The Apple Watch is often credited for saving people’s lives, whether it’s by detecting an abnormal heart rate or an accidental fall, or even by notifying emergency services on their behalf. The latter is a security feature built into the Apple Watch that allows people to quickly dial 911 if they need emergency assistance. The …
In space no one can hear you scream and, as it turns out, no one can respond to your 911 calls either. Dutch astronaut André Kuipers found that out first hand when he accidentally dialed the emergency services number while attempting to place a call to Earth from the International Space Station. In a recent …
If you ever get into any sort of trouble inside an Uber car and want to call 911 quickly, you’ll be able to do so right inside the app. It’s not such a huge hassle to call 911 from the phone as it is. But Uber’s 911 addition is indeed a step forward for a …
Emergency dispatchers have an incredibly important and stressful job, which is made infinitely more difficult when the calls they receive turn out to be false alarms. Dispatchers in Elk Grove and Sacramento, California have been dealing with hundreds of false alarms over the past few months, but it’s not a malicious prank or an unfortunate …
While emergency services are able to immediately see the address when an individual calls from a landline, the same doesn’t apply for mobile phones. The good news is that the gap might begin to close, as Google is reportedly running tests on new technology that would make it easier for 911 operators to locate mobile …
The OnePlus 5 was one of the most promising Android handsets of the summer, at least on paper. As soon as the Chinese smartphone maker launched it, users started discovering various issues about the phone, some more annoying than others. The most severe issue to date concerns the display, which has a “natural” jelly effect …
We take it for granted that if you pick up a phone and dial 911, someone will pick up at the other end. That hasn’t been happening recently in Texas, and T-Mobile is left standing naked in the spotlight after a series of errors left 911 calls on hold, and two people dead.
It turns out Verizon Wireless may be in more hot water as a result of the 10,000 emergency 9-1-1 calls the carrier dropped during a blizzard last month. The Federal Communications Commission recently called for an investigation into the massive network failure that left thousands of Maryland residents with no way to reach police and …
In a letter sent last Thursday to the nation’s top wireless carrier, the Federal Communications Commission is calling for an investigation into thousands of dropped emergency calls placed during a blizzard in late January. Approximately 10,000 emergency 9-1-1 calls placed on the Verizon Wireless network in Maryland were dropped, the FCC says. The calls were made on January …
