Personal GPS in a Mobile Phone 151
i4u writes "NTT DoCoMo announced today that it will introduce it's first Global Positioning Service (GPS)-compatible handset F661i, at the end of April.
The GPS mobile phone enables users to determine their location at the touch of a button, and download location specific information via i-mode like graphical maps and other interesting information about the area.
This is not like the GPS functionality that the US Phone companies introduced so far. In the US the GPS coordinates are only used for emergencies and not yet for actually providing value to the user in other situations.
Users of the F661i can send their current location to other i-mode enabled phones. In addition, a memo function allows users to store location information, including map, telephone numbers and addresses.
The phone supports three applications of the GPS functionality:
1)The GPS enabled Phone can be tracked by via a service, useful for instance for parents to track their kids. See also the Wherify GPS Person Locator.
2)Submission of current location in case of emergency to pre-defined organizations, like police, fire departments etc. Similar to the GPS functionality available in the US.
3)The F661i also can be used by businesses to track their delivery trucks and more. Similar to Car GPS devices."
thanks but no thanks (Score:3, Insightful)
If the user of the phone cannot turn the tracking features off, they're just handing "big brother" another tool to track them with.
unlike in the US (Score:4, Insightful)
I can't figure this out. I first saw this feature in a phone over a year ago, and it seems common now. So all the manufacturers have gone to the expense of adding GPS to their phones, yet they don't even include a simple "what are my coordinates" feature in the UI. What are they waiting for?
Saved! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:thanks but no thanks (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:unlike in the US (Score:2, Insightful)
The new thing presented in this article is about additional services to be provided (either for a fee or as an incentive to switch). For phones with GPS this is not that special, but for phones without it, access to network bassed positioning services might be pretty cool.
For more insight on these - look at the Qualcomm phone chipstets. Most of the new ones have a integrated GPS system on them. These are used in CDMA phones (in the US/CAN - Sprint, Verizon, Bell Mobility, Telus) - Qualcomm makes the chips for 90% of the CDMA phones on the market - Kyocera, Samsung, Qualcomm (duh).
Hey, mine's broken! (Score:2, Insightful)
Great, so does it work inside? (Score:2, Insightful)
simon
Why privacy matters. (Score:4, Insightful)
Because there are things which aren't illegal, but not the government's business. Suppose I'm married but carrying on a homosexual affair with my neighbor. Then suppose I'm an activist of some sort (pick your favorite cause for the sake of argument.)
What sort of temptation would this knowledge of my personal life present to someone in the government to whom I was causing trouble? I'm doing nothing illegal, but by finding out something that could be embarassing to me, they can abuse their power to gain extra-legal power over me, by threating to blackmail me.
For anyone who thinks this is an overly paranoid scenario over what the government would do, read about the information collected about civil rights activists in the 60's.