Test A Cool Application

Leeah D

New member
Hi there,

So many years of hype about LBS and not a single cool app! Well, here's your chance to test one.

Sample Scenario: You are heading for a date (or a bizness meeting) & would like keep him/her updated of your movement thru town as you make your way towards hir. Simply initiate application's tracking engine to send automatic location updates at regular, user-defined intervals.

So be part of the user experience team & help test this tracking app which reverses the equation on tracking-related security concerns by letting you, the user, choose if & when you'd like to be tracked.

As has been advised by the moderator, posting of email addresses is prohibited on the forum. All interested members are, therefore, requested to plz register to test the beta at the following link:

http://www.gauravsobti.com/WrU/WrU.htm

All test participants will be eligible for the first release free.

Best,
wirefree


Addendum: The application is aimed at Series 60 2nd ed. (example, Nokia 6600) and 3rd ed. (example Nokia N93) handsets.
 
It's not spam. If had several chats with the developer and I have a product brief on his app (which looks quite cool). I'll be posting further info on the app on my blog in a bit.
 
I'm a mod on m9 so he had to discuss his post with me before I approved it.

I'll post a link to the details as soon as I post them.
 
Hehe. You and me both! You can never have enough apps - and this one looks like it will be very cool.

Post is up on my blog now with some additional details.
 
I posted a comment on your blog, but also will mention my question here:

The post says it uses SMS, is there an estimate on how many during the trial, or a per day or per month estimate?
 
The developer can give you an answer I'm sure, but I'll give it a shot...

Within the app settings, you can configure the frequency that your position reports are transmitted. Therefore it would be entirely user-configurable in terms of how often SMS messages are sent. If you leave the app active for long periods of time with a frequency of 5 - 10 minutes or so, you better have unlimited SMS!
 
Then I see a huge limit as to the potential market already. I hate to be the Debbie Downer, but if he's targeting Nokia S60 devices, you're looking at 2 carriers, T-mob and Cingular. Cingular (the larger of the two) doesn't have an unlimited SMS package.

I know that Cingular has the MUCH higher sub count, but I have no clue as to which carrier has the higher count of S60 users. That's key.

Hopefully the developer checks back on here. I wonder if there's a way to use his service with data instead of SMS, in which there's an abundance of unlimited packages. Just a thought.

Honestly, I have 1500 SMS, but I use close to that every month as it is.
 
So, once registered, we must wait for a response?
Is this app. provider dependant?, Im in South America, so is going to be supported?
SMS is for outgoing and or incomming?
 
That's a lot of messaging.

Outside of the US, I'm not sure what kind of SMS packages exist but since SMS has been so popular for so long I would imagine there are plenty of good ones out there (although globally, data plans seem to be rough).

I'll let the developer comment further but I think there are still plenty of cases where this app will be very useful. I know I'll be using it.
 
SMS? What is this? 1990? With all the mapping software hitting the market, surely they can do better than this!

(yea I know, its easy to b*tch and whine. Cool concept, hope they make it more polished)
 
"Sample Scenario: You are heading for a date (or a bizness meeting) & would like keep him/her updated of your movement thru town as you make your way towards hir. Simply initiate application's tracking engine to send automatic location updates at regular, user-defined intervals. "



This has everything to do with mapping (unless I'm totally misunderstanding the application). I don't want to get a text message from my date every ten minutes. I want to pull up my mapping software and see a moving 'X' on my map. 99% of the technology already exists, you would just need to convince your mapping software(smart2go, or whatever) to get its GPS coordinates from another source.
 
Oh it's clearly possible (and done with several Nextel phones, the Helio, and more I'm sure), but that's not what this app does. Also it's still in its infancy so who knows where the developer will take it.

Personally, I think that a cool thing would be to work as you describe but also have the ability to send sms via a server equipped with location databases and then deliver position reports via plain sms. Then you can transmit to any phone, even without the app. Imagine you could input your destination and then with each transmission the server could read your position, cross reference it with detailed map databases, and then transmit a plain sms to any phone that says:

"North-bound Route 17, mile marker 145, ETA 11:57am"
 
Thx for the responses!

Hold on tight - you will receive email notification once we commence testing.

As for JonInTheHouse's comment: Well, GPS assisted tracking is in the pipeline as it is an obvious extension of the concept. I was fortunate to meet, & read blogs of, students in the Media Lab @ MIT and am aware of the sensational "work-in-progress" on that front.

As of today, it doesn't take an IDC report to tell you the penetration of GPS on-board devices (let N95 grow, sunnyboy!). From a user standpoint, I mean, are you comfortable with a GPS dongle dangling off your S60 handy??

WrU hopes to serve a very niche need. I don't want my boss to know my longitudnal/latitudnal coordinates (on or off a map) as I make my way to the meeting. A general trend - a directional vector - suffices. Most importantly, immediate security concerns are mitigated by reversing the equation on tracking initiation.

As for the SMS frequency (& charges), well, its up to you to set the Settings.

Finally, I hear you. Hell, that coordinate point moving in real-time on a map is superduper . I hope to launch that in 2008.

Best,
wirefree
 
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