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In addition to Earthquake warning system, what about Forest fire, Flood, Bizzard, Tornado and Hurricane. Having lived through Katrina, I realized that even with only a few days prior to the hurricane hitting New Orleans, many people didn't know about the imminent danger. Lots of people don't keep up with the news.

An early warning system integrated into the OS is overdue. We get weather alerts and auction alerts, why not a warning before something deadly hits our Zip Code?

Sorry, i was in Katrina myself. when it went from a cat 1 to a growing cat 3 storm in 24hrs it was clear they danger this storm was going to bring. no matter what people would have on their phone they will still expect the government down there to take care of them. after they issued the evacuation there were people refusing to leave. i know of a few instances where the guard was being shot at because they were trying to get people of of their houses.
 
This feature looks nice, save for one crippling deficiency, right now iPhones(and iPads bought inside Japan) are consigned to by far the worst network in Japan. Softbank is an absolute joke of a network, I dont live too far outside of Tokyo and I swear the amount of time I dont get signal is at least equal to the amount of time that I do.....not to mention its SLOOOOOOOOOOOOW. And their customer service is the absolute worst.

Even in Tokyo the speed is nowhere near the speed I had in the middle of nowhere Germany with Vodafone. Hopefully Apple will wise up to what a joke of a network Softbank is and how much it is hurting them and finally release a model for either NTT or KDDI's network(the advertising on the former practically writes itself, the KDDiPhone)

When my contract is up next year I am getting rid of Softbank, even if it means switching to Android. Softbank sucks.

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Except that list doesnt actually tell you how much each one sold, just the top 10. So Android could still lead iOS by a significant margin, but since there are so many different Android handsets, if you just look at the handset sales Apple may still come out on top.

Softbank is just a joke of a network compared to AU and Docomo, Apple could really be cleaning up IMO if they would release the iPhone for at least one other carrier. I know lots of people, myself included, that either have iPhones or had iPhones and will not be getting another unless they can ditch Softbank.

So because "Softbank Sucks," adding this to iOS is not good news? I lived in Japan for 3.5 years and can tell you DoCoMo and AU are not perfect or ubiquitous in their coverage either. Just the same this is something that has benefit to all individuals regardless of network and whether or not they even have a phone. Notification allows you to spread the word immediately to everyone in your vicinity by yelling.
 
An early warning system integrated into the OS is overdue. We get weather alerts and auction alerts, why not a warning before something deadly hits our Zip Code?

CMAS is pretty close now. CMAS will send out CMAS (SMS-like) text messages only to people within impacted areas, and every one in that area will get the CMAS text.

You should start seeing deployment of CMAS in 2012.
 
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Crowd Sourcing Seismic Activity?

What would be really cool would be to exploit the location and gyroscope data to register seismic activity and provide even faster and more detailed information. Threshold settings for minimum data sets and type of motion could eliminate false alarms.

There is tremendous potential here to develop an infinitely more informative and cost effective system by accessing the latent capacity of these always-on-devices and still be able to protect personal privacy.
 
Most mobile phones in Japan can act as smart cards to store cash and can pay for/open Subway/train turnstiles with just a wave.

Japan is a cool country :) I loved my visit there last month.
 
This is simply wrong. The iPhone is the top-selling handset in Japan

Err, no it's not. You are.

He said the majority of people in Japan don't use iPhones. This is true. You don't understand his point.

The iPhone may be the biggest selling handset, but this is entirely different from the majority of people owning one. There are literally dozens of handsets from different manufacturers available. The iPhone is just one of them.
 
Sweet! Now all Japan needs is an App for detecting levels of unstable isotopes in seafood, vegetables, beef, poultry, milk, drinking water, etc. If they play their cards right some day Japan could become the safest, most advanced waste dump in the world.
 
What would be really cool would be to exploit the location and gyroscope data to register seismic activity and provide even faster and more detailed information. Threshold settings for minimum data sets and type of motion could eliminate false alarms.

There is tremendous potential here to develop an infinitely more informative and cost effective system by accessing the latent capacity of these always-on-devices and still be able to protect personal privacy.

and drop your phone and trigger the earth quake notification system? :D


seriously, the earthquake notification system in japan exploits the fact that p-waves arrive slightly before s-waves. even if the phone were directly connected to the ground and not insulated by 80kg of meat carrying it, the gyroscope would not be able to discern the difference.
 
Californian could probably us something like this also.

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Err, no it's not. You are.

He said the majority of people in Japan don't use iPhones. This is true. You don't understand his point.

The iPhone may be the biggest selling handset, but this is entirely different from the majority of people owning one. There are literally dozens of handsets from different manufacturers available. The iPhone is just one of them.

No difference for the USA but don't tell the fangirls that.:p
 
If only iOS 5 could tell if you're driving and turn the phone off.

Only problem with that feature is that those of us who take buses and trains will have to pay attention to all the creepy people in the seats around us instead of burying ourselves in our phones...
 
Funny, I just told my wife about this feature this morning! I installed Beta 6 last night and noticed "Quake Alerts" in the Notification settings ... Guess it's just a matter of time before I can test it out :(
 
What happens if you're just a passenger, but with an iphone?

Doesn't matter. Too many people die to morons on cell phones. Jam cell phone signals within cars IMO. It would be lame to not be able to use my phone in a car as a passenger, but vehicular homicide is worse. I've seen many people on the phone or listening to music while driving, then these people get into accidents, and they're all shocked and surprised when they slip up due to taking their attention off the road, and get somebody killed. Darwin backfires a bit there...
 
"QUAKE ALERT" in this article makes me think "Alert! someone is running Quake deathmatch server in this area! join now!"
 
Now all they need

is some kind of Godzilla warning

godzilla_taller_than_buildings.jpg



:D
 
This feature looks nice, save for one crippling deficiency, right now iPhones(and iPads bought inside Japan) are consigned to by far the worst network in Japan. Softbank is an absolute joke of a network, I dont live too far outside of Tokyo and I swear the amount of time I dont get signal is at least equal to the amount of time that I do.....not to mention its SLOOOOOOOOOOOOW. And their customer service is the absolute worst.

Even in Tokyo the speed is nowhere near the speed I had in the middle of nowhere Germany with Vodafone. Hopefully Apple will wise up to what a joke of a network Softbank is and how much it is hurting them and finally release a model for either NTT or KDDI's network(the advertising on the former practically writes itself, the KDDiPhone)

When my contract is up next year I am getting rid of Softbank, even if it means switching to Android. Softbank sucks.

----------



Except that list doesnt actually tell you how much each one sold, just the top 10. So Android could still lead iOS by a significant margin, but since there are so many different Android handsets, if you just look at the handset sales Apple may still come out on top.

Softbank is just a joke of a network compared to AU and Docomo, Apple could really be cleaning up IMO if they would release the iPhone for at least one other carrier. I know lots of people, myself included, that either have iPhones or had iPhones and will not be getting another unless they can ditch Softbank.

I have not had the problems that you seem to be having with the Softbank 3GS service. Of course, like any cell phone service here, there are areas that don't get as much coverage as we would like but, it generally works pretty well. When you have had problems with connection, have you tried completely shutting off (restart) your iPhone for a moment? I have seen the reception go from two bars to five bars by doing this on those occasions where I have had some problems with, say, downloading e-mail. I haven't had to do it very often but, when it was necessary, it worked.
Just a suggestion. By the way, NTT rejected the iPhone because, I quote "the Japanese market is much more advanced than America and the iPhone won't be popular here." Read: NTT wanted Apple to pay it money to carry the iPhone not just share the revenue, I believe. Remember the ¥70,000 that you had to pay to NTT just to get a phone line in your home? AU isn't a bad service but they too passed on the iPhone, a decision that I think that they regret now.
 
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