“T-Mobile triggered a minor concern on Friday morning after it tested the Presidential Emergency Alert system early,” Electronista reports.
“Those on the network have reported getting a sudden message,” Electronista reports. “Lance Ulanoff, using an HTC Radar 4G with Windows Phone, saw it badged as a “Presidential Alert” with a test flag, but it also included a ‘weird siren-like sound,’ he said, hinting that it was the hard-coded special feature.”
Electronista reports, “The test comes five days before a national test of the alerts, which ties into the FEMA-backed Emergency Alert System. The agency plans to send out a test across most formats on November 9 at 2PM Eastern. Although FEMA hasn’t mentioned cellphones by name, the test is expected to include them for the first time.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Siri, power down for two minutes next Wednesday at 1:59pm.
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U.S. gov’t mandates special chip in all cellphones; users can’t opt out of presidential messages – May 11, 2011
Yeah the big big brother homeland GESTPO power gab for all the american sheep to be herded…
U poor schmucks!
Really? Emergency agencies have developed access for mass information distribution since the invention of radio. This is simply opening a new channel to keep up with changing technology. The bigger question is whether an emergency bad enough to require a Presidential Alert will leave any cell towers standing to broadcast.
Except know they know where you are.
I guess that makes me big brother, because I know exactly where you are.
Mother’s basement. Boom.
Interesting that someone who uses the handle Ubermac, as in Übermensch, a Nazi term for supermen, the Aryan ideal human, should be referring to HS as Gestapo. I would have thought they’re more like the Stasi, the East German police unit. But then, I can never figure out what most Americans are talking about on this site when they start onto politics, bless their pointy little heads.
Good. It was an alert like this sent via cell phones in Japan right after the earthquake struck that warned people to get away from shore prior to the tsunami. I’m sure it saved many lives.
Big brother is watching. And his name is Barry.
Barry Manilow just writes the songs that make the young girls cry..come on.
ya mean Barry Switzer?
Actually that was Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys who wrote that. It was the only BBs song to win a Grammy.
The present system went into effect in 1997, and supersedes systems from the 1950’s. This system simply updates for newer technologies. If all of this freaks you out, you should realize that unless you’re using encryption and proxy servers, your ISP knows who and where you are, and has possibly all of your on-line comments and definitely every web site you visit available to the “proper authorities”, in many cases without a warrent.
How about your cable company, if separate. They know what you’re watching and what programs you record and when. And most cell phones with tracking turned on will track you even if the device is turned off.
There’s a whole more to worry about, if you’re the type to worry about such things, than a potentially life-saving use of technology like this.
Are you paranoid enough? I suggest that you step it up a factor of two today and double it again tomorrow.
Be reasonable. There are 350 million people in the US and only a few percent are soldiers. Even if Big Brother wanted to keep track of people, why do you think that YOU are so important that they would want to track you. Your tin foil hat keeps them out of your thoughts and you unplug your phone, right? Your mom is just upstairs and will keep the bogey man away.
I have it on good authority that Barry watched your life for five minutes…and then went to look for some magnolia paint drying because it was bound to be more interesting.
Oooh, the unmistakeable spasm of the “damn gubmint” troglodyte when told something that can be tangentially ‘blamed’ on the present administration.
Now whilst I admire some of the tin-foil hats on display let’s go and look for some of those awkward thigummyjigs that we like to call ‘facts’.
PLAN is, as stated by jaundiced above, an extension of the EAS infrastructure that has existed since it replaced the older EBS system in 1997.
PLAN was originally proposed under the Warning, Alert and Response Network(WARN) Act sponsored by Rep. John Shimkus [R-IL19] and co-sponsored by a balanced bi-partisan group of ten members of the House.
It was eventually passed by the 109th Congress in 2006 as part of the Safe Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006. That legislation was sponsored by Rep. Daniel Lungren [R-CA3] and again was supported by EIGHTY co-sponsors from both parties and of every political philosophy including Bobby ‘why do we need to learn about volcanoes?’ Jindal.
It passed the House by 421 votes to 2 before passing the Senate 98 votes to 0 and was signed into law by President GW Bush becoming Public Law No: 109-347.
Now, personally, if a bunch of future Darwin Award winners don’t want to check if their mobile phones can receive warnings of tornadoes, floods and other natural phenomena, I couldn’t care less. But don’t blame the government if you suddenly get a substantial piece of wood in your head because of your prejudice against the guy who just happened to be in power when the system went live.
Your only faulty assumption was ‘they’ don’t have a substantial piece of wood in their heads already. 😆
🙂
while I am not a fan of any sort of tracking, a system like this is useful and important if used properly. far fewer people watch the news on TV or listen to the radio today – the traditional emergency alert systems – so this is just trying to keep pace with technology. Most folks have a mobile device near them at all times – TV and radio not as much.
Yeah, but the government embedding something into every cellphone chip so they can track, listen and otherwise spy on every citizen, under the pretense that hey need to send emergency messages?
BS!
I see you wisely labeled your own post as BS. Well done. 😆
Yes, you’re all correct, let’s get the government out of our cell phones. Me don’t need no freakin’ emergency alerts, I got my guns and bomb shelter to protect me. Don’t need no help, so git off my property (and my phone)!
While they’re at it, may as well shut down the National Weather Service, because we all know those weather satellites and all those radar stations are really just watching every step we take and beaming cancer straight into our brains, making us wear pink every October and donate to cancer research so they can get all of our money again.
Be sure to take away airbags, and seat belts, and yellow reflective signs on curvy mountain roads, and put less steel in car doors, and stop making aircraft rebuild perfectly good engines every 3,000 flight hours, and don’t require emergency room treatment, and let anyone who wants to drink and drive go ahead (saves on the cops), etc. etc. etc.
There is a difference between Big Brother, who wants to control your actions and thoughts, on a micro-managing level, and big brother who is offering you help in case you want it.
The difference is control regardless of your desire vs. help if you want it/need it.
The infrastructure and legislation are essentially the same. The net effect, a decisively organized society is the same.
Force feed someone and they spit the food out back at you.
Dangle food and wait for hunger and they will come and consume in droves.
If you don’t want to worry about emergency communications, then don’t heed them. But they are there for the common good. There IS a common good, don’t deny it.
Siri, I need a tinfoil hat.
Presidential Emergency Alert ??
is there ANYWAY to keep that idiot from texted me!
Read your post.
Whose the idiot?
The EAS system will at least have correct spelling and tenses.