openpolitics.com

Geo Referenceable Phones

The cell phone industry is starting to incorporate GPS chips into cell phones. So far most people have focused on the privacy and security angles:

Kanwar Chadha: "The U.S. market today is driven primarily by safety and security"

Sales of location-enabling chipsets for cell phones in the United States are racing ahead, driven largely by mandatory deadlines set last November by the Federal Communications Commission to enhance public safety responses.

I'm more interested in the application: transforming the cell phone into a referencing tool.

"Bookmark this location"

We're so submurged in the print world that we still use the term "bookmark" to refer to electronic notations. We'll come up with better shorthand later, but for now, the term serves the purpose.

"Send this location to a friend"

Imagine you've lost contact with your friend at Yankee stadium or you got a flat tire on a country road 2 miles outside Womelsdorf. You could dictate directions, or you could send them them the co-ordinates. I'm sure the texting people could develop a convention for this and the mapping people could release a cell phone version of their app (If they haven't already).

Tour de France imitators like me, could tag their area's biggest hills

Related:

• uLocate: a Java GPS app for several Motorolla models
• Fast Company: GPS: The Sky's the Limit -- GPS applications in trucking and farming