911

LAS VEGAS--Guardian on the Go, a mobile application launched today on iPhone, gives people immediate access to a network of trusted contacts and professional services when they're confronted with an emergency situation.

The iPhone application, made by Proteg-Go, is designed to work in all crisis situations, natural disasters and medical emergencies included, and offers people a one-click way to get help faster than if they were to dial 9-1-1.

After first configuring their contact network, users simply click the red "Crisis" button to message friends via SMS. They can also opt to push an update out to … Read more

The Federal Communications Commission wants to require all cellular carriers and Internet-based messaging providers to support text-to-911 messages.

While the four largest U.S. wireless carriers have already signed on to the plan, the U.S. agency today proposed guidelines that would require "over the top" text messaging apps -- those capable of sending text messages to phones -- to be part of the initiative, which is expected to operational by 2014. Apps that would presumably be part of the initiative include Apple's iMessage, BlackBerry's BBM, Android's MightyText, and Saumsung's ChatOn, among others.

While … Read more

Soon there will be more than just one way to contact 911.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced today that the four largest wireless carriers in the U.S. have agreed to fast track a service that will let people text the emergency 911 line.

AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile have all signed on and major deployments are planned to roll out in 2013 and the service should be fully available nationwide by May 15, 2014.

"Access to 911 must catch up with how consumers communicate in the 21st century -- and today, we are … Read more

iPhoto 11 is the latest version of the popular photo management and editing software from Apple. There are quite a few new features in iPhoto 11 that will appeal to users, as well as tweaks of the veteran software app. iPhoto 11 is preloaded on new Macs, and can be downloaded from the App Store.

iPhoto 11 is used to organize photos into categories, produce slideshows, and create photobooks and cards, as well as share your photos online easily. More than that, iPhoto 11 is a photo-editing package that lets you manipulate images to make them more attractive. Improvements in … Read more

Spoiler alert: The Cuban Missile Crisis ended without the United States and the Soviet Union launching even a single nuclear weapon, and the Allies won World War II.

You're no doubt well aware of those ultimate outcomes, but what if you don't remember, or never knew, the myriad individual moments, big and small, that led to those famous conclusions? There are plenty of thick history books you could pick up, but maybe you're someone who wants a more dramatic sense of what happened -- even, perhaps, to feel like you're right in the thick of the drama.

To be sure, there's no time machine that can take you back to London during The Blitz, or to the White House Situation Room as JFK stood firm against belligerent military leaders wanting to engage the Soviets over surreptitiously putting nukes in Cuba. But these days, in little 140-character snippets, many of those moments are being played out for the whole world to see. And if you close your eyes, you can almost imagine you're there. … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- New Captcha system uses empathy to distinguish humans from bots.

- Watch Pornhub to donate money to breast cancer research.

- Meet the man that invented the Escape key.… Read more

Mobile phone users across the country may one day be able to text 911 call centers.

AT&T has been given the go-ahead by the state of Tennessee to kick off a trial of a Text-to-911 service across the state. Using the state's new Emergency Service IP Network (ESInet), the test will let AT&T subscribers send text messages to Tennessee 911 call centers.

Dialing 911 by phone is still the preferred way to get help as quickly and easily as possible. But the trial phase would try to add texting to the 911 system as another … Read more

NEW YORK -- The new 9/11 Memorial is stunningly beautiful and extremely visitor-friendly, but the names of the 2,983 people who died in the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing aren't listed alphabetically, meaning that visitors may need help finding specific names.

Yes, there's an app for that. Two, actually.

The memorial, which opened on September 11, 2011 -- the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania -- has already had more than 2 million visitors, and thousands … Read more