Cellphones get emergency alerts (FCC PLAN Tornados, Hurricanes, Emergencies)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: USA Today

Consumers will get emergency alerts for hurricanes, tornadoes and other disasters on their cellphones as part of a new alert network to be announced Tuesday by the Federal Communications Commission.

The Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) will allow emergency officials to send geographically targeted text messages to cellphones in areas where danger threatens. "The traditional alerts on radio and TV are still important, and they will continue, but more and more, mobile devices are becoming essential. You have them with you," says FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. "In the event of a major disaster, government authorities can get lifesaving information to you quickly."

Tuesday, at the World Trade Center site in New York, Genachowski and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will announce that New York will have the free PLAN service operational by year's end. Officials also expect to have Washington, D.C., on board by then. Four cellular providers — AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon —have collaborated to voluntarily initiate the service prior to an April 2012 deadline for PLAN enaction throughout the nation. Officials hope to include the entire metropolitan area of the two cities.

Some current cellphones, including some iPhones and some Android phones, already have the circuitry required to receive PLAN alerts. The iPhones that have the capacity to get alerts, says AT&T's Robert Quinn, will require software modifications. New AT&T phones due out in October will be PLAN-ready.



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-05-09-emergency-alerts_n.htm

[marasinghe]

1. not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but ....

the senile ass - bloomberg - has a hard-on for any kind of techy gee whiz.
ever since he managed to make billions off bloomberg communications.
this would be par for the course; along with his puerile attempt to turn NY taxi cabs into traveling TV booths.

[Stuttgart77]

11. I think it is a bad thing

I have privacy concerns. When someone can mandate a chip in the phone, who knows what they can activate and track remotely. Makes abuse too easy.

Who knows what "code" can be programmed into the firmware, remotely or otherwise.

[Critters2]

2. I'm signed up for the Weather Channel's Notify service,

and I really do like getting calls with weather warnings on my phone for precisely the reason noted above--I always have my phone with me, so the alerts always reach me, at work, when driving, wherever.

[BrightKnight]

3. It will save lives and it should be done. - n/t

[Sherman A1]

4. Probably a good thing.

I have text messages blocked on my cell phone service as I do not want them nor wish to pay for them. I am also capable of checking the weather each day and looking at the sky, but if it helps others, fine with me.

[jberryhill]

8. Looking at the sky?

Ugh...

My smartphone has an app that uses the camera to take a picture of the sky and show it on the screen, so you don't have to look away from the phone in order to figure out what the weather is doing.

Skywatcher 2.0 also includes a one touch interface so that you can instantly share what the sky looks like on Twitter and Facebook. Even if you don't have your phone with you, you can use your computer or any public computer at, say a library or internet cafe, to quickly check the appearance of the sky from other Skywatcher users with the closest GPS coordinates.

[Sherman A1]

9. I just use the Mark 1 Eyeball App

It instantly tells me if the clouds are gathering, they are dark, the sun is shining or if it is daylight or it is dark.

I have found it has worked well for me over the years.

[jberryhill]

10. Is that one of those "cloud computing" applications they are always on about?

I just don't know what I did without my smartphone.

I have another app where I can take a picture of something, and the app will immediately detect whether it is shit, Shinola, my ass, or a hole in the ground!

[sofa king]

5. Prediction: will be used as a spam avenue before any emergency.

[BadgerKid]

6. These have actually been around for several years

because of terrorism and college campus shootings. This kind of service has been known not to work with some of the re-sold cell services like Virgin Mobile, Tracfone, etc., so it will be interesting now if it works.

[Pab Sungenis]

7. Has potential.

National emergency? Good. Terrorist alerts? Okay. Weather emergency? Possibly. But they want to use this thing for Amber Alerts, and that's going too far.