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AT&T to Send Emergency Alerts to U.S. iPhone 4S/5 Owners [Update: iPhone 4 Users Also Included]

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Sappharad said:
The Weather Underground app has done that for free via push notifications for over a year now. They let you pick which types of weather notifications (thunderstorm, tornado, flood, etc.) you want.

It's been really useful to me, as I don't usually listen to the radio or watch live TV.
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But with this system they can send warnings to everyone in a very specific location immediately. It doesn't require gps or a data connection so it is much more effective.

And for people saying they can just see it on TV, that is just odd. Many people that this affects are not at home and if they are they may not have cable or watch live TV. This is a much more effective system.
 
Aldaris said:
The issue that I have is that you can't opt out of all of them (presidential being the one you can't).

It has nothing to do with who is in office or what party is in power, but the notification not being able to turn off if you so desire.
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For all intents and purposes, the presidential alerts is practically turned off. The presidential alert via EAS (or its predecessors) has never been used before. That includes events like Kennedy's assassination and 9/11... If the alert wasn't used for those events, think about just how major the precipitating event has to be.

Source: EAS on Wikipedia.
 
"Searching..." After Update?

After I got the Carrier Update, my iPhone 5 has been "Searching..." for the past hour. Anyone else???
 
hoodedwarbler12 said:
They should do tornado warnings too.
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It's odd that they don't have them yet. Japanese iPhones have had a "Quake Alerts" notifications for a couple of years now.

http://9to5mac.com/2011/08/21/ios-5...ning-notifications-for-japanese-iphone-users/

quakewarning.png
 
We had that tropical storm last week here in Florida and I received an emergency alert around 4am for a tornado warning, only problem was that I had do not disturb on so it didn't actually alert me. Good idea but I don't think it should be muted by DND.
 
Running 6.1.4 on my 5/blk/16 and it turned from 14.0 to 14.1....

I also just noticed that I'm able to use FaceTime without wifi!!! :)

And I'm on a grandfathered unlimited plan!!!
 

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I was just reading this thread... and I looked at my iPhone 4 and saw no new settings. I went to see what version my carrier software was at, and as soon as I did that, I got the "stuff has happened" popup... then when I went back to Notifications I saw the new settings.

I might have a problem with this depending on how it is implemented, and it isn't what most here have been talking about.

Way way back when I first got my iPhone, I kept getting text messages from people I didn't know. Basically, people kept texting the wrong number. Initially I thought it didn't count unless I read them, so I always deleted them without opening since I knew they were not for me.

However, the first bill I got fixed that assumption! I learned that you get charged whether you read the text message or not... Now, I never used the text messenging and people who know me know that I don't... so I called AT&T and asked them if they could stop charging me for texts that I didn't read.

AT&T said they couldn't do that... and since I didn't want to call them up every month to deal with it... I opted out of text messenging.

Now... IF the government sends a text message, I hope that doesn't mean AT&T will enable that feature on my phone and I'll start getting charged for other non-government texts... That would be a big problem for me if that happened again.

Anyone know more about how the actual alerts will be sent? I don't care if the government sends me alerts because those will be free messages... I do care if enabling that causes me to get other non-free ones again.
 
HDMe said:
However, the first bill I got fixed that assumption! I learned that you get charged whether you read the text message or not... Now, I never used the text messenging and people who know me know that I don't... so I called AT&T and asked them if they could stop charging me for texts that I didn't read
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AT&T charge you for receiving texts? That is ridiculous. So you get charged for sending and also receiving one?

Btw from what I gather from the article this is push notifications not texts - so no charges.
 
Nicky G said:
I hope General Zod doesn't use this to spam me with crap about turning in Superman.
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Ha. Spoiler alert next time?

Saw it tonight at a screening in downtown Los Angeles with some video peeps. Loved it. Just wanted to recast Amy Adams.
 
I can't imagine what's going through the head of someone who turns off amber alerts.

Can anyone explain why you would do it?
 
Aldaris said:
... I agree on 'public' communication systems, like tv radio etc. The president doesn't need to be buzzing in my pants.
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Your cell phone uses the same publicly-licensed radio spectrum as radio and TV. Listen, this isn't about the President being able to force his opinions on you...this is about creating a reliable way for the government to distribute emergency information in the most dire of circumstances. I can't think of a less objectionable function for government.

zmonster said:
This has obviously been in the works by AT&T for some time (it takes development resources to do this).
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This is not some plot by AT&T. It's an expansion of the EAS enacted by Congress and already implemented by every other carrier. AT&T is just late finishing the upgrades to their network required for this.
 
Dopeyman said:
Running 6.1.4 on my 5/blk/16 and it turned from 14.0 to 14.1....

I also just noticed that I'm able to use FaceTime without wifi!!! :)

And I'm on a grandfathered unlimited plan!!!
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Really! I don't know about updated firmware for FT. But I have jailbroken iPhone to use FT over cellular which have grandfathered plan. I will wait to get updated iOS 7 and try to get FT over cellular, hopefully.
 
Same Day...

Literally received the update and received an alert about a Flash Flood Warning the same day. Different alert tone, scare the heck out of me. :)
 
JoEw said:
Yeah didn't you see that snippet of code in the IOS software that sends video camera feeds to government servers?

I thought that would be big news :p ;)
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So that's why my battery drains so fast!! :rolleyes:

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rdinterman said:
Literally received the update and received an alert about a Flash Flood Warning the same day. Different alert tone, scare the heck out of me. :)
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My wife's phone does it and every time we get a tropical storm or tornado in NC it freaks us out at 2AM.
 
NYU said:
I'm running iOS 7 on my 4S, can anyone confirm the new AT&T carrier update is version 14.5 in Settings - About ?

The Government Alerts are enabled for me, just want to make sure it's not an iOS 7 bug.

Thanks!
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This is a new feature in IOS 7 that they decided to let be available for everyone now.

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Dopeyman said:
Running 6.1.4 on my 5/blk/16 and it turned from 14.0 to 14.1....

I also just noticed that I'm able to use FaceTime without wifi!!! :)

And I'm on a grandfathered unlimited plan!!!
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AT&T about two weeks ago made FaceTime over wifi available to all customers.
 
GollumBoy said:
AT&T charge you for receiving texts? That is ridiculous. So you get charged for sending and also receiving one?

Btw from what I gather from the article this is push notifications not texts - so no charges.
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Att has always charged that way.
 
mw360 said:
I can't imagine what's going through the head of someone who turns off amber alerts.

Can anyone explain why you would do it?
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Sure, at least for NWS alert system it's because they happen at 2 am when I am home, asleep, and am in no position to respond or use the alert. It's dumb and stupid to use the weather alert system to give false weather alarms (no matter how important you think the subject is). Note this is not the At&t notification I am talking about, it is the wrecking of the NWS alert system. The result, I tossed my weather radio because there was no way to turn off the Amber alerts. You tell me what good that does? Now if you live in Timbuktu you may never get an Amber alert so it is no big deal, but I lived in Chicago and they happened at least once per month and more during the summer (at least when I lived there, which was when it was first turned on).

Now if I were driving and an Amber alert came on the radio, then great, I might be in a position to help and I am already awake. If I worked in a convenience store or gas station, then great, I might be in a position to help. But I don't need or want Amber alerts when I am sleeping - Period. It won't help the child or their family and it is a pain for me.
 
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