Before I continue let's make something clear. This 'radiation detector' is not going to transform your smartphone into a Geiger counter. It's got nothing to do with the type of radiation causing problems in Japan (ionizing radiation.) In fact we're talking about a different type of radiation (non-ionizing radiation.) This is what the app records.
The reason it does this is to show you the levels of radiation given off by your phone (along with other radioactive household objects like your microwave, TV etc and flag up the type of health risks associated with it. Yes the age old does your phone give you cancer? Debate is back again. Many scientists deny that there is any risk but yet the debate still rages with people convinced they're iPhone's are going to give them brain tumours. The debate kicked off years ago when mobile phones had a huge rush in popularity, it died down but now that we're stuck in the smartphone revolution the phone sceptics are back to bring doom and gloom to our lives.
The app tells you how dangerously radioactive areas of your house are (either green, yellow or red) when you enter a red zone your phone will emit a warning beep. Android and BlackBerry are on board but Apple has well and truly distanced itself from the app.
After many rejections from the app store founder and CEO Gil Friedlander emailed Jobs last August about his radiation detecting app. “No interest,” replied jobs.
Obviously Steve doesn't want people to start going around saying how dangerous iPhones are. He would have to be a bit of an idiot to accept an app which could bring unwanted bad publicity to his company. Furthermore it has been pointed out that despite the app dealing with a different type of radiation to Japan, it would still at this time be in bad taste for companies to start chucking radiation apps around.
How long before a lab somewhere comes up with a study about the dangers of the iPhone?
One thought on “Will Your iPhone Give You Brain Tumours? Apple Reject Radiation Detection App”
All phones are tested by professional testing equipment so I’d be tempted to disregard some app that manages to detect radiation without a radiation sensor. It’s clearly trying to calculate it from RF fields which is nonsense.