Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Cellphone Radiation May Cause Cancer, Advisory Panel Says

A World Health Organization panel has concluded that cellphones are “possibly carcinogenic,’’ putting the popular devices in the same category as certain dry cleaning chemicals and pesticides, as a potential threat to human health.

The finding, from the agency’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, adds to concerns among a small but growing group of experts about the health effects of low levels of radiation emitted by cellphones. The panel, which consisted of 31 scientists from 14 countries, was led by Dr. Jonathan M. Samet, a physician and epidemiologist at the University of Southern California and a member of President Obama’s National Cancer Advisory Board.

Studies of non-ionizing radiation impact on human tissue have been inconclusive to date, which is why the WHO can only say there is a "possible" danger. To be on the safe side, some of us minimize our mobile usage and use the speaker phone as much as possible.

E-Reader Comparison



http://paidcontent.org/article/419-comparing-the-latest-e-readers-heres-our-chart/

Cisco Projects 26-Fold Growth in Global Mobile Data Traffic From 2010 to 2015

Worldwide mobile data traffic will increase 26-foldbetween 2010 and 2015, says Cisco, reaching 6.3 exabytes per month or an annual run rate of 75 exabytes by 2015.

This traffic increase represents a compound annual growth rate of 92 percent over the same period. Two major global trends are driving these significant mobile data traffic increases: a continued surge in mobile-ready devices such as tablets and smart phones, and widespread mobile video content consumption, Cisco notes.

The Cisco study predicts that by 2015, more than 5.6 billion personal devices will be connected to mobile networks, and there will also be 1.5 billion machine-to-machine nodes -- nearly the equivalent of one mobile connection for every person in the world.

Mobile video is forecast to represent 66 percent of all mobile data traffic by 2015, increasing 35-fold from 2010 to 2015, the highest growth rate of any mobile data application tracked in the Cisco VNI Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast. Mobile traffic originating from tablet devices is expected to grow 205-fold from 2010 to 2015, the highest growth rate of any device category tracked.

How Many Mobile Payments Users in India by 2015?

With the mobile phone penetration expected to reach 100 percent by 2015, mobile devices are likely to emerge as a popular medium of payment in India, a recent survey has predicted.

According to the report conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, India counts nearly 720 million mobile subscribers, which are expected to start using more their devices to carry out mobile payments in the future. In addition, the report indicates that this prediction is based on the fact that although the majority of Indian residents are unbanked they do have a mobile phone.

Moreover, the study has pointed out that the retail market in India has annual transactions worth USD 410 billion (approximately Rs 1,850,000 crore).

96% of Under-50 Internet Users are on Facebook?

A Bank of America survey of 418 U.S. consumers under age 50 found that 96 percent of them use Facebook.

Furthermore, over half (51 percent) of those users say they have increased their use of the social network over the past 12 months. Since 69 percent report they do not spend less time on other websites as a result of their Facebook use, one has to assume the additional time has been shifted from other activities.

Some 48 percent of respondents say they have intentionally clicked on an ad on Facebook while 48 percent frequently use the “Like” button.

Some 40 percent of respondents say they check Facebook multiple times each day, while 36 percent check Facebook multiple times a day from their mobile device.


But 82 percent of Facebook users have concerns about privacy.

http://www.allfacebook.com/report-do-almost-all-americans-use-facebook-yet-2011-05

96% of Under-50 Internet Users are on Facebook?

A Bank of America survey of 418 U.S. consumers under age 50 found that 96 percent of them use Facebook.

Furthermore, over half (51 percent) of those users say they have increased their use of the social network over the past 12 months. Since 69 percent report they do not spend less time on other websites as a result of their Facebook use, one has to assume the additional time has been shifted from other activities.

48 percent of respondents say they have intentionally clicked on an ad on Facebook while 48 percent frequently use the “Like” button.

Some 40 percent of respondents say they check Facebook multiple times each day, while 36 percent check Facebook multiple times a day from their mobile device.

But 82 percent of Facebook users have concerns about privacy.

http://www.allfacebook.com/report-do-almost-all-americans-use-facebook-yet-2011-05

AT&T Bid for T-Mobile USA in Trouble?

AT&T officials deny that there is any growing opposition to the proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA beyond the expected cast of characters. But some observers are not so sure. At the very least, a tougher than expected fight is expected. Others think the odds the deal might actually fail to gain regulatory approval are growing.

That would cost AT&T a significant amount of money and spectrum. It also would put T-Mobile USA into a difficult position, as it would have spent a year doing very little to maintain its business as a going concern.

If the deal fails, T-Mobile USA will emerge a weaker company for the distractions, still with the same scale problems and then a likely subject of a Sprint takeover bid.

Costs of Creating Machine Learning Models is Up Sharply

With the caveat that we must be careful about making linear extrapolations into the future, training costs of state-of-the-art AI models hav...