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Handhelds Hardware

Samsung Releases GPS Phone 186

Posted by michael from the advertising-comes-to-you dept.
Fletch writes: "I received an email from Samsung today announcing the release of 'America's First GPS Phone.' The phone does appear to have some neat GPS-based services, such as restaurant and traffic info. Those of you with privacy concerns need not worry. According to the manual (p122, large pdf file) the user does have the ability to turn the 'Position Location' off. (it will be automatically turned back on when/if an emergency call is made)." The manual doesn't say whether the phone initially defaults to "Tracking On" or "Off".

To save everyone from downloading that PDF file, here's the relevant section (innovative capitalization and punctuation in the original):

"America's First GPS Enabled Wireless Phone Designed to Support Location Based Services of the Future Imagine having a phone that can use GPS technology to provide you with....

  • Driving directions
  • Traffic service
  • Entertainment/services location
  • 911 emergency location services
  • Location of family/friends

Location services for 911 calls are not currently available. While these services are not available today (or) (are still under development), this leading edge phone has the technology required to support such network based services upon their launch.

Settings

The settings allow you to turn the Position Location ON or OFF. If the option is turned OFF, the Sprint PCS Network cannot locate your position using the Position Location feature. This option is automatically turned ON when an emergency call is placed, then turned back OFF when the call is completed.

To turn Position Location ON or OFF:
1. Press for Main Menu.
2. Press for Locator.
3. Press for Settings.
4. Read the Position Location disclaimer by using the Up & Down arrows.
5. Press to display the Setting screen.
6. Press the Up or Down arrows to cycle between the available choices.
7. Press to Save and exit.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Samsung Releases GPS Phone More

Samsung Releases GPS Phone

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  • Opened the flood gate (Score:2, Insightful)

    by iamjim ( 313916 )
    We all knew this was going to happen. It begins, wearable, trackable equipment... It can turn itself on? That can't be good.

    Jim
    • If I'm not mistaken I believe it's the position locator, not the phone itself, that turns on. Also, this is only in the rare case of an emergency call.

      From the text: "This option is automatically turned ON when an emergency call is placed."

    • Can't they get a pretty good reading on where you are using triangulation between the different cells? Or is that only in the movies?

      Putting evil tracking putposes aside for a moment, if all cars had these in them, and anonmously relayed location and speed info a system could be setup to route cars around roads just like packets around a network.... It holds some neat promise, but lots of technical and social things to work out.

      -Paul
      • While triangulation is great on the ocean, it's not the best solution in the urban jungle.

        Since many phones are used in cities, RF propagation is not the same when you have dozens of buildings to reflect RF from. And you can't really use signal strength as a distance indicator, either, because signal strength can be dependent on which cell tower the steel in your car is blocking the signal from reaching.

        There's just too much noise (RF) to depend on this anywhere line of sight degrades. Not to mention the long stretches of freeway out in the country where one tower may be the ONLY antenna that can reach the cell phone, regardless of strength.

        John

    • It can turn itself on? That can't be good.


      Woah... You mean that something that is software configurable... So the software itself can activate the feature!

      Who'da thunkit?

      Next thing you'll be telling me that my cellphone can change it's own time too...

      (BTW, I think that's basically (if not a necessity) a great idea, so you can normally have it turned off if you want, and then it will automatically turn itself on when you make that 911 call)
    • The question is, if it gets turned on for a legitamite reason, does it turn back off for normal use afterward if your preference is for it to be off?
      • At the risk of (-1, redundant): please read above. "This option is automatically turned ON when an emergency call is placed, then turned back OFF when the call is completed."
    • We all knew this was going to happen.

      Of course we did. Some time ago, it was mandated by law that emergency calls from cell networks include location information. The automatic switch-on of gps during emergency calls is there for a very practical reason.

  • A news? (Score:1, Troll)

    by nyri ( 132206 )
    It bugs me that slashdot is so US centric. These babies have been available for ages in other parts of the world, so what is the news?

    --
    nyri

    • Well, being that Slashdot is US based... makes sense, eh?

    • Notice that the story says America's first GPS cellphone. Having said that I'll bet that >80% of Slashdot readers are from the US, 10% are Canadian, and then 10% "Miscellaneous", so get use to a fair number of US-oriented posts.

    • Re:A news? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Carbonite ( 183181 )
      Since many (most?) Slashdot readers are in the US, this seems to be a perfectly appropriate article. Also the first sentence even states that
      "...Samsung today announcing the release of 'America's First GPS Phone.'"

      It's not like anyone's trying to pretend this is some totally new tech that's never been seen. It's just new to us.

      ---
      Carbonite

    • Re:A news? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      read the faq:
      "Slashdot is U.S.-centric. We readily admit this, and really don't see
      it as a problem. Slashdot is run by Americans, after all, and the vast
      majority of our readership is in the U.S. We're certainly not opposed
      to doing more international stories, but we don't have any formal
      plans for making that happen. All we can really tell you is that if
      you're outside the U.S. and you have news, submit it, and if it looks
      interesting, we'll post it."
    • Yeah, yeah, yeah, Nordic countries are ueber-wired and you all have cellphones coming out the wazoo, BFD. If all Slashdot focused on was Finland live would be pretty dull.
  • Ah.. But can you use the phone as an external GPS device? i.e, can it out put NMEA data for use with a palm or other handheld as an external GPS reciever? Now that would be useful.

  • A New Era of Phreaking (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Renraku ( 518261 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2001 @05:28PM (#2412887) Homepage
    I'll bet you could hack the phones to relay a different GPS coordinate than they're located at. Imagine prank calling someone and they do a trace, only to see that you're somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean...
    • Actually more humourously, hack the phone to return a GPS coordinate of you standing RIGHT BEHIND THEM...
      Oh wait, we aren't watching Real Genius are we, never mind
    • re: your sig

      You haven't lived until you've used ASCII for downloads. That was such a pain in the butt.

    • Re:A New Era of Phreaking (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Director of FBI: Mr President, Osama Bin Laden just called saying he will nuke LA. The good news is he used a GPS phone so we now know his location.
      George W. Bush: Launch ICBMs now, authorisation code 12345!
      Military guy: Yes sir!
      Military guy: Missiles on the way
      Military guy: Umm, wait a minute..
      George W. Bush: What is it?
      Military guy: These coordinates are in LA.
      George W. Bush: Wha.. Oh..!

  • One useful application (Score:4, Funny)

    by VultureMN ( 116540 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2001 @05:29PM (#2412897)
    They could combine a GPS-enabled phone with a scent-detecting device. At some point in time, it'll detect the presence of burning bud and have a pizza delivered to wherever you happen to be.
    Ooohyeah.
  • GSM can locate you within a cell, why waste time, money, intellectual powers, technology on something it's not intended for. As for the one useful feature - the map - if you need it get a normal gps for your car (or hand.) Just as usefull.
    • You're absolutely right, GSM location based services can track you to a cell, but it doesn't do E911 services a lot of good. AFAIK, a cell site has a range of 14 miles. So, if you're broken down or dying somewhere, they can only track you so far. Same goes for when you're lost. How useful is that?
      • People lying around dying in the middle of nowhere should have brought a GPS or at least a map and if they can plae a call then they can read co-ordinates.
        • I don't think the point was that these things were going to help people that are in the middle of nowhere.

          I personally have a cell phone with me when I go anywhere - if my car were to break down in the middle of the night in Washington DC and I needed to call a Cab - it would be cool if the cab company automagically new where I was - because I sure as hell wouldn't!

          You don't have to be in the middle of nowhere to be lost!

          Fried
  • The evil hacker from Charlie's Angels [imdb.com] won't have to spend so much effort to track down Charlie.

  • At this year's world orienteering championships in Finland a GPS based tracking system [woc2001.fi] has been used to track the competitors (and provide this information to the spectators).

    Technically it is a mobile phone from Benefon integrated into a vest and a seperate GPS antenna (also in the vest) to improve reception. Every 20 seconds a SMS is sent to a server with the position information.

  • In this week's simpsons episode. (Score:4, Funny)

    by tcc ( 140386 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2001 @05:32PM (#2412911) Homepage Journal
    Moe finally tracks Bart prank calls cuz he used Homer's Samsung phone with GPS enabled on by default. :)

    • Moe already knows where Bart lives. Bart told Moe to lure him over to scare off Jimbo when he was macking on Bart's crush/babysitter.
      • Didn't ever seem weird to you that Jimbo was hanging out with that chick who had to be at least 15 years old, but his best friend Nelson was dating Lisa? Never sat right with me...

        • Last night I noticed that in the one where Flanders goes crazy (when the Hurricane blows down their house) the doctor says that he dealt with Ned "30 years ago" and then it shows Ned as a small child having a tantrum, but of course Ned is supposedly a senior citizen.

          NED'S A FRAUD!

          • Ned also has young kids (around the age of Bart and Lisa). I would tend to be more suspect of the claim that Ned is a senior citizen than of the claim that he was a small child "30 years ago" (which seems to fit fairly well).
        • I hadn't really though about it. Considering that they are all, ostensibly, in Elementary School, it's strange that any of them would be dating.

          I beleive that Nelson is in Bart's class, so he would only be a couple years older than Lisa at most, right?

          Jimbo, Carnie, etc. seem to be portrayed as older than Nelson (usually), so that might explain why the babysitter was hanging out with Jimbo. I guess they just needed an older punk-kid type, and Jimbo fit the bill. Otherwise, it would have had to be that kid with the craking voice who seems to be holding down every minimum wage job in town (the Lunch Ladies son, I believe).

  • Super-duper tracker (Score:2, Insightful)

    by standards ( 461431 )
    Of course we're all waiting for the day when even more is integrated - and it'll come fairly soon. It takes very very little more to add a voice recorder, an MP3 player, and user programmability (via something like Java). You could program it to track your kids and phone in their location every 15 minutes. Haha, the heck with privacy from the phone companies, how about the parents???

    It will take a bit more for a fully functional computation device - that'll take some seious improvement in user interface technology for small devices. We're still a ways away from big displays on an ever shrinking device - I think it's time for the paradigm shift to kick in away from LCD displays - and cell phone technology is just the incentive. As long as those patenteers stay away from monopolizing good ideas!
    • Of course we're all waiting for the day when even more is integrated - and it'll come fairly soon. It takes very very little more to add a voice recorder, an MP3 player, and user programmability

      Well we're 2/3 of the way there -- the Samsung Uproar has a voice recorder and an MP3 player. Given that Samsung is the company producing these GPS phones, that programmable tracking is probably only a small step away!

  • Can't Laden use one?! (Score:3, Funny)

    by garoush ( 111257 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2001 @05:33PM (#2412914) Homepage
    How about offering one of those to Osama bin Laden and his followers? Don't they need one to keep in touch with each other?
    • Didn't Mossad kill someone using a cell phone a few years ago? If I remember correctly they rigged a cellphone with a small explosive device and somehow smuggled it into some organization. When the head honcho made a call from it (and they could confirm it was the guy they wanted)... Boom!
    • There were rumors about printers which emitted homing signals that bombs could hone in on which were sold to the iraqi's. Also, if they can get GPS circuits small enough to stick in a phone, I'm sure they can be embedded into lots of things. We just have to put a note on the product reminding the "subject" to keep the batteries charged on his turban :)

  • Super-tightly targetted advertising... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Consul ( 119169 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2001 @05:33PM (#2412915) Journal
    Okay, you have a Samsung phone that can pinpoint your location (should you choose to let it)...

    In Portland, OR (I used to live there), they have some of these electronic billboards that can cycle through a set of animated advertisements. Imagine having a number of these everywhere, that could automatically change their ads based upon who happens to be standing around or driving by...

    Scary or kinda cool (from a tech standpoint anyway)?

  • Stolen phones (Score:2, Interesting)

    by WyldOne ( 29955 )
    And with a bit of work could lead the cops to your stolen phone/goods. Would be nice to have a GPS modem as well for tracking stolen hardware.
  • According to this commweb article [commweb.com] you can only disable the commercial services, not the E911 services. So for privacy measures, you'd still be able to be tracked.
  • You'll probably get problems like:

    You can only use this coolcompany-steeringwheel when you've got the gps on.....

    the world is evil...
  • GPS is cool, and future emergency GPS location will be cool too.

    What concerns me is that the phone relies on the network to get restaurant and driving directions. My Visor with appropriate GPS springboard and something like Vindigo allows me to find nearby stuff using a local database (i.e., on the client). My SprintPCS phone has a feature that lets me set an alarm at a specific time. However, this feature only works when my phone is in the phone network. That is, even though my phone should be perfectly capable of keeping time, it needs a digital PCS signal to actually do so.

    If I use this phone to do anything with the GPS aside from finding my own location, I'm forced to send the PCS network my location. While I really don't care that much about the privacy of my whereabouts, I certainly don't need anyone sending me ads targeted to my present location.

  • but _that_ is not my privacy concern... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by swinge ( 176850 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2001 @05:38PM (#2412944)
    Those of you with
    privacy concerns need not worry. According to the manual (p122, large pdf file)
    the user does have the ability to turn the 'Position Location' off.

    I'm one of those with privacy concerns, but this phone does nothing to allay my concerns.

    I want to use the nifty features but still have my privacy. Why does the deal have to be "use the feature and be abused by having the information used without your knowledge?" Why can't seemingly smart people figure stuff like this out?

    The Nobel Prize (that's like a +1 Informative) in economics was awarded today in part for the research that showed how one side of a transaction having information that the other side doesn't have can tilt the balance so far that the market fails. I'd like to be able to walk into a shop and negotiate a price that is not based on full knowledge of my movements (perhaps at a competitor) being revealed.

    yes, I could turn off the service, but that is a Luddite response which has nothing whatever to do with protecting privacy. Please God, make people smarter: privacy entails a lot more than checking "Jedi Knight" on the census form, or being able to unplug a solid state disk drive when the black helicopter people come through the front door. It's about being able to enjoy the fruits of the modern economy without being abused.

    • Re:but _that_ is not my privacy concern... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by michael ( 4716 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2001 @05:47PM (#2413006) Homepage
      Why does the deal have to be "use the feature and be abused by having the information used without your knowledge?" Why can't seemingly smart people figure stuff like this out?

      Because the people making the deal are the phone companies, and they know it's a "take it or leave it" deal. They *are* smart people - they just aren't on your side. :( Their smartness is working to figure out how to make more money off of you, not how to give you the best phone experience (those are not equivalent!). And there is no one at any level of government - because the FCC is also crewed by people who think exactly like the phone companies - who is on your side.

      You know this, of course. You seem like a bright person. But the average schmoe has no idea how or why his phone works, and most importantly, has no idea that it could work differently.

    • Re:but _that_ is not my privacy concern... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by iabervon ( 1971 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2001 @06:56PM (#2413274) Homepage Journal
      You want it to get for you information that depends on your location without disclosing your location? That's going to be somewhat difficult, because the service can't help but know what information they're providing to you. What logs they keep and what they do with them is a privacy policy question. There's no way they're going to send all of the data there is to your little phone, and have the phone figure out what you want from a GPS reading that it doesn't send out.


  • Sorry, gang, but this "innovation" seems utterly useless. Here's why.

    1) Why do you need a GPS phone? If you don't know where you are, you ask, or buy a map for a buck or two. The only people who would ever buy a GPS phone are the same kinds of people who get confused looking at rotary telephones.

    2) Paper maps don't run out of batteries, or break.

    3) Paper maps wont cost you $30 a month.

    4) There are plenty of Road Atlases available in bookstores, many of which provide comprehensive data on where you are and where you want to go. They cover every major metropolitan city in the world, streets and landmarks included, and cost a fraction of the amount of money you'de blow on a useless (not to mention difficult to read) GPS phone that will not only eat your batteries, but will eat your money.

    5) The GPS doesn't provide you with any unique information. Your speed, distance and travel times can all be figured out in your head or on paper, probably in less time it takes you to fire up the damn thing and take a reading from satellites.

    6) Only titanic idiots ever get themselves truly lost anyway. Trust me, I live near a forest preserve. Morons go in there all the time, totally unprepared, no maps, no money, no clue. If you suddenly find yourself so far away from civilization that you need to use a GPS to locate your position (nice fantasy world there, by the way) , you sure as hell aren't going to be able to place a cellphone call. There wont be any nearby towers to handle the call. Gee, didn't think about THAT one, didja? :)

    7) A five-minute reading of any basic book on Astronomy will teach you how to find your location anywhere on earth, day or night.

    You don't even need a magnetic compass.

    So, who wants to step up to the plate and give me ONE irrefutable reason why ANYONE would NEED a GPS-Enabled Cell Phone?

    Cheers, (and yes, PROPAGANDA [system26.com] is still running,

    • 6) Only titanic idiots ever get themselves truly lost anyway. Trust me, I live near a forest preserve. Morons go in there all the time, totally unprepared, no maps, no money, no clue. If you suddenly find yourself so far away from civilization that you need to use a GPS to locate your position (nice fantasy world there, by the way) , you sure as hell aren't going to be able to place a cellphone call. There wont be any nearby towers to handle the call. Gee, didn't think about THAT one, didja? :)

      Actually they're primarily useful in the "urban jungle". As an example recently I had to drive into downtown Toronto in an area I don't know very well, and no maps show all of the quirks of an urban area (i.e. they don't show closed roads, congested roads, sometimes not even one way streets. It's quite the difference driving in a heavily urbanized area than the fantasy land a map presents). As such I grabbed the coordinates in MapPoint and programmed it as a waypoint in my GPS (a little Garmin) and did a GOTO. I went on the journey in the general vincinity of where it was, but because of extremely congestion I decided to take alternate routes: It meant nothing to me that I was on streets that I'd never been on before because my little GPS was pointing the direction and telling me exactly how far the destination was. In the end I parked on a little sidestreet within 50m of the destination. Worked like a dream.

    • 1) Why do you need a GPS phone? If you don't know where you are, you ask, or buy a map for a buck or two. The only people who would ever buy a GPS phone are the same kinds of people who get confused looking at rotary telephones.

      I think the most obvious reason is the one for which it has been mandated in the US -- so you can be located when you call 911!

      Another reason is for people like me who don't like to carry too many goodies -- a lot of the hiking and mountain biking in my area is in forests with analog coverage, but are easy to get lost in. It would be nice to have a GPS so I can locate myself on the topo maps. If that GPS is built into the same device that I'm using for my emergency contact, great, I'm saving a few ounces in my pack!

      Finally, you can't forget the gee-whiz factor. Especially not on Slashdot.

    • who wants to step up to the plate and give me ONE irrefutable reason why ANYONE would NEED a GPS-Enabled Cell Phone?

      Because you just got hit by a car/had a heart attack/(something in danger of dying or loosing consciousness)/had a stroke/are having a seizure and you use your cellphone to call 911, but pass out before you can tell them where you are, or you simply don't know where you are.

      Wow you're gonna get flamed for this one...

      In case you've been living under a rock, it's now madatory that all cellphones have GPS tracking capability because of the number of people who have phoned 911 on their cellphone and 911 hasn't been able to track their locations so the emergency people can get there to save their lives.

      And it does have usefullness... I have a GPS hooked up to my laptop in my car, and it displays on the map exactly where I am. IT's 1 step away from being able to tell me to "turn left in 500m" and give me all directions, and I never get lost anymore. Someone gives me their address and I immediately know how to get there. Having it in your cellphone can provide the same benefits.

    • A five-minute reading of any basic book on Astronomy will teach you how to find your location anywhere on earth, day or night.

      If it's that easy, I'm sure you wouldn't mind explaining it to us. Please demonstrate how to find longitude and latitude with just astronomical knowledge, both night and day.

      • Ah well, I'll answer for you: you can't.

        To find longitude and latitude, you need 1) an accurate clock, 2) a sextant, 3) a book of astronomical tables, and 4) a calculator (or more tables). Given that you need to carry all that, I think carrying the GPS is a little easier.

        Apparently someone didn't watch the movie "Longitude" [aande.com]. Pretty good movie, actually. :)

    • Here's one. Recently while traveling, my mom fell down and broke her leg. Since I didn't know the area, I called 911 and asked for the location of the nearest hospital, figuring I could give them my exit number and have them guide me in. Interestingly enough, they had access to know the Cell node I was calling in from and after being told the highway I was traveling on, said, "OK, in about 5 seconds you should see such and such a sign, exit there..." and guided me in. I can see a situation where people in more serious situations could be benifited. Also there are times when you have an emergancy and can't talk, like a robbery. Most cell phones now have a "Push and hold" emergancy code (usually the 1 key. push and hold it for 3 seconds and it auto-dials 911). Combined with GPS, this could be very useful. Also first on the scene of an accident, instead of giving confusing, and possibly wrong location info to fire/amb/police, they can read your GPS loc. Handy.

      The privacy problems are of course, left as an exercise to the /.er :)
    • 7) A five-minute reading of any basic book on Astronomy will teach you how to find your location anywhere on earth, day or night.

      Okay, smartass. Your in the middle of a field. The sun is directly overhead. The moon is nowhere to be seen. Where are you?
    • How does this crap get modded up as "Insightful"? Try "Uninformed".

      As a previous poster pointed out, the GPS features is required by the FCC for the cases where several lives could have been saved if the dispatcher only knew where the caller was.

      1) Paper maps don't help you when you're dying of a heart-attack and can barely stand up.

      2) Paper maps don't help you when your house is on fire and you'd rather the dispatcher just figured where you were and sent help there.

      3) Being able to buy a paper map doesn't help you when you can barely stand up because you've been stabbed in the back.

      Gee whiz.

  • If it's an evil plot (Score:2, Informative)

    by sllort ( 442574 )
    If it's an evil plot, rest assured it isn't a corporate one. The FCC's requirements for E911 service are putting a whole lot of pressure [skyaid.org] on the cell providers, who face stiff fines and executive action if they can't use their phones to track you by 2005. If you think that the FCC is overstepping it's bounds with this one (I personally thing a regulated spectrum is an overstepped boundary, but that's just me) you know what to do. [eff.org]

  • Privacy Concerns (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Estragon ( 517492 )
    Those of you with privacy concerns need not worry. According to the manual the user does have the ability to turn the 'Position Location' off. (it will be automatically turned back on when/if an emergency call is made).

    Now this worries me.

    Exactly how is it determined that an emergency call is being made?

    • My Nokia 8260 (piece of crap phone, by the way, the only thing going for it is its very tiny size) has an "Emergency" category in the dealer setup menu. When I select that, I get another menu that offers me "Emergency number 1", "2", and "3". Emergency 1 = "999" Emergency 2 = "*999" Emergency 3 = "" This is different than the "9 = Emergency" setting under the user's menu. I suspect most Nokia phones have similar settings.
  • "This feature can also be turned Off (except during an emergency call) to insure your privacy."

    well, i'll rest easier knowing my privacy is insured, and in case someone does find me, what, i pay my premium, and they pay out a giant claim?

    wishing corporate america had a spell-checker, bob.

  • I find it strange that this phone boasts that it's the world's first GPS-enabled phone, yet the GPS features only take up two pages of text in the manual, and one of those is the title page.

    Also, the manual mentions that if you've got GPS features turned off ... it turns them back on for the duration of any emergency calls. Aside from 911, how would the phone know what constitutes an emergency phone call?

  • Bill collecting (Score:5, Funny)

    by decipher_saint ( 72686 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2001 @05:58PM (#2413058)
    "Hi we're just calling to let you know, Vinny and 'Low Blow' McGurk are on they're way to break your legs at the corner of 99th St. and 101st Ave, please stand by"

  • Leave it on. (Score:2, Funny)

    by mlknowle ( 175506 )
    I think that tracking should always be on! It would help prevent terrorism!

    Prehaps congress should institute legislation which requires all cell phones to have GPS technology built in. And digital music protection, just to be safe.
  • I think that tying GPS into phones is a really good idea. When visiting San Francisco a friend and I were looking for a ToGo's for lunch. We could use his phone for the web, but we didn't know the zip code, nor where we were or how to get anywhere. We ended up wandering around till we found one :)

    The most important thing is this: The ability to turn it off. There is no valid reason for anyone to have the potential to track where my phone is if I choose to not want that feature.

    Good for Samsung! Just think if the phone ran Micro$oft Windows CE?

  • My guess (Score:2, Interesting)

    by trilucid ( 515316 )

    is that tracking is turned on by default. Why do I think this?

    I'm sure I'm NOT the only one (by far) who thinks this way, but here goes anyhow: They have a huge opportunity to collect detailed market data if they leave it on by default. For now, this probably isn't a huge deal, but you can bet they'll get very good very quickly at mining the data.

    Next thing you know, you wake up one morning to a mailbox full of pizza coupons (sent by various partners to your cell provider), due to the fact that you skipped into a Pizza Hut the night before to say hi to a few friends.

    Just FYI, I'm not trying to be truly extreme here. I personally love the possibilities opened up by this technology (gotta get me one of those). I'm just typically a bit wary of the marketing implications of anything like this. Thoughts? Flames? Please send on, I'm looking for other perspectives here.

    • I'll bet that it's off by default. If you leave it on all of the time it will consume more power. Of course this assumes that they are using some form of assisted GPS to achieve a reasonable time to fix.

      Does anybody know if this GPS works indoors? (Please don't tell me that it's impossible to get GPS to work indoors because I know for a fact that it's possible.)

      • I think you've got a very good point there. Battery life is a precious thing on cell phones; since the provider's primary source of revenue is people using airtime (and buying more), it would make sense to be sure the phones stay live as long as possible per charge.

        Alrighty, I reverse my original opinion... I guess it's logic over paranoia this go round :)

  • Folks might like to look at http://www.fcc.gov/e911/ to see why this is being done.

    Basically, this US mandate requires among other things, that mobile phone handsets that are capable of reporting location must be on sale by 1 October 2001, and that 100% of mobile phones sold after 31 December 2002 must include such capabilities.

    Required accuracy of location reporting will initially be to within 50 meters for 67% of calls and within 150 meters for 95% of calls.

    Of course, there are many other benefits too - but also many worries I guess.
  • > The manual doesn't say whether the phone
    > initially defaults to "Tracking On" or "Off".

    But the press release does. It says the service is 'opt in'. I took that to mean GPS is off by default.

  • Now when I'm stuck in traffic I can look at my phone to find out that traffic is bad.
  • I already have a Samsung/Sprint cell with a lot of advanced features. I regret wasting my money. The features all work, but poor design and integration makes most of them basically useless. For example:

    There's an AIM chat client. But if the person you're chatting with sends to you while you're composing a message, you lose the message.

    The voice dial feature uses a completely separate phone book from the regular dialer. So you have to put in some numbers twice.

    Despite all the connectivity features, you simply have to enter phone book info by hand, period.

    There's a handy little button to turn the bell into a vibrator, so you won't get lynched if your phone rings in the movie theater. Except that button only controls voice calls...

    I could go on and on, but you get the idea. I think it's safe to assume that the GPS part will never do anything really useful. Maybe someday, Sprint will get it together enough to have the phone say, "Hey, you want Szechuan? The Blue Lotus is 2.3 kilometer's NNE!" But I'll lay money they'll never get this tied into your Mapblast account!

  • Here is a thought. Have people voluntarily turn on the GPS tracking feature (not me). When the user makes a call, have Sprint monitor the strength of the signal and the location of the reciever. If you do this enough, with enough people, you can make an accurate map of signal strength across the country.

    Then, when RadioShack tells me that SprintPCS will work in XX area (which I know is not the case most of the time), I can show them a map and say, "In fact, no. Look at the map!"
  • This has been touched in a couple of other posts (in a more humorous light), but the User's Guide never specifies how the phone attempts to keep you from being tracked. I think that a little more information from somewhere might be in order before I go to use this phone. Perhaps even a mention of if they encrypted it, or even just a reassurence that they have made it difficult (as just about any type of hacking is possible) for hackers to find out my whereabouts would be enough for me.

    Just my $0.02 worth

  • ...like the guy from myboot [myboot.com] says, the first line of any conversation involving a cell-phone is "Where are you?"

    This provide a handy way to stop that. :^)

    --Robert

  • Because you can choose not to buy the thing! One more difficult problem in security solved with one swell foop.

    Besides which, if you're on a digital cellphone, they can triangulate your position from various cell sites anyway.

    "The question isn't whether you're paranoid, Lenny, the question is whether you're paranoid enough."

  • I read an article in Wired a while back that the folks over at MIT's "Oxygen" project are working on a way to use these phones as a type of realtime cursor. They say that with an electronic compass and GPS (military grade), you would be able to point your phone at a building and the phone could tell you information about the building. The example they cited was a restaurant where the phone gave you the menu for the restaurant from out in the street, and offered you the chance to make a reservation. I thought it was pretty cool.

    Of course, if I think about it hard, maybe that isn't such a great idea. I can just picture what the cell phone would say about my house in five years:

    Address: 1313 Mockingbird Lane
    Phone: 699-555-1212
    Type: Residence
    Owner: LDOPA1
    Currently: Masturbating

    I don't think I want that to happen...

  • If I remember correctly, the first commercial GPS cellphone was the NaviTalk by Garmin . It was released a few years ago, and was recently updated.

    -john
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Location release questions (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Stuart Ward ( 167946 ) on Thursday October 11, 2001 @07:52AM (#2414683) Homepage
    Firstly in the GSM world the [PDF] Benefon [benefon.com] has been out for a couple of years now, not a big seller and has some limitations. GPS only works with line of sight to the satellites so the GPS will not work indoors and where you have limited view of the sky, i.e. in cities with tall buildings.

    More interesting are the issues around release of location information, how would /. Readers respond to these questions?

    Would you be prepared to release your location when making calls, in much the same way that your phone number is currently released. Your location could only be read by those with appropriate equipment. We will probably be required by law to release this information on all emergency services calls (999, 112 911)?

    1. No, I would not want my location released at all. (except emergency calls)
    2. No, Normally not released, but I would be able to release it by selecting an option when making a call.
    3. Yes, but only to services approved by (My network operator).
    4. Yes, released on all calls, except when I specifically specify not to release the location.
    5. Yes, released on all calls.
    Would you want the location of callers calling you (who have released their location) displayed on your phone display?

    1. Yes, display the grid reference of the caller.
    2. Yes, display the direction and distance of the caller from my current location.
    3. Yes, display the nearest town name to the location of the caller.
    4. Yes, but only if the information was provided free of charge to me.
    5. No, I would not be interested in this.
    . Would you allow the release of you current location to a caller who is calling you?

    1. No, I would not want my location released at all.
    2. No, Normally not released, but I would be able to release it by selecting an option.
    3. Yes, but only to services approved by (My network operator).
    4. Yes, released on all calls, except when I specifically specify not to release when answering the call.
    5. Yes, released on all calls. .
    Would you allow the tracking of your phone to enable (My network operator) and other companies to extract statistical information on your movements for providing information on traffic congestion and other services. All identification information would me masked so it would not be possible to identify you from this data?

    1. Yes. I would trust (My network operator) to manage this information securely.
    2. Yes, Only if I then had access to the traffic information.
    3. Yes, but I would want to select who received the information about me.
    4. No, I would want to opt out of this sort of service.
    5. No, I don't think (My network operator) should collect or release this information..
    Would you want (My network operator) and other companies to send you information messages about events happening near to you?

    1. Yes, only when I requested them.
    2. Yes, as soon as they happen and I am in the area.
    3. Yes, but I would want to select which companies information I receive.
    4. No, I would want to opt out of this sort of service.
    5. No, I don't think (My network operator) should collect or release this information..
    Would you be interested in a find a friend service. The network would look thorough a list of your friends numbers to see if any of them were near you. Only friends on your list would be able to find you?

    1. Yes, I would not mind my friends knowing I was nearby.
    2. Yes, but I would want to be able to disable the service, so I could not be found.
    3. Yes, but I would want to know who was looking for me before releasing anything to my friend.
    4. Yes, but I would only expect to pay if the system found a friend for me.
    5. No, I would not want this sort of service.
    6. No, I don't think (My network operator) should offer this sort of service.

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