Alexander Graham Bell and His Voice

This unplayable wax recording from 1885 is now playable due to modern technology. The voice: telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell at the Smithsonian Institution.

Researchers have identified the voice of Alexander Graham Bell for the first time in some of the earliest audio recordings held at the Smithsonian Institution.

The National Museum of American History announced Wednesday that Bell’s voice was identified with help from technicians at the Library of Congress and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. The museum contains some of the earliest audio recordings ever made. Researchers located a transcript of one recording signed by Bell. It was matched to a wax disc recording from April 15, 1885.“Hear my voice,” the inventor Alexander Graham Bell, said. The experimental recording also contains a series of numbers. The transcript notes the record was made at Bell’s Volta Laboratory in Washington. Additional recordings  include lines from Shakespeare.

 

There’s a new way to charge your smart phone with the charge card

ChargeCard utilizes standard USB 2.0 allowing for simultaneous data transfer and charging of your phone. This allows you to tether internet, transfer photos and charge your phone all at the same time. Or you can just use it to charge your phone and your data will stay safe and protected on your phone.

 ChargeCard allows for high-output charging which means that you can super-charge your phone when charging from a high amp output USB charger.

ChargeCard works just like your standard USB smartphone cable which you currently use to charge or sync your phone. As such, it will work on all the same USB ports, from your computer to flat screen TVs, game consoles, cars and beyond.

ChargeCard  fits in your wallet! ChargeCard is the world’s slimmest USB charging and sync cable

 

Digital Public Library Launching April 18th

 

 

 

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Petition To Unlock Cell Phones Update

The  petition asking President Obama to oppose a new rule restricting cell phone owners from unlocking their devices has passed the 100,000 signatures needed, meaning the White House now must respond.

The petition,  that now has more than 102,000 signatures, protests a regulation from the Library of Congress that prohibits unlocking phones without the carrier’s permission — even when a customer’s contract with the carrier has expired.

CTIA general counsel Michael Altschul wrote in a blog post  It “makes our streets just a little bit safer by making it harder for large-scale phone trafficking operations to operate in the open and purchase large quantities of phones, unlock them, and resell them in foreign markets”.

The petition is partly symbolic: The Library of Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office are part of the legislative branch, not the executive branch, meaning that Obama cannot overturn the decision even if he disagreed with it.

Congress has the power to rewrite the law, the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which hands the Library of Congress the effective power to regulate certain gadgets in the name of copyright law. And a nudge from the administration would speed up any DMCA legislative fixes. Under the DMCA, Americans are broadly prohibited from “circumventing” copyright-related technologies, with criminal penalties targeting people who profit from doing it. But the DMCA gives the Library of Congress the authority to grant exemptions, which it did for cell phone unlocking utilities in 2006 and 2010.

The Library of Congress reversed their position last fall, after lobbying from CTIA, which represents carriers including AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, and Sprint Nextel. It ruled (PDF) the exemption was no longer necessary because there are no “adverse effects” relating to locked phones, and unlocked phones are now readily available.

The Library of Congress’ regulatory turn around doesn’t affect jail breaking or rooting mobile phones, which is currently permitted through at least 2015.

 

Petition To Unlock Mobile Phones

There’s a Petition to reverse a decision by the Library of Congress making the unlocking of mobile phones illegal that needs 15,000 more signatures by Saturday.

Over 85,000 people have signed a Whitehouse.gov petition asking President Barack Obama to reverse a decision by the Library of Congress making the unlocking of mobile phones illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

As of Wednesday morning, the petition, started by phone unlocking entrepreneur Sina Khanifar, still needed nearly 15,000 signatures by Saturday to trigger a response by the Obama administration.

Unlocking a phone is typically used to switch carriers. Jailbreaking a phone for the purposes of adding software unauthorized by the carrier or phone maker remains legal under the DMCA. It’s unlikely mobile carriers will seek prosecution for individual phone users, but operators of businesses that help consumers unlock their phones could face penalties of up to a $500,000 fine under the DMCA.

Khanifar said this week he’s optimistic 100,000 people will sign it by Saturday. The petition has recently won endorsements from Representative Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat,

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Federal mHealth Projects

 

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Government Agencies and BYOD

 

Government agencies want more guidance on how to safely and smartly adopt new mobile technology programs, such as bring-your-own-device plans.

According to the report from the Federal CIO Council, without more central guidance on security, policy and legal considerations, agencies adopting BYOD policies, building internal app stores and launching other mobile projects may waste money and take on unnecessary risks.

Recommendations for officials:

• Develop more complex standards for how government information should be handled on smartphones and tablets.
• Create a government wide team to evaluate the legal, technical and privacy implications of federal employees using non-government provided mobile devices.
• Create either agency-wide or government wide guidance for procuring mobile devices.
• Continue working on guidance to ensure government information is sufficiently encrypted on mobile devices and that the people using those devices are sufficiently authenticated.

OMB and the CIO Council will work toward fulfilling some of these recommendations in the coming months, the report said.

The report is part of the federal digital strategy released by U.S. Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel in May. In addition to making mobile adoption more flexible, that document advocated helping agencies buy mobile technology in a cheaper and more efficient way and making more information available to the public online and on mobile devices.

The study was partly based on interviews with technology and procurement officials across government.

 

 

BYOD

Gartner says, Bring Your Own Device is an alternative strategy that allows employees, business partners and other users to use a personally selected and purchased client device to execute enterprise applications and access data. For most organizations, the program is limited to smartphones and tablets, but the strategy may also be used for PCs. It may or may not include subsidies for equipment or service fees.

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