Turn off the Beg-a-thon; no FM chip in our cell phones

[K3ZS]

On the Penn State campus, it seems all the females are walking between classes with their phones glued to their heads.    I wonder what so much RF exposure to their brains will do to them in the future.   My basic cell phone allows you to turn off the GPS, or allow only E911, or complete GPS location.  I keep E911 on, you never know when that will be needed.

[WB2EMS]

On our campus, it's not just the females. I'd estimate upwards of 70% of the pedestrians on campus have their head glued to a phone as they walk about. It's a real traffic menace if you are trying to drive across campus - they walk in front of anything oblivious to their surroundings.

If your phone has GPS, I don't think you can turn it off during a 911 call anymore. Plus of course the system can do a TDOA from a couple of towers and derive a rough location from that. My phone allows me to turn on and off the GPS for other functions, but as I recall it says that for E911 calls the GPS will be turned on. I think that's a federal requirement at this point. I also have no doubt that it can be activated remotely and your location determined without your knowledge.

[W1RC]

Who wants to search for a pay phone when you have to make a call?  Not I!
 
A cell phone can come in very handy especially since pay phones are a disappearing species. Besides, when you can find one, public phones can be very unsanitary or in neighborhoods where you really don't want to be.  

I have found that the best way to beat the big cell companies is to have a simple prepaid account.  Mine costs $100.00 a year and gives me 1000 minutes @ .10 per.  I only pay for airtime.  Provided I buy more minutes before the time limit my unused time is carried over. There's NO contract and thus no cancellation fee if I decide to change carriers.

Using a GSM carrier I have the phone of my choice which is an iPhone.  Ask AT&T and they wil ltell you that the iPhone is NOT available on a prepaid account.  All I had to do is get the SIM card and slip it into the iPonoe or any other GSM phone and it works fine.  

It's a wonderful toy and I can watch W C Fields movies while waiting while my wife shops.  Life is good.

73,

MrMike

[k4kyv]

On the Penn State campus, it seems all the females are walking between classes with their phones glued to their heads.  

Makes it harder to get dates, doesn't it?  

Oblivious to people around them, they might just as well be the sole occupant of an automobile on the freeway or stuck in traffic.

But at least, females now outnumber males at most universities by about 30%.  When I was in university, it was the other way round.  Males outnumbered females by about two to one, and a large number of the females there were stuck-up little snobs.  So I directed much of my prowling towards the local high school seniors or else in bars and clubs, depending on what kind of "date" I was seeking.

I have found that the best way to beat the big cell companies is to have a simple prepaid account.  Mine costs $100.00 a year and gives me 1000 minutes @ .10 per.  I only pay for airtime...

Using a GSM carrier I have the phone of my choice which is an iPhone... All I had to do is get the SIM card and slip it into the iPonoe or any other GSM phone and it works fine. 

It's a wonderful toy and I can watch W C Fields movies while waiting while my wife shops.

But doesn't watching movies get expensive @ 10¢ per minute?

[K3ZS]

Yes, when I went to PSU, the ratio was about 10 to one.   I don't know why it seems that most of the cell phone users on campus are females, maybe it is because there are more of them now.    I think a lot of them can't wait to get out of their houses and in their cars to start making their phone calls.  I have been almost runover many times in town by drivers turning at intersections into a pedestrian crosswalk with their  phones on their heads.