Wireless News Aggregation |
|
Welcome Back To
The Wireless
|
|
|||||
This Week's Wireless News Headlines:
|
NO POLITICS HERE
This doesn't mean that nothing is ever published here that mentions a US political party—it just means that the editorial policy of this newsletter is to remain neutral on all political issues. We don't take sides.
A new issue of the Wireless Messaging Newsletter is posted on the web each week. A notification goes out by e-mail to subscribers on most Fridays around noon central US time. The notification message has a link to the actual newsletter on the web. That way it doesn’t fill up your incoming e-mail account. There is no charge for subscription and there are no membership restrictions. Readers are a very select group of wireless industry professionals, and include the senior managers of many of the world’s major Paging and Wireless Messaging companies. There is an even mix of operations managers, marketing people, and engineers — so I try to include items of interest to all three groups. It’s all about staying up-to-date with business trends and technology. I regularly get readers’ comments, so this newsletter has become a community forum for the Paging, and Wireless Messaging communities. You are welcome to contribute your ideas and opinions. Unless otherwise requested, all correspondence addressed to me is subject to publication in the newsletter and on my web site. I am very careful to protect the anonymity of those who request it. I spend the whole week searching the INTERNET for news that I think may be of interest to you — so you won’t have to. This newsletter is an aggregator — a service that aggregates news from other news sources. You can help our community by sharing any interesting news that you find.
Editorial Opinion pieces present only the opinions of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of any of advertisers or supporters. This newsletter is independent of any trade association. I don't intend to hurt anyone's feelings, but I do freely express my own opinions. |
|||||
What happens if you don't advertise? . . . NOTHING! Click on the image above for more info about advertising in this newsletter. |
HELP SUPPORT THE NEWSLETTER
There is not a lot of news about Paging these days but when anything significant comes out, you will probably see it here. I also cover text messaging to other devices and various articles about related technology. |
Subscribe Here IT'S FREE
|
![]() |
Advertiser Index
|
Service Monitors and Frequency Standards for Sale
(Images are typical units, not actual photos of items offered for sale here.)
|
Leavitt Communications |
|
Cell phone radiation expert says FCC 'in denial' of health risks, demands 'full, independent investigation'The FCC must come to terms with the 'very inconvenient truth' surrounding cell phone radiation, she saysBy Yael Halon | Fox News Epidemiologist and environmental hazard expert Dr. Devra Davis called for an independent evaluation of the dangers associated with cell phone radiation, citing a potential link to cancer as cause for heightened concern on Fox Nation's "Tucker Carlson Today." "The issue of cell phone radiation is, we've been in denial, and the denial is in large part psychological," Davis told Tucker Carlson in an episode released Monday. "We simply can't think about the possibility … Is it a chance that these things are harmful?" Davis, who has a Ph.D. in science studies and a post-doctoral Master’s of Public Health in epidemiology, was appointed by former President Bill Clinton as a senior adviser in the Department of Health and Human Services, where she served as a member of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Mitigation Board.
Davis has been at the forefront of scientific studies examining the link between cancer and heavy cell phone use with her nonprofit, the Environmental Health Trust, which conducts research on environmental health hazards and seeks to educate professionals and policymakers about the dangers. There have been varying studies about the potential health impacts of cellphone radiation, from the earliest models to the latest 5G handsets, with mixed results. There could be a link between cellphone use and an increased risk for tumors, particularly on the right side of the brain, research from the University of California, Berkeley suggested. A study comparing sperm samples between various exposure levels of cell phone radiation raises alarm on the issue, Davis said. "We have controlled studies where they take two test tubes of sperm from a healthy man. One they don't expose to cell phone radiation, the other gets exposed. The exposed test tube, those sperm will die three times faster with three times more damage to their DNA," she said. "That has been replicated in many studies, so we know that this is a fact, and yet when the bodies that advise the government are asked for their advice, they say, 'We don't have enough evidence.'" It's time the Federal Communications Commission and health professionals come to terms with the "very inconvenient truth," Davis said.
"If you look carefully at the membership of those bodies and the revolving door between the industry and those who regulate it, you can see that there really hasn't been a full, independent evaluation, which is why we at Environmental Health Trust are calling for an independent evaluation of the science, and the FCC has utterly failed to look." |
Source: | Fox News |
Paging Transmitters 150/900 MHz The RFI High Performance Paging Transmitter is designed for use in campus, city, state and country-wide paging systems. Designed for use where reliable simulcast systems where RF signal overlap coverage is critical.
Built-in custom interface for Prism-IPX ipBSC Base Controller for remote control, management and alarm reporting.
Prism-IPX Systems LLC.
11175 Cicero Dr., Alpharetta, GA 30022
|
The Wireless Messaging News
The Board of Advisor members are people with whom I have developed a special rapport, and have met personally. They are not obligated to support the newsletter in any way, except with advice, and maybe an occasional letter to the editor.
Can You Help The Newsletter?
You can help support The Wireless Messaging News by clicking on the PayPal Donate button above. It is not necessary to be a member of PayPal to use this service.
Newspapers generally cost A donation of $50.00 would certainly help cover a one-year period. If you are wiling and able, please click on the PayPal Donate button above. |
How Palm Pre and webOS inspired the modern smartphoneBy Daryl Baxter published December 28, 2021 Opinion: When two became one
Back when I was the mild-mannered tech support in a store, I got to try out some of the smartphones that would be available for sale in the coming days. One that still sticks out to me the most, apart from the iPhone 4, is the Palm Pre. Headed up by a group of ex-Apple engineers, it was an attempt to give the market something else, even in 2009. While iOS and Android were in their early forms, with iOS 3 offering copy and paste that same year, Palm was a breath of fresh air. It gave us a wholly different OS to use, with features that wouldn't arrive in iOS and Android for another eight years. It's been 12 years since the Palm Pre launched, but that little smartphone's impact can still be felt in 2021, especially some of the features of its webOS software. I managed to source one earlier this year, and have been using it alongside my iPhone 13 Pro. Days of webOS pastThe Palm Pre featured a rounded-edge design and a 3-inch display, with a touch-sensitive bar below that you could perform gestures on. From multitasking to going to the home screen, it freed up the keyboard below the display, which appeared by sliding up the Palm Pre's screen. The device also had wireless charging, with an optional TouchStone charger. It was a round dock that required the back casing of the Palm Pre to be swapped in order for the charging method to work. While slow, it did the job – interestingly, the time taken to fully recharge was three hours, similar to wirelessly charging the iPhone X that was released eight years later in 2017. webOS was showcased in 2009 as an operating system with a different take on multitasking for the Palm Pre: cards. Running apps could be managed and closed by swiping the cards from the gesture area below the screen. The same gesture could also be used to bring up the app drawer. Sound familiar? Apple's iOS 4 software that included this feature was yet to be announced, so Palm's take was novel at the time in managing your active apps.
But it didn't stop there with interesting features. With Synergy, your contacts and backups could be synced up with the cloud, which you could then access on your PC or Mac. In another instance, if you swiped down from the top right, you got a control center of settings, similar to what happens with the same gesture on today's iPhones. You could see how much battery life remained on the Palm Pre, alongside toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Airplane mode.
Finally, a nice touch was accessing developer mode. You access this on Android by tapping on 'About Phone' deep in the Settings app, but here it was opened using a cheat code called the Konami Code. In Konami games like Contra, Castlevania and Dance Dance Revolution the cheat code would unlock levels, difficulties and infinite lives when it was inputted. On the Palm Pre, instead of pressing arrow keys for a game cheat, you typed the code in the launcher screen: upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart. This enabled developer mode: a small but cool touch where you could install other apps that wouldn't have been available on Palm's App Catalog Store.
Considering this phone was released in 2009, followed by another model in 2010, it was ahead of its time in many ways. Yet, unfortunately, it came on the market too late. The iPhone was poised to reign supreme and then break the ceiling further with the iPhone 4. Palm was bought by HP in July 2010, and eventually, the Pre ceased to be. However, webOS was spun into some of HP's printers, bizarrely, and it would also become part of some televisions, ensuring the webOS name is still around today. Using the Palm Pre in 2021In the Palm Pre I'm using now, I can use the built-in apps, but an Internet issue renders the web browser, YouTube, and Google Maps apps useless. The camera has a built-in flash, but the images are blurry by 2021 standards. Using the keyboard is still great, though. I wrote the header of this article in the Memos app with no issues, even with my big hands. I can imagine a modern remake of the Palm Pre for 2022, with fewer bezels, a much better camera, and a slightly bigger keyboard, but that may have to be left in my imagination. I'm still in the camp of wanting some skeuomorphism to come back, and seeing it across webOS in this smartphone was a big nostalgic throwback to 2009. However, the Palm Pre remains a smartphone almost lost to time; where a new manufacturer could bring out a different smartphone that would set itself apart from iOS and Android. It may have been released too late to be a serious contender, but its gestures and design are still relevant. The iPhone would adopt the swipe-up gesture in 2017, alongside the gesture for the Control Center in the top-right. We may never see a similar phone again, but especially around this holiday time, it's worth reflecting on the past, present, and future of how we use our devices every day, and how certain decisions influenced others. The Palm Pre was clearly an example of this back in 2009, and for that reason alone it's a phone to remember for years to come.
|
Source: | Tech Radar |
PRISM IPX Systems |
Prism IPX Products | |||||||||||
|
Easy Solutions |
Providing Expert Support and Service Contracts for all Glenayre Paging Systems. The GL3000 is the most prolific paging system in the world and Easy Solutions gladly welcomes you to join us in providing reliable support to the paging industry for many more decades in the future. Easy Solutions provides cost effective computer and wireless solutions at affordable prices. We can help in most any situation with your communications systems. We have many years of experience and a vast network of resources to support the industry, your system and an ever changing completive landscape.
Please see our web site for exciting solutions designed specifically for the Wireless Industry. We also maintain a diagnostic lab and provide important repair and replacement parts services for Motorola and Glenayre equipment. Call or
Easy Solutions |
GLENAYRE INFRASTRUCTUREI would like to recommend Easy Solutions for Support of all Glenayre Paging Equipment. This Texas company is owned and operated by Vaughan Bowden. I have known Vaughan for over 35 years. Without going into a long list of his experience and qualifications, let me just say that he was the V.P. of Engineering at PageNet which was—at that time—the largest paging company in the world. So Vaughan knows Paging. GTES is no longer offering support contracts. GTES was the original group from Vancouver that was setup to offer support to customers that wanted to continue with the legacy Glenayre support. Many U.S. customers chose not to use this service because of the price and the original requirement to upgrade to version 8.0 software (which required expensive hardware upgrades, etc.). Most contracts ended as of February 2018. If you are at all concerned about future support of Glenayre products, especially the “king of the hill” the GL3000 paging control terminal, I encourage you to talk to Vaughan about a service contract and please tell him about my recommendation. Click on the image above for more info about advertising here. |
INTERNET Protocol Terminal
The IPT accepts INTERNET or serial messaging using various protocols and can easily convert them to different protocols, or send them out as paging messages. An ideal platform for hospitals, on-site paging applications, or converting legacy systems to modern protocols.
Additional/Optional Features
Prism-IPX Systems LLC.
11175 Cicero Dr., Alpharetta, GA 30022 |
Paging Data Receiver PDR-4 The PDR-4 is a multi-function paging data receiver that decodes paging messages and outputs them via the serial port, USB or Ethernet connectors. Designed for use with Prism-IPX ECHO software Message Logging Software to receive messages and log the information for proof of transmission over the air, and if the data was error free.
Prism-IPX Systems LLC.
11175 Cicero Dr., Alpharetta, GA 30022 |
Wireless Network Planners
|
Apple appears to hit goal of making entire Apple Music catalog available in Lossless by year’s endJosé Adorno - Dec. 28th 2021 11:17 am PT When Apple Music announced support for Lossless and Dolby Atmos a few months ago, the company said the catalog would start with 20 million songs with Lossless support and would have all its 90 million songs in the quality by the end of the year. As of December 28, Apple appears to have reached the goal. While you may have songs in your library with only the Apple Digital Master label, it’s likely that it’s reminiscent of an iTunes purchase, since the company announced that none of the audio content bought on iTunes would feature Lossless or Spatial Audio support. 9to5Mac can’t confirm that each of Apple Music’s 90 million songs are actually in Lossless, but after searching for a ton of artists, we couldn’t find a single, EP, album, collection, or greatest hits collection that wasn’t available in Lossless. When Apple announced support for this higher quality, it generated a lot of controversy, as users can’t stream Lossless content wearing Apple’s popular AirPods. Not only that but even AirPods Max can’t stream in Lossless, even with a wired connection. Apple notes that users must install iOS 14.6, iPadOS 14.6, macOS 11.4, or tvOS 14.6 or later to take advantage of songs in Lossless, although if they plan to listen to them with headphones, they must use a wired connection. With HomePod 15.1, for example, users can stream songs in Lossless using the original HomePod or HomePod mini. Apple didn’t state how many songs currently feature Hi-Res Lossless and Dolby Atmos labels, although streaming in Hi-Res Lossless requires an external DAC, and Dolby Atmos needs a proper master from the artists’ side. As of now, it’s unlike that the company will bring all its catalog to Dolby Atmos or Hi-Res Lossless, but you can probably listen to the latest records with the best quality available, such as ABBA’s Voyage and Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version). With Apple seemingly fulfilling its goal of making the entire Apple Music catalog available in Lossless, the company reaches another “end of the year promise,” like it did Swift Playgrounds 4 and SharePlay support on the Mac. The long-awaited Universal Control, on the other hand, is now scheduled to be released in 2022. But we can’t have it all, can we? |
Source: | 9to5Mac |
Brad Dye, Ron Mercer, Allan Angus, Vic Jackson, and Ira Wiesenfeld are friends and colleagues who work both together and independently, on wireline and wireless communications projects.
Click here Note: We do not like Patent Trolls, i.e. “a person or company who enforces patent rights against accused infringers in an attempt to collect licensing fees, but does not manufacture products or supply services based upon the patents in question.” We have helped some prominent law firms defend their clients against this annoyance, and would be happy to do some more of this same kind of work. Some people use the title “consultant” when they don't have a real job. We actually do consulting work, and help others based on our many years of experience. “If you would know the road ahead, ask someone who has traveled it.” — Chinese Proverb
|
Remote AB Switches ABX-1 switches are often used at remote transmitter sites to convert from old, outdated and unsupported controllers to the new modern Prism-IPX ipBSC base station controllers. Remotely switch to new controllers with GUI commands. ABX-1
ABX-3 switches are widely used for enabling or disabling remote equipment and switching I/O connections between redundant messaging systems. ABX-3
Common Features:
Prism-IPX Systems LLC.
11175 Cicero Dr., Alpharetta, GA 30022 |
Apple Music boss admits he can’t hear any difference between compressed and lossless audio: “our ears aren’t that good”By Ben Rogerson ( Computer Music , Future Music , emusician ) published: December 27, 2021 Best of 2021: But he thinks Spatial Audio is a game-changer
BEST OF 2021: Apple may have talked up its new lossless audio support in Apple Music when it was announced — “you will be able to hear the exact same thing that the artists created in the studio”, we were told - but Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, who heads up the service, isn’t convinced that it’s quite such a big deal. Speaking to Billboard, he said: “The reality of lossless is: if you take 100 people and you take a stereo song in lossless and you take a song that's been in Apple Music that's compressed, I don't know if it’s 99 or 98 can't tell the difference. “For the difference of lossless, our ears aren't that good. Yeah, there are a set of people who have these incredible ears, and that's one piece of it. There's the other piece of it, which is do you have the level of equipment that can really tell the difference? It requires very, very high-quality stereo equipment. “What you find is, for somebody who's a true, for example classical connoisseur, they may be able to tell the difference in lossless. I can't tell personally — I do the blind tests all the time with the team — I can't tell.” On the subject of Spatial Audio, however — Apple’s new immersive audio standard that offers support for Dolby Atmos — Cue is much more effusive. “I've been waiting for something in music that was a real game-changer,” he says. “The quality of audio has not been able to really rise because there hasn't been anything out there that when you listen to it, it truly is differentiated to everybody. It doesn't matter whether you're eight years old or 80 years old, everyone can tell the difference and everyone knows this one sounds better than the other one. “And the analogy to that is obviously the first time you ever saw HD on television: you knew which one was better because it was obvious. And we've been missing that in audio for a long time. There really hasn’t been anything that's been substantial. We'll talk about lossless and other things, but ultimately, there's not enough difference. “But when you listen for the first time and you see what's possible with Dolby Atmos with music, it's a true game-changer. And so, when we listened to it for the first time, we realized this is a big, big deal. It makes you feel like you're onstage, standing right next to the singer, it makes you feel like you might be to the left of the drummer, to the right of the guitarist. It creates this experience that, almost in some ways, you've never really had, unless you're lucky enough to be really close to somebody playing music.” Lossless Audio and Spatial Audio are now available to all Apple Music subscribers, with Spatial Audio authoring tools set to come to Logic Pro later this year.
|
Source: | Music Radar |
Leavitt Communications |
|
Motorola will try foldable phones again with a third-generation RazrBy Mitchell Clark Dec 27, 2021, 2:04 pm EST
Motorola is working on a new version of its Razr foldable smartphones, according to a Weibo post spotted by Android Authority. The post is from Chen Jin, the general manager of the Lenovo Mobile Business Group in China (Lenovo is currently in charge of Motorola’s smartphone business), and describes how the company has been quietly working on a new addition to its lineup of foldable phones. It doesn’t have big shoes to fill — Motorola’s first two modern foldables were mediocre phones with hefty price tags. We ran Jin’s post through a few translation sites, and while some parts didn’t make the jump to English, there are consistent details that show up in all the translations. The post mentions that the phone will have a better processor, better interface, and a tweaked appearance. At this early stage, though, it’s hard to say how different the third-gen device will be from the last one — the second-gen Razr was more of a spec bump that added 5G, rather than a marked improvement from the original Razr foldable announced in 2019. |
Source: | The Verge |
Inside Towers Newsletter |
One of the 10 Most-Viewed Stories of 2021 (January 12, 2021)Tillman Infrastructure Builds Its 1,000th TowerTillman Infrastructure (TI), a privately held New York, NY-based tower company, constructed its 1,000th macro tower in the U.S at the end of 2020, starting with its first tower build in May 2017. Founded in 2016, TI believes it reached this milestone faster than any other towerco in the country. In an exclusive interview with Inside Towers, Suruchi Ahuja, TI President and CFO and Alexander Schwartz, TI Vice President, Business Development talked about the company’s progress to date and its outlook for the next several years. Ahuja attributes the company’s success to several factors. “Our ‘carrier first’ approach allows us to partner with the mobile network operators in ways that our goals align with their goals. Our team has extensive wireless carrier experience and understands carriers’ operational needs. Carriers are leveraging existing infrastructure but 5G needs a lot of new infrastructure. We install new tower infrastructure on their schedules,” says Ahuja. “We are fair and transparent with them, and work to provide operational excellence while helping them to lower their operating costs. More important, we take a multi-decade long view to working with our carrier partners. We aim to support them for a long time.” TI is a subsidiary of Tillman Global Holdings which since its 2008 founding by Sanjiv Ahuja has capital expenditures of more than $6.5 billion and operates roughly 500,000 infrastructure assets in more than 20 countries around the world. TGH saw the U.S. market as dynamic and growing and recognized carriers needed infrastructure partners that could respond to their expanding needs. Today, TI has 80 employees in Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, and the New York-New Jersey area. TI is a pure marco tower play with sites in 35 states, mainly in the midwest, south and southeast but is expanding into the northeast and western states. The towers are situated on a mix of owned and leased land with a multi-decade commitment. TI is well capitalized with $1 billion available for new construction. Where the customer needs dictate, TI brings in TGH’s expertise in small cells and distributed antenna systems, and Tillman Digital Cities’ capabilities for in-building wireless and neutral host infrastructure. TI’s “fairness and transparency” approach creates a long-term sustainable business with its carrier customer partnerships. “This is the foundation for building a network over the next 20-30 years,” Ahuja added. “The carriers are facing top line pressures even as their tower expense continues to escalate. Rents are doubling every 10 years. We can help them with that.” Organic growth sets TI apart. With 1,000 towers built in the last three years, the company believes it is the second largest private tower company to have made that many new builds in that short time. TI says its growth is accelerating. With its current booking pipeline, the company expects to double its base again in the next 18-24 months and to double that again in the following 24 months. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are TI’s primary customers. Nonetheless, the company is positioning to handle new builds in regional and rural markets as regulators push for greater broadband access in underserved and unserved areas. TI has strategic partnerships with Competitive Carriers Association and the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, both of whom represent wireless service provider members that operate in regional and rural markets across the country. Ahuja acknowledged that TI is a “disruptor” in the U.S. tower business. That is certainly how TI was perceived when it entered the market offering MNOs a lower cost relocation alternative to the Big 3 towercos. Despite the perception, Schwartz added that the company today is focused on a holistic approach, offering coverage and capacity solutions to meet their customer needs. “We look closely at each carrier’s needs. TI as a business has a focus on solving our customer’s problems. We are nimble and creative in our operations and provide sustainable solutions to our customers’ infrastructure needs over the long-term. We will consider selective acquisitions, but we have been fortunate to be able to grow purely through organic channels.” To support its tower construction, TI’s sister company, Tillman Networks, offers a complete portfolio of services: site development, design and engineering, implementation, and maintenance of network infrastructure. TN strives to provide high quality, turnkey solutions that put its customers first. In the end, TI says their business model is all about fairness and transparency. Bill Hague, TI CEO says, “We treat everybody the same way with creativity and problem solving for whatever their unique needs may be. Our offering is not unique to one type of customer. We want to make it easy to do business with us over the long term.” By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor |
Source: | Inside Towers newsletter | Courtesy of the editor of Inside Towers, Jim Fryer. Inside Towers is a daily newsletter by subscription. |
BloostonLaw Newsletter |
|
|
TECHNICIAN'S CORNER |
I replaced two 1-meter cables with two 2-meter cables in my Marantz AVR home theater system and my chronic problems with clicking on a button on the remote control and then nothing happening, were immediately resolved. Counter intuitive but it worked. It has something to do with HDMI timing and cable length. Remember this is digital not analog. Can anyone explain why? |
THIS WEEK'S MUSIC VIDEO |
“Playing For Change”
“Playing For Change” is an original song written by our dear friend, GRAMMY award-winning singer/songwriter, Sara Bareilles and features Chris Pierce, the PFC Band and musicians from six countries. This Song Around The World, featured at Peace Through Music 2021, embodies the Playing For Change movement to inspire and connect the world through music. Together we can overcome distances and differences. We hope that you are inspired to “keep playing for love; playing for peace; playing for change.” FEATURING: Sara Bareilles: Vocals Chris Pierce: Vocals Robin Moxey (PFC Band): Guitar Keiko Komaki (PFC Band): Keys Jason Tamba (PFC Band): Guitar Mermans Mosengo (PFC Band): Cajon, Vocals Ehssan Karimi (PFC Band): Hang Claire Finley (PFC Band): Bass Courtney Diedrick (PFC Band): Drums Abel Mafuleni: Marimba Roselyn Williams: Vocals Sherieta Lewis: Vocals Roberto Luti (PFC Band): Guitar Iron Cult dancers: Native American Dancers |
Source: | YouTube |
![]() Best regards, ![]() Newsletter Editor 73 DE K9IQY Licensed since 1957 |
Current member or former member of these organizations. | ||||
The National ![]() Rifle Association |
MENSA MEMBER |
A Public Library of ![]() Paging and Wireless Messaging Information |
Wireless ![]() Messaging |
||
|
Critical Messaging ![]() Association |
European Mobile Messaging Association ![]() Former Board Member |
ZP5TQ ![]() Radio Club of Paraguay |
Quarter Century ![]() Wireless Association |
|
Back To Paging ![]() Still The Most Reliable Wireless Protocol For Emergencies! |
American Association ![]() of Woodturners |
U.S. Navy Radioman |
U.S. Navy Radioman ![]() Second Class Petty Officer |
Boy Scouts of America ![]() National Honor Society |
Creator of the ![]() Paging Wheel of Fortune |
National Skeet ![]() Shooting Association |
Institute Electrical and ![]() Electronics Engineers |
American Radio ![]() Relay League |
The Radio Club ![]() of America |
Life is good! |
|
CONTACT INFO & LINKS
|
Amateur Radio
|
VETERAN ![]() United States Navy |
Home Page | Directory | Consulting | Newsletters | Free Subscription | Products | Reference | Glossary | Send e-mail |