South Korean authorities probe reports a man may have been killed by an exploding mobile phone battery.

Google launched a location service for mobile users on Wednesday that doesn't rely on GPS.Google Maps with My Location, currently in beta, locates users who don't have GPS-enabled phones based on their location to nearby cell towers. The result isn't as accurate as GPS but works for people who lack the positioning technology in their phones."It helps users speed up search by showing the general neighborhood they're in," said Steve Lee, product manager at Google for the service. Without the location service, users must type in their address or neighborhood in order to find nearby businesses using Google Maps.Google Maps with My Location will use GPS data to locate the user if the phone has the capability. But even for users of GPS-enabled phones, the cell location service might be useful, Lee said. That's because the cell tower feature works better indoors than GPS, it doesn't drain the phone battery as quickly and can bring up a result quicker, he said.The service could be useful to a person who might be traveling in an unfamiliar city and looking for restaurants or other businesses. A user pulls up Google Maps and hits the zero key on the phone. A blue dot will appear on the map in the user's location. If the service used GPS in the phone, the blue dot will be solid. If the service used cell towers to determine the location, the blue dot will have a halo around it, indicating that the location isn't precise. The user can then search for nearby businesses.Google says the cell tower technique will locate the user within about 1000 meters. It doesn't use triangulation, which calculates a user location based on the user's distance to three nearby towers. Instead, it essentially shows the range of the tower that the user's phone is connecting to.But the accuracy should improve as more people use the service, Lee said. That's because Google is keeping a database of location queries, minus any personal information like individual phone numbers or names. That will allow Google to learn more precise information about the range of each tower so that it can deliver a more accurate location area to users. The coverage area of cell towers can vary from about a quarter of a mile to several miles based on whether the tower is in an urban or rural area.For now, Google Maps with My Location doesn't feature any advertising, but it could in the future. "This product makes a lot of sense for advertising," Lee said.In order to use the service, phone owners must download a free application from Google. The application will work on BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Symbian phones as well as many phones that support Java. A few notable exceptions include the Samsung Blackjack, Moto Q, and Palm Treo 700W, which don't support the APIs Google requires to find cell towers, Lee said.

Adam Laurie lived a few Novembers as a dog earlier this year. By duplicating the RFID tags used to identify pets in the United Kingdom and sewing it into his watch strap, Laurie, an independent security researcher, re-created his dog's ID as a hacking exercise. However, this kind of virtual animal cloning could become a serious issue as industrialized countries roll out RFID-based systems to keep track of their livestock.Japan and the United Kingdom have led the way, developing so-called source and age-verified tracking systems that could help contain the damage caused by outbreaks of mad cow disease, scrapie, or avian flu. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has also been testing the use of RFID chips as part of a National Animal Identification System.These systems are changing the way we purchase meat, notes Sue Brown, a product manager with Destron Fearing, a maker of RFID tracking chips. In Japan, consumers can scan a package of beef and have a photo of the people who raised the cow, along with details on how it entered the country, sent to their mobile phones. According to Brown, Destron Fearing has taken steps to prevent its tags from being cloned, including placing the chip in a tamperproof polyurethane casing. "This is an unalterable means of identification," she says.But not everyone sees the technology as foolproof. Laurie points out that the RFID tags communicate without encryption, so some of them can be cloned or even reprogrammed. "If you create another tag that has the same ID, you can effectively clone the animal." Or at least its identity.Still, why would someone want to do this? A farmer might want to swap out the identity of a sick animal in his stock to save an entire herd from being destroyed. That's why some companies are starting to match DNA samples with existing ID systems in order to offer a greater level of assurance.The United States has been lucky so far. There hasn't been an outbreak of mad cow disease like the one that crippled the U.K. beef industry. But that might all change very quickly, says Brown. "We are probably one disaster away from having that sort of thing occur in the U.S."

Verizon Wireless' decision to open its network to outside mobile devices and applications has won praise from several groups, including past critics.Verizon Wireless officials announced Tuesday they would open up their network to any devices and software customers want to use by the second half of 2008. Any device that passes a minimal connectivity test will be allowed on the Verizon Wireless network, officials said.That announcement drew applause from a wide variety of groups. Public Knowledge, a consumer rights group that has pushed for open network regulations from the U.S. Congress or the Federal Communications Commission, said it was "cautiously optimistic" about Verizon's decision.Verizon's decision could lead to "a more open network in the wireless industry at large," said Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge's president. Wireless carriers have fought an FCC decision to require open access on a portion of spectrum in the 700MHz band to be auctioned starting in January, she noted."The Verizon announcement, however, is very limited," Sohn added. "If other carriers don't follow the same model, then consumers will still find their phones tied to a specific technology or wireless company. In order for an open network to become a reality, all carriers will have to participate."Verizon will still decide what phones can operate on its network, she said. Public Knowledge would prefer to have a third party decide what phones can operate on the Verizon network, she said.She also has continuing questions about prices. If Verizon continues to offer its preferred mobile phones at a discount, "then the adoption of the open model will be minimal, absent a rapid decline in cell phone prices," Sohn said. "We need to know whether the rates for Verizon service plans will vary for those with subsidized phones and for those customers with a phone bought elsewhere."Others were less guarded with their praise.Verizon's announcement, combined with the Google-led Open Handset Alliance, is a "significant" step toward the goal of more open wireless networks, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, said in a statement."As I noted when we adopted open network rules for our upcoming spectrum auction, wireless customers should be able to use the wireless device of their choice and download whatever software they want onto it," Martin added. "I continue to believe that more openness -- at the network, device, and application level -- helps foster innovation and enhances consumers' freedom and choice in purchasing wireless service. I am optimistic that Verizon Wireless's commitment along with the upcoming spectrum auction will ensure an exciting new era in wireless technology for the benefit of all consumers."Solveig Singleton, an adjunct senior fellow with Maryland think tank the Free State Foundation, said Verizon's voluntary decision makes more sense than open network regulations, such as net-neutrality rules pushed by Public Knowledge and other groups."Requiring openness or neutrality beyond the basics now supported by demand would needlessly make development far more costly and slow," she said. "A company that wants to invent a new type of phone with cutting-edge features already has a good bit to think about without having to worry about new phones and networks being simultaneously built by everyone else."Many proposed net-neutrality rules would require wireless and broadband providers to treat all network traffic equally, she said."Mandate 'open' and 'neutral' everywhere all the time for everything, and innovation will slow to a snail's pace and network traffic will jam," she added. "Competition between operators to offer innovative combinations of services at special prices would become almost impossible. In this fast-changing context, a regulatory command to treat all traffic all the same is just a bad idea."Also praising Verizon's decision were Funambol, a developer of open-source calendar and messaging tools for mobile phones, and the New America Foundation, a think tank that has pushed for open access rules on the 700MHz spectrumThe FCC and Google deserve credit for pushing the issue forward, said Michael Calabrese, director of New America's Wireless Future Program."This appears to be a move to head off market entry and new wireless competition from Google and other Internet companies that would result if the incumbent carriers were unwilling to meet minimal FCC consumer choice requirements," he said in an e-mail.

The European Commission launched an in-depth investigation Wednesday into Dutch satellite navigation device maker TomTom's plans to take over Dutch digital mapmaker Tele Atlas, expressing "serious doubts" about the deal's impact on competition in the booming satellite navigation market.While many companies make portable navigation devices, Tele Atlas is one of only two makers of digital maps that offer complete coverage of Europe. The other is the U.S. firm, Navteq. Because there are only two such companies, "the proposed acquisition raises vertical competition concerns," the Commission said in a statement.The probe will examine whether the deal would push up the price of digital maps for rival portable navigation device makers or limit their access to these maps, the Commission said. It set an April 17 deadline for the probe to end.TomTom and Tele Atlas said in a joint statement they expect to have a clearer idea about whether the deal can go through by early next year. TomTom extended its offer for Tele Atlas shares until March 31, assuming it would know the outcome of the probe by then.The market for satellite navigation devices, which has emerged over the past five years, is undergoing rapid consolidation.One of TomTom's biggest rivals, U.S.-based Garmin, also tried to acquire Tele Atlas but withdrew its offer after being outbid by TomTom last month. Also last month, Finnish mobile phone operator Nokia announced plans to buy Navteq.Garmin, meanwhile, has struck a deal with Navteq, giving the device maker access to Navteq's maps until 2015.

AFP - Google on Wednesday released upgraded mapping software that figures out the general vicinity a mobile telephone is in based on which transmission tower it is using.

PC World - Google Maps With My Location, a service for mobile users that doesn't rely on GPS, is now in use by Google.

LG describes blast as 'virtually impossible' A South Korean man was this morning found dead at work, apparently killed by an exploding mobile phone battery, AP reports.…

'Inexplicable madness' provoked by ringing mobile A US judge who jailed an entire courtroom because no one would cough to being the owner of a ringing mobile phone has been removed from the bench by a commission on judicial conduct.…

Windows Mobile users are complaining about a glitch that makes a new Gmail offering essentially unusable for them.

 Related Pages