Handy radiation checker comes to iPhone

iPhone users can now download a free iPhone app to tell them what local radiation levels are, in case they've not got enough to worry about.

The new application is available worldwide, though you'd have to take paranoia to a new level to worry about spreading radiation from Japan if you weren't actually nearby: even then you should probably worry about rebuilding the country's infrastructure more than media-hyped threats of radiation poisoning.

The data for the app, called Radiation Information and published by Qnuouo, comes from the Japanese Ministry of Education, scraped from the ATMC site which already provides charts based on government feeds.

Those disinclined to trust the government can see how safe they are from the crowd-sourced Failed Robot, which mashes network-connected Geiger counters into Google Maps, but there's no iPhone app for that yet.

We're sure it won't be long - the mobile app developers aren't quite as quick as the Trojan-writing scammers to take advantage of people's credulity and fear, but they aren't far behind. ®