I don't usually post about tech stuff, but this piece from News.com tickles my fancy. For all of us who want to stangle the guy whose cell phone goes off during a movie (and answers it), this one's for you.
It could happen on a train, in a restaurant or during an awe-inspiring aria at a performance of "Carmen." A neighbor's cell phone starts bleating the theme song from "Friends," disrupting the mood and setting nerves on edge.Wouldn't it be great, you think to yourself, if this couldn't happen?
Others are thinking likewise, including companies and researchers developing or already selling devices that render cell phones inoperable in certain locations. Methods include jammers that interfere with cell phone frequencies, routing systems that mute phones' ringers in specific places, sensors that detect active cell phones and building materials that block cell phone waves.
Proponents say that such measures are more effective than "no cell phone" signs, "quiet cars" on trains or even legal restrictions (like a law prohibiting cell phone use during performances, enacted by the New York City Council last year).
We've all been there. I've seen a lot of movies in the past year. I'd venture to say that someone answers a cell phone call during about one out of every two showings I've been to. The fact that someone is SO important, that they can't possibly miss the call, makes me crazy.
But the funny thing is the cellphone industrt's response to the people who want to use jamming products in order to protect their silence.
"You're not allowed to barricade the street in front of your house because you don't like hearing an ambulance," said Travis Larson, a spokesman for the Cellular Telephone Industry Association, who asserts that blocking systems inhibit customers' rights and can block emergency calls. "Just like roads, the airwaves are public property."
Give me a break. Comparing cell phones to ambulance sirens is ridiculous. The CTIA comment about emergency calls is a common one from them. We used to live in a wired world without cell phones. People found out about emergencies just fine.
Now if we're talking about blocking cell phone calls from people in distress, like kidnap victims, that's one thing. But to say that it is vital to interrupt my viewing of The Matrix Revolutions because you wife wants you to pick up bread on the way home is laughable. You don't need cell phones in movie theaters or playhouses. Annoyances on a subway train or bus are another thing, but those rides tend to be loud as it is.
Although, if I here another Britney Spears "Toxic" ringtone, I might lose it.