Why wait for the next generation of cell phones to integrate GPS? Justin Martenstein's notebook points to Psiloc's miniGPS, which uses a cell tower signal hack to trigger location based events with your mobile phone.
For example, you can set a micro-event to wake you up from your after-work snooze as your commuter train approaches your destination. By using location instead of clock time, you can gain an extra few minutes of shut eye if your train is delayed (and saves you from missing your stop if it arrives early!) .
Another application might be to key in the location of your local movie theatre to automatically switch your phone to silent, preventing an embarrassing mid-show jingle.
I like your examples of possible applications, though I'm not sure how to get around the scenario where you're waiting outside the theater for your girlfriend and it turns out she's stuck in traffic so that means if you don't get the message, you'll likely miss the trailers if not the beginning of the movie. Or perhaps you'll get pissed off and your movie viewing experience would drop below the level of what it might be in the unfortunate event of an embarassing jingle. So you could pull out your phone to call her 5 minutes before the show only to realize that she's going to be late. But then you've got two other problems: 1 - you've turned your phone back on so you have to remember to turn it off. 2 - you still may have already purchased a ticket for her, in which case you'll be pissed that you wasted the money. And 3 - I just thought of a third problem - when you try to call her, she may be in a tunnel and may not get your call. Or she may be driving and can't pick.......AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Posted by: Danny Bernstein | March 16, 2005 at 11:57 AM