Technology at Muncie Free Press - Delaware County Indiana | News and Information

The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) has expressed concerns regarding ‘drone’ legislation

Staff Report

MUNCIE, IN - State-level legislation being considered in more than 30 states has the potential to negatively impact and curtail a recreational activity that has existed harmoniously in our communities for more than a hundred years. Legislation aimed at restricting the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to protect privacy and guard against warrantless surveillance could have the unintentional consequence of inhibiting model aviation, mostly due to broadly written definitions that would include model airplanes.

The Academy of Model Aeronautics and its members have worked diligently to contact state legislators regarding proposed drone legislation and have encouraged them to include in the bill(s) a provision to protect model aviation. Idaho, Missouri, and New York have responded favorably and have amended their legislation to protect model aviation. Idaho Governor “Butch” Otter signed into law new legislation restricting the use of drones with specific language to exclude “model flying airplanes” from the definition of “unmanned aircraft.”

4G LTE Coverage Enhances Coverage on the North Side of Muncie

 Free Press Report

MUNCIE, IN - Verizon Wireless has activated a new cell site in Muncie that improves 4G LTE coverage on the north side of the city. The new site will improve coverage as far north as West CR 850 North, south to West CR 400 North, as far west as North CR 600 West, and east to State Road 3.

The new site enables more customers to take advantage of 4G LTE speeds—which are up to 10 times faster than 3G—to download a movie at the airport in minutes versus hours or video chat with loved ones while out of town, for example.

By Rick Yencer

MUNCIE, IN -  AT&T of  Indiana casts a big shadow with that huge tower built by its ancestor Indiana Bell that houses telecommunications equipment for central Indiana.

 So it's no surprise that AT&T would provide public access on its U-verse TV, providing the city and Burris School a huge audience for government, educational, and other public programming that can be found on U-verse's Channel 99.

 George Fleetwood, president of AT&T of Indiana, visited his friend, Mayor Dennis Tyler on Wednesday to kick off the new programming that Roger Overbey handles for the city and Burris School manages for education.

 Those programs can now be found on Comcast, whether it is Channel 60 and 61.

 AT&T became a player in television and video in 2006 after state lawmakers opened the door for the telecommunications giant to enter the market held by cable like Comcast, Time Warner and others.

By Marc Ransford

MUNCIE, IN - College students have been ditching their cell phones for smart phones in droves the last three years, but they’re growing annoyed with advertisements from marketers on their mobile devices, says new research from Ball State University.

An annual survey of college students at Ball State finds that smartphone and feature phone usage has flip-flopped since 2009. In a recent survey, 73 percent of students reported using a smartphone as compared to 27 percent in 2009.

"The complete reversal of mobile device usage reflects the explosive growth of Internet-accessible, computer-like smartphones away from text and talk feature phones," said Michael Hanley, an advertising professor and director of Ball State's Institute for Mobile Media Research. He has conducted surveys on the use of mobile devices by students since 2004.

By Vic Caleca

MUNCIE, IN - Ball State University is ready to launch three free massive, open, online courses in a matter of weeks, with registration already hitting or surpassing target enrollments. The university announced last fall that it was developing its first MOOC, as the popular large online courses are known, with an eye toward attracting at least 1,000 students.

The class takes a look at gender roles in society as reflected through comic books, received considerable national exposure when Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee narrated a promotional video. The course passed its enrollment goal weeks ahead of its April 2 launch date and is continuing to register students.

Ball State subsequently added two other free massive online classes: a critical survey of film noir and a precalculus algebra course. The film noir class was capped at 500 students to accommodate a software tool for the course and quickly hit capacity. The algebra class was added just recently, has about 100 students enrolled and is still accepting registrations.

Class descriptions and signup information can be found at www.canvas.net, the website for Canvas Network, a Utah-based company that handles a variety of MOOC-related operations for Ball State, Brown and several other universities.