Google Maps To Add 'Friend' GPS Tracking

Henway writes "Google is adding the option to Google Maps to place your whereabouts either via cell phone towers or GPS. Think 'locator beacon.' Paraphrased: This would be good for people wanting to let their friends know where they are or for parents wanting to know where their children are at all times."

Re:So, kind of like Britekite?

[scubamage]

And Loopt. [loopt.com]

But does it run...

[Anonymous Coward]

on Android?

Not yet!

  Google Latitude is available on the following mobile devices wherever Google Maps for mobile v3.0 and above is supported:

- Android-powered devices with Maps v3.0 and above. G1 users in the US will be receiving Maps v3.0 in a system update soon.
- Most color BlackBerry devices
- Most Windows Mobile 5.0 and above devices. Note: Some Windows Mobile devices don't support cell-ID location detection.
- Most Symbian S60 devices

Coming soon!
- iPhone and iPod touch devices with the Google Mobile App (in the US)
- Many Sony Ericsson devices

Note: Some older versions of these devices cannot support Google Maps for mobile version 3.0 and above and will receive the most recent compatible version without Google Latitude.

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=136640 [google.com]

Re:Prior Art

[dino2gnt]

Good thing that Latitude is entirely opt-in and not opt-out.

Re:So, kind of like Britekite?

[BlueOtto]

And Mologogo [mologogo.com].

Re:Prior Art

[MozeeToby]

1) Where does it say that this is in any way, an opt out feature?
2) What does Prior Art have to do with anything? The article isn't 'Google patents putting dots on map' its 'Google is implementing such and such a feature'.

Re:I'd like the opposite please

[mcgrew]

Can I have my location copywritten?

Well, you can write a copy of your location but you can't have it copyrighted any more than you can copyright your phone number. So, no. Sorry.

Re:My generation was lucky

[Chabo]

I'd bet kids are SAFER now than we were then

You're very right. [sho.com]

Re:I don't think it means what they think it means

[Anonymous Coward]

Since using GPS in this way can be a contentious issue, Google have given Latitude users the ability to restrict location information on a contact-by-contact basis; alternatively it will let you enter a false position manually

--AndroidCommunity [androidcommunity.com]

I wonder what they mean by "false position" exactly.. hmm.

APRS

[autocracy]

It saddens me that none of you have mentioned APRS [aprs.fi]. It's a long-standing and open protocol for doing positions reporting.

Slashdot needs more HAMs. ~KB1PNB

Re:Big brother knows where you are

[Klaus_1250]

Why in the world would they need a GPS?

They want to tax people on a per-road and time basis, to combat high way traffic jams in peak hours. Odometers won't work for that, plus, they can be tampered with. With a GPS-signal, you can crosscheck it with license plate registration camera's (they use them for speed checks). Difficult to fool the system, plus, they're going to put insane fines/jail time on tampering.

Or, of course, they can simply tax the gasoline which essentially does the same thing, or maybe they already do that :).

They already do that. In fact, I think we have the third highest gasoline prices in the world (diesel is cheaper). And that is next to the annual road tax and a special car tax on top of the sales tax.

Re:My generation was lucky

[Pentavirate]

I watched the preview and it shows a woman arguing that there is an equal chance of being struck by lightning as being kidnapped (non-family). A little research shows that:

* You have a 1 in 560 chance [kidsfightingchance.com] of being kidnapped by a non-family member and of those 1/5 will be murdered.
* You have a 1 in 280,000 [lightningsafety.com] chance of being struck by lightning.
* You have a 1 in 100 [answers.com] chance of dying in a car accident.

While the lady in the video was grossly overestimating the chances of being struck by lightning, there may not be much cause to freak your kids out about "stranger danger". They need to know the information and how to protect themselves, but they definitely shouldn't be made to be hermits and more than they shouldn't be prevented from riding in cars.

One thing is for sure, though. Don't get your statistics from Penn and Teller videos.

Re:G1! No!

[Anonymous Coward]

From http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html [google.com] :

"Will it work with my phone?
Google Latitude is a feature of Google Maps for mobile on these phones:
Android-powered devices, such as the T-Mobile G1
iPhone and iPod touch devices (coming soon)
most color BlackBerry devices
most Windows Mobile 5.0+ devices
most Symbian S60 devices (Nokia smartphones)
many Java-enabled (J2ME) mobile phones, such as Sony Ericsson devices (coming soon)"

Re:My generation was lucky

[clong83]

From your link on kidsfightingchance, I was able to calculate: 11.4 out of 1000 kids are reported missing each year, which comes out to about 800000 cases. Of those, 69000 are actually abducted. Of those, 18% are by non-family. Of those, 37% are by non-friends. The way I crunch the numbers...

11.4/1000 * 69/800* .18 * .37 = 0.0000654

Or,about 1 in 15000 chance of being abducted by a stranger. Even if you go non-family only, it's only about 1 per 10000... Where did you get 1 in 560?? Granted, it's nowhere near the remoteness of a lightning strike, but the odds of an abduction by a non-family member are remote at best.

Re:Big brother knows where you are

[BeerCat]

See, I would recommend actually reading 1984, rather than quoting a single line from it and saying, "Seems to me...".

Let's see:

Original claim - 1984 didn't advocate tracking the whereabouts of the citizens at all times.
Single line quote - refutes claim.

More proof (contained in the link [liferesear...versal.com])

"The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. "