geolocation

More and more phones have GPS (for getting a fix on the phone's physical location), and more and more cellphone companies are offering geolocation services. Including kid phones (see the New York Times, 12/21/06), which are easing parents' concerns and raising those of privacy advocates, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The article leads with the story of a Northern California family with two … [Read more...] about GPS phones easing parent fears

People's thinking about the pluses and minuses of using phones to track their locations is changing. GPS (Global Positioning System) on phones has been around a while, but so far the significant privacy concerns have outweighed the upside, according to a thoughtful commentary in the New York Times, as attractive as the latter can be: "Maps on our phones will always know where we are. Our children … [Read more...] about Cellphone as tracking device

You might call it real-time, real-life social networking. Today Silicon Valley start-up loopt launched a new mobile social-networking service with Boost Mobile, "one of the nation's biggest youth-oriented wireless phone companies," the San Jose Mercury News reports. "Boost's 3.8 million customers - who are mostly under 25 - will be able to create groups of friends and keep track of them using a … [Read more...] about Very mobile social networking

That would be social networking by cellphone. The trend is gathering steam, with Helio for MySpace users, Google's Dodgeball, Silicon Valley start-up Loopt, and Microsoft's SLAM (see ComputerWeekly. These services take advantage of the GPS (global positioning system) technology now in most new phones. So, in timely fashion, the New York Times looks at the related dilemma of parents: when to get … [Read more...] about Mobile social networking