Wherebase
location based services
Testing Sony GPS-CS1’s tracking capabilitiesApril 3rd, 2007
The Sony GPS-CS1 is a no-nonsense GPS logger. It doesn’t have any of the features that GPS devices usually come with. In stead, it is designed to do one thing really well: continuously log and save your location to automatically geotag your photos. The GPS-CS1 is a location beacon in its purest form and its lack of features actually makes it innovative and useful.
The idea behind the GPS-CS1 is that you switch it on at the beginning of your trip, carry it with you (in your bag or pocket, or attach it using the small karabiner that comes with it), and don’t think about it anymore. When you return from your trip you copy the data to your PC (Mac support only for Intel Macs running OS X 10.4.9) and synchronize it with your photos using Sony’s GPS Image Tracker software. The result is that your photos are geotagged instantly, so you can see them on a map on the location you took them.
Although Sony markets the GPS-CS1 as product for geotagging photos taken with Sony cameras, the device can do more than just that. The GPS track points are stored on the device in NMEA format with a 15 seconds interval. The storage medium is an ordinary USB Flash Drive (ThumbDrive), which makes it very easy to copy the files from the device and upload them to the web. This makes the Sony GPS-CS1 suitable for uploading data to web services such GSPVisualizer and EveryTrail (disclosure: my company) in order to view your trips overlaid on Google maps.
Tracking capability
In order to examine how well the CS1 performs its tracking function I did a couple of tests with the CS1 and the Garmin Forerunner 205. I chose the Forerunner 205 as a reference because it is one of the most accurate devices on the market, mostly due to its SiRF Star III chipset.
The screenshots compare the tracks in an urban setting and in an outdoor setting. The Forerunner 205 easily outperforms the Sony GPS-CS1 in both scenarios. The Forerunner tracks both the road and the trail almost exaclty, while the CS1 is zigzags a bit around the actual paths.
Other observationsUnlike most other GPS devices the Sony GPS-CS1 doesn’t require you to go through an extended learning curve before you understand how to effectively use the device. The small size and the trendy look will definitely make this a device that travelers are much more likely to use than most of the traditional GPS devices. The storage capacity of the device itself is about 30 days, (assuming 12 hours of logging each day), which should be enough form most trips. The battery life is approximately one day with a standard Alcaline AA battery, which could be an issue for extended trips. But if you use lithium batteries you should be able to squeeze at least 3 days of logging out of each battery.
If accuracy is of the essence, for example if you want to record trail runs or city drives, you are better of with a device equipped with the SiRF Start III chipset such as the Forerunner 205/305. Also, the fixed 15 second interval adds some additional errors as compared to devices that employ automatic sample periods. Another slight issue is that the GPS led sometimes blinks as if it doesn’t have GPS coverage, but after uploading the data it seemed to have had coverage pretty much the whole time.
ConclusionThe Sony GPS-CS1 is a great, simple data logger, which does what it is supposed to do. It is a great choice for plotting your travel itineraries on a map, especially if you are not worried about sub-3 meter accuracy. In the next post I’ll review the geotagging capabilities of the GPS-CS1.
Posted in gps hardware review No Comments »
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Lonely Planet innovates using Google Maps
+ I'm a big fan of Lonely Planet. I used their series of guidebooks during an 11 country around-the-world trip I took with my wife in 2002. I'm also all about great travel maps mashups and it turns out Lonely Planet is the first of the big travel guides to embrace Google Maps online. Not only are they using it to mash up their own content, they're also facilitating the process for Lonely Planet users to do some maps mashing of their own! Check it out:LPmaps is a new initiative from the Lonely Planet Labs that sees Google Maps integrated into many areas of the Lonely Planet TV website. Use a Google Map to find user-uploaded video clips , search and locate specific video clips you view on the site. The video finder includes a nifty navigation ribbon to search by specific continent and country! LPmaps also gives travelers the chance to mash up LPmaps (Google Maps) with Lonely Planet content and embed it on their own travel blog, start page (Google Personalized Start, Netvibes etc..) or website. Very cool stuff!Here is an excerpt from the LPmaps page:
We’re really excited about all the ways we can help travellers connect with one another and build their community. LPmaps is another way that we are helping travellers create and share their travel ideas and experiences.
What can I do with LPmaps and how do I use it?
We've mashed-up Lonely Planet content and Google maps to create LPmaps (check it out at lonelyplanet.tv) and now, we want to share LPmaps with you. Here are the things you can do:
create your own map and embed it into your website or blog using the widget builder
let your imagination run wild; mashup your own content and functionality with LPmaps
put a map on your blog or website; go find a good map on lonelyplanet.tv and follow the menu to widgetbox, Google Gadgets or NetvibesThe power of the Google Maps API developer community played a large role in this project as Google Maps geo developer Ken Hoetmer's skills were recruited by LonelyPlanet.com to work up LPmaps. Ken's previous Google Maps projects include DIY Google Maps site QuikMaps and birding mashup GeoBirds (all previously reviewed on Google Maps Mania) - Great work Ken, and hats off to Lonely Planet for being travel web visionaries! :)Related:Cool Google Maps Travel MashupsCategory Listing: Travel & Tourism
Labels: travel
location based services
+ I'm a big fan of Lonely Planet. I used their series of guidebooks during an 11 country around-the-world trip I took with my wife in 2002. I'm also all about great travel maps mashups and it turns out Lonely Planet is the first of the big travel guides to embrace Google Maps online. Not only are they using it to mash up their own content, they're also facilitating the process for Lonely Planet users to do some maps mashing of their own! Check it out:LPmaps is a new initiative from the Lonely Planet Labs that sees Google Maps integrated into many areas of the Lonely Planet TV website. Use a Google Map to find user-uploaded video clips , search and locate specific video clips you view on the site. The video finder includes a nifty navigation ribbon to search by specific continent and country! LPmaps also gives travelers the chance to mash up LPmaps (Google Maps) with Lonely Planet content and embed it on their own travel blog, start page (Google Personalized Start, Netvibes etc..) or website. Very cool stuff!Here is an excerpt from the LPmaps page:
We’re really excited about all the ways we can help travellers connect with one another and build their community. LPmaps is another way that we are helping travellers create and share their travel ideas and experiences.
What can I do with LPmaps and how do I use it?
We've mashed-up Lonely Planet content and Google maps to create LPmaps (check it out at lonelyplanet.tv) and now, we want to share LPmaps with you. Here are the things you can do:
create your own map and embed it into your website or blog using the widget builder
let your imagination run wild; mashup your own content and functionality with LPmaps
put a map on your blog or website; go find a good map on lonelyplanet.tv and follow the menu to widgetbox, Google Gadgets or NetvibesThe power of the Google Maps API developer community played a large role in this project as Google Maps geo developer Ken Hoetmer's skills were recruited by LonelyPlanet.com to work up LPmaps. Ken's previous Google Maps projects include DIY Google Maps site QuikMaps and birding mashup GeoBirds (all previously reviewed on Google Maps Mania) - Great work Ken, and hats off to Lonely Planet for being travel web visionaries! :)Related:Cool Google Maps Travel MashupsCategory Listing: Travel & Tourism
Labels: travel
New Device Extends Battery Life Up To 90 Days in GPS Units: “Hibernating” 4-Inch Battery Pack Conserves Power with Motion Detection
location based services
PRLEAP.COM) Burlingame, CA- Compact GPS units, long used to aid in police and private investigations, transmit their location, and any item they are attached to, from anywhere in the world. Highly useful for tracking vehicles, or other property, GPS units are accurate and convenient devices, which until recently, required constant battery power, resulting in frequent battery replacements, and costly hours of human monitoring.Tracking The World, a California-based firm specializing in security-related GPS technology, recently released a hibernating battery case for use in compact GPS units that significantly conserves battery power by using motion detection. Extending battery life up to 90 days, the device, which requires rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, automatically powers down after 5 minutes of sensing no motion. “Our new case uses battery power only when the object is moving,” said Gilbert Walz, co-owner of Tracking The World. “Five minutes after motion has stopped the World Tracker will power down,” said Walz. The hibernating pack is available in both 7.8 amp/Hr and 15.6 amp/Hr models. Lithium-ion battery life with the 15.6 amp/Hr model is extended from 14 days of constant power to as many as 90 days of power with the hibernation feature. The 7.8 amp/Hr model increases battery life from 7 days of constant power to as many as 60 days utilizing hibernation. “This pack will easily extend the life of GPS batteries up to three times,” said Walz.One of the most convenient and cost-effective features of the new hibernating case is that it can be left unattended for weeks. The sleek combination of Tracking the World’s new battery pack and their completely programmable GPS unit virtually eliminates the need for human monitoring, as the unit will automatically call up to five cell phones and send email alerts when the battery pack detects motion. A mere 4.37 inches long, Tracking the World’s new battery pack is about half the size of its conventional counterparts when housed in its waterproof and crush-proof Pelican™ case. The new hibernating battery pack is available from any distributor of Tracking The World products. For more information, or to find a distributor near you, visit www.trackingtheworld.com.
About This ReleaseIf you have any questions regarding information in these press releases please contact the organization listed in the press release. Issuers of press releases and not PR Leap are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
See Your News HereOver 24,000 companies use PR Leapto get free press release distribution.
Contact Information Gilbert Walz Tracking The World Email Tracking The World 1-650-692-8100
location based services
PRLEAP.COM) Burlingame, CA- Compact GPS units, long used to aid in police and private investigations, transmit their location, and any item they are attached to, from anywhere in the world. Highly useful for tracking vehicles, or other property, GPS units are accurate and convenient devices, which until recently, required constant battery power, resulting in frequent battery replacements, and costly hours of human monitoring.Tracking The World, a California-based firm specializing in security-related GPS technology, recently released a hibernating battery case for use in compact GPS units that significantly conserves battery power by using motion detection. Extending battery life up to 90 days, the device, which requires rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, automatically powers down after 5 minutes of sensing no motion. “Our new case uses battery power only when the object is moving,” said Gilbert Walz, co-owner of Tracking The World. “Five minutes after motion has stopped the World Tracker will power down,” said Walz. The hibernating pack is available in both 7.8 amp/Hr and 15.6 amp/Hr models. Lithium-ion battery life with the 15.6 amp/Hr model is extended from 14 days of constant power to as many as 90 days of power with the hibernation feature. The 7.8 amp/Hr model increases battery life from 7 days of constant power to as many as 60 days utilizing hibernation. “This pack will easily extend the life of GPS batteries up to three times,” said Walz.One of the most convenient and cost-effective features of the new hibernating case is that it can be left unattended for weeks. The sleek combination of Tracking the World’s new battery pack and their completely programmable GPS unit virtually eliminates the need for human monitoring, as the unit will automatically call up to five cell phones and send email alerts when the battery pack detects motion. A mere 4.37 inches long, Tracking the World’s new battery pack is about half the size of its conventional counterparts when housed in its waterproof and crush-proof Pelican™ case. The new hibernating battery pack is available from any distributor of Tracking The World products. For more information, or to find a distributor near you, visit www.trackingtheworld.com.
About This ReleaseIf you have any questions regarding information in these press releases please contact the organization listed in the press release. Issuers of press releases and not PR Leap are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
See Your News HereOver 24,000 companies use PR Leapto get free press release distribution.
Contact Information Gilbert Walz Tracking The World Email Tracking The World 1-650-692-8100
Solar bursts may threaten GPS
location based services
WASHINGTON - The Global Positioning System, relied on for everything from navigating cars and airplanes to transferring money between banks, may be threatened by powerful solar flares, a panel of scientists warned Wednesday.
"Our increasingly technologically dependent society is becoming increasingly vulnerable to space weather," David L. Johnson, director of the
National Weather Service' News News Photos Images Web' National Weather Service, said at a briefing.
GPS receivers have become widely used in recent years, using satellite signals in navigating airplanes, ships and automobiles, and in using cell phones, mining, surveying and many other commercial uses.
Indeed, banks use the system to synchronize money transfers, "so space weather can affect all of us, right down to our wallet," said Anthea J. Coster, an atmospheric scientist at the Haystack Observatory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The cause for their concern, Johnson said, was an unexpected solar radio burst on Dec. 6 that affected virtually every GPS receiver on the lighted half of Earth. Some receivers had a reduction in accuracy while others completely lost the ability to determine position, he said.
Solar activity rises and falls in 11-year cycles, with the next peak expected in 2011.
If that increasing level of activity produces more such radio bursts the GPS system could be seriously affected, the researchers said.
And protecting the system is no simple task, added Paul M. Kintner Jr., a professor of electrical engineering at Cornell University, who monitored the December event.
There are two possible ways to shield the system, he said, both very expensive. Either alter all GPS antennas to screen out solar signals or replace all of the GPS satellites with ones that broadcast a stronger signal.
That's why it's essential to learn more about the sun's behavior quickly in an effort to find ways to predict such events, the researchers said.
In addition to the GPS system, the December solar flare affected satellites and induced unexpected currents in the electrical grid, Johnson said.
"The effects were more profound than we expected and more widespread than we expected," added Kintner.
Dale E. Gary, chairman of the physics department of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, said the burst produced 10 times more radio noise than any burst previously recorded.
The difference between that burst and normal solar radio emissions "was like the difference between the noise level of a normal conversation and the noise level in the front row of a rock concert," he said.
"This is a wake-up call" to improve technology, commented Anthony J. Mannucci, group supervisor at
NASA' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Patricia H. Doherty, co-director of the Institute for Scientific Research at Boston College, said the burst affected but did not shut down the
Federal Aviation Administration' name=c1> SEARCHNews News Photos Images Web' name=c3> Federal Aviation Administration's Wide Area Augmentation System, which uses GPS signals to assist in navigation.
Most of the WAAS ground stations were able to maintain contact with enough satellites to continue working, though their accuracy was somewhat affected, she said.
The stations have to maintain contact with at least four satellites to work, but usually monitor at least 10 to increase their accuracy, she said. Most were able to meet the minimum, she said.
The briefing came at a Space Weather Enterprise Forum convened by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to discuss the effects of solar activity. Because of its increasing importance, Johnson said, the Weather Service's Space Environment Center was converted from a mainly research center in 2005 to an operational center reporting on solar activity and its impacts.
___
On the Net
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: http://www.noaa.gov
National
location based services
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A solar eruption in December disrupted the Global Positioning System, a satellite-based navigational system used widely by the military, scientists and civilians, researchers reported on Space storm disrupted GPS, experts say
The solar flare created radio bursts that traveled to the Earth, covering a broad frequency range, the researchers said, affecting GPS and other navigational systems.
Solar flares have been known to knock out satellites and even electricity grids, but the researchers told the Space Weather Enterprise Forum this was an unexpectedly serious new effect.
"In December, we found the effect on GPS receivers were more profound and widespread than we expected," said Paul Kintner, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University in New York.
"Now we are concerned more severe consequences will occur during the next solar maximum," Kintner said in a statement.
Dale Gary of the New Jersey Institute of Technology said the burst created 10 times more radio noise than the previous record.
"Measurements with NJIT's solar radiotelescope confirmed, at its peak, the burst produced 20,000 times more radio emission than the entire rest of the Sun. This was enough to swamp GPS receivers over the entire sunlit side of Earth," Gary said in a statement.
Forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observed two powerful solar flares on December 5 and 6, 2006, emanating from a large cluster of sunspots.
A giant radio burst followed, causing large numbers of receivers to stop tracking the GPS signal.
"NASA wants to better understand this solar phenomenon so we can limit the adverse impacts on real-time systems," said Tony Mannucci of the U.S. space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Anthea Coster of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said the findings showed solar radio bursts can have global and instantaneous effects. "The size and timing of this burst were completely unexpected and the largest ever detected. We do not know how often we can expect solar radio bursts of this size or even larger," she said.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A solar eruption in December disrupted the Global Positioning System, a satellite-based navigational system used widely by the military, scientists and civilians, researchers reported on Space storm disrupted GPS, experts say
The solar flare created radio bursts that traveled to the Earth, covering a broad frequency range, the researchers said, affecting GPS and other navigational systems.
Solar flares have been known to knock out satellites and even electricity grids, but the researchers told the Space Weather Enterprise Forum this was an unexpectedly serious new effect.
"In December, we found the effect on GPS receivers were more profound and widespread than we expected," said Paul Kintner, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell University in New York.
"Now we are concerned more severe consequences will occur during the next solar maximum," Kintner said in a statement.
Dale Gary of the New Jersey Institute of Technology said the burst created 10 times more radio noise than the previous record.
"Measurements with NJIT's solar radiotelescope confirmed, at its peak, the burst produced 20,000 times more radio emission than the entire rest of the Sun. This was enough to swamp GPS receivers over the entire sunlit side of Earth," Gary said in a statement.
Forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration observed two powerful solar flares on December 5 and 6, 2006, emanating from a large cluster of sunspots.
A giant radio burst followed, causing large numbers of receivers to stop tracking the GPS signal.
"NASA wants to better understand this solar phenomenon so we can limit the adverse impacts on real-time systems," said Tony Mannucci of the U.S. space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Anthea Coster of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said the findings showed solar radio bursts can have global and instantaneous effects. "The size and timing of this burst were completely unexpected and the largest ever detected. We do not know how often we can expect solar radio bursts of this size or even larger," she said.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
2-Track Delivers First iTrac Units to Traktag
location based services
2-Track Global Inc (OTC:TOTGE) today announced its US subsidiary, 2-Track USA Inc has delivered the first sixty new Condor iTrac units to Traktag in Nigeria, a company specializing in mapping and tracking solutions, and one of the largest customers in West Africa. “We are pleased to have delivered these first sixty Condor iTrac units to a major client, Traktag,” said Mike Jung, President of 2-Track Global, Inc. “Pending satisfaction with the initial delivery, we anticipate an additional 200 units to be delivered to Traktag by the end of this month. Mr. Giwa Amu, Managing Director of Traktag, commented, “With delivery of these new units, we are going to expand our market to the entire West Africa region. After testing the units, we are even more confident that 2-Track has delivered the best telematics security product in the market. We expect an ongoing relationship with 2-Track.” About 2-Track Global: 2-Track Global Inc (OTC:TOTGE) is a technology development and marketing company which owns, operates and licences proprietary telematics solutions combining hardware and software applications run over wireless or satellite networks to deliver remote security management of marine and cargo fleets (including consumer solutions aimed at the leisure, marine and domestic security markets) and commercial vehicle plant and machinery management and security. The company has communications architecture technology which provides global logistics solutions for the remote monitoring of freight containers over multiple transport mores. Additional Information is available at: http://www.2-trackglobal.com/. Forward-Looking Statements: This press release includes certain statements, known as "forward-looking statements", which express the current expectations of 2-Track Global management. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect 2-Track Global Inc and its subsidiary businesses and prospects and cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Unanticipated product manufacturing and delivery issues, customer order push-outs or cancellations and product performance could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated as expressed in this press release. These risks and other risk factors relating to 2-Track Global Inc are described more fully in the most recent Form 8-K filed by 2-Track Global Inc and other filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release includes certain statements, known as “forward-looking statements”, which express the current expectations of 2-Track Global management. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect 2-Track Global Inc and its subsidiary businesses and prospects and cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Unanticipated product manufacturing and delivery issues, customer order push-outs or cancellations and product performance could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated as expressed in this press release. These risks and other risk factors relating to 2-Track Global Inc are described more fully in the most recent Form 8-K filed by 2-Track Global Inc and other filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Search WirelessDevNet for Related Items
location based services
2-Track Global Inc (OTC:TOTGE) today announced its US subsidiary, 2-Track USA Inc has delivered the first sixty new Condor iTrac units to Traktag in Nigeria, a company specializing in mapping and tracking solutions, and one of the largest customers in West Africa. “We are pleased to have delivered these first sixty Condor iTrac units to a major client, Traktag,” said Mike Jung, President of 2-Track Global, Inc. “Pending satisfaction with the initial delivery, we anticipate an additional 200 units to be delivered to Traktag by the end of this month. Mr. Giwa Amu, Managing Director of Traktag, commented, “With delivery of these new units, we are going to expand our market to the entire West Africa region. After testing the units, we are even more confident that 2-Track has delivered the best telematics security product in the market. We expect an ongoing relationship with 2-Track.” About 2-Track Global: 2-Track Global Inc (OTC:TOTGE) is a technology development and marketing company which owns, operates and licences proprietary telematics solutions combining hardware and software applications run over wireless or satellite networks to deliver remote security management of marine and cargo fleets (including consumer solutions aimed at the leisure, marine and domestic security markets) and commercial vehicle plant and machinery management and security. The company has communications architecture technology which provides global logistics solutions for the remote monitoring of freight containers over multiple transport mores. Additional Information is available at: http://www.2-trackglobal.com/. Forward-Looking Statements: This press release includes certain statements, known as "forward-looking statements", which express the current expectations of 2-Track Global management. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect 2-Track Global Inc and its subsidiary businesses and prospects and cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Unanticipated product manufacturing and delivery issues, customer order push-outs or cancellations and product performance could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated as expressed in this press release. These risks and other risk factors relating to 2-Track Global Inc are described more fully in the most recent Form 8-K filed by 2-Track Global Inc and other filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release includes certain statements, known as “forward-looking statements”, which express the current expectations of 2-Track Global management. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect 2-Track Global Inc and its subsidiary businesses and prospects and cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Unanticipated product manufacturing and delivery issues, customer order push-outs or cancellations and product performance could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated as expressed in this press release. These risks and other risk factors relating to 2-Track Global Inc are described more fully in the most recent Form 8-K filed by 2-Track Global Inc and other filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Search WirelessDevNet for Related Items
WaveMarket Partners With kajeettm to Deliver Location Based Services to the Family Market
Written by WaveMarket
Tuesday, 03 April 2007
EMERYVILLE, Calif.-- WaveMarket, Inc. today announced that it will be providing Mobile Location Based Services for kajeet, a Bethesda, MD-based wireless carrier serving tweens and their families.
“Beyond WaveMarket’s technologically superior LBS platform, they also bring a deep understanding of the consumer LBS market and years of experience designing and building best-of-breed mobile applications for family markets,” offered Daniel Neal, Founder and CEO of kajeet. “We are excited to work with WaveMarket to create unique and powerful LBS applications that deliver real value to our customers -- tweens and their parents who are making decisions together about the role mobile tech plays in their lives.
WaveMarket powers industry-leading location-based applications across Tier 1 carriers in the US, Canada, and Latin America, including family finder services, asset tracking, friend finder, mobile social network, and local search. “The Family market is an underserved one and we feel that kajeet is poised to be the most successful MVNO addressing this space. kajeet’s unique and innovative approach offers a fantastic solution for parents and kids,” said Tasso Roumeliotis, WaveMarket’s CEO. “We’re proud to have been selected to partner with kajeet on this exciting opportunity.”
About kajeet™
Founded in 2003, kajeet may be based in Bethesda, MD, but kids are the center of our universe. kajeet is the pay-as-you-go cell phone service made from a kid’s point of view, a new word for a new world of mobile entertainment, customization and communication. And for parents, kajeet alleviates the worries of getting kid a cell phone with no contracts, no surprise overages and no expiring minutes. Oh, and no buzzwords. No kidding. kajeet and kids: use it for talking, use it for texting, use it for sharing, use it for playing ... use it for good.™ www.kajeet.com
About WaveMarket
WaveMarket Inc. is a world leader in location-based services and has pioneered the first carrier-grade family location service. The company's software product suite includes solutions that range from family finder services to mobile social networking. Marketing to mobile carriers in the United States, Europe and Asia, WaveMarket's customers include top tier carriers Sprint Nextel, Cingular, Bell Mobility of Canada, and SK Telecom, Korea's leading wireless carrier and Vivo, Brazil’s largest operator. Headquartered in Emeryville, CA, WaveMarket also has international offices in Brazil and Canada. Founded in 2000, the company is financed by a group that includes Draper Fisher Jurvetson, QUALCOMM Ventures, BlueRun Ventures (formerly Nokia Venture Partners), Intel Capital, and Mitsui Ventures.
Next >
Written by WaveMarket
Tuesday, 03 April 2007
EMERYVILLE, Calif.-- WaveMarket, Inc. today announced that it will be providing Mobile Location Based Services for kajeet, a Bethesda, MD-based wireless carrier serving tweens and their families.
“Beyond WaveMarket’s technologically superior LBS platform, they also bring a deep understanding of the consumer LBS market and years of experience designing and building best-of-breed mobile applications for family markets,” offered Daniel Neal, Founder and CEO of kajeet. “We are excited to work with WaveMarket to create unique and powerful LBS applications that deliver real value to our customers -- tweens and their parents who are making decisions together about the role mobile tech plays in their lives.
WaveMarket powers industry-leading location-based applications across Tier 1 carriers in the US, Canada, and Latin America, including family finder services, asset tracking, friend finder, mobile social network, and local search. “The Family market is an underserved one and we feel that kajeet is poised to be the most successful MVNO addressing this space. kajeet’s unique and innovative approach offers a fantastic solution for parents and kids,” said Tasso Roumeliotis, WaveMarket’s CEO. “We’re proud to have been selected to partner with kajeet on this exciting opportunity.”
About kajeet™
Founded in 2003, kajeet may be based in Bethesda, MD, but kids are the center of our universe. kajeet is the pay-as-you-go cell phone service made from a kid’s point of view, a new word for a new world of mobile entertainment, customization and communication. And for parents, kajeet alleviates the worries of getting kid a cell phone with no contracts, no surprise overages and no expiring minutes. Oh, and no buzzwords. No kidding. kajeet and kids: use it for talking, use it for texting, use it for sharing, use it for playing ... use it for good.™ www.kajeet.com
About WaveMarket
WaveMarket Inc. is a world leader in location-based services and has pioneered the first carrier-grade family location service. The company's software product suite includes solutions that range from family finder services to mobile social networking. Marketing to mobile carriers in the United States, Europe and Asia, WaveMarket's customers include top tier carriers Sprint Nextel, Cingular, Bell Mobility of Canada, and SK Telecom, Korea's leading wireless carrier and Vivo, Brazil’s largest operator. Headquartered in Emeryville, CA, WaveMarket also has international offices in Brazil and Canada. Founded in 2000, the company is financed by a group that includes Draper Fisher Jurvetson, QUALCOMM Ventures, BlueRun Ventures (formerly Nokia Venture Partners), Intel Capital, and Mitsui Ventures.
Next >
Mobile Location-Based Services
- Apr 9Published by info April 4th, 2007 in Mobile Monday Beijing
It is said that ‘Where are you?’ is the #1 question asked over mobile phones. If the need for positioning services is not to demonstrate, until recently the services were offering a fairly unsatisfactory user experience with slow connections, non intuitive interfaces and high costs. This session on April 9 at France Telecom Group’s ‘Innovation Gardens‘ in Zhongguancun on Location-Based Services will explore China’s current LBS market and services and see if there is today more to LBS than pure maps and navigation.
:: Register ::Participation fee: 100 rmb(payment is at the door and includes light buffet):: Access map :::: Tell a friend :::: Who came last time ::
Attendance is limited to 150 participants so we recommend to register early. As usual, doors open at 7pm and we start sharp at 7.30pm.
Our speakers this month will cover some ground about China’s LBS market and services and provide insights on what is happening in this field outside China.
Agenda
Fu Xinghua - Assistant Chief Analyst - Analysys International
Analysys International is among the leading Internet based provider of business information about Technology, Media and Telecom industry in China. They provide data, information and advice to 50,000 clients worldwide representing 1,500 distinct organizations.
Gili Wolff - R&D Director - Destinator Technologies
Founded in 2003, Destinator Technologies expanded to 120 employees and over 100 distribution and business partners covering North America, China, Israel to Europe, helping to shorten routes and thus help save time. Destinator Technologies offers tailored solutions for private users, companies and public institutions. In doing so, personal preferences, local conditions and simplicity of use are our prime concerns. The systems offered allow individual personal navigation for the individual, public security institutions and ensure company mobility.
Edward Zhou - General Manager - CompassOfChina Co., Ltd.
Based in Beijing, China, Compass Of China is an international consulting firm and sales representative specializing in helping foreign Companies in areas of Telecom, Media and Technology (TMT) enter the Chinese market. They provide China-focused consulting and result-oriented business
- Apr 9Published by info April 4th, 2007 in Mobile Monday Beijing
It is said that ‘Where are you?’ is the #1 question asked over mobile phones. If the need for positioning services is not to demonstrate, until recently the services were offering a fairly unsatisfactory user experience with slow connections, non intuitive interfaces and high costs. This session on April 9 at France Telecom Group’s ‘Innovation Gardens‘ in Zhongguancun on Location-Based Services will explore China’s current LBS market and services and see if there is today more to LBS than pure maps and navigation.
:: Register ::Participation fee: 100 rmb(payment is at the door and includes light buffet):: Access map :::: Tell a friend :::: Who came last time ::
Attendance is limited to 150 participants so we recommend to register early. As usual, doors open at 7pm and we start sharp at 7.30pm.
Our speakers this month will cover some ground about China’s LBS market and services and provide insights on what is happening in this field outside China.
Agenda
Fu Xinghua - Assistant Chief Analyst - Analysys International
Analysys International is among the leading Internet based provider of business information about Technology, Media and Telecom industry in China. They provide data, information and advice to 50,000 clients worldwide representing 1,500 distinct organizations.
Gili Wolff - R&D Director - Destinator Technologies
Founded in 2003, Destinator Technologies expanded to 120 employees and over 100 distribution and business partners covering North America, China, Israel to Europe, helping to shorten routes and thus help save time. Destinator Technologies offers tailored solutions for private users, companies and public institutions. In doing so, personal preferences, local conditions and simplicity of use are our prime concerns. The systems offered allow individual personal navigation for the individual, public security institutions and ensure company mobility.
Edward Zhou - General Manager - CompassOfChina Co., Ltd.
Based in Beijing, China, Compass Of China is an international consulting firm and sales representative specializing in helping foreign Companies in areas of Telecom, Media and Technology (TMT) enter the Chinese market. They provide China-focused consulting and result-oriented business
MC35 now available with AT&T
location based services
Symbol Technologies, part of Motorola, announced the availability of a rugged Pocket PC Phone called MC35 targeting mobile workers and business professionals. Symbol calls the MC35 an “Enterprise Digital Assistant”. It will be available through Cingular (the new AT&T). Some of the main features of the device are GPS antenna, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, digital camera, and a bar code scanner (we told you it is for the enterprise).
The device runs Windows Mobile 5.0 Phone Edition on an Intel XScale PXA270 processor at 416 MHz. MC35 has a high quality speakerphone, microphone and a transducer, and its camera utilizes an LED flash and uses macro focus. It comes with 1350 mAh rechargeable lithium ion battery but you can extend it to 2740 mAh with the extended version.
The GPS functionality is used by software from Telenav, namely the Telenav GPS navigator, and the Telenav Track. We do not yet have info on the price, but if you’re interested tell your employer to inquire. Symbol will customize the features and give you a price quote
location based services
Symbol Technologies, part of Motorola, announced the availability of a rugged Pocket PC Phone called MC35 targeting mobile workers and business professionals. Symbol calls the MC35 an “Enterprise Digital Assistant”. It will be available through Cingular (the new AT&T). Some of the main features of the device are GPS antenna, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, digital camera, and a bar code scanner (we told you it is for the enterprise).
The device runs Windows Mobile 5.0 Phone Edition on an Intel XScale PXA270 processor at 416 MHz. MC35 has a high quality speakerphone, microphone and a transducer, and its camera utilizes an LED flash and uses macro focus. It comes with 1350 mAh rechargeable lithium ion battery but you can extend it to 2740 mAh with the extended version.
The GPS functionality is used by software from Telenav, namely the Telenav GPS navigator, and the Telenav Track. We do not yet have info on the price, but if you’re interested tell your employer to inquire. Symbol will customize the features and give you a price quote
GPS + WiFi = no place to hide
location based services
Even if you manage to avoid the watchful eye of those GPS sats, your laptop or smartphone may soon be visible to the Wi Fi Positioning System .
The positioning system, mapped out by Boston-based Skyhook Wireless, is a vast national database of public and private Wi Fi access points (16.5 million them) in 2,500 U S cities, including Boston.
Now Skyhook is pairing WiFi Positioning System with GPS from SiRF Technology. The combined service will be available to the major wireless carriers this year.
The GPS portion will spot your device when the WiFi system is unavailable, as it is in remote areas. The WiFi Positioning System will locate your devices where GPS can't find you, indoors and between skyscrapers.
Companies will be able to use the network to locate Wi Fi equipped devices (including an increasing number of phones), if they are loaded with the appropriate software.
Say you are lost in the big city, and your intersection has no street signs. You can use Skyhook's software, for example, to triangulate your location in a second, and then find nearby points of interest. (PC users can download the software at skyhookwireless.com.)
You will also soon be able to use the Skyhook service on the iRiver W10 (pictured here), a multimedia device the company helped develop with digital maps company Navteq.
Video Games
Mama makes a chef My Wii are learning to whip up some good stuff for supper. Cooking Mama: Cook Off is Majesco Entertainment's first game for the Nintendo system that gets your whole body into the action.
Your challenge in Cook Off ( cookingmamacookoff.com) is to dice, chop, slice, and pour 300 ingredients in dozens of recipes as quickly -- and with as few errors -- as possible.
Cook Off (about $50) has the same anime Mama as Cooking Mama for the Nintendo DS. Mama has adorable, sparkling bug eyes and a giant smile, as in the original. In the Wii version, she also has a high-pitched voice that blurts out reassuring (yet hard to understand) sounds. And she delivers priceless Japanese-to-English one-liners via text balloon, like this one: "Wii Remote VERY, VERY GOOD IN MY KITCHEN. I SHOW YOU."
The wireless Wii Remote is what makes this game more than a mental workout. It's your universal kitchen tool, for chopping up crab legs, sautéing shrimp, and whipping cream. The game works best when you are standing, as if in front of the island in your kitchen.
In multiplayer mode, you go shoulder-to-shoulder against your mates, battering cakes and grilling fish, just like in Hell's Kitchen. You can also submit your own family recipes at the Cook Off website.
Boomer Tech
A hearing aid for elder jocks closely resembles a Bluetooth earpieceMost hearing aids look like Play-Doh in your ear. But today's gr ay-haired iron men and women, who read GeezerJock magazine and whip their kids on the tennis court, are looking for something that looks sharp and can take a beating.
The Centra Active, from Siemens, is a rechargeable device resembling a Bluetooth headset. Siemens says many Americans take out their hearing aids when they exercise because they worry that sweat will damage the sensitive gadgets. But if you are road cyclist, that means you might be startled by a car sneaking up behind you. If you are a trail runner, you might miss the sound of a deer or coyote in the woods.
The Centra Active has a nanocoating that repels sweat and other moisture. And its electronic "windscreen" noise reduction and sound-smoothing systems should ensure the only whistling you hear is the wind through your bike helmet.
The Centra Active comes in various colors intended to match skin tones. I say bag those versions, and go for the black, white, or silver ones.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
location based services
Even if you manage to avoid the watchful eye of those GPS sats, your laptop or smartphone may soon be visible to the Wi Fi Positioning System .
The positioning system, mapped out by Boston-based Skyhook Wireless, is a vast national database of public and private Wi Fi access points (16.5 million them) in 2,500 U S cities, including Boston.
Now Skyhook is pairing WiFi Positioning System with GPS from SiRF Technology. The combined service will be available to the major wireless carriers this year.
The GPS portion will spot your device when the WiFi system is unavailable, as it is in remote areas. The WiFi Positioning System will locate your devices where GPS can't find you, indoors and between skyscrapers.
Companies will be able to use the network to locate Wi Fi equipped devices (including an increasing number of phones), if they are loaded with the appropriate software.
Say you are lost in the big city, and your intersection has no street signs. You can use Skyhook's software, for example, to triangulate your location in a second, and then find nearby points of interest. (PC users can download the software at skyhookwireless.com.)
You will also soon be able to use the Skyhook service on the iRiver W10 (pictured here), a multimedia device the company helped develop with digital maps company Navteq.
Video Games
Mama makes a chef My Wii are learning to whip up some good stuff for supper. Cooking Mama: Cook Off is Majesco Entertainment's first game for the Nintendo system that gets your whole body into the action.
Your challenge in Cook Off ( cookingmamacookoff.com) is to dice, chop, slice, and pour 300 ingredients in dozens of recipes as quickly -- and with as few errors -- as possible.
Cook Off (about $50) has the same anime Mama as Cooking Mama for the Nintendo DS. Mama has adorable, sparkling bug eyes and a giant smile, as in the original. In the Wii version, she also has a high-pitched voice that blurts out reassuring (yet hard to understand) sounds. And she delivers priceless Japanese-to-English one-liners via text balloon, like this one: "Wii Remote VERY, VERY GOOD IN MY KITCHEN. I SHOW YOU."
The wireless Wii Remote is what makes this game more than a mental workout. It's your universal kitchen tool, for chopping up crab legs, sautéing shrimp, and whipping cream. The game works best when you are standing, as if in front of the island in your kitchen.
In multiplayer mode, you go shoulder-to-shoulder against your mates, battering cakes and grilling fish, just like in Hell's Kitchen. You can also submit your own family recipes at the Cook Off website.
Boomer Tech
A hearing aid for elder jocks closely resembles a Bluetooth earpieceMost hearing aids look like Play-Doh in your ear. But today's gr ay-haired iron men and women, who read GeezerJock magazine and whip their kids on the tennis court, are looking for something that looks sharp and can take a beating.
The Centra Active, from Siemens, is a rechargeable device resembling a Bluetooth headset. Siemens says many Americans take out their hearing aids when they exercise because they worry that sweat will damage the sensitive gadgets. But if you are road cyclist, that means you might be startled by a car sneaking up behind you. If you are a trail runner, you might miss the sound of a deer or coyote in the woods.
The Centra Active has a nanocoating that repels sweat and other moisture. And its electronic "windscreen" noise reduction and sound-smoothing systems should ensure the only whistling you hear is the wind through your bike helmet.
The Centra Active comes in various colors intended to match skin tones. I say bag those versions, and go for the black, white, or silver ones.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
AJAX Apps Ripe Targets for JavaScript Hijacking
A pervasive vulnerability that allows an attacker to take over any Web browser and silently intercept sensitive data input occurs in Web 2.0 settings from Yahoo to ASP .Net to Google, security firm Fortify says.
Fortify Software has documented what the security firm is calling a "pervasive and critical" vulnerability in Web 2.0 applications - specifically, in the ability of an attacker to use a JavaScript vulnerability to steal critical data by emulating unsuspecting users.
The vulnerability - which allows an exploit called JavaScript Hijacking - can be found in the biggest AJAX frameworks out there, including three server-integrated toolkits: Microsoft ASP.Net AJAX (aka Atlas), Google Web Toolkit and xajax - the last of which is an open-source PHP-class library implementation of AJAX. Client-side libraries that Fortify inspected and found to be vulnerable are the Yahoo UI, Prototype, Script.aculo.us, Dojo, Moo.fx, jQuery, Rico and MochiKit. Of the AJAX frameworks and client-side libraries Fortify inspected, only DWR 2.0 (Direct Web Remoting 2.0) has mechanisms to prevent JavaScript Hijacking. That isn't surprising, given that Joe Walker, who developed DWR, wrote about the JavaScript Hijacking flaw in early March. According to Fortify, the other AJAX frameworks don't explicitly provide any protection, nor do their documentation materials mention the vulnerability as a security concern. Brian Chess, Fortify Software's co-founder and Chief Scientist, told eWEEK that the security firm is getting a ho-hum reaction from some regarding the news, since JavaScript has never been considered to be safe anyway. "Everybody hears, 'Oh, there's a JavaScript security problem,' and everybody says, 'Oh yeah, everybody knows JavaScript is a security concern in itself,'" Chess said. This, however, is the first type of JavaScript problem that Chess knows of that specifically targets AJAX-style and Web 2.0-style applications, he said. What's happening, Chess said, is that AJAX-style applications are dropping the X off of AJAX, which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Thus, the applications are doing all their work in JavaScript, particularly using it as their data transport format. The gotcha is that Web browsers don't protect JavaScript as they do HTML or other protocols they transport. This allows rogue hackers to get hold of sensitive data that most developers think they've protected, Chess said. "The attacker can put code in a Web page," he said. "If he can trick you into running it in your browser, your browser can look like you and act like you, but it's not you; it's actually shoveling data back to - the attacker - ." The problem specifically lies in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data interchange format that for some time has been known to have security problems. The text-based, human-readable format for representing objects and other data structures is mostly used to transmit structured data over a network connection. Yahoo began offering some of its Web Services optionally in JSON in December 2005, and Google started offering JSON feeds for its GData Web protocol in December 2006. One problem with JSON is that CSRF (cross-site request forgery) allows attackers to bypass the technology's cookie-based authentication, as DRW's creator, Walker, says in his blog. Specifically, CSRF allows a user to invoke cookie-protected actions on a remote server, thus allowing "Mr. Evil to trick Mrs. Innocent into transferring money from her bank account into his," Walker wrote. Walker is a developer and runs a consultancy called Getahead. "I believe that JSON is unsafe for anything but public data unless you are using unpredictable URLs," he said in the same blog posting. Walker said that another, less well-known flaw in JSON is an Array hack that allows malicious users to steal JSON data on Mozilla and any other platform with a modern JavaScript interpreter. This in fact is the subject of Fortify's recent work. Fortify's paper can be downloaded here. "JSON makes JavaScript Hijacking easier by the fact that a JSON array stands on its own as a valid JavaScript statement. Since arrays are a natural form for communicating lists, they are commonly used wherever an application needs to communicate multiple values. Put another way, a JSON array is directly vulnerable to JavaScript Hijacking. A JSON object is only vulnerable if it is wrapped in some other JavaScript construct that stands on its own as a valid JavaScript statement." And more details from the Fortify paper: "Web browsers enforce the Same Origin Policy in order to protect users from malicious Web sites. The Same Origin Policy requires that, in order for JavaScript to access the contents of a Web page, both the JavaScript and the Web page must originate from the same domain. Without the Same Origin Policy, a malicious Web site could serve up JavaScript that loads sensitive information from other Web sites using a client's credentials, culls through it, and communicates it back to the attacker. "JavaScript Hijacking allows an attacker to bypass the Same Origin Policy in the case that a Web application uses JavaScript to communicate confidential information. The loophole in the Same Origin Policy is that it allows JavaScript from any Web site to be included and executed in the context of any other Web site. "Even though a malicious site cannot directly examine any data loaded from a vulnerable site on the client, it can still take advantage of this loophole by setting up an environment that allows it to witness the execution of the JavaScript and any relevant side effects it may have. Since many Web 2.0 applications use JavaScript as a data transport mechanism, they are often vulnerable while traditional Web applications are not." Anywhere this vulnerability can occur, it does occur, Chess said, with the exception of in DWR. As for the major companies behind frameworks, most all said they will work on the vulnerability and that it will be fixed in the next version. Microsoft, for one, told eWEEK that its MSRC is on this and that the company is investigating new public reports of possible vulnerabilities that occur in applications developed using the downloadable Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX framework. A Microsoft spokesperson said that the company is not aware of any attacks attempting to use the reported issue or of customer impact at this time. Yahoo had not been able to provide comment by the time this story posted.
Google, for its part, has posted an article that shows developers how to prevent the vulnerabilities described by Fortify in all versions of the Google Web Toolkit. "We plan to add additional, automatic safeguards in the next version of GWT, due out in the coming weeks, to supplement the security measures developers take on their own," a Google spokesperson added. These companies have been through the security flaw grinder and know better than to ignore vulnerabilities, Chess said. The problem is that many developers aren't using frameworks from the big players at all - rather, they're rolling their own. Unfortunately, many such developers haven't yet embraced security as their responsibility - and it's this that's prompted Fortify to start banging the drum on the issue. "Most people don't know when they use these AJAX-style components - i.e., frameworks - that they're at more risk," Chess said. "We need to talk to the AJAX community about what the problem is and what they have to do to address it." The overwhelming reaction Fortify received from framework maintainers was that this vulnerability is a high-priority fix, Chess said. What's surprising is the few instances in which framework developers said that security wasn't their problem. "It makes me really mad to think there are developers out there who are fielding code and who expect people who are going to use that code to figure out all the security ramifications," Chess said. Chess declined to name names, given that he's still working with them, trying to get recalcitrant developers to address the vulnerability. In order to make the attack succeed, the browser must be tricked into doing something it wasn't intended to do. In some circumstances, this can be done depending on how JavaScript is formatted. The Array format is fairly commonly used and makes it easy to trick the browser, Chess said. Exploiting the vulnerability is all about having the conditions necessary to abuse the security policy implemented by a given Web browser. Unfortunately, Fortify found those conditions are fulfilled "a surprising amount of time," he said. The problem with getting developers to accept responsibility for fixing the vulnerability is easy to spot after comparing AJAX hijacking to, say, buffer overflows, Chess said. The industry has known about buffer overflows for decades and is usually prompt in addressing them. The problem with JavaScript/AJAX/Web 2.0 security flaws is that there has been no strong message going out to software developers regarding security being their responsibility, Chess said. "With JavaScript, enterprises are still in the early phases of adopting early programming techniques," he said. "We have an opportunity to get in front of the problem. Before it becomes a widespread" insecure programming practice, he said. According to Fortify's paper, applications may be vulnerable if they use JavaScript as a data transfer format and if they handle confidential data. Nobody knows if this vulnerability is currently being used to steal data. That's because if somebody were using it for thievery, it would be undetectable, Chess said: "It very well could be being exploited right now and we wouldn't know it." As far as how to fix it goes, Fortify's paper gets into the details. In many cases it would take as few as a dozen lines of code. What's of added interest, Chess said, is how the vulnerability came to be in the first place. "We've got Web 2.0/AJAX kind of guys who want to do things with browsers and HTML and … - they - really weren't designed to do the work," he said. " - They're using - hacks and kludges to make things work. Sometimes that has unforeseen consequences. You get cobbled-together AJAX." What's needed are standards and protocols and Web browsers that support them, Chess said. The teams at Microsoft and Mozilla that maintain IE and Firefox are where "the rubber hits the road," he said. "Once they agree something's a standard, it's a standard," he said. There's a lot of people who try to influence them, but it's really they we look to and take cues from." This vulnerability will likely further motivate standards setting bodies such as the IETF or the W3C, Chess said. Such organizations have often been where Microsoft's and Mozilla's people have come together to determine what will happen with standards and protocols. "I think this will further motivate them," Chess said. "They've known about problems in this neighborhood. … But I don't think they've understood what a big deal their security decisions would be."
location based services
A pervasive vulnerability that allows an attacker to take over any Web browser and silently intercept sensitive data input occurs in Web 2.0 settings from Yahoo to ASP .Net to Google, security firm Fortify says.
Fortify Software has documented what the security firm is calling a "pervasive and critical" vulnerability in Web 2.0 applications - specifically, in the ability of an attacker to use a JavaScript vulnerability to steal critical data by emulating unsuspecting users.
The vulnerability - which allows an exploit called JavaScript Hijacking - can be found in the biggest AJAX frameworks out there, including three server-integrated toolkits: Microsoft ASP.Net AJAX (aka Atlas), Google Web Toolkit and xajax - the last of which is an open-source PHP-class library implementation of AJAX. Client-side libraries that Fortify inspected and found to be vulnerable are the Yahoo UI, Prototype, Script.aculo.us, Dojo, Moo.fx, jQuery, Rico and MochiKit. Of the AJAX frameworks and client-side libraries Fortify inspected, only DWR 2.0 (Direct Web Remoting 2.0) has mechanisms to prevent JavaScript Hijacking. That isn't surprising, given that Joe Walker, who developed DWR, wrote about the JavaScript Hijacking flaw in early March. According to Fortify, the other AJAX frameworks don't explicitly provide any protection, nor do their documentation materials mention the vulnerability as a security concern. Brian Chess, Fortify Software's co-founder and Chief Scientist, told eWEEK that the security firm is getting a ho-hum reaction from some regarding the news, since JavaScript has never been considered to be safe anyway. "Everybody hears, 'Oh, there's a JavaScript security problem,' and everybody says, 'Oh yeah, everybody knows JavaScript is a security concern in itself,'" Chess said. This, however, is the first type of JavaScript problem that Chess knows of that specifically targets AJAX-style and Web 2.0-style applications, he said. What's happening, Chess said, is that AJAX-style applications are dropping the X off of AJAX, which stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Thus, the applications are doing all their work in JavaScript, particularly using it as their data transport format. The gotcha is that Web browsers don't protect JavaScript as they do HTML or other protocols they transport. This allows rogue hackers to get hold of sensitive data that most developers think they've protected, Chess said. "The attacker can put code in a Web page," he said. "If he can trick you into running it in your browser, your browser can look like you and act like you, but it's not you; it's actually shoveling data back to - the attacker - ." The problem specifically lies in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data interchange format that for some time has been known to have security problems. The text-based, human-readable format for representing objects and other data structures is mostly used to transmit structured data over a network connection. Yahoo began offering some of its Web Services optionally in JSON in December 2005, and Google started offering JSON feeds for its GData Web protocol in December 2006. One problem with JSON is that CSRF (cross-site request forgery) allows attackers to bypass the technology's cookie-based authentication, as DRW's creator, Walker, says in his blog. Specifically, CSRF allows a user to invoke cookie-protected actions on a remote server, thus allowing "Mr. Evil to trick Mrs. Innocent into transferring money from her bank account into his," Walker wrote. Walker is a developer and runs a consultancy called Getahead. "I believe that JSON is unsafe for anything but public data unless you are using unpredictable URLs," he said in the same blog posting. Walker said that another, less well-known flaw in JSON is an Array hack that allows malicious users to steal JSON data on Mozilla and any other platform with a modern JavaScript interpreter. This in fact is the subject of Fortify's recent work. Fortify's paper can be downloaded here. "JSON makes JavaScript Hijacking easier by the fact that a JSON array stands on its own as a valid JavaScript statement. Since arrays are a natural form for communicating lists, they are commonly used wherever an application needs to communicate multiple values. Put another way, a JSON array is directly vulnerable to JavaScript Hijacking. A JSON object is only vulnerable if it is wrapped in some other JavaScript construct that stands on its own as a valid JavaScript statement." And more details from the Fortify paper: "Web browsers enforce the Same Origin Policy in order to protect users from malicious Web sites. The Same Origin Policy requires that, in order for JavaScript to access the contents of a Web page, both the JavaScript and the Web page must originate from the same domain. Without the Same Origin Policy, a malicious Web site could serve up JavaScript that loads sensitive information from other Web sites using a client's credentials, culls through it, and communicates it back to the attacker. "JavaScript Hijacking allows an attacker to bypass the Same Origin Policy in the case that a Web application uses JavaScript to communicate confidential information. The loophole in the Same Origin Policy is that it allows JavaScript from any Web site to be included and executed in the context of any other Web site. "Even though a malicious site cannot directly examine any data loaded from a vulnerable site on the client, it can still take advantage of this loophole by setting up an environment that allows it to witness the execution of the JavaScript and any relevant side effects it may have. Since many Web 2.0 applications use JavaScript as a data transport mechanism, they are often vulnerable while traditional Web applications are not." Anywhere this vulnerability can occur, it does occur, Chess said, with the exception of in DWR. As for the major companies behind frameworks, most all said they will work on the vulnerability and that it will be fixed in the next version. Microsoft, for one, told eWEEK that its MSRC is on this and that the company is investigating new public reports of possible vulnerabilities that occur in applications developed using the downloadable Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX framework. A Microsoft spokesperson said that the company is not aware of any attacks attempting to use the reported issue or of customer impact at this time. Yahoo had not been able to provide comment by the time this story posted.
Google, for its part, has posted an article that shows developers how to prevent the vulnerabilities described by Fortify in all versions of the Google Web Toolkit. "We plan to add additional, automatic safeguards in the next version of GWT, due out in the coming weeks, to supplement the security measures developers take on their own," a Google spokesperson added. These companies have been through the security flaw grinder and know better than to ignore vulnerabilities, Chess said. The problem is that many developers aren't using frameworks from the big players at all - rather, they're rolling their own. Unfortunately, many such developers haven't yet embraced security as their responsibility - and it's this that's prompted Fortify to start banging the drum on the issue. "Most people don't know when they use these AJAX-style components - i.e., frameworks - that they're at more risk," Chess said. "We need to talk to the AJAX community about what the problem is and what they have to do to address it." The overwhelming reaction Fortify received from framework maintainers was that this vulnerability is a high-priority fix, Chess said. What's surprising is the few instances in which framework developers said that security wasn't their problem. "It makes me really mad to think there are developers out there who are fielding code and who expect people who are going to use that code to figure out all the security ramifications," Chess said. Chess declined to name names, given that he's still working with them, trying to get recalcitrant developers to address the vulnerability. In order to make the attack succeed, the browser must be tricked into doing something it wasn't intended to do. In some circumstances, this can be done depending on how JavaScript is formatted. The Array format is fairly commonly used and makes it easy to trick the browser, Chess said. Exploiting the vulnerability is all about having the conditions necessary to abuse the security policy implemented by a given Web browser. Unfortunately, Fortify found those conditions are fulfilled "a surprising amount of time," he said. The problem with getting developers to accept responsibility for fixing the vulnerability is easy to spot after comparing AJAX hijacking to, say, buffer overflows, Chess said. The industry has known about buffer overflows for decades and is usually prompt in addressing them. The problem with JavaScript/AJAX/Web 2.0 security flaws is that there has been no strong message going out to software developers regarding security being their responsibility, Chess said. "With JavaScript, enterprises are still in the early phases of adopting early programming techniques," he said. "We have an opportunity to get in front of the problem. Before it becomes a widespread" insecure programming practice, he said. According to Fortify's paper, applications may be vulnerable if they use JavaScript as a data transfer format and if they handle confidential data. Nobody knows if this vulnerability is currently being used to steal data. That's because if somebody were using it for thievery, it would be undetectable, Chess said: "It very well could be being exploited right now and we wouldn't know it." As far as how to fix it goes, Fortify's paper gets into the details. In many cases it would take as few as a dozen lines of code. What's of added interest, Chess said, is how the vulnerability came to be in the first place. "We've got Web 2.0/AJAX kind of guys who want to do things with browsers and HTML and … - they - really weren't designed to do the work," he said. " - They're using - hacks and kludges to make things work. Sometimes that has unforeseen consequences. You get cobbled-together AJAX." What's needed are standards and protocols and Web browsers that support them, Chess said. The teams at Microsoft and Mozilla that maintain IE and Firefox are where "the rubber hits the road," he said. "Once they agree something's a standard, it's a standard," he said. There's a lot of people who try to influence them, but it's really they we look to and take cues from." This vulnerability will likely further motivate standards setting bodies such as the IETF or the W3C, Chess said. Such organizations have often been where Microsoft's and Mozilla's people have come together to determine what will happen with standards and protocols. "I think this will further motivate them," Chess said. "They've known about problems in this neighborhood. … But I don't think they've understood what a big deal their security decisions would be."
Mexico City Explores Wireless Internet
location based services
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, center, leads a group of cyclists to work in downtown Mexico City, Monday, April 2, 2007. In a city famous for its teeming traffic, the new mayor has vowed to ride his bike to work once a month, and is asking his fellow city workers to do the same. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)(AP) -- The city's new mayor said he hopes to offer high-speed wireless Internet to all 8.7 million residents of this sprawling metropolis, even as it struggles to supply basic services such as water and electricity.
Marcelo Ebrard signed an agreement Monday with China's ZTE Corp. to set up wireless broadband "hotspots" linking schools, government offices and the city's thousands of surveillance cameras.
"The city government is giving this project the highest priority," Ebrard said, adding that the project will get off the ground within months. Speaking later to reporters, Ebrard said he hopes the service can quickly be expanded citywide. That could be a tall order in Mexico City, which already struggles to solve problems such as choking smog, snarled traffic and public utilities that are inconsistent - and in some areas nonexistent. Because of leaks, low pressure and over-exploitation of aquifers, whole neighborhoods still rely on tanker trucks to deliver water. Meanwhile, an aging electricity infrastructure causes frequent blackouts even in upscale districts. Since taking office in December, Ebrard has announced ambitious plans to model Mexico City in line with trends in wealthier world capitals. His government recently announced it would follow the lead of cities like Paris and Berlin in creating temporary artificial urban beaches for the summer. On Monday, he kicked off a campaign encouraging city officials to bicycle to work once a month. ©2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
location based services
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, center, leads a group of cyclists to work in downtown Mexico City, Monday, April 2, 2007. In a city famous for its teeming traffic, the new mayor has vowed to ride his bike to work once a month, and is asking his fellow city workers to do the same. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)(AP) -- The city's new mayor said he hopes to offer high-speed wireless Internet to all 8.7 million residents of this sprawling metropolis, even as it struggles to supply basic services such as water and electricity.
Marcelo Ebrard signed an agreement Monday with China's ZTE Corp. to set up wireless broadband "hotspots" linking schools, government offices and the city's thousands of surveillance cameras.
"The city government is giving this project the highest priority," Ebrard said, adding that the project will get off the ground within months. Speaking later to reporters, Ebrard said he hopes the service can quickly be expanded citywide. That could be a tall order in Mexico City, which already struggles to solve problems such as choking smog, snarled traffic and public utilities that are inconsistent - and in some areas nonexistent. Because of leaks, low pressure and over-exploitation of aquifers, whole neighborhoods still rely on tanker trucks to deliver water. Meanwhile, an aging electricity infrastructure causes frequent blackouts even in upscale districts. Since taking office in December, Ebrard has announced ambitious plans to model Mexico City in line with trends in wealthier world capitals. His government recently announced it would follow the lead of cities like Paris and Berlin in creating temporary artificial urban beaches for the summer. On Monday, he kicked off a campaign encouraging city officials to bicycle to work once a month. ©2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Terahertz filter could harness unused spectrum
location based services
A "metamaterial" that selectively filters terahertz radiation could perhaps be used for short-range wireless communications.
Terahertz (THz) radiation exists between radio and infrared in the electromagnetic spectrum. It passes through clothing but is reflected by metals and explosives, making it potentially useful for security scanning.
Using terahertz waves for communications would make an unused region of the electromagnetic spectrum available. The high frequency of the waves means they could also transfer wireless data very rapidly. However, the waves are normally beyond the influence of traditional optical and electronics devices.
The new apparatus, developed by researchers at the University of Utah, US, can block out certain terahertz frequencies while allowing others to pass through. "We've essentially created a filter," explains lead researcher Ajay Nahata.
Sub-wavelength features
The device is essentially a sheet of metal foil incorporating a carefully designed pattern of holes. It is a so-called metamaterial, since it interacts with electromagnetic waves in novel ways, thanks to sub-wavelength structural features.
Working with Valy Vardeny and colleagues, Nahata devised an arrangement different sized holes – each smaller than the millimetre-size of terahertz radiation – in a "quasicrystal approximate" (partly regular) pattern.
As the waves pass through, they generate plasmon polaritons – resonating electrons – at the holes. These produce interference that blocks out some frequencies. And, by altering the size and the arrangement of the holes, it is possible to select different frequencies to block.
Multiple frequencies
"The holes are smaller than the wavelength, so they attenuate the amount of light that goes through," says Nahata.
The filter is a first step towards developing a terahertz communications system. It is important to filter multiple frequencies since it is common to use several to simultaneously transmitted information. However, it will only work over relatively short distances, like a computer network, as the waves are absorbed by moisture in the atmosphere over longer distances.
Hou-Tong Chen, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratories, in New Mexico, US, describes the research as "interesting", but warns that many challenges remain. Even so, Chen predicts that metamaterials will allow terahertz communication systems within the next five years.
Journal reference: Nature (vol 446, p 517
location based services
A "metamaterial" that selectively filters terahertz radiation could perhaps be used for short-range wireless communications.
Terahertz (THz) radiation exists between radio and infrared in the electromagnetic spectrum. It passes through clothing but is reflected by metals and explosives, making it potentially useful for security scanning.
Using terahertz waves for communications would make an unused region of the electromagnetic spectrum available. The high frequency of the waves means they could also transfer wireless data very rapidly. However, the waves are normally beyond the influence of traditional optical and electronics devices.
The new apparatus, developed by researchers at the University of Utah, US, can block out certain terahertz frequencies while allowing others to pass through. "We've essentially created a filter," explains lead researcher Ajay Nahata.
Sub-wavelength features
The device is essentially a sheet of metal foil incorporating a carefully designed pattern of holes. It is a so-called metamaterial, since it interacts with electromagnetic waves in novel ways, thanks to sub-wavelength structural features.
Working with Valy Vardeny and colleagues, Nahata devised an arrangement different sized holes – each smaller than the millimetre-size of terahertz radiation – in a "quasicrystal approximate" (partly regular) pattern.
As the waves pass through, they generate plasmon polaritons – resonating electrons – at the holes. These produce interference that blocks out some frequencies. And, by altering the size and the arrangement of the holes, it is possible to select different frequencies to block.
Multiple frequencies
"The holes are smaller than the wavelength, so they attenuate the amount of light that goes through," says Nahata.
The filter is a first step towards developing a terahertz communications system. It is important to filter multiple frequencies since it is common to use several to simultaneously transmitted information. However, it will only work over relatively short distances, like a computer network, as the waves are absorbed by moisture in the atmosphere over longer distances.
Hou-Tong Chen, a physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratories, in New Mexico, US, describes the research as "interesting", but warns that many challenges remain. Even so, Chen predicts that metamaterials will allow terahertz communication systems within the next five years.
Journal reference: Nature (vol 446, p 517
The Deepfish Technology Preview enhances existing mobile browsing technologies by displaying content in a view that is closer to the desktop experience. Our zoom-able interface and cue map allow you to quickly access the information you care about over the web without ever losing track of where you are.
Note : Deepfish is currently only available by invite only to a small number of beta users. Please visit http://labs.live.com/deepfish page to keep informed of future updates and availability.
Note : Deepfish is currently only available by invite only to a small number of beta users. Please visit http://labs.live.com/deepfish page to keep informed of future updates and availability.
| Top EU Environmental Official Rips US, Australian Rejection of Kyoto Protocol [ 12 out of 15 Eu countries fail their Kyoto target -- Oz meets its target --- this is a classic case of pots calling a kettle black ..what bleedin' hypocrites !!??!] | |
| 02 April 2007 |
 |
| EU Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas speaking during 8th Plenary session of Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Brussels, 02 Apr 2007 |
European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas accused Washington of maintaining a "negative attitude" on environmental cooperation, and said he cannot understand Australia's move to reject the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
Dimas' comments came at the start of a four-day United Nations-sponsored meeting in Brussels of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - a network of more than 2,000 experts on global warming.
The grouping is tasked with summarizing a massive report that predicts dire consequences from global warming. It also seeks to determine whether humans can do anything to prevent it.
The closed-door meetings are expected to produce agreement on a draft U.N. study that predicts increasing global poverty and a scarcity of drinking water in much of the world by mid-century. It also predicts melting glaciers, rising sea levels and a host of vanishing species, unless emissions from heat-trapping gases are curbed.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
Mapping Twitter
location based services
I’ve been buzzing over the possibilities of mapping Twitter for a few weeks. What Twitter has done is opened a platform for lightweight mobile social messaging, that can possibly be overloaded and extended with new services. There have been numerous projects out there for location based social networking (dodgeball, plazes, many others) but nothing has caught on, for various reasons. Dopplr looks like it has niche potential here as well. So adding mapping to Twitter could be an easy hack, just as adding mapping to flickr was, and it’s happened quite quickly .. Andrew had a geo-twittering round up a couple weeks ago, though already out of date.
My thoughts have been basically, get geo information directly in the Tweets, and tailor location based services to Friends and Followers. TwitterVision has gotten huge attention and deservedly .. it’s like World as a Blog on crack. The excellent thing done here is a way to specify location directly in the text of SMS, as described in the TwitterVision FAQ. This kind of ad-hoc semantics is what machine tags did for mapping flickr.
So the other day I sent out an email to a few folks laying out my ideas. And following that, I decided to try and contact the author TwitterVision, David Troy. Amazingly, he had just arrived in London for a few days work, in offices just half a kilometer away where I’d be in London meeting on Thursday. Incredibly auspicious timing!! And meta-reflective of exactly what the technology is supposed to do. So I arranged to hook up for drinks, hung out after my day meeting observing the flows and bizarre architecture inducing behavior of the ipod styled morelondon complex and thinking about how to map such a space in OpenStreetMap. Got invited up to the check out the jaw dropping view of the offices of truphone and heard about the cheese they make on the side.
Had a good conversation and beers with David and his coding partner, interesting insights into what he’s built and how it is to build services for a twitter with growing pains. He has more in development, and twittervision seems primed to scoop this niche. I’m pondering ways to leverage all this, and Mapufacture updates as tweets seems a distinct possibility.
There’s been some blog speculation on Twitter in disaster response. SMS is one of the very least communication infrastructures that can be relied on in a disaster zone .. certainly it would be available before internet access and the power that requires. Twitter turns SMS into a social networking platform, and I could definitely see some version of that being utilised, especially with location folded in. At Where 2.0, there’s going to be a “Mass Market” demo of technology and standards, possibly a disaster response scenario, and some form of mapping twitter would fit right in.
Blackberry to Meet Mobile Charge
RIM tells developers to have more fun
BlackBerry is branching out. Beginning Tuesday, Research In Motion will open the BlackBerry platform further by offering developers APIs (application programming interfaces) that allow them to make more interesting lifestyle-oriented applications.
Having customer relationship management software on your smart phone is cool and all, but soon BlackBerry addicts will have access to applications that are far more consumer oriented: apps with embedded audio and video, more location-based services, support for better 3D graphics, and more customizable wallpaper and ringtones.
Read More
RIM tells developers to have more fun
BlackBerry is branching out. Beginning Tuesday, Research In Motion will open the BlackBerry platform further by offering developers APIs (application programming interfaces) that allow them to make more interesting lifestyle-oriented applications.
Having customer relationship management software on your smart phone is cool and all, but soon BlackBerry addicts will have access to applications that are far more consumer oriented: apps with embedded audio and video, more location-based services, support for better 3D graphics, and more customizable wallpaper and ringtones.
Read More
Monday, April 02, 2007
Everest mobile call effort begins
location based services
Briton Rod Baber aims to make calls and send texts from Everest
A British climber has embarked on an attempt to make the world's highest phone call.
Rod Baber plans to climb Everest and then establish a world record by making a mobile call from the summit.
Weather permitting, the attempt to reach the peak of Everest is scheduled to take place in late May.
"There's no reason why it should not work," said Mr Baber who already holds a world record for reaching the highest point of every European nation.
Peak performance
Making a phone call from the summit of Everest has become possible thanks to a mobile base station installed in China that has line of sight to the north side of the mountain.
Mr Baber was confident that the attempt on the world record would work because the phone he will use has been tested in very low temperatures and the final climb will only happen if weather conditions are good.
The downside is that staying in contact with this base station demands that climbers follow the north ridge to the top - generally regarded as the toughest route.
Mr Baber is travelling in an expedition organised and run by experienced mountain climbing group HimEx which, says Mr Baber, has one of the best records of getting climbers to the top of the mountain.
An experienced climber Mr Baber also holds the world record for climbing more of the world's highest points than any one else. However, all his climbing has been done on peaks under 7,000 metres high.
He set off for Kathmandu on 30 March and will spend the next few weeks getting his body used to living at high altitude.
Speaking to the BBC News website Mr Baber said he had been in training for the Everest climb for months.
"I've been running 8-10 miles a day and on the days I'm not doing that I'm doing weights and spending time on a cross-training machine," he said.
To help his body cope with high altitude Mr Baber has also had to eat a lot.
"I've put on just over two stone and increased my body-mass-index by 24%," he said.
The reason for putting on so much weight is simply to help survive in the hostile conditions in the Himalayas.
"Above 7000 metres it does not matter how much rest you have, your body just starts to break down and your organs start slowing down," said Mr Baber. "The way you compensate for that is just by putting on as much weight as you can."
Life above 8,000 metres is harsh on the human body
"Although," he added, "eating a lot, running a lot and doing weights is a strange combination."
Mr Baber is sponsored by Motorola who has provided the phone he will use to make the call and send a text message from the summit.
The final push for the summit usually takes 6-8 days, weather permitting, and is due to start in late May.
As well as preparing himself for life at high altitude, the weeks preceding the push for the summit will be used to prepare the route to the top and to stock the camps where climbers will shelter overnight.
Mr Baber will not spend long on the top of Everest, perhaps only 15 minutes, largely because conditions at that altitude (8,848m, 29,028ft) are so harsh.
Taking a phone that will help keep him in touch with family and friends would help in the attempt to climb the mountain, he said.
"It does not matter how fit you are," said Mr Baber, "the key reason to success is 80% psychological. Having someone you can speak to on the other end of the telephone can overturn those invisible obstacles."
location based services
Briton Rod Baber aims to make calls and send texts from Everest
A British climber has embarked on an attempt to make the world's highest phone call.
Rod Baber plans to climb Everest and then establish a world record by making a mobile call from the summit.
Weather permitting, the attempt to reach the peak of Everest is scheduled to take place in late May.
"There's no reason why it should not work," said Mr Baber who already holds a world record for reaching the highest point of every European nation.
Peak performance
Making a phone call from the summit of Everest has become possible thanks to a mobile base station installed in China that has line of sight to the north side of the mountain.
Mr Baber was confident that the attempt on the world record would work because the phone he will use has been tested in very low temperatures and the final climb will only happen if weather conditions are good.
The downside is that staying in contact with this base station demands that climbers follow the north ridge to the top - generally regarded as the toughest route.
Mr Baber is travelling in an expedition organised and run by experienced mountain climbing group HimEx which, says Mr Baber, has one of the best records of getting climbers to the top of the mountain.
An experienced climber Mr Baber also holds the world record for climbing more of the world's highest points than any one else. However, all his climbing has been done on peaks under 7,000 metres high.
He set off for Kathmandu on 30 March and will spend the next few weeks getting his body used to living at high altitude.
Speaking to the BBC News website Mr Baber said he had been in training for the Everest climb for months.
"I've been running 8-10 miles a day and on the days I'm not doing that I'm doing weights and spending time on a cross-training machine," he said.
To help his body cope with high altitude Mr Baber has also had to eat a lot.
"I've put on just over two stone and increased my body-mass-index by 24%," he said.
The reason for putting on so much weight is simply to help survive in the hostile conditions in the Himalayas.
"Above 7000 metres it does not matter how much rest you have, your body just starts to break down and your organs start slowing down," said Mr Baber. "The way you compensate for that is just by putting on as much weight as you can."
Life above 8,000 metres is harsh on the human body
"Although," he added, "eating a lot, running a lot and doing weights is a strange combination."
Mr Baber is sponsored by Motorola who has provided the phone he will use to make the call and send a text message from the summit.
The final push for the summit usually takes 6-8 days, weather permitting, and is due to start in late May.
As well as preparing himself for life at high altitude, the weeks preceding the push for the summit will be used to prepare the route to the top and to stock the camps where climbers will shelter overnight.
Mr Baber will not spend long on the top of Everest, perhaps only 15 minutes, largely because conditions at that altitude (8,848m, 29,028ft) are so harsh.
Taking a phone that will help keep him in touch with family and friends would help in the attempt to climb the mountain, he said.
"It does not matter how fit you are," said Mr Baber, "the key reason to success is 80% psychological. Having someone you can speak to on the other end of the telephone can overturn those invisible obstacles."
Helio Releases the 3G Ocean Handset
location based services
2nd April , 2007
US : Introducing Ocea, the world's first dual-slider combining a traditional numeric keypad and a separate full QWERTY keyboard in a single device. Designed to be the ultimate social networking tool, Ocean merges Instant Messages, text messages, picture messages and emails from all the major portals, ISPs and even corporate Exchange servers, in one location. A 3G media and content powerhouse, Ocean also delivers full over-the-air music downloads, video-on-demand, a high-resolution camera, an HTML browser, MySpace on Helio, GPS-enabled Google Maps™ for mobile, Buddy Beacon™ and much more.
"Finally, you don't have to choose between a device that's good for talking but a nightmare for messaging, or one that's good at messaging but feels like you're holding a brick up to your face when you try to make a call," said Sky Dayton, CEO of Helio. "With Ocean, Helio has changed the shape of 3G with a new kind of device - the dual slide - a design that doesn't compromise on voice, text, IM, email, surfing, and every other way you want to stay connected."
"We started working on Ocean before Helio was officially a company," said Dr. Wonhee Sull, President & COO of Helio. "We envisioned our ultimate device, what future customers would want to carry, and with our company's unique technology and design assets, we created a form factor and an experience that's a world's first. Ocean is the result of the passionate dedication and hard work of countless innovative Helio employees and technology partners."Dual-Slide Design
Voice, messaging, search, entertainment and the speed of 3G - Ocean has it covered, by design. Easy on the eyes with a flowing minimalist face and a soft-touch surface, the shape-shifting Ocean slides vertically to reveal a traditional alphanumeric keypad for comfortably making calls, sending quick texts or surfing the web, and horizontally to reveal a separate full QWERTY keyboard suitable for the heaviest of emails or texts, web searches and full screen landscape viewing of crisp images and video. Ocean answers the question of full keyboard for messaging speed or traditional keypad for voice without the compromise of a QWERTY keyboard on your cheek - now you don't have to choose.Multimedia Powerhouse
Ocean sports a huge, 2.4-inch, 260K color high-resolution QVGA display viewable in both portrait or landscape modes, external stereo speakers, a 2.0 megapixel camera with digital zoom and flash for photos and over two hours of continuous video recording, Bluetooth® for wireless voice and stereo Bluetooth® for untethered music and videos, 200MB internal memory expandable via microSD™ to over 2GB, and USB Mass Storage Mode for drag-and-drop sideloading of content. Ocean supports an array of audio and video formats including MP3, AAC and WMA audio, and MPEG4 and H.264 video, all delivered over a nationwide high speed 3G network.
Ocean also carries a special chip designed to optimize music playback for an estimated 15 hours of continuous audio, blazing fast sync speeds and support for both subscription and individually purchased music. Ocean even allows users to browse the Web or their music library without interrupting music playback. Whether listening to tracks downloaded over-the-air from Helio Music, playing 3D or multiplayer games, taking pictures on the go and posting them to MySpace, or utilizing built-in GPS technology for Google Maps™ for mobile or Buddy Beacon, Ocean keeps Helio members in touch with their friends better than ever before.Ultimate Inbox
Ocean combines email, text messages, picture messages and Instant Messages in a single messaging hub that's just one touch away. Ocean's integrated messaging dashboard includes out-of-the-box access to Yahoo!® Mail, AOL® Mail, MSN Hotmail, Gmail™, Helio Mail, and EarthLink® email, as well as the ability to add additional IMAP/POP3 email accounts. Want instant gratification? Ocean incorporates Instant Message access through Yahoo! Messenger, AOL's AIM® Service and Windows Live Messenger all in this single messaging paradise. Ocean will also support push mail from Yahoo! and other providers, as well as Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, combining business with pleasure as Ocean wirelessly synchronizes Microsoft Office Outlook email, calendar and contacts from a corporate Exchange Server.
Integrated messaging means users don't have to choose between text messages or picture messages. Ocean does all the work through one interface, automatically sending an SMS for text messages or an MMS when a picture or video is attached, so staying in touch and sharing life as it happens is quicker and easier than before.Contact Lists with "Presence Detection"
Ocean's breakthrough Contact list syncs with Yahoo!, AOL and Helio Mail address books and even incorporates live "presence detection" so users can instantly see which IM service their friends are logged into. Just start typing a name from Ocean's idle screen and the Helio Smart Dialer searches the address book and pulls up full contact information, complete with icons to show if a person is logged in to Yahoo! Messenger, AIM or Windows Live Messenger. Getting in touch with friends has never been easier.Click-Free Search
Searching the Web on a "phone" is a multi-step process. With Ocean, there's no need to open a search box. Just begin typing on the roomy QWERTY keyboard from the idle screen and the device automatically switches into search mode. Ocean has a built-in HTML browser, so users can visit WAP sites or surf any Web site on the Internet. Ocean's Web browser also lets users view and save Web images to their device and offers features like "mini map" and "page optimize" so navigation is easier than before.Helio UP - Share and Post Photos Instantly
Ocean's 2.0 megapixel camera will take advantage of Helio UP, which lets users take a picture with their device, tag it with metadata including a title, description, keywords and location information and upload it directly to Helio Album, Helio's photo service. Helio UP is GPS-enabled, giving users the option of attaching their GPS coordinates to their photos.Availability and Pricing
The Ocean is planned for launch in Spring of '07 for a suggested retail price of $295. Visit www.helio.com/media for additional details and images.
Travelers Upgrade With Handmark Update to Pocket Express Printer Friendly
ORLANDO, Fla. — March 27, 2007 — Handmark®, a global developer and distributor of mobile media content, has introduced the fourth edition of Pocket Express™, its on-device smart portal found on millions of feature phones and smartphones. The new version of Pocket Express delivers a full complement of travel updates and services direct to consumers’ wireless devices.Flight Status — Say goodbye to flight delay or cancellation surprises. The intuitive service quickly delivers the latest arrival and departure information including time, terminal, gate and baggage claim details.OAG Flight Schedules — Rescheduling or checking flight times just got easier, with fingertip access to information about more than 3,500 airlines and 75,000 daily flights worldwide.Hotel Search — Information about business and vacation accommodations is now easily accessible via Hotel.com ratings, prices, amenities, and availability and reservations.Currency Conversion — International travel is made easier with fingertip access to current conversion rates for 164 currencies around the globe.Travel Phone Numbers — Have one-touch access to all the phone numbers you need on the road but can never seem to find, including those for airlines, hotels, car rental and travel agencies, and cruise lines.The new Pocket Express travel channel complements the comprehensive Express suite of news, sports, weather and stock updates, directory searches, movie times, maps with turn-by-turn directions, and MobileCierge, the world’s only mobile concierge service. “Imagine having a really smart travel agent living inside your phone, and you’ve a good idea how the new Express travel service expands your handset’s capabilities,” said Douglas Edwards, Handmark cofounder and chief marketing officer. “It takes other aggregators up to 20 minutes to calculate flight status. That’s not good enough for the Express experience. A 15- or 20-minute delay can be the difference between getting home or not. With the fourth edition of Express we deliver the same data direct from the cockpit satellite transmitter that powers the video screens in most major airports.” Handmark is now delivering new original content via Pocket Express. Original sports commentary in the form of an off-beat voice with the pseudonym of Red gives sports lovers a unique and compelling source of commentary and opinion. Red debuted during March Madness, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, and will continue providing commentary throughout the sports calendar. Readers can share their views with Red through the Express Exclusive channel on their mobile devices or by visiting http://www.pocketexpressblog.com.vHandmark is demonstrating the new edition of Pocket Express this week in Booth No. 1215 at CTIA Wireless 2007, March 27–29, in Orlando, Fla. New Express Exclusive editorial content is already available to Pocket Express users, and the complete Pocket Express fourth edition will be available to consumers in spring 2007. About HandmarkHandmark is a global leader in the development and distribution of mobile media content. The Pocket Express wireless on-device portal service offers consumer-friendly access to news, reference and infotainment content on mobile phones as well as BlackBerry, Palm Treo, MOTORAZR, motorola Q™ and other Windows Mobile wireless handhelds. The company holds key mobile content distribution patents including Java-based push technology for wireless devices; has technology and distribution relationships with CNN International, The Associated Press, Oxford University Press, Hasbro, MobiTV, TV Guide, JAMDAT Mobile and Zagat Survey as well as all major U.S. mobile operators; and dominates the market for mobile software sold through retail channels. Handmark has R&D facilities in Gothenburg, Sweden; Kansas City, Mo.; and Dallas, Texas, with sales offices in Kansas City; San Francisco; Stockholm, Sweden; and London. For more information, visit http://www.handmark.com.
ORLANDO, Fla. — March 27, 2007 — Handmark®, a global developer and distributor of mobile media content, has introduced the fourth edition of Pocket Express™, its on-device smart portal found on millions of feature phones and smartphones. The new version of Pocket Express delivers a full complement of travel updates and services direct to consumers’ wireless devices.Flight Status — Say goodbye to flight delay or cancellation surprises. The intuitive service quickly delivers the latest arrival and departure information including time, terminal, gate and baggage claim details.OAG Flight Schedules — Rescheduling or checking flight times just got easier, with fingertip access to information about more than 3,500 airlines and 75,000 daily flights worldwide.Hotel Search — Information about business and vacation accommodations is now easily accessible via Hotel.com ratings, prices, amenities, and availability and reservations.Currency Conversion — International travel is made easier with fingertip access to current conversion rates for 164 currencies around the globe.Travel Phone Numbers — Have one-touch access to all the phone numbers you need on the road but can never seem to find, including those for airlines, hotels, car rental and travel agencies, and cruise lines.The new Pocket Express travel channel complements the comprehensive Express suite of news, sports, weather and stock updates, directory searches, movie times, maps with turn-by-turn directions, and MobileCierge, the world’s only mobile concierge service. “Imagine having a really smart travel agent living inside your phone, and you’ve a good idea how the new Express travel service expands your handset’s capabilities,” said Douglas Edwards, Handmark cofounder and chief marketing officer. “It takes other aggregators up to 20 minutes to calculate flight status. That’s not good enough for the Express experience. A 15- or 20-minute delay can be the difference between getting home or not. With the fourth edition of Express we deliver the same data direct from the cockpit satellite transmitter that powers the video screens in most major airports.” Handmark is now delivering new original content via Pocket Express. Original sports commentary in the form of an off-beat voice with the pseudonym of Red gives sports lovers a unique and compelling source of commentary and opinion. Red debuted during March Madness, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, and will continue providing commentary throughout the sports calendar. Readers can share their views with Red through the Express Exclusive channel on their mobile devices or by visiting http://www.pocketexpressblog.com.vHandmark is demonstrating the new edition of Pocket Express this week in Booth No. 1215 at CTIA Wireless 2007, March 27–29, in Orlando, Fla. New Express Exclusive editorial content is already available to Pocket Express users, and the complete Pocket Express fourth edition will be available to consumers in spring 2007. About HandmarkHandmark is a global leader in the development and distribution of mobile media content. The Pocket Express wireless on-device portal service offers consumer-friendly access to news, reference and infotainment content on mobile phones as well as BlackBerry, Palm Treo, MOTORAZR, motorola Q™ and other Windows Mobile wireless handhelds. The company holds key mobile content distribution patents including Java-based push technology for wireless devices; has technology and distribution relationships with CNN International, The Associated Press, Oxford University Press, Hasbro, MobiTV, TV Guide, JAMDAT Mobile and Zagat Survey as well as all major U.S. mobile operators; and dominates the market for mobile software sold through retail channels. Handmark has R&D facilities in Gothenburg, Sweden; Kansas City, Mo.; and Dallas, Texas, with sales offices in Kansas City; San Francisco; Stockholm, Sweden; and London. For more information, visit http://www.handmark.com.
Location-based services enhance metro offerings
-->Municipalities are poised to make increasing use of location-based services as more and more wireless networks come online. New applications which identify the location of a Wi-Fi device are beginning to enter the market. NAVTEQ, which provides digital maps for vehicular GPS navigation systems, and Skyhook Wireless, which makes software positioning systems for Wi-Fi devices, this week announced NAVTEQ will resell Skyhook’s software with its maps. Skyhook’s products leverage metro Wi-Fi networks, using databases of known Wi-Fi access points around the cities to pinpoint the precise location of Wi-Fi devices that are logged into them. What I find interesting is the range of applications that are starting to evolve—from public safety applications that help first responders pinpoint the location of contacts made via Wi-Fi phones to services provided to tourists in the area. This is not the first time that NAVTEQ has partnered with Skyhook. The companies worked together on ReignCom's iriver W10 which uses Skyhook’s technology with a pedestrian guide from NAVTEQ to give mobile consumers access to information on sites, hotels, restaurants and other amenities in a city.
-->Municipalities are poised to make increasing use of location-based services as more and more wireless networks come online. New applications which identify the location of a Wi-Fi device are beginning to enter the market. NAVTEQ, which provides digital maps for vehicular GPS navigation systems, and Skyhook Wireless, which makes software positioning systems for Wi-Fi devices, this week announced NAVTEQ will resell Skyhook’s software with its maps. Skyhook’s products leverage metro Wi-Fi networks, using databases of known Wi-Fi access points around the cities to pinpoint the precise location of Wi-Fi devices that are logged into them. What I find interesting is the range of applications that are starting to evolve—from public safety applications that help first responders pinpoint the location of contacts made via Wi-Fi phones to services provided to tourists in the area. This is not the first time that NAVTEQ has partnered with Skyhook. The companies worked together on ReignCom's iriver W10 which uses Skyhook’s technology with a pedestrian guide from NAVTEQ to give mobile consumers access to information on sites, hotels, restaurants and other amenities in a city.
Voice Based Search For Mobile Phones - CallGenie
location based services
Another cool company I came across recently is a Canadian startup that offers location based services on a mobile phones - CallGenie. They have an interesting partnership model with Yellow Pages, wireline and mobile carries and Directory Assistance to provide interactive voice based search for yellow pages directory content by category and location. Users speak into the phone and system does search and delivers voice response – cool for those times you are stuck in traffic or cannot type and need to find restaurants, hotels, kinkos or just about anything.
Call Genie has an Enhanced Voice Directory Product (EVD) that combines modern speech recognition and syntheis technology from Nuance with sophisticated proprietary grammers and search algorithms. The EVD product guides callers through an interactive voice dialog to find merchants in the category and location of their choice. For a selected merchant, EVD™ lets callers hear additional information, such as how to locate them, and lets the caller connect through to the merchant.
Based in Canada, Call Genie offers EVD™ to Yellow Pages publishers, fixed and mobile carriers and Directory Assistance operators around the world. Check them out at http://www.callgenie.com/
Published Monday
location based services
Another cool company I came across recently is a Canadian startup that offers location based services on a mobile phones - CallGenie. They have an interesting partnership model with Yellow Pages, wireline and mobile carries and Directory Assistance to provide interactive voice based search for yellow pages directory content by category and location. Users speak into the phone and system does search and delivers voice response – cool for those times you are stuck in traffic or cannot type and need to find restaurants, hotels, kinkos or just about anything.
Call Genie has an Enhanced Voice Directory Product (EVD) that combines modern speech recognition and syntheis technology from Nuance with sophisticated proprietary grammers and search algorithms. The EVD product guides callers through an interactive voice dialog to find merchants in the category and location of their choice. For a selected merchant, EVD™ lets callers hear additional information, such as how to locate them, and lets the caller connect through to the merchant.
Based in Canada, Call Genie offers EVD™ to Yellow Pages publishers, fixed and mobile carriers and Directory Assistance operators around the world. Check them out at http://www.callgenie.com/
Published Monday
Sunday, April 01, 2007
The Future of Location-Based Services
Sunday April 01st 2007, 1:20 pm Filed under: Ubiquity
The issue of location-based services is a classic example of technology and society interacting with one another. The technology certainly has the potential to benefit society, which is one of the reasons why so many developers have looked toward these services as the wave of the future. However, numerous problems have plagued the development of LBS, and this post will look at two of the most prevalent ones.
Conceptually speaking, one of the biggest problems is that LBS are often marketed as being global or possessing the ability to transcend cultures. The issue of privacy is constantly raised when discussing LBS, which becomes a problem because different cultures view this issue differently. France, for example, guarantees privacy (albeity implicitly) in its constitution, while Britain doesn’t appear to take the issue as seriously, as seen with the millions of security cameras littered throughout the country. Even though privacy is not a constitutionally guaranteed right in the United States, most Americans place great emphasis on protecting their privacy. As a result, these cultures form different opinions about LBS. A recent study found that there is a high demand for LBS in Japan, as privacy is not something the people are accustomed to, and there are very little street names or addresses. Meanwhile, demand is lower in the United States, partly because privacy is a bigger concern, and partly because developers don’t want to deal with the costs of complying with the Enhanced 911 mandate. If the goal of LBS is ubiquity, it will never be reached so long as different cultures have such markedly different reactions to the technology.
On the technical side, another problem is that geographic coordinates are highly inefficient, and are of almost no value to the end user. To access these services, consumers are often forced to input a long string of characters, some of which aren’t even available on the typical cell phone keypad. On the receiving end, this makes it difficult to develop an algorithm that can handle all of the inputs. A new language, called the Natural Area Coding System is being developed to help overcome these problems. Ostensibly speaking, the results haven’t changed much. For one, it’s difficult to inform the entire public about the technology, and even if this was possible, it would be even harder to teach everyone the new coding system. Many experts believe that it will take a telecommunications giant to help make this a reality. However, a recent report suggests that developers and carriers of location-based services will be lucky to break even on their investments for at least another decade. Will the telecommunication giants be willing to invest in a project that won’t result in a positive cash flow for at least ten years? Even though these companies presumably have the resources to absorb such a long-term loss, the primary goal is always to make money and maximize shareholder value. Considering the social aspects that will inevitably play an enormous factor if LBS manages to get off the ground, these companies will have to take a tremendous leap of faith to continue with their investments. If the Natural Area Coding System is the future of LBS, and the industry giants are the future for the coding system, it appears that LBS might be headed for obscurity rather than ubiquity.
Sunday April 01st 2007, 1:20 pm Filed under: Ubiquity
The issue of location-based services is a classic example of technology and society interacting with one another. The technology certainly has the potential to benefit society, which is one of the reasons why so many developers have looked toward these services as the wave of the future. However, numerous problems have plagued the development of LBS, and this post will look at two of the most prevalent ones.
Conceptually speaking, one of the biggest problems is that LBS are often marketed as being global or possessing the ability to transcend cultures. The issue of privacy is constantly raised when discussing LBS, which becomes a problem because different cultures view this issue differently. France, for example, guarantees privacy (albeity implicitly) in its constitution, while Britain doesn’t appear to take the issue as seriously, as seen with the millions of security cameras littered throughout the country. Even though privacy is not a constitutionally guaranteed right in the United States, most Americans place great emphasis on protecting their privacy. As a result, these cultures form different opinions about LBS. A recent study found that there is a high demand for LBS in Japan, as privacy is not something the people are accustomed to, and there are very little street names or addresses. Meanwhile, demand is lower in the United States, partly because privacy is a bigger concern, and partly because developers don’t want to deal with the costs of complying with the Enhanced 911 mandate. If the goal of LBS is ubiquity, it will never be reached so long as different cultures have such markedly different reactions to the technology.
On the technical side, another problem is that geographic coordinates are highly inefficient, and are of almost no value to the end user. To access these services, consumers are often forced to input a long string of characters, some of which aren’t even available on the typical cell phone keypad. On the receiving end, this makes it difficult to develop an algorithm that can handle all of the inputs. A new language, called the Natural Area Coding System is being developed to help overcome these problems. Ostensibly speaking, the results haven’t changed much. For one, it’s difficult to inform the entire public about the technology, and even if this was possible, it would be even harder to teach everyone the new coding system. Many experts believe that it will take a telecommunications giant to help make this a reality. However, a recent report suggests that developers and carriers of location-based services will be lucky to break even on their investments for at least another decade. Will the telecommunication giants be willing to invest in a project that won’t result in a positive cash flow for at least ten years? Even though these companies presumably have the resources to absorb such a long-term loss, the primary goal is always to make money and maximize shareholder value. Considering the social aspects that will inevitably play an enormous factor if LBS manages to get off the ground, these companies will have to take a tremendous leap of faith to continue with their investments. If the Natural Area Coding System is the future of LBS, and the industry giants are the future for the coding system, it appears that LBS might be headed for obscurity rather than ubiquity.
-->
GPS Babel Home
location based services
-
What is GPSBabel?GPSBabel converts waypoints, tracks, and routes from one format to another, whether that format is a common mapping format like Delorme, Streets and Trips, or even a serial or USB upload or download to a GPS receiver such as those from Garmin and Magellan. By flattening the Tower of Babel that the authors of various programs for manipulating GPS data have imposed upon us, it returns to us the ability to freely move our own waypoint data between the programs and hardware we choose to use.
It contains extensive data manipulation abilities making it a convenient for server-side processing or as the backend for other tools.
It does not convert, transfer, send, or manipulate maps. We process data that may (or may not be) placed on a map, such as waypoints, tracks, and routes.
Does it run on my computer?
Almost certainly. GPSBabel runs on Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, and XP plus POSIX OSes such as Linux, UnixWare, OpenServer, Solaris, FreeBSD, and OSX.
Supporters of this project include:
-->
Supporting the projectWe get a constant stream of requests to support new hardware, improve support for existing OSes, and such. You can help fund the next generation (hey, someone funded what's there now...) by supporting the project with your time or your donation. If you have a way you'd like to see the money spent (i.e. improving Mac support, new GPS models, etc.) please mention that
RedCoal GSM Triangulation in Australia
location based services
Published April 2nd, 2007 in GSM Triangulation
I found this on ITWire:
Finding your location when on the move is big business and has been dominated in the past by GPS. But now there is another technology available in Australia that allows standard mobile phones to be located using a technique called GSM triangulation.
“With the Australian mobile phone market at near saturation, this is big business,” says Ray David, Sales and Marketing Manager of Sydney based wireless innovation company redcoal Pty Ltd which has just launched its own range of GSM location based services.
“Our SimPoint service gives dispatchers and managers of mobile field staff the ability to locate their people by tracking their mobile phones. A simple to use web interface also allows messaging to these mobiles. We think that a lot of small to medium size companies that do not want to invest in GPS hardware and that need to track their people outside of a vehicle will find this attractive”, says David.
“We are also the first company in Australia to provide the development tools that can be used by others to create their own customised location based services,” says David.
Overseas where this technology has been available for years, businesses offering personalised services such as friendfinders, ATM finders and other point of interest locators are garnering significant interest from venture capital organisations.
According to a US survey by In-Stat MDR, 85% of wireless subscribers were interested in accessing location based services. More than half of these were also willing to pay a premium for these features. One conclusion from the study was that location based services held much broader mass-market appeal among wireless subscribers than other wireless data services such as ring tones and mobile games.
ABI Research estimates that the global location based market will grow to $8 billion in 2010, and with 55 percent of the world’s mobile subscribers, much of this growth will be in the Asia Pacific region.
Location based services have been threatening to explode for a while and now GSM triangulation technology makes a new world of consumer and business applications possible.
I’m simply not sure that a heavy investment in triangulation is the way forward when GSM chips in phones are becoming de rigeur. Once the Google phone launches, with Google Maps, I think a strong direction will be taken away from GSM Triangulation. But hey! I’ve been wrong before.
-->
location based services
Published April 2nd, 2007 in GSM Triangulation
I found this on ITWire:
Finding your location when on the move is big business and has been dominated in the past by GPS. But now there is another technology available in Australia that allows standard mobile phones to be located using a technique called GSM triangulation.
“With the Australian mobile phone market at near saturation, this is big business,” says Ray David, Sales and Marketing Manager of Sydney based wireless innovation company redcoal Pty Ltd which has just launched its own range of GSM location based services.
“Our SimPoint service gives dispatchers and managers of mobile field staff the ability to locate their people by tracking their mobile phones. A simple to use web interface also allows messaging to these mobiles. We think that a lot of small to medium size companies that do not want to invest in GPS hardware and that need to track their people outside of a vehicle will find this attractive”, says David.
“We are also the first company in Australia to provide the development tools that can be used by others to create their own customised location based services,” says David.
Overseas where this technology has been available for years, businesses offering personalised services such as friendfinders, ATM finders and other point of interest locators are garnering significant interest from venture capital organisations.
According to a US survey by In-Stat MDR, 85% of wireless subscribers were interested in accessing location based services. More than half of these were also willing to pay a premium for these features. One conclusion from the study was that location based services held much broader mass-market appeal among wireless subscribers than other wireless data services such as ring tones and mobile games.
ABI Research estimates that the global location based market will grow to $8 billion in 2010, and with 55 percent of the world’s mobile subscribers, much of this growth will be in the Asia Pacific region.
Location based services have been threatening to explode for a while and now GSM triangulation technology makes a new world of consumer and business applications possible.
I’m simply not sure that a heavy investment in triangulation is the way forward when GSM chips in phones are becoming de rigeur. Once the Google phone launches, with Google Maps, I think a strong direction will be taken away from GSM Triangulation. But hey! I’ve been wrong before.
-->
Mobile Landscapes: Using Location Data From Cell-phones for Urban Analysis
Ratti C, Pulselli R M, Williams S, Frenchman D, 2006, “Mobile Landscapes: using location data from cell phones for urban analysis” Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 33(5) 727 – 748
In this seminal paper, Carlo Ratti defines the research in the application of Location-Based Services to urban studies. At first he summarizes the state of the art in location determination techniques and their implication related to privacy. Then, he presents the potential from the results of case study in the metropolitan area of Milan, Italy.
In Milan, Ratti explored the way GSM traces can contribute to urban understanding. In a 16 days temporal framework, some patterns could be extracted such as those happening with day/night and working/weekend periodicity. The information gleaned from a urban studies perspectives mainly rely on geovisualizations (e.g. showing the intensity of traffic at a given position in space with thermorgraphy maps). One use could be to infer the “character” of a neighborhood. For example, neighborhoods with high evening and early morning cellphone traffic are likely to have a stronger residential character. An interesting aspect to see the variation in time above maps would be to estimate the flows in and out of the city, such as patterns of daily communities, weekday versus weekend activities, holiday movements.
I could plot something similar with the accuracy used over the time of the day for a specific neighborhood.
Maps showing areas with different cell phone call density in the metropolitan region of Milan. Data between 4 and 8pm.
Relation to my thesis: Ratti mentions that “the pervasive deployment of new technologies is transorming urban patterns, making the more complex and fluid. Greater mobility and freedom are changing the way living and using public and private spaces“. Similarly there is a growing number of data to understand this transformation. Part of my current experiment joins this effort on the use of new technologies to describe cities. That is, how can explicitly geotagged information contribute to urban understanding. I believe it can highlight a number of interesting patterns for tourists and citizens to view a city, such as those happening with day/night and working/weekend periodicity.
This type of investigation based on spatio-temporal traces of people and crowds relate to the work of Raper and Mountain, and Nathan Eagle, as well as for years in Transportation Research.
Lea
What is it about Starbucks?
by Russell Buckley on April 1st, 2007 in Location Based ServicesOne of the enduring myths about Location Based Services is the so-called “Starbucks Scenario”. You know the one - people write about how you’ll be going down the street and your phone will beep and you’ll see a Starbucks promotion offering you a half price latte if you pop into the store right next to you.
I’ve no idea who first thought of this example, but it’s a very poor illustration of Location Based Marketing. For a start, unless the transmission of the message is free, the promotion would be unaffordable as the redeemed messages would also need to cover the transmission cost of sending of the non-redeemed ones. This means for most low-priced products, like Starbucks and fast food retailers, this type of promotion is little more than a fantasy.
The other issue is how a company like Starbucks would manage the logistics of this type of promotion. It only really makes sense if that particular Starbucks is not very busy. If there’s already a queue, there’s no point in adding to it. But how would a centrally controlled system know about local conditions? And if locally implemented, who is actually going to manage it? While the obvious answer is “the manager”, delegating local marketing initiatives is going to be resisted, for understandable reasons, by head office.
And if that’s not bad enough, we have the issue of perceived spam to cope with. Such a promotion would clearly need to be opt in and many Starbucks customers might be happy to get the odd offer. But on those days that they’re in the wrong mood, or have just paid full price for that latte or are just in a hurry, the value offer becomes annoying and suddenly perceived as horrid spam.
Anyway, if you’re interested in Location Based Marketing like this, drop me a line and ask for a copy of my free white paper on this area.
What brought this to my mind is another Starbucks’ initiative around Location. Namely a “find my nearest” service, inviting people to text in their Zip code to totally the unmemorable “MYSBUX” (short code 697289) and they’ll get an sms with the address of their nearest 3 Starbucks stores.
This is about as likely to work as the Starbucks Scenario I just wrote about above, which is sadly, very, very, very unlikely to work, in case I wasn’t quite clear.
Why?
Well, most of us spend most of the time in an area we know already - we either work there or live there. So if you’re a Starbucks’ fan, you won’t need to ask, as you’ll know.
And the tiny percentage of the time most people spend outside their known area, they’ll just forget that the service exists, or they won’t be able to remember how it works or the number they need to send it to. Oh, and they won’t know their Zip Code either, coz they don’t know the area. And in the event that they overcome all these hurdles, the address won’t mean anything to them either, unless they ask someone. Which is what they’d probably have done in the first place if they’d really, really wanted to find their nearest Starbucks.
This all reminds me of a friend of mine, who I shall call Nick, because that’s his name. When he gets very drunk and happens to be in a restaurant, he calls the waiter over and asks for 15 eggs and 15 wine glasses. The bemused waiter normally brings them and Nick spends about 20 minutes building a complicated pyramid of eggs and glasses. By this time, most of the restaurant are watching in suspense.
Nick then announces that he’s going to pull the table cloth out and all the eggs will break and fall neatly into their corresponding glasses. The suspense if palpable as it would be truly amazing if he managed to make this trick happen. With much theatre, Nicks grasps the table cloth, (even the kitchen staff are watching now) and with a flourish, he pulls it hard.
Glasses and egg go everywhere, coating the immediate vicinity in broken glass and yolk. It’s also noticeable that not one egg has broken cleanly into one glass. The restaurant is hushed in shock and Nick stares at the wreckage he’s made. He then shakes his head and says, after a 4 second pause:
“It never works….”
Another 4 second delay happens and then the diners burst into laughter and applause.
So what’s that got to do with Starbucks and their “find my nearest” initiative? Stealing Nick’s punchline, it just never works.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
