On Dec 31, 2009, at 8:55 PM, Chris Knadle wrote: > News stories aren't always right -- these days there's a lot less fact > checking and a lot more hype than there used to be. I've lost count > how many news stories come directly from blogs. :-/
They seem to quote from the Court's decision, and the quote *specifically* says it worked whether the device was on or off: > According to the recent court ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Lewis > Kaplan, "The device functioned whether the phone was powered on or off, > intercepting conversations within its range wherever it happened to be." so unless your assertion is that the ABC journalists are so bad that they put words in the mouth of a Federal Judge.... > I'm not going to > go as far as to claim that it's not possible, however I will say that > it is unlikely. How would the FBI address the phone when it wasn't > communicating with the towers to know where it is in order to know > which tower to transmit from to activate something on the phone? I think the whole point is that this refutes the assertion that when the phone is powered off it isn't communicating with the towers. It *is* communicating with the towers, just at a reduced signal strength or frequency, perhaps, but clearly there is SOME communication with the towers happening, even in the 'off' state, or the Genovese crime family wouldn't have had a crapton of evidence against them that they wanted thrown out of court. > Also, keep in mind that it's possible only certain devices contain the > necessary circuitry -- which is why I like Mike's thought of checking > to see what communication occurs on _your_ cellphone when it's off. If I were a betting man, I would bet that this all coincides with the timing of when GPS was mandated to be added for E911 calls from mobile devices. I'd bet that any phone that meets that standard has all the necessary "stuff".
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