

An iphone app that could change the way you get to work - screwperman
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/an-iphone-app-t.html

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potatolicious
This won't work like Seth wants. The problem is the following:

\- Few users have the iPhone hooked up to a car charger when in their cars.

\- The GPS receiver sucks up power like mad when it's on. A constant
connection will drain the battery very quickly.

\- The iPhone is also incapable of passively uploading GPS data to a remote
source, nor is it capable of running an app in the background. This is to say,
your users must keep their iPhone unlocked (disabling auto-sleep) and your app
open _at all times_. This is similarly a large drain on your battery.

The amount of work (buying a car charger, making sure to hook it up, unlock
the phone, and open your app, and disable auto-lock) every time the user needs
to use the service is just absurd. This has no chance of working as it is.

It's a cool idea, and if we all had devices in our pockets that can, without
excessive hackery, sustain a continuous GPS feed to a 3rd-party source, this
would actually work. Sadly, the iPhone is not it.

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drewp
I want something passively uploading my GPS data. What should I get?

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DenisM
A Windows Mobile phone, such as Samsung BlackJack 2.

~~~
there
or an s60 phone such as the nokia e71

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drewp
Thanks! Something running s60 is interesting to me since it seems like it
would be easier to program. My current phone is a treo 650 (palm), and I am
disappointed at how high the barrier to programming it is.

I want to be writing blog entries like this one:
<http://blog.danielwinter.de/archives/13>

~~~
DenisM
I have spoken to a member of google maps mobile team (they program for _all_
platforms) and asked him how blackberry compares in difficulty to android or
windows. He said that blackaberry is pretty bad, but the most painful ever is
Symbian. 2 cents here.

~~~
drewp
Interesting. My goals are to write home automation and GPS tracking apps,
ideally in python. Stuff like that open-garage-door-when-phone-gets-home
project. Any UI work would be web pages, so I guess I want a good web browser.

I'd suspect that problems with implementing gmaps wouldn't affect me. My
issues are more like "can I code and deploy from linux?" and "do I get access
to the camera, network, speaker, etc?"

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bdfh42
This is called TrafficMaster in the UK (
<http://www.trafficmaster.co.uk/home.php> ). It uses detectors placed at
regular intervals along all major and a lot of minor roads and you can receive
basic traffic data over the cellphone network without a subscription.Been
operational for ten years or so. It's not quite as described here as it does
not require the active participation of it's users.

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iuguy
Hmmm.... I've tried looking but I can't find anything to back up the existence
of 'RadaR'. I don't remember hearing about anything in this regard

I'm tempted to call BS, especially given the content of
<http://web.archive.org/web/20011130151150/http://radar.com/>

Anyone else ever see or hear of this invention?

~~~
stillmotion
It was probably a concept. A lot of marketers say, "I developed this product",
when really they should've said, "I thought it up on a Sunday afternoon, wrote
it down, showed it to about 10 people on IM, and thought about working on it
later this week."

~~~
potatolicious
... Yet another reason why I wonder by Seth Godin gets on HN so often. I think
I've only ever read a single post by him that's been insightful in a
significant way.

And it also goes to show that anybody can think of a good idea - it takes
someone with real talent to execute it in a successful way.

I too have many good ideas. Wouldn't the world be better off if we could just,
like, replicate our food? Starvation would become nonexistent! Quick! Somebody
give me all the credit and post my blog everywhere!

~~~
neilk
(spoken like Jon Lovitz' Master Thespian): but he was only _mmmmarketing!_

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RobGR
I think the "bonus" idea that Seth gives, the automatic sending of recorded
reminders, is a feature that is available from www.traqmonkey.com. It is
called "callback reminder", and you have to know to make the reminder go to a
"distribution group" instead of just yourself.

On his main idea, I have one comment: why don't people who live where the
primary impediment to their getting around just move ? In theory, the internet
and modern communications should allow a much more dispersed population and
economy, without the costs that come from overcrowding. In practice, everyone
in that traffic jam has an economic reason to be there. I think that any
services or business ideas that allow a more "free range" type of economy
instead of the "factory farm" overcrowded cities will have a strong demand.

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jrockway
I think you could get something almost as good by convincing Google to take
traffic data into account when finding the least-cost route between two
points. I know that in Chicago the freeways have speed sensors spaced pretty
closely together, so it is possible to look at that data and immediately know
how long you are going to spend on the freeway. If you use that data to
determine your route, then you should avoid traffic jams.

Obviously conditions can change pretty quickly, but most of the time they
don't. So this could be a good 90% solution without requiring people to
broadcast their location to you.

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srn
Nokia and Berkeley are piloting software which monitors traffic via mobile
devices that have GPS - they say they are working on an iphone version.
<http://www.traffic.berkeley.edu/>

Some stand-alone GPS, if given traffic data, will take that into account when
trip planning. <http://www.gpsreview.net/traffic/>

All he's saying to do is combine the two into a single application. Not that
interesting IMO.

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dchest
Dash navigator?

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neilk
Yes. To clarify for everyone else, he means this:

<http://www.dash.net/>

and it works exactly the way that Seth describes, even down to Dash users
participating to provide real-time traffic updates.

It's an in-car device like a Garmin but internet-oriented. Personally, I'm not
sure if it's a viable niche -- it's somewhere in between the Garmin and the
iPhone. And the idea of Dash users providing real-time data is obviously a
chicken and egg problem.

In any case, maybe Seth's idea was an improvement over radio reports in 2000
but is already behind what Dash, Google Maps or Yahoo maps does today.

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flashgordon
what about privacy? will the location data that is uploaded by the iPhone be
stored on the server side? Can guarantees on privacy be provided? Clearly the
govt can get access to this info with warrants (or may be even without
depending on where you are)...

