Not Necessarily the News August 2007

Calling All Good Samaritans

Thirteen-year-old Clay Moore, of Parrish, Fla., managed to escape the hands of a child abductor who took him at gunpoint into a wooded area. Once free, Moore walked until he found a farmer with a cell phone who called for help. Moore was one of seven VITA Wireless Samaritans honored recently by The Wireless Foundation. The nonprofit organization, formed by member companies of CTIA-The Wireless Association, recognizes people who have used wireless technology in extraordinary circumstances. To read about the other honorees, visit www.wirelessfoundation.org.

OVERHEARD…

“One of the things that we find very attractive about the Silver Lake opportunity to be private is it gives us an ability to accelerate our strategy, to invest in our product development, to invest in our strategy in building out the channel, invest in things without being married to what Wall Street looks for.”
Ken Archer, Avaya Inc.s vice president of North America region channels, speaking to resellers on Avayas channel initiative as a newly private company, at ScanSources July IMPACT NOW event in San Diego.

Phone Photography 101

With more candid photos being taken with wireless handsets, National Geographic Books has come out with a how-to book on using camera phones as genuine cameras rather than novelties. The Camera Phone Book: How to Shoot Like a Pro, by Aimee Baldridge, features camera phone images by award-winning photographer Robert Clark. It also offers advice on selecting equipment and taking better pictures, as well as storing, printing and sending images. By combining photography with communications, [the camera phone] has the potential to become the most influential kind of camera, writes Baldridge. She might be right. According to Lyra Research, more camera phones have been sold than the total number of film and digital cameras. http://shop.nationalgeographic.com