Israeli company Tawkon sells mobile applications that “monitor” your exposure to mobile phone radiation. The idea is that if you experience a sudden spike of radiation while you’re talking, it’ll warn you so you can quickly hurl the phone as hard as you can across the room, douse yourself with lead paint, duck, cover, then resume the conversation.
We’ve seen Tawkon try to capitalize upon the Antennagate controversy to drive interest in their services before. Similarly, it looks like they wanted to capitalize upon the tragedy at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant to launch a renewed push into the App Store.
Now Steve Jobs himself has told them enough panic-mongering is enough: in the wake of the Fukushima disaster and the resulting wave of radiation panics here in the United States, Jobs told Tawkon that Apple has “no interest” in publishing their app.
Tawkon’s launching on Cydia instead, which is fine, but I’m with Steve on this one: given that the iPhone has no native radiation-detecting mechanism (and therefore isn’t accurate), combined with the fact that there is no medical basis for fearing cellphone radiation exposure and the heightened fears about radiation both domestically and abroad, this just isn’t an app that needs to be on the App Store.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
106 responses to “Steve Jobs: Apple Has “No Interest” In Radiation Monitoring App”
Does it violate their app policies, or is this just Steve Jobs telling people what is good for them again?
I agree. They should put it on their phone. Maybe it will stop people from death gripping the phone like Steve wants.
I would like to make that decision for myself. NOT you or Steve Jobs. How much are you getting paid for all this ?
Homosexuality curing devices – no problem
Radiation detection units – no use whatsoever.
I’m so happy not to own any Apple products.
You are must be delusional for thinking cell phones (or any mobile device for that matter) does not emit harmful radiowaves. Maybe its all that radiation that has you confused :) There might not be medical evidence.. yet, but i still dont carry my cell phone in my jeans front pocket ;) And I agree with other posts. Job’s job is to keep the platform up and running not policing what people download.
what? “Now Steve Jobs himself has now them that enough panic-mongering is enough”
Lame article.
Jobs really told them that? Really?? Steve Jobs oversees app approval?? What is your source?
The phone has no sensors to measure radiation output, how could this app give real results? its being denied from the app store because its an app designed to scare people that cannot possibly do what it says it does. I would be like me selling a GPS app for your phone without GPS then you found out I was just using random guesses of what road you where on to give directions, but only after you paid me $9.99
I completely agree with the author. Cell phone radiation is not of the wavelength that can cause damage to cells. It is basic physics. If you are worried about cell phone radiation so keep your cell phone in your front pocket, you should also be worried about all of the damage you are doing to your future mini-me’s. Before making babies, be sure not to make any calls for the time it takes for your sperm to grow!!
If the iPhone has no radiation sensor, then the only way this app could work would be by mathematically modeling expected radiation exposure based on what the radios in the phone are doing. Either that or it would just have to make the information up. Seems like a waste. That said, a whole lot of the apps are just unapologetic time-wasters, so why not?
Ten billion dollars.
Wow. Who wrote that? Crap. I did. Fixing.
Besides misunderstanding what the poster stated and the bad grammar and sentence structure, your post made excellent sense.
“but I’m with Steve on this one: given that the iPhone has no native radiation-detecting mechanism, the fact that there is no medical basis for fearing cellphone radiation exposure and the heightened fears about radiation both domestically and abroad, this just isn’t an app that needs to be on the App Store.”
===
At least your not a lackey of Steve Jobs, nor a shill for Apple. I mean who wants to know if they’re being irradiated? Ignorance is strength! That’s real white of Steve Jobs to be concerned over all the “panic-mongering”. You know, unreasonable fears like six nuclear reactors melting down, contaminated food by radiation, tidal waves, earthquakes, and oh, cell phone radiation – you know, the usual fear mongering. And the fact that Steve isn’t even slightly concerned that such an app ultimately may result in people questioning their cellphone usage and potentially affect I-phone sales doesn’t even enter into the equation. Mr. Brownlee, what was it that Bill Gates used to say about IBM? Oh yeah, “BOGUS”!
This is why I don’t want an iPhone anymore. I will determine what I do and do not want!
I doubt they are doing this, but if ionizing radiation causes bits to flip in RAM, one could monitor RAM for such noise and perhaps measure exposure to ionizing radiation that way. You’d have to prevent other applications from modifying the RAM you were monitoring and would have to calibrate this. But that could be an interesting way of measuring radiation exposure in a device that doesn’t include a Geiger counter.
best article ever
Wow, a run on sentence about bad grammar and sentence structure.
You’re a genius.
So Steve Jobs isnt interested. Well right about now I can imagine there are several million people who would be, considering the situation in Japan and all. At Apple, what Steve wants is more important than what their millions of customers want. And we’re supposed to think Apple cares about it’s customers why…? Things like this make it ever more obvious that they simply dont.
Steve Jobs doesn’t want iPwn users to know how harmful his products are to them! I’ll bet if you installed this app on your iPwn, it will never allow the user to use the phone because of the helath risk.
Gotta love the folks who failed to read the article where it mentions the iPhone has no mechanism to detect radiation.
I understand that you personally have no interest in using such an application. But doesn’t it go against the entire concept of openness and democracy to force your personal beliefs on others by preventing anyone to use an app that you personally don’t like?
huh?
Good move. This is bogus ‘science’ and completely sucker-driven crap.
The phone doesn’t have a radiation detector so the app can’t possible work. What use is a non working radiation detector to the Japanese or anyone else?
That is not exactly the point Hijack28 is making. How dumb are you ?
then why do you read Apple blogs?
I’m sure the iPhone is able to keep track of the energy output of the phone. It would just measure the amount of current being sent to the antenna, or even the total power usage of the phone at the current moment and then subtracting the amount of energy being used by the screen and the processor.
Your allowed to have an app that monitors DUI roadblocks, you were until a couple of days ago allowed to have an app that helped cure you of being gay, but radiation monitoring is crossing the line? WTF.
Steve The 1984 Man In His Own Commercial Now Tyrant should stop deciding what people can use on their hardware. I can’t see the harm (real harm) in allowing this app to be sold, not when fart apps are considered far more ok.
I completely agree. There’s no way the app developer has the ability to monitor radiation. Also, the type of radiation from the plant in Japan is very different from the electromagnetic radiation emitted by cell phones (microwave radiation). Read up on the basics of radiation at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R…. The iphone can’t work as a geiger counter, and the microwave radiation emitted by the cell is not ionizing radiation.
Oh, so you can pay me back the $20 you owe me from last month.
Tawkon did not only ask Jobs for approval of their app, they were asking for additional APIs to the iOS SDK for their app to work. it’s right there in Tawkon’s letter. it is this that Jobs is “not interested” in. big difference between submitting an app and asking for changes to the core OS.
Ripping ignorant people off is not a democratic value.
This is typical fact less, uneducated, inane commentary that creates the public’s perception that mobile phones and nuclear reactors pose the same health risk. Please, please, please do some research on how mobile phone technology actually works before spreading baseless fear. This is 7th grade level science. “Radiation” in the typical sense refers to Alpha, Beta, Gama, and Neutron radiation, which is in fact a form of ionizing radiation. Your iPhone emits radio waves or RF, which is a form of non-ionizing radiation. The difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, ionizing radiation does have enough energy to “ionize” atoms, and can potentially damage cells and DNA, which is what leads to increased cancer risk. In short, non-ionizing “radiation” does not. RF waves are different from these stronger types of ionizing radiation such as x-rays, gamma rays, and ultraviolet (UV) light, which can break the chemical bonds in DNA. At very high levels, RF waves can heat up body tissues. (This is the basis for how microwave ovens work.) But the levels of energy used by cell phones are much too low to acomplish that.
If you are worried about RF, I suggest you find yourself a cave somewhere because just about everything around you emits the same thing your cell phone does. This includes your computer, TV, light bulbs, etc… I think Steve just saved a lot of people $1.99 they would have otherwise wasted on a useless app.
I believe the technical term for this is censorship. The rules governing control over free speech in the US, where there is an identifiable owner of a platform, are in flux. On the one hand the Fairness doctrine for television and radio was repealed. On the other hand there is increasing push to open private-public facilities such as malls and stadiums to public free speech and even protests, notably in California. I predict Apple is very near a penetration threshold in which it could lose control over censorship of its platform.
Open a book and research for yourself before you panic, you’ll find out that the scientific community has already figured this one out for you. Steve just saved a bunch of morons $1.99, and I think you should thank him for that.
Hijack, it’s a useless app. Why have useless apps in the app store? They have the android market for that. So, until you own an app store you have no say so.
I agree with most of your statement, but cells phones don’t emit microwaves… Don’t believe everything you read on Wikipedia.
How do you know it’s a useless app? How do you know it doesn’t load remote data? You haven’t seen the app, you don;t actually know. The iPhone doesn’t need to be able to detect radiation at all it simply needs network access.
Take a look at pachube they’ve put together a really good collection of data http://bit.ly/dFfizx
Yes. And the government–most governements, in fact–have also removed my ability to choose whether or not to do a lot of things: snort cocaine, kill people, etc. Look, Apple hasn’t shut down the Jailbreak/Cydia world, right? They are purposfully leaving the door open for you to choose to buy any crap-ass app you desire. They just won’t sell it on in their store. They have that right. I can’t buy an AR-15 at Walmart–they refuse to carry it. No one’s calling the a commie for making sound business decisions.
Wrong. The industry proponents claim there is no danger. The medical community has studies showing that there is – esp. for children.
Decide for yourself based on what? The inflammatory claims of fear mongers? Get a life!
Remote data? The app is monitoring the radiation produced by the iPhone you’re holding in your hands by loading remote data? HAH! Think about what you’re saying! The iPhone has no radiation sensor. The app is an imaginary detector created just for frightened morons.
given that the iPhone has no native radiation-detecting mechanism…
ok ! Got it! next generation smartphone will have geiger detector… just in case…
It’s a REALLY stupid app but let people decide for themselves if they want to shell out the money for it. They should make a category in the app store simply called ‘Stupid Shit’ and place this sucker right in there.
If the app store was filled with useless apps like this, how would small devs get their apps found?
My dna is Mac through and through, However, I’d like to see more visionary openness to mobile radiation. The most recent solid science confirms what I believe will be the eventual consensus that cell phone radiation is real and is not that great for us. The fact that most respected researchers in this area NEVER put a phone next to their head says to me there’s something going on that eveventually will be proven. So Instead of apple washing their hands how about apple taking the lead in this area as well and get all of us onto our speaker phone feature if not a specially designed hard wire to ear device. It’s just a matter of time before what we suspect will be reality, so let’s be in the forefront. Thanks.
Original : http://www.tawkon.com/blog/ind…
See the technology section – they explain how they use calculations to establish levels of radiation not a physical sensor.
The only way to be sure is to examine the patent, or at least give it to someone who understands RF propagation to establish validity or otherwise.
Just because you don’t believe it’s possible, doesn’t mean it isn’t.
i think it is good thing done.Spammmers , hackers,Buggers move on!!!!!
radiation from cell phones is very dangerous and secret from big companies
“Similarly, it looks like they wanted to capitalize upon the tragedy
at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant to launch a renewed push into
the App Store.Now Steve Jobs himself has told them enough
panic-mongering is enough: in the wake of the Fukushima disaster and the
resulting wave of radiation panics here in the United States, Jobs told
Tawkon that Apple has “no interest” in publishing their app.”
Â
This looks to me as if we’re talking about a different app than the RF radiation calculator (which, they did do work to put it together, come one give em credit, you could call a game “useless” as they serve no practical purpose). Maybe i’m the only one that sees this statement about tawkon renewing a push into the App store as tawkon providing a global report of nuclear radiation levels. I’m under the impression that Jobs denied THAT type of application, which could benefit many people. Much like we study weather and climate change, the new (and rising) threat of nuclear radiation should also be studied and recorded. It would be nice to be able to pull up a map and look at recorded geiger readings from all over the world (as i have loved ones abroad) and try to notice developing trends. that would be an incredible app for the scientific community, both amateurs and professionals.
but i might be misled by the statement in this article. either way, if i want to pay someone to be entertained by some calculation they have formed about the amount of RF radiation in the air, allow me to. censorship is a tool that powerful people use to control the masses. why haven’t the masses here in the USA EARNED their diplomas? we were all supposed to be taught about the different types of radiation in 8th grade!