I predict this buzzing of all of California stops the day an alert goes out during rush hour and there are instantly 14 accidents on the LA freeway system.
Of course, they also came up with an absurd backronym, because you always need one of those: “America’s Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response.” :rolleyes:
My first experience with this “feature” was at 3AM a few weeks ago. We were in the midst of weeks of storms, so I jumped out of bed thinking it was a tornado siren. Scared the hell out of the dog, too.
In case, ?.
In case he/she sees the missing child, which is why they DO Amber alerts. It’s not a celebratory message for the kidnapper or something.
Yes, this.
The odds of me spotting the subject of an Amber Alert are pretty damn low, but having a license number and a description in my head for a while is a pretty damn small amount of effort to give, and could end up meaning a lot to someone.
OK, I was wondering if there was any other reason. I tend to be in places where the presence of children doesn’t happen.
This definitely. The odds that any one person will spot the child are incredibly low. The odds that SOMEone who gets the alert will do so are not so low. This happened to me before there were amber alerts, but I still recall it. I was at a mall. An announcement came over the loud speaker, “A four year old boy in blue shorts and a yellow shirt is missing. His name is _____ (that I forget). If anyone sees him, please bring him to the information booth.” This boy happened to be looking at the puppies in a pet store window about 20 feet from me. Immediately about 5 adults went to him. Of course there were 100s in the mall who didn’t see him.
I have a Samsung Galaxy 2 and can’t figure out how to turn the notification off. I can’t even find it! Any suggestions? I don’t want to be woken up like that ever again. Scared the beejesus out of me.
Not mine. I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 with Verizon, and I did not get the amber alert. Was it regional, or the whole country?
In Milwaukee a shit-ton of people had the weather alert alarm go off a while back. Same thing, really loud alarm, scares the crap out of everyone. Turned out to be a false alarm. They were testing the weather alert system and some doofus hit the wrong button. On top of that, all the schools ended up having to take the kids down to the basement (or something like that) because of it.
Might be part of the Messenger app settings.
Does anyone know how the system decides who is in the alert area? Does it just go by area codes, which isn’t very effective these days? Or does it use the GPS?
Messaging–> Settings–> (scroll almost all the way down) Emergency Alerts–> deselect your choices. Also, turn off the Alert Reminder, just in case.
It’s regional, and also by carrier discretion.
Ah, so it is a new feature. I kinda wondered about that when I got a couple alerts for the flooding. Is the sound they make different than a text message? I keep my phone permanently on silent, and it was just a normal buzz, IIRC.
Hmm, I have never gotten one of these on my iPhone.
And I don’t have this setting. Is this only for iPhone 5s maybe?
When I heard the sound I immediately went to look at the television because it’s the same sound as the Emergency Broadcast System thingie, but there was no warning on the screen, so we couldn’t figure it out at first. Then Thomas said it had come from my phone. Interestingly, it didn’t come to his phone. I clicked ‘yes’ that I’d like to receive Amber Alerts, but if they send them at ungodly hours of the morning, I might just have to turn it off.
They broadcast this throughout California because they think the suspect might be heading to Canada to throw the authorities off, since the most obvious place for him to run would be Mexico.
I have my iPhone paired with my car stereo so I can talk hands-free. The first time I got one of these alerts, I was listening to the local Classical station (KBAQ), and suddenly the music faded out, and this TREMENDOUS alert BLARED at full volume from the speakers. It was a real “WHAT THE FUK!!!” moment. It was so unexpected that it could have easily caused an accident. As soon as I got home I turned the alerts off. The Weather service was pushing alerts for dust storms, as if anyone who’s lived in Phoenix for more than a year gives a crap…
The only time so far that I have received an Amber Alert on my phone, I was driving and my phone was in my bag in the backseat. Scared the hell out of me and definitely could have caused an accident to a less focused driver. I had no idea that I could turn it off so thanks for that info.
Virgin Mobil
messaging - settings - down at the bottom. There’s the presidential, amber, extreme alert (imminent threat), severe alert (imminent threat), and a monthly test alert. I turned off the amber and monthly. I get inundated by amber alert shares on facebook. I don’t need my phone trying to give me a heart attack.
I’ve gotten the severe weather alerts a few times (and like everyone else, it scared the crap out of me!), but didn’t realize I could turn them off. The first time it happened, I was at work, and was basically turning in circles trying to figure out where the squealing EBS sound was coming from. Oh, it’s coming from my pocket! :smack:
I just checked my phone settings. I have Presidential Alerts, Extreme Alerts, Severe Alerts and Amber Alerts. Presidential Alerts can’t be turned off. I turned off the Amber Alerts.