Epic Mobile News

Newsletter Subscription
Subscribe to our Dynamic News Content Feed Subscribe to our RSS Feed

LG and Prada Team Up For Third Phone
The phone maker has joined with the fashion label once again to create a shiny new handset.

New Battery 10x Capacity 10x Charge Speed
Scientists have redesigned a lithium-ion battery to allow it to charge ten times faster and hold ten times the charge of a standard cell.

BBM Music Busts Into Britain
RIM releases the BBM Music service for a hungry British crowd.

 

Mobiles to be barred from Scottish prisons

Mobiles to be barred from Scottish prisons A longer jail sentence is the punishment facing Scottish prisoners if they are caught in possession of a mobile phone while in jail.

Authorities north of the border are also concentrating on the problem of visitors smuggling in handsets and SIM cards — offenders could find their prison visit lasts rather longer than they thought it would if a proposal to amend existing legislation is given the green light.

There is evidence that phones and cards are entering prisons after being hidden in the bodily orifices of people granted visits and have also been thrown over the walls of Scotland's prisons.

The crackdown will also include prison officials deploying signal blocking devices to thwart mobile phone calls made from and to prisons.

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish justice secretary, believes that mobile phone calls are enabling inmates to strike drug deals and intimidate witnesses.

He said: "The Scottish government is determined to get tough with those who try to continue criminal activities in prison.

"Serving a prison sentence should not allow 'Mr Bigs' to continue their life of crime."

He acknowledged that detecting mobiles, which are becoming ever-smaller thanks to technological breakthroughs, will be no easy task.

Richard Baker, Labour's justice spokesman, was quoted by the BBC as saying: "Our prisons need to be rid of the record levels of overcrowding if this policy has any chance of success.

"For jail security to improve, prison officers need more time to conduct searches rather than just dealing with the day-to-day duties."

Meanwhile, mobile phones are being put to more lawful use by researchers studying the behaviour of koala bears in Australia.

Handsets have been placed in the trees of a koala territory in St Bees Island off the north-west of the country to record the sounds that marsupials make.

Apparently when koalas mate the female lets out a high-pitched scream, closely followed by a loud bellow from the male.

"Interestingly most of the bellowing seems to occur around midnight, not around dawn or dusk when we thought it might've occurred," a researcher told Reuters.

Industry News posted on 25 November 2008

Have your say - Post a new Comment!

Heading:
Comment:
Anonymous: