The voice of the BlackBerry community.
Mobile Future, a broad-based coalition of businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals, has just released a BlackBerry app that allows anyone to keep up-to-date on the latest news from the FCC and congress regarding wireless. The app can be downloaded by texting GETBERRY to 30644. For more information on wireless future visit mobilefuture.org.
First Orion have announced PrivacyStar, a new BlackBerry app that allows users to block calls from telemarketers, automatically report Do Not Call Registry violators to the Federal Trade Commission, reverse lookup unknown calls and more.
Here are some features and a quick breakdown of the app:
PrivacyStar is available free for the first 30 days, and costs $2.99 per month afterwards.
We often hear about the potential dangers posed by cell phones and the non-ionizing radiation they emit, but there is still no consensus on whether they can be directly linked to cancer or any other health problem.
CTIA, the American Cancer Society, World Health Organization and Food and Drug Administration, among others, have “all have concurred that wireless devices are not a public health risk,”
The Environmental Working Group, believe that cellphone radiation standards are outdated and we should review them. This news comes on the heels of the World Health Organization’s recommendations on cellphone usage, which is to be released October 2009.
On the list of the Top 10 worst perpetrators, 2 BlackBerry devices show up, and they come in right under what the FCC deems to be acceptable.
Overall, we should wait until the WHO comes out with their study in October 2009. While we know low levels of radiation have no impact in a short period of time, it’s hard to say what the impact will be over long periods of time.
[Special thanks to Michael K for sending this in at tips [at] blackberrycool [dot] com]
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On the same day that T-Mobile Germany officially announced the device, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 has passed US FCC approval. While the Curve 8900 will eventually be available on both T-Mobile and AT&T in the US, look for it to hit T-Mobile first. You can find the FCC link and some initial reviews of the BlackBerry Curve 8900 at the links below.
BlackBerry Curve FCC approval
Multiple BlackBerry Curve 8900 reviews
The FCC is currently voting on what to do about the D-Block, the 700Mhz chunk of the wireless public safety spectrum which had previously been up for auction despite Verizon’s litigious attempts to block it. However, many commercial bidders fear that the auction plan as structured is not commercially viable, while public safety groups and a few members of Congress feel that the spectrum would be more effectively split into regional licenses rather than a national one.
Ars Technica has a wonderful summary of the entire situation, which can be found here.
There hasn’t been much hard and fast information on the guts of the upcoming BlackBerry 9000, but it’s made it through the FCC approval gauntlet and emerged with plenty of specs. A lot of the report is funky-coloured thermal graphs and radiation tests, but interestingly many indicate WCDMA readings. I’m no engineer, but maybe a CDMA BlackBerry Bold is on the way sooner than you think… More importantly is the timing of the filing. The tests ran around late April, and the first we heard of the BlackBerry Bold battery bruhaha was late March. Sending in reports to the FCC involves a fair bit of device-polishing on RIM’s part – I’m sure it would have been a little unfair back then to bash the Bold before it was even ready for the FCC, just as it might be unfair to stomp all over other upcoming devices well before they’ve gone through the testing ropes. Jussayin’.
(PhoneArena via Rimarkable)
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