Japan's Mobile Safety

Cell phones may soon issue earthquake warnings. If you doubt that our lives will be intertwined with our phones, this may convince you. Japan’s three largest cell carriers will cooperate to send alerts from the government’s advance warning system to phones. The precious few seconds or minutes before a quake could save an untold number of lives.

Implications - For those living in natural disaster-prone areas, the ability of one's phone to elicit disaster warnings is not only useful, but also has the potential to be life-saving. This is a prime example of the way in which phones are becoming almost integral to daily living. As technology advances, more and more applications will make phones an all-encompassing tool that no consumer can afford to be without.