Author: Fraser Lovatt

Where previous studies have been concerned by the belief that mobile phones may cause the brain to swell, or even cause cancer in exposed areas, a new study conducted by Lund University has warned that mobile phones allow albumen to pass into the brain. This in turn may cause the affected person to become senile prematurely. It is not clear if the neurons would recover or repair themselves.

A similar study conducted at Finland’s Nuclear Safety Authority also found that the exposure to radiation in from mobiles causes increased protein activity in hundreds of proteins. They did not conclude if there was any biological effect.

The Independent

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Despite a setback last week when eBay pulled his auction, George Hotelling has sucessfully sold an iTune song he no longer had any use for.

The track, an AAC-encoded file of a remake of Frankie Smith’s “Double Dutch Bus” (we’ve never heard of it either), was finally sold to his friend, Keith Elder in Michigan for 50 cents.

However, this transaction isn’t as exciting as it could have been – there won’t suddenly be a huge volume of used iTunes being traded legally on the internet: Hotelling had to transfer his entire iTunes account containing the lone tune to Elder.

Hotelling is still not sure if he has violated his iTunes terms of service and, for some inexplicable reason, Apple refuse to answer any of his questions on the issue.

All we’ve heard is: “Apple’s position is that it is impractical, though perhaps within someone’s rights, to sell music purchased online,” from Peter Lowe, Apple’s director of marketing for applications and services.

The original eBay auction was pulled last week after it reached silly amounts of money with eBay stating that it violated its listing policies. We think that might translate as “raised issues far too difficult to even think about”. Hotelling was obviously determined to make his point, and came up with a slightly elaborate way of continuing the sale: he bought a $29.95 prepaid card and then transferred the card to his friend when there was only 50c left on it. Not quite the easy, legal exchange we were hoping for.

In the end “It was a success,” said George Hotelling. “I was able to transfer the song, I documented it, and Apple even said it was probably legal. I think the biggest success was raising the issue in a lot of people’s minds.”

George Hotelling writes about the event

Aside from Samsung’s decision to ban camera phones, of which it makes a few, from its laboratories, and apart from a few massive marketing campaigns, mobile phones with built in cameras have hardly set the world alight.  However, that might be changing as a couple of recent incidents show.

Göteborgs-Posten, the Swedish newspaper, published a news item on its homepage illustrated by a photograph taken on a mobile phone.  A truck had hit a tram, a nearby reporter managed to snap the scene on his mobile, and he emailed the pictures into the office. A more traditional photographer was despatched, but by the time the pictures were ready two hours later, they were deemed less newsworthy and the lower-resolution pictures were retained.

In Texas, a student was given three days detention after pictures of gang-related activities were found on his mobile phone. We’re reminded of a related story in this week’s Economist regarding a potential backlash against mobile phones in Italy.  Despite the incredible rate at which Italians adopted mobile phones (90% penetration after a fairly slow start), a major drawback has come to light: according to a detective agency in Rome, 87% of cases of martial infidelity investigated by its agents have been discovered because of evidence on mobile phones.  Presumably with the growth of phone cameras, this is all about to get much more interesting … an racier.

The Göteborgs-Posten storyPicturePhoningThe Economist on the Italian affair with mobile phones

Police are reporting that the number of accidents caused by listening to, watching or just plain fiddling with, entertainment devices when driving cars is on the rise.  Drivers get distracted when looking for the right track on that slippery iPod and end up going into the back of other cars.  Of particular concern is the use of headphones when driving — and they are especially needless given the range of devices available to wirelessly link your MP3 player to your car stereo.

MindFactory FM TransmittersThe Belkin TuneCast

The US International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) have partnered with Anonymizer to provide an email and newsletter service that uses changing URLs to allow Iranian citizens to access sites that have been blocked by the government. The URLs are also promoted on Voice of America and Radio Farda. Once a URL is blocked, a new one is provided – the voanews.com and radiofarda.com servers act as a trusted intermediary, and the service even includes a SafeCookie feature for sites that use mandatory user cookies.

Ken Berman, program manager for Internet Anti-censorship activities at the IBB : "The links to the service provided within the emails point to either the VOA or Radio Farda sites, but they can go anywhere on the Internet. Dissident sites, religious sites, the L.L. Bean catalogue — they are free to explore the Internet as they wish, in an unfettered fashion."

Importantly, Anonymizer’s technologies also mean that it’s impossible for the authorities to find out which sites an individual has visited.

Formed in 1996, Anonymizer, Inc has over 100,000 paying subscribers worldwide. The new Iranian service to similar to the one they have provided in China and other countries censoring net access.

Anonymizer

Radio Farda