
major new features was Siri, a personal assistant application. Siri
uses a natural language processing technology to interact with the
user.
Interestingly, Apple explained that Siri works by sending data to a
remote server (that's probably why Siri only works over 3G or WiFi).
As soon as we could put our hands on the new iPhone 4S, we decided to
have a sneak peek at how it really works.
Today, we managed to crack open Siri's protocol. As a result, we are
able to use Siri's recognition engine from any device. Yes, that
means anyone could now write an Android app that uses the real Siri!
Or use Siri on an iPad! And we're goign to share this know-how with
you.
...
http://applidium.com/en/news/cracking_siri/
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:45:46 -0500
From: bernieS <bernies@netaxs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Paying by smartphone
Message-ID: <HsuWk.A.eoC.-XrwOB@telecom>
>Is your wallet the next relic of the digital age? Why pay with cash
>or plastic when you can use a smartphone?
>
>That is what Ainsley Onstott did on a recent afternoon in Cambridge's
>Kendall Square. She simply showed her iPhone to pay for a sandwich at
>Sebastians Cafe. "They scan it, and I get my receipt e-mailed to
>me,'' said Onstott, 26, a special events manager at the American
>Heart Association.
For the dubious convenience of paying by smartphone (in lieu of cash)
for a sandwich, all you have to do is turn over your mobile phone
number, email address, and credit card or bank account info. I can't
understand people rushing to give up so much private information for
so little benefit.
-Ed
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 13:19:58 -0500
From: "T. Keating" <tkusenet@ktcnslt.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Cell Phone/Cancer
Message-ID: <5ha5c75prfloeid7s9ctahl5955dbnqp0f@4ax.com>
On Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:40:20 +1100, David Clayton
<dcstarbox-usenet@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>On Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:03:32 -0700, Thad Floryan wrote:
>
>> On 10/23/2011 10:49 PM, David Clayton wrote:
>>> On Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:52:27 -0400, Randall Webmail wrote:
>>>> [...]
>>>>
>>>> http://tinyurl.com/3b4hp7b
>>>> (Link is to Fortune magazine article).
>>>
>>> Interesting graph, I'd like to see the points on the time scale when
>>> cell phone users began migrating from old analogue services to digital
>>> ones, especially since digital systems are supposed to use less power
>>> generally as well as using more base stations as the networks were
>>> rolled out (which means less Tx power because of the closer base
>>> stations).
But the shielding effect of buildings is much more effective at high
frequencies, thus requiring more xmit power at both ends.
>>>
>>> Perhaps "cell phone use has skyrocketed over the last twenty years", but
>>> overall radiation exposure may well have not tracked on the same curve
>>> to to these other factors.
>>>
>>> The "jury" may well and truly still be out on this issue.
>>
>> FWIW, GSM cellphones can transmit using up to 2+ Watts (33 dBm) and as
>> high as 8 Watts (39 dBm) per:
>>
>>
>> http://www.analogzone.com/hft_1206.pdf
>>
>>
>> which is a document from Agilent Technologies (formerly H-P) describing
>> how to control transmit power levels in a cellphone.
>>
>> Think how hot a 4 Watt nightlight feels to the touch. :-)
>>
>Yeah, but the point is that the overall average power by all these users
>will be significantly reduced by a good tower network - and until we know
>all of these factors then it is very tough to compare TX levels now to
>ones 10 or 20 years ago even in the same locations.
>
>Cell phone use and TX power/radiation absorption levels right now may (or
>may not) be significantly different to times past and probably times to
>come, so it may well be extremely difficult to use the past to make future
>projections of risk - the technology just changes too much.
>
>The nature of a GSM "pulse" of 8W peak may be significantly different to
>an older analogue phone transmitting basically continuously at a different
>power level. I don't know if all of these studies take these things into
>account.
Pulse type modulation is suspected to be somewhat more damaging.
And the effects don't have to be ionizing to affect human brain cells,
which utilize several hundred thousand different organically
catalysed (sub electron volt) chemical reactions.
But most of the older phones ran in 800-900Mhz range..
Where wavelength is double to triple that of modern phones.
Thus maximum field strength for these older phones was lower by a
wavelength cubed function.
>
>I do wonder how much the "experts" in human physiology that create
>these reports are also expert in the changing nature of the radiation
>sources they are studying?
Worse yet, the self calibrating nature of cell phones in general.
(more received signal bars == lower xmit power).
>
>> What was surprising for me to learn just now is the 35 km coverage radius
>> of GSM cellphones; I suspect that's where the higher transmit power levels
>> come into play.
>
>That distance limit is due to the speed of light, where the return signal
>only has a certain period to get back to the tower to remain in the TDM
>slot. Some GSM proposals have doubled that range by using the next slot as
>well.
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:24:27 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: For Tech's Elite, Mobile Gaming Is a Big Play
Message-ID: <p0624081ecae8ae968335@[172.19.0.77]>
For Tech's Elite, Mobile Gaming Is a Big Play
Best and Brightest See the Sector as Chance for Fun and Massive Payoff
By JOSEPH WALKER
NOVEMBER 15, 2011
Mobile gaming is the new frontier.
After Aadil Mamujee graduated from Harvard Business School in 2010, he
could have worked anywhere. Rather than join a hedge fund or
consulting firm though, he signed up with a small, San Francisco
gaming start-up best known for "Tap Pet Hotel," an iPhone videogame
that lets users build hotel rooms for animated puppies and pandas.
It wasn't a passion for videogames that sent Mr. Mamujee, 29 years
old, to Pocket Gems Inc. The Cambridge University-trained engineer saw
in mobile-phone gaming, an industry whose products reach tens of
millions of consumers-a new Wild West where the multimillionaires of
tomorrow are still to be crowned.
Mr. Mamujee says Zynga Inc., with its roughly 230 million monthly
players and an initial public offering valuation that could reach $20
billion, has "won" the gaming race on Facebook Inc. But no one has
conquered mobile, or figured out how to make as much money from it as
Zynga has from its social-media games, he says.
It's the challenge of becoming as successful as Zynga that drives
Mr. Mamujee, he says, with the possibility of becoming wealthy an
afterthought.
...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204323904577038462736751448.html
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