Page 9 - Data Connection News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

So if you're -- say, if you're in the middle of the grand canyon and there is no cell service, the map will show you -- the gps says you are here. without that data connection, you can say, it happens to be the middle of the grand canyon. >> so i am flying above water. doesn't always work. above water meaning an ocean, not just a river, right. so when i'm on the plane i can text using wi-fi on my iphone. i raised this question last week with a cnn analyst, his name rhymes with guest. completely shot me down. >> i can see. but it's a valid question. a lot of international carriers now have wi-f...

Welcome back to the special live coverage of the disappearance of flight 370. many wonder with today's technology why everyday cell phone tracking can't help pinpoint the location of any of the cell phones of the 239 people on board that plane. shouldn't it be as easy as using a "find my phone" app. experts say, maybe not. cnn technology analyst, brett larson. so cell phone tracking, is it being used in this search? >> it could be, but it may not be very valuable. because cell phones are most easily tracked when they have a cellular or data connection. even if you have 268 phones, all turned o...

Now, without data connection or connection to a cell tower your gps chip in your phone is not going to be as functional as it would be on the ground. >> okay. and the radar, the fact that radar is not as effective, i mean, it's because if you're going to be out over a vast body of water, right, you need the towers on which to bounce off signals. right? >> that's right. you can't put a radar tower in the middle of the ocean which makes it really hard to pick up a plane when it's flying both low or over a vast body of water. and, you know, what typically happens in that situation is that air-tra...

But even after acars is turned off, acars sends what are called handshake signals to satellites. and what authorities are saying is that some of these signals were detected by satellite, and from that we've been able to calculate the distance from the satellite that the plane may have been. and that's what led to that map that you were showing earlier. >> and share what you discovered about passenger cell phones. a lot of them are equipped with gps system. they have those chips. one would think that maybe that might help in the search. >> well, that's a really great question. you know, what gp...

That conversation, very eye opening because this flaw existed for years and people could have done this. how often do you send picture messages? quite a bit. they were able to send a picture i sent to someone before it even landed on their phone. check this one out. >> you can see pictures if i text someone a picture, right? >> right. let's do a picture message. >> all right. >> your phone used a picture to send a data message. we intercepted the data connection, logged it, grabbed the picture out of it and showed it on the screen. >> what does verizon say about this? >> they said it was fixed...