Technology we have loved in 2008

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JASON PALMER

Mozilla’s Geode project
Everyone is going geolocation crrazy

The technology that most frequently caught my attention this year is an old dog doing a new trick: mobile phone geolocation services.

The range of applications that is springing up in response to the question “Where am I?” is staggering.

The bottleneck for now is simply that only high-end handsets have GPS chipsets inside but industry insiders see that balance shifting, so that within a couple of years the majority of handsets will have GPS capability. Then it’s down to the ingenuity of programmers and content developers.

And what will that bring? The buzzword is “context”. Leave bulky city guidebooks behind and tap into an online guide such as Pocket Places that knows where you are, providing multimedia content relevant to the monument you’re standing in front of.

Task-specific websites and applications will abound; an early example is Sit or Squat – a mobile application you can use to find out the location of your nearest public toilet.

Social networks such as Brightkite will – if you wish – keep tabs on where you and your friends are and let you know when a friend happens to be nearby. Finding a recommended restaurant in an unfamiliar corner of town? Absurdly easy.

For my money, it’ll be worth it if I never again need to make that “Where are you?” phone call to a friend – services like Navmii will mean that precise map of where we both are will be near to hand.

Great Article Jason; I totally agree with you   Thanks for the great article!