Letter from the CEO

CellPhone Popcorn Popping

By Robert Pritchett

Cardo Systems set up groups in various countries and released the YouTube videos all about the same time to sell their remote headsets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAd0aWxs7kQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPf8dXsZ1PE&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcLS2WJERQ0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj6SZgbBuSQ&feature=related

http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/06/video-cellphone.html

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/06/cellphones-cant.html

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/06/11/so_the_microwave_popcorn_with_your_phone_thing_is_a_hoax_done_how.html

http://blogs.pcworld.com/tipsandtweaks/archives/007078.html

This one is even funnier - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_KFQqmhGq8

Is this kind of viral advertising ethical? (Find a social hot button and YouTube theme and Ju Jitsu it to advantage). Is any kind of viral advertising ethical any more?

Note: The earlier cellphones did send out 3 Watts of power when in use inside a vehicle. I know. I experienced "brain cooking" when traveling from Richland, Washington to Corvallis, Oregon and using a cellphone all the way (6-hour run).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJJnnsTWYeQ&feature=related I experienced head-warmth near my ear, headache and nausea and disorientation with a unit that had the omni-directional antennae way back in 1996. At the time I didn't know why.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_radiation_and_health That is why many vehicles had external antennae for communications.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2KZQmI83_w&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkeMLOIAEKU&feature=related

It is also why I have steered away from using a cellphone – until now. Back then there were no earphone units. Now there are remote "hands-off" units for cellphones, thus reducing the hazard to the head of electromagnetic frequency radiation (EMFs). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0WLhFX75Ss&feature=related

Are Cellphones safe today? This was then - How about now?

Ten highest radiation cellphones in use today in the USD –

http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6602_7-5020357-1.html?tag=lnav

Note: SAR is supposed to give an indication on the biological effects of Electromagnetic (EM) waves.

http://www.CellphoneLies.com/

"Carrier wave oscillates at 1900 megahertz (MHz) in most phones, which is mostly invisible to our biological tissue and doesn't do damage. The information-carrying secondary wave necessary to interpret voice or data is the problem, says Dr. Carlo. That wave cycles in a hertz (Hz) range familiar to the body. Your heart, for example, beats at two cycles per second, or two Hz. Our bodies recognize the information-carrying wave as an "invader," setting in place protective biochemical reactions that alter physiology and cause biological problems that include intracellular free-radical buildup, leakage in the blood-brain barrier, genetic damage, disruption of intercellular communication, and an increase in the risk of tumors. The health dangers of recognizing the signal, therefore, aren't from direct damage, but rather are due to the biochemical responses in the cell.

One thing all these conditions have in common is a disruption, to varying degrees, of intercellular communication. When we were growing up, TV antennas were on top of our houses and such waves were up in the sky. Cell phones and Wi-Fi have brought those things down to the street, integrated them into the environment, and that's absolutely new. The recognition mechanism, where protein vibration sensors on the cell membrane pick up a signal and interpret it as an invader, only works because the body recognizes something it's never seen before."

"This means we're on the beginning curve of an epidemic, with epidemic defined as a change in the occurrence of a disease that is so dramatic in its increase that it portends serious public health consequences," says Dr. Carlo. "This is what's not being told to the public. One of the things that I suggest to people who use a cell phone is to use an air tube headset. If you use a wired headset, the current moving through the wire of the headset attracts ambient informational carrying radio waves and thereby increases your exposure."

http://iphoneantenna.com/

iPhone 3G Disassembled

The newer cellphones use Mandlebrot or fractal directional antennas and use less power.

Dr. Nathan Cohen, designed, engineered and patented many practical fractal antenna solutions and founded “Fractal Antenna Systems” - in 1995.

The newest cellphones don't even have an antennae nub in them any longer. http://www.scienceprog.com/fractal-antenna-constructions/

Microwaving Popcorn

Can popcorn really be cooked using a cellphone array today? (I'm guessing it is possible, depending on microwave frequency, concentration and sweetspotting.) Since the process involves water excitation in seeds, can cellphones generate enough energy to do electrolysis and create hydrogen? Probably not.

cmcrae1 wrote;

"To heat the ~250 uL of water in one kernel to boiling point (which is what causes the kernel to pop) would require ~ 85 J of energy input. Assuming the kernel of corn was receiving the full power from even three phones, it would take ~ 50 sec to boil the 250 uL of water.

As a consequence of the long microwave wavelength (~ 12 cm) and the size of popcorn kernels (~0.5 cm), microwave popcorn packets need to have a foil liner in their base to make the corn pop. It is actually the foil liner that is heated by the microwaves, and which subsequently pops the corn, not the corn kernels themselves.

Microwave ovens operate around 2.4GHz. Cell phone transceivers run around 800MHz outside the US (GSM), 1.9 GHz inside the US (CDMA), 2.4GHZ when connected via Wi-Fi.

Complete microwave popcorn popping requires the plate in the bag to get warm to heat the popcorn so it can pop evenly, but it does work if inside a closed bag without a plate.

JT wrote;

Cellphone frequencies are not correct for boiling water (needed to pop popcorn)
Cellphone do not emit enough power to pop popcorn (boil the water), especially in 10 seconds (it takes a minute in my 500 W microwave that _is_ optimized for boiling water)
The cellphones are somewhat randomly placed and can not possibly be placed well enough for any standing wave effects.
The cellphone would need to all be at the same frequency. CDMA (Sprint, Verizon, etc) and GSM (Cingular/ATT, T-Mobile, etc.) use different frequencies and different waveforms. All phones would need to be using the same wavelength and waveforms.
Multiplexing of the signals to and from the towers would also reduce any chance of positive reinforcement of the signals.

Chris wrote;

"Sorry but this was after-effected. The table cloth is perfect for clonestamping other parts over the kernels. The phones make a great reference for the motion tracker. Make the kernels disappear. Make a null object, track the motion, assign the motion to the null object, get a nice alpha image of popcorn linked to the null object, have it move upwards for about 3 frames, then have someone behind the camera man drop popcorn onto the table. Easy Peasy. Lemon squeezy.

Alpha bravo wrote;

"I think it could work, in theory...

A kernel of corn is 0.5g of which 15% is water, apparently. So that's 0.075g of water that needs to be heated to 180 degrees to pop, which is 160 more than room temperature, which requires 160 * 0.075 = 12 calories = 50 joules or 50 Watt seconds.

A microwave produces 700W, so could cook 14 kernels/second in theory if it was all absorbed.

The highest radiation phone on the market produces 1.6W/kg of human tissue.  Assume human tissue is the same as popcorn.  So that's 0.00012 watts absorbed by the water in a kernel.

So one microwave is equivalent to 5,833,000 phones, which could cook 14 kernels/second.  So 416,642 phones could cook 1 kernel/second.  So 155 phones could cook 1 kernel in an hour. In theory. And with some pretty liberal assumptions.

So you'd need to somehow fit 115 phones in a microwave with one kernel of corn, and be talking on all of them at the time so that they're transmitting and not just receiving. And wait for an hour, and then you'd have one popcorn.

In a week you'd have a whole bowl! Someone who didn't drop out of physics could probably find a whole lot of problems with this..."

And if you didn't catch it the first few times, look here.

Now let's see if we can cook an egg with cellphone. Oops, already been fried, er, tried…

Like anything that sounds too good to be true, it probably is, even if it is based on "evidence". My personal experience with a cellphone is that at the time it was not a good thing to be using it inside a vehicle for extended periods of time. To protect myself years ago, I should have hooked it up to an external antenna outside the passenger compartment.

We added the above information on the PESWiki website.

The iPhone G3

The Joy of Tech - iPhone or Millionaire

The Guided Tour

It comes with a stereo and mic headset, so the iPhone G3 will be busy at arms length instead of connected to my head.

The older iPhone Specs

Phone technology: Quad-band GSM (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900) and EDGE (This means the phone is not a 3G phone but a 2.5G)

Wireless data: Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0

The newer iPhone G3 Specs

Cellular and wireless

UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

3G Network Coverage

AT&T's 3G Coverage Discrepancies

More on iPhone G3, GPS and power management

IPhone 3G: It's not world peace, but it's close

Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me NPR – Next Generation iPhone

MacWorld's iPhone Central

The Danger of the New iPhone

iPhone 3G Software is a Sweet Upgrade

For Mac Eyes Only - Reaction Time:iPhone 3G

MacWorld iPhone Coverage

10 Things the 3G iPhone is Still Missing

The Soup: iPhone 3G video

Donate the Old iPhone

The iPhone was worth the wait

Enterprise Apps for the iPhone

iPhne Alley

iPhone Dev Team Portal

The iPhones Are Coming! The iPhones Are Coming!

Terry White's iPhone 3G Review

ModMyiFone

Apple's iPhone Configuration Utility Disappoints

iPhone 2.0 Raises Device's Enterprise Profile

iPhone 2.0 Tip Sheet

5 ways the iPhone 3G still lags in enterprise

I don't think there is any danger of being able to pop popcorn, cook eggs, or even parts of my anatomy if I use a headset instead of having the iPhone G3 anchored to one of my ears.

We will get one after July 11. 2008 to review for macCompanion magazine.