Stardate 20020220.1206

(On Screen): I've been waiting for this. The FTC has stomped on those companies that are selling metalized stickers for phones with the claim that the sticker will protect its user against radiation from the phone. In fact, those stickers are completely worthless. Even if they did work as shields, which they don't, they're on the wrong side of the phone to protect the user since they are designed to be mounted under the battery pack, which places them on the far side of the motherboard from where the user would be located.

By the way, they also don't improve reception. Don't waste your money.

These ads have been making me pissed off for as long as I've been seeing them on TV. I spent several years designing cell phones, so I know how worthless they are. If there were something that simple which could improve the performance of cell phones, we who design them would have put it in the phone already. We do not have a vested interest in making the phones perform badly, and we are not stupid.

So it's about time that the FTC nail these companies, since what they're selling is a fraud. What you get is a piece of metalized paper with glue on it, for $10 or so (sometimes $20). It probably cost them about two cents each to make them; that money you're paying is going to pay for the TV ads, the operators who are standing by to take your call, and profit for the guys selling this snake oil.