GPS Phone Tells Others Where You Are 161
An anonymous reader writes, "According to CNet, a company called Benefon has launched a cell phone with a built in GPS receiver — nothing new there. However, this particular GPS cell phone, called the Twig, does something extra. It can send your GPS coordinates to another Twig owner and then that person can navigate directly to you using the preloaded navigation software. Sounds like this could save a lot of time and effort when trying to explain to the in-laws where your new apartment is." The article says that the phone will cost £330 in the UK, or about $625.
mother in law (Score:4, Funny)
Actually, I am purposly vague when I give my mother in law directions. If I can just delay her a few minutes w/o being found 'guilty', it helps.
For that $625, I'd rather get her a hotel room.
Nothing new here (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, now you can just "forget" your phone in a taxi.
Hey... (Score:5, Funny)
To you this is Good - to me it is Bad (Score:1)
Now, if I was a travelling salesman who wanted to find places, I could see why it might be good, in case I got lost, but this nanny state concept is just getting out of hand
Put your tinfoil hat away (Score:3, Insightful)
Then again, anywhere with E911 service this is usually already enabled. But you can usually disable it on the handset if you want.
Re: (Score:1)
I sold the hat to someone from the White House.
Re: (Score:1, Insightful)
Then again, anywhere with E911 service this is usually already enabled. But you can usually disable it on the handset if you want.
Fuck TFA -- are you simpleminded enough to believe, in today's envionmment, that the cops won't have the capability to enable it at will? It took a decent amount of time before we found out that, with the Onstar bullshit,
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Becomes widespread? Can you even get a cellphone that isn't GPS enabled in the U.S. any more? AFAIK, all cellphones here have GPS to provide location data for e911, and I know Sprint already offers a service where the owner of a cellular account can get current position information on any phone he/she owns.
Also, what does CALEA [wikipedia.org] have to do with this? While I'm sure there is/will be some precedent allo
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If you don't have anything to hide, why should you mind if the NSA knows where you are at all times and who you are with/near/etc?
I'll take one of the dumb phones thank you very much. And I don't have anything to hide, but I still believe in the Constitution, and believe it or not the Bill of Right IS part of the Constitution. Some of us have taken an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution, not the president, not the NSA, etc.
Wait till you have a daughter (Score:2)
Disney markets something similar that is affordable.
http://disneymobile.go.com/disneymobile/home.do [go.com] (DisneyMobile)
Parents who want to give their kids some freedom but still
know where they are snap these up. Sneaky kids ditch them
(send them home with friends).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
In-laws?!? (Score:2, Funny)
What use to me is a cell phone if I have to leave it on the other side of town?
- RG>
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Just a thought..... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Can some law enforcement agency use the GPS data to prove that you did something illegal for example?
If you are planning to do something illegal (or you're just paranoid), why would you carry a phone with you that tracks your every movement?
Current cellphones are trackable now (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Modern phoned do NOT all have GPS, and those that do you have to
pay extra for.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Boost (Score:2)
How long until some overzealous employer (Score:2)
Abuses this?
People "on call" have a lot to look forward to, I think.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What kind of employer is ok with their employees choosing to sleep in once in a while?
If I did that to my boss, my next exmployer would be the lady at the Unemployment Office.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
A compassionate employer? Yes, they do exist.
You may have to win this kind of treatment though. Don't expect employers do just hand this over on a silver platter to you. They won't.
Employers are often dispassionate about their employees, but expect employees to be passionate about their place of employment. It can't work that way. Either both don't care about each other, or both do care.
Employment is like marriage.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I find it hard to believe the nonchalant attitude I'm seeing up there. Seriously; somebody says employers who request punctionality are dispassionate and gets modded Insightful for it?
Flex time is one thing, but "come whenever you feel like it"?!? Come on! Here in the real world ...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If that's what you are in fact paying them for, it's not abuse. Otherwise it is. Employing someone is not the same thing as owning them. There is a difference between being a slave and being an employee. A slave is property of its master during enslavement. So, if you say that during my working ours I am a property of my employer, you are saying I am enslaved for the duration of my workday.
You can't pay me enough to be
You are not Spartacus :) (Score:2)
Uh, no. If that were true then slavery would not have been as immensely profitable as it was. While there may be rare aberrations where something like the above occurred, those involved were brutally punished, maimed or killed, as examples to others. There
Re: (Score:2)
I'm one of the few warriors still left on this god-forsaken planet.
Re: (Score:2)
Or... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
There is no reason the GPS locator data could not be sent automatically in virtually any format, including an XML email body, whether forwarded from a text messaging account or via the web browser in many phones.
Certainly I don't see this as a price-doubling "feature".
More like a drag and drop from the GPS locator field to an email body.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Now I need a Bluetooth GPS.
Re: (Score:2)
Do you by any chance know Craig in C/les 3V?
Re: (Score:2)
I've met one of the engineers behind the phone and have seen a demo unit, but to be honest I think a bluetooth GPS unit can be bought for 50 quid (and have SIRF-3 chipsets) which links up to almost any modern phone is more flexible and useful.
Mine's the TomTom one- great for navigating around Europe and, using the GPSXC software I referenced earlier, great for sending status messages while skiing off-piste.
Err, and why would I want that? (Score:2)
Stalking made easy (Score:2)
Its like some companies make products just itching to be the subject of some whacked out news story.
Wait for a mod (Score:1)
If the phone uses Google maps, (Score:1)
My current cell phone does this already... (Score:1)
"Hi, I'm at Fry's... yes, again."
and since the admin can know everything, (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Our GPS-tracking overlords (Score:2)
Actually this makes me think of a great new product - tin foil cell phone faceplates? OK, maybe not...
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Tinfoil doesn't work (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yawn... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I have a couple two-way radios with a similar feature. It doesn't have any navigation facilities, so you have to figure out how to actually get there, but you press a button and it sends your current location to the other person, and it shows up on their map tagged with your name. It doesn't update the location, it only gets sent when you request it to be sent.
Gee, It's DSC. (Score:2)
This technology has been in the marine industry (Recreational portions too) since 1988. It is a USCG [uscg.gov]supported system called Digital Selective Calling [boatsafe.com] or DSC [uscg.gov] for short. The system allows for Marine band VHF radios to communicate on a digital level to send data. It is instrumental on "Good Samaritan" rescues on the water, as it allows a general distress to be sent with your coordinates included.
An additional benefit is the ability
Re: (Score:2)
Audiovox is the brand name. I bought two at Best Buy, open package discount, for $70 total. GPS is capability is fairly poor, takes a long time to lock in sometimes, no external GPS antenna capability, limited track memory, no way to upload or download tracks or waypoints. It does have a code that it sends when you transmit, but that is only used as a filter; there's no actual security on it. There are only about 15 codes (code 0 means don't filter, I think, just use normal squelch, don't transmit a cod
Re:Yawn... (Score:5, Interesting)
But then again I bought this phone in Japan 2 years ago for less than $200. It only has:
- GPS/Navi
- TV/DVR
- 2 MP camera.
- Music player
- QR Code reader.
- English and Japanese translation dictionaries.
Probably time to upgrade.
Re: (Score:2)
If you think that your phone was "free", then you are deluding yourself.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
location awareness (Score:4, Interesting)
It opens several great possibilities for applications using your current location.
At library or movie theatre? no problemo, phone goes in silent mode automatically.
Focused advertising, when going past some store, you get discount offers to your phone.(where permitted by law)
Need to find restaurant but stuck in weird part of city? no problemo, your cell phone
knows where you are and can probably recommend good place, and even give directions how to get there.
You're lost and you fell down and broke your hip/ankle etc and can't walk? no problemo, your phone
can give your location with greater accurancy than triangulating by cell towers.
Those are just some crude ideas, the possibilities are almost limitless.
GPS phones from Benefon aren't that much of news tho, they have been manufacturing them since ~2000 or so.
Bad idea (Score:2)
Bad idea. I don't want my phone doing ANYTHING that I don't want it to do "automatically". I miss enough calls as it is because my phone doesn't vibrate hard enough for me to feel it in my pocket - and now you want to automatically move MY phone to silent mode without telling me?
I agree that phones in quiet places are a problem. But this is not the solution.
I just want a phone that will tell ME where I am (Score:2)
Fugly Detector (Score:2)
NOT NEW.,, (Score:2)
Ham radio did this years ago (Score:3, Informative)
It was developed by a ham radio operator and the Naval Academy:
http://www.aprs.net/ [aprs.net]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APRS [wikipedia.org]
Garmin NavTalk did this in 99 (Score:3, Informative)
You had some control as to who could poll your position, or you could trigger a "send". A couple companies had web sites that would let you see the position of the phones on a map. They did it by decoding the DTMF tones the Garmin spit out.
http://www.garmin.com/products/navTalk/ [garmin.com]
Re: (Score:2)
karma whores stop here (Score:3, Insightful)
Please cram it with the Big Brother bullshit, the Nanny State clap trap and please remove your tin foil hats - unless you're after some free karma which you surely will, while saying nothing.
The slashdot article headline is misleading, it suggests the phone is in control of your private details, rather than you. One quick glance at the article and you can see this paragraph which states:
It's a sodding phone with GPS and the ability to tell others where you are, that's all.
Re: (Score:2)
I find OSS idolization on slashdot tedious, not because I don't think OSS is a good idea but because I don't think it unreasonable to place a modicum of trust in companies we buy products in, even if (shock horror) part of their product isn't based on OSS.
Your second to last sentence has something of the ring of creationism to it. If it ain't OSS it's the work of the Devil son -
Lie detector? (Score:2)
Business meeting at the pub (Score:2)
Phil
Where Are You Now? (Score:2)
Those of you who have girlfriends (Score:2)
Can you turn it off? (Score:2)
With that, it would be nice to turn *off* this feature without turning off the phone. That would disallow much potential abuse by those who are "curious" to watch your whereabouts for whatever reason (I still realize, however, that evil exists)
If I could turn it off (and *know* it's turned off, AND *not* have it turn on automatically if I, say, turn t
$625? ... (Score:2)
Stupid.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I can even program in the locatio in "my favorites" before I give it to them). This can be done without paying Verizon or whatever the $50 extra or so per month for GPS service.
It's a problem looking for a solution.
Now if you tell me there's a blue tooth cell phone and and a blue tooth gps that allow the latter to accept coordinates from the former (which are received via a text message), then I'll get a little more excited. As lon
Re: (Score:2)
What that has to do with making phone-calls is beyond me. So they can type an address there? Whoop-de-fucking-do! Can they make phone-calls with it? Last time I checked, making a phone-call is different thing that typing an address.
"This can be done without paying Verizon or whatever the $50 extra or so per month for GPS service."
Isn't GPS free to use? What makes you think that you would have to pay for GPS-service?
"It's a problem looking for
Tag - you're it! (Score:2)
First off the ability to 'track' a phone, either intrinsic to the phone or extrinsically by triangulating off of the cell towers the phone transmissions are reaching, is not new nor news.
And the ability to 'track' such phones has been a boon to some, a harassment to others.
The Massachusetts State Highway Dept. had a showdown with snow plow contractors several years ago, requiring they carry such 'tattle tale' phones. One obvious application was near real-time tracking of road clearing and coordinating thi
Obligatory Futurama Quote and ISR (Score:2)
Wrist Machine: "Cold. Cold. Warmer. Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot."
.
and
.
Phone tracks you FOR Soviet Russia!
Perfect tool for shadowing your s.o. (Score:2)
This sounds like the perfect tool to shadow your significant other. Get a pair, then put one into his/her car...
Other application: hide one in the car before you lend it to your teenage kid for the evening.
I am sure this is going to be a successful gadget!
Motorlla A780 does this (Score:2, Interesting)
Similar to a Garmin Rino (Score:2)
In the locker of a sauna... (Score:2)
eeek (Score:2)
Feature is old news. (Score:2)
Because... (Score:2)
Tell ME where I am.. (Score:2)
Don't get to ask this question very often (Score:2)
Anybody hear of a way to hack that GPS tracking device in everyone's phones? I'm addressing this to those who understand why liberty is important.
1) I'd like to REALLY shut off the GPS tracker when I don't want to be monitored. Either switch off the power to the chipset, or screen out the RF signal from the satellites.
2) Failing turning off the tracker or screening the Lidless Eye from my phone, how about feeding it false data?
3) Yes, I know they can tr
Re: (Score:2)
On the other hand, current Sprint CDMA phones require ephemeris data from a Sprint location server in order to locate the GPS satellites,
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)