Apple Rejects Electrosmog Measuring App - Keeps Us In The Dark
While latest studies seem to demonstrate the opposite, we all live with some sort of fear regarding radiations emitted by our dear iPhones. To address this concern, Tawkon, an Israeli startup came up with quite a brilliant concept; a radiation counter app. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't want to hear about it.
Some background first, to connect to surrounding cell towers, as you probably know already, your iPhone emits radio signals. The power of this signal however varies importantly depending how far you're situated from the tower. If you're close, it stays low, if you're far away, it goes up.
You can actually easily consult your iPhone's current emitting power by going in test mode, to do that, just type *3001#12345#* on your iPhone's dialpad and hit call. In short, the idea of the app was to take that data, and turn it into something more human-readable.
Alright, it's a little more complicated than that and Tawkon went a little further:
Algorithmic magic analyzes your phone’s dynamic SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) levels, location, environmental factors, as well as unique smart-phone capabilities such as bluetooth, accelerometer, proximity sensors, GPS and compass. The level of radiation a person is exposed to during calls is determined by analyzing several dynamic parameters, including the impact of environmental factors such as distance from cellular towers, network and weather condition, terrain, antenna’s proximity from the body, antenna orientation (if the user is holding the phone vertically or horizontally) and travel speed.
While we have no way to tell how plausible those measurements are, it did look like an interesting tool. However, like so often before, Apple rejected it. Because in their opinion:
a diagnostic tool of this nature would create confusion with iPhone owners from a usability perspective.
I'm reading "this would freak iPhone owners out" here, what's your take on this one?
[via TechCrunch]
