35 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Copyright © 2017 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.

The Telecom Digest for Wed, 22 Feb 2017
Volume 36 : Issue 19 : "text" format

Table of contents
Re: Apple, Let Us Tune into Those FM Radio ChannelsFred Goldstein
A Dutch town decides to wake up cellphone zombiesMonty Solomon
Your ultimate guide to mobile livestreamingMonty Solomon
What Are Your Rights if Border Agents Want to Search Your Phone?Monty Solomon
Tribunal says Bell Canada discriminated against bedridden woman by making her go to store for phoneNigel Allen
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <o8foq8$ne4$1@dont-email.me> Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2017 17:00:21 -0500 From: Fred Goldstein <fg_es@removeQRM.ionary.com> Subject: Re: Apple, Let Us Tune into Those FM Radio Channels On 2/18/2017 12:41 AM, Mr. Moderator Noted, > > Incipient paranoia department: given the fact that board designers > have a religion called "minimum parts count", and that electrical > engineers obsess over every femtoamp in a battery-powered environment, > I find myself wondering what an unused FM receiver chip is doing in an > iPhone in the first place. It probably doesn't take a lot of extra components on the SOC to handle the radio, and if it's turned off it doesn't use power. My Blackberry does make the FM radio available. But it only works when I have a corded headset plugged in: The headset cord is the FM antenna. Bluetooth headphones wouldn't work. Apple has taken out the headset jack from its latest toy, so there is literally no way for the FM receiver to pick up the signal. An FM antenna wouldn't fit into the phone. > Not many people know this, but FM stations are able to broadcast a > subcarrier signal that isn't received on ordinary sets. It's mostly > used to distribute Muzak or other subscription based audio > programming, and sometimes for specialized broadcasts like the > Physician's Radio Network (try listening sometime: the ads are > amazing). Also Hybrid Digital (HD) Radio, the digital-OTA scheme that never quite caught on here (I'm guessing because the license fee to use it is too high). > Subcarriers are also sometimes used for data transmissions: the speeds > are slow, but good enough for low-bandwidth work like sending traffic > alerts to GPS units, or, in the case of iPhones, weather warnings from > the National Weather Service, lists of URL's, new ring tones, or secret > messages to the Apple Geniuses who are getting ready to take over the > world. > > I wonder what a phsychiatrist would say. You've lived in North Carolina for what a couple of years now, and already you're turning loony? :-) ***** Moderator's Note ***** I get to eat grits for breakfast, go to a farmers' market on Saturday, buy gasoline at $2.15/gallon, and pay less than $1,500/year in taxes. We did get some snow last month: as much as an inch in some places, but it melted away before I could make a snowman. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <33560C2E-FD3E-4253-97B9-12436BDC8462@roscom.com> Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2017 22:07:29 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: A Dutch town decides to wake up cellphone zombies The clever thing one Dutch town is doing to protect "smartphone zombies". Distracted pedestrians are becoming an increasing problem, says one Dutch town alderman. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/16/the-clever-thing-one-dutch-town-is-doing-to-protect-smartphone-zombies/ ------------------------------ Message-ID: <6E638F22-EED1-4C39-B702-CE8AD0320993@roscom.com> Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2017 15:49:11 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Your ultimate guide to mobile livestreaming Your ultimate guide to mobile livestreaming A handy guide on how to stream and on what platform. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/02/14/your-ultimate-guide-to-mobile-livestreaming/ ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20FDC2F0-A859-41D1-8B17-E04724A5B954@roscom.com> Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2017 18:39:31 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: What Are Your Rights if Border Agents Want to Search Your Phone? Haisam Elsharkawi was about to travel from Los Angeles to Saudi Arabia last week when, he says, he was stopped at the airport, questioned, handcuffed, questioned some more and then released without charges three hours after his flight had departed. Mr. Elsharkawi, 34, an American citizen, said in an interview on Monday that officers from the United States Customs and Border Protection repeatedly pressured him to unlock his cellphone so that they could scroll through his contacts, photos, apps and social media accounts. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/business/border-enforcement-airport-phones.html ------------------------------ Message-ID: <CAEb1Pcu9vyXAanA4Fi1CWOVy1DQxM1qzFBAqPu1TRX16HYWjuw@mail.gmail.com> Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2017 00:28:04 -0500 From: Nigel Allen <nigeldavidallen@gmail.com> Subject: Tribunal says Bell Canada discriminated against bedridden woman by making her go to store for phone from the Toronto Star: By Michelle McQuigge Tribunal says Bell Canada discriminated against bedridden woman by making her go to store for phone The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordered Bell to pay $10,000 to Linda Mills, a London, Ont. woman who was forced to go to a Bell store while recovering from chemotherapy and a stroke. https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/02/20/tribunal-says-bell-canada-discriminated-against-bedridden-woman-by-making-her-go-to-store-for-phone.html -- Nigel Allen 6 Silver Ave Toronto ON M6R 1X8 Canada Telephone (416) 535-8916 nigeldavidallen@gmail.com ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Wed, 22 Feb 2017

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