Calling 911 can save your life, but there are some situations where if you talk, you are endangering your life further. Maybe you are hiding from a dangerous killer for instance. Or maybe you had a stroke and can’t talk. Well now Iowa County has launched the Nation’s First 911 via text message.

So far, the service is only available to residents of Black Hawk County who subscribe to a T-Mobile service provider, but that could grow. Emergency text messages can be helpful for deaf, hard-of-hearing or mute victims who find themselves in a dangerous situation.

Samsung is recalling 160,000 Jitterbug cellphones. The handsets targeted seniors they want them back since they are missing one very important feature. They don’t connect to 911 services whenever the handset is out of their service area.

Jitterbug owners get an “out of range, try again later” message instead of help. The recall will apply to SPH-a110 and SPH-a120 Jitterbug models that are equipped with standard keys and were sold between March 2008 and May 2009. Owners of the OneTouch model don’t have to worry since that handset is not affected.

It’s always nice when your phone has some extra bells and whistles, but we tend to forget that the most important feature of your phone is it’s 911 functionality. That’s why LG must be feeling a bit embarrassed that around 30,000 LG 830 Spyder handsets are having a tough time dialing for help.

A product recall notes that a huge number of them have “difficulty sustaining a connection or have poor voice quality on calls to emergency 911.” On the up side, LG is acting responsibly, as it has only received a single report that did not result in any injuries.