The FCC has approved a new nationwide alert system that will send text messages to cell phones to alert Americans when an emergency, disaster, or attack occurs. Only three types of events will trigger the emergency text message, which will be sent by your carrier.

This is a good idea, though I am sure it will be completely ignored by many. The text messages will be sent for the following reasons: there is a terrorist or other attack that threatens the safety or health of Americans; an imminent or on-going natural disaster such as an earthquake, hurricane or tornado; or an Amber alert.

If any of these three happens, your network operator will be contacted by the government, and an alert will be sent to your mobile phone. Participation by the network operators is not mandatory, though AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon have all said they will adopt the program. Smaller, regional carriers are likely to follow suit.

FCC chairman Kevin Martin said, "The ability to deliver accurate and timely warnings and alerts through cell phones and other mobile services is an important next step in our efforts to help ensure that the American public has the information they need to take action to protect themselves and their families prior to, and during, disasters and other emergencies."

said by Karl :

Less or more annoying than having your child abducted?

said by Karl :

quote:

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An annoyance to everyone not related to the missing kid. Especially when it isn't a real abduction. It will depend on how frequently these alerts are issued and how widespread they disseminate them away from the child's immediate community.

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Perhaps. Provided they're reasonable and regionally specific, I kind of think some irritation on my part is well worth catching a dirtbag before he kills a child.

said by Karl :

Perhaps. Provided they're reasonable and regionally specific, I kind of think some irritation on my part is well worth catching a dirtbag before he kills a child.

said by Karl :

quote:

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An annoyance to everyone not related to the missing kid. Especially when it isn't a real abduction. It will depend on how frequently these alerts are issued and how widespread they disseminate them away from the child's immediate community.

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Perhaps. Provided they're reasonable and regionally specific, I kind of think some irritation on my part is well worth catching a dirtbag before he kills a child.

said by MTB :

Ok let me guess. It is illegal to talk while driving, but reading is OK.

Interesting.

It's been a long time coming but television on the Internet appears finally to be taking off, opening up a new viewing experience for free and helping to fight online piracy.

One of the newest services, Hulu, which was launched a month ago in the United States, is backed by media giant NBC Universal and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Britain's giant state-owned BBC Corporation announced recently that it is teaming up with two of the country's leading commercial channels, ITV and Channel 4, to launch an online video joint venture around the middle of this year.

Several web-based TV services have been launched in the past few years. These include Joost that was set-up in 2006 by the Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, creators of the illegal music file-sharing service Kazaa, as well as Babelgum, Vuze and Veoh, which is the grand old man of the pack having been set-up in 2003.

The cost of running the sites, however, is very high due to the heavy bandwidth.

"No one has come up yet with an effective business model for ad-supported long-form video on the web and the company that does might just hit on a gold mine," the specialist next-generation media and entertainment magazine FutureMedia underlined in its April edition.

said by MattE :

But you still can't watch them on your TV!

said by dadkins :

Uhm... some of us can!

said by MattE :

I knew I should have included without a Media Center PC directly connected to your TV.

Call me when I can stream flash videos from my Vista MCE to my XBox 360.

said by dadkins :

Can't help you there Matt.

I have VGA, S Video out, and HDMI.
Whatever is being displayed on this laptop, can be sent to just about any(newer) TV or display.

But seeing as this laptop is one of my TVs, displaying flash(or anything else for that matter) is fairly straight forward.

Sorry, I couldn't resist!

said by Hambone :

Even under ideal conditions television programming sucks. Cell phones cause tumors.

Go ahead enjoy yourselves. Drink some aspartame laced soda out of a plastic bottle while you watch. Just don't expect me to subsidize your kids neurosurgeon 10-15 years from now.

Microsoft's Live Maps team just dropped a huge new version of its service in addition to the traffic updates from earlier Thursday.

Live Maps now offers a wealth of new features, including exporting to GPS devices, improved 3D imagery, and one of my personal favorites, MapCruncher integration.

The Live Maps team is really together right now. It is offering a product that, in my opinion, is clearly superior to Google Maps. Live Maps is the best browser-based map experience out there today.

said by TK Junk Mail :

»www.news.com/8301-10784_3-991674···-1_3-0-5
»maps.live.com
and the main competitor
»maps.google.com

I tried the MS site and got directions and chose the "include traffic" option to determine routing information. It seems to work pretty well. It chose a route that avoided a usual holdup in traffic at rush hour.

Netflix and Blockbuster are already offering DVD rental service by mail. Amazon.com, Microsoft's Xbox Live, and Netflix deliver movies directly to the PC. TiVo, Vudu, and Apple TV--not to mention cable and satellite companies--are doing the same for TV sets. Local independent stores notwithstanding, the only major brick-and-mortar options left for renting discs are Hollywood Video/Movie Gallery, which is close to bankruptcy, and Blockbuster.

The rental chain is said to be making a set-top box that will allow video content to be streamed directly to a television. The announcement should come sometime later this month, according to THR.

The service would take advantage of video-on-demand technology from Movielink (which Blockbuster bought last year) that allows movie downloads from Universal Studios, Paramount, Sony Pictures, MGM, and Warner Bros.