Nov 2

Phone 2.0 : My thing that used to be a phone   Posted by sharps, tagged with bluetooth gps palm tomtom treo

As much as I like my Treo650 (see previous posts here and here) and use it for pretty much everything - navigation (via BlueTooth GPS), listening to audiobooks, music and podcasts, email, news alerts, checking the weather, browsing, general organizing and occasionally making phone calls; it's not quite the 'one gadget to rule them all' - but it does come pretty close. I'm constantly thinking ways that tighter integration of the features would really add value above and beyond the value of the individual features.

Here's a couple of examples, the latest version of the TomTom nav. software I use has a couple of neat features :

1. TomTom allows you to get real-time traffic information for the route you currently have planned - I have used this feature and can confirm it works - I've even used it to re-route around an accident. Neat but no good enough - the majority of hold ups I encounter are just your run-of-the-mill high traffic density delays - and TomTom doesn't really provide much detail about those - presumably because there's no sensor grid covering all the freeways in the US to give accurate traffic flow information. But hold on - what if every GPS system had the ability to share local information - ie. could share speed / route telemetry with a central server that could build up an accurate real-time picture of the traffic flow - ie. drivers ahead of you on US 101 could essentially help you avoid the slow jam they were in. That would be neat - share local information to everyone's benefit.

2. TomTom has a nice feature in it's directory lookup - eg. mid route, you can lookup the nearest gas station, kids park, store or restaurant - it even gives you the opportunity to phone them (eg. if you wanted to check they were open). Again, pretty good - but not good enough - TomTom hs it's own internal and fairly limited database - what I really want is to be able to quickly do a search (ala Google) with some implied search terms related to my current location and future destination. So when I'm driving back from Soccer - I can simply ask to be routed to the nearest Taco joint or more likely in my case the nearest chiropractor ;). This would be an especially useful feature when you're travelling - eg. in a foreign city (where asking directions is often a challenge).

3. Here's another idea - now that I have added location to my identity - how can I share it ? Just as I share my photos and thoughts on the web - in certain cases, I'd actually like to share my location - especially with friends and co-workers - if you've travelled you've probably had that call @ 3am in the morning on your cell phone from one of your office neighbours to see if you want to go for a coffee (they didn't know you were in a different time-zone). Another example - when I'm at a conference - I'd like to know if some of my contacts on my social-network are around - it would be nice to meet in person. Clearly - I want to control who I share my location information with because I don't want to start getting smart-location-aware-spam !!

If you work for Palm (or other gadget vendor) and want more ideas - I'd be happy to share in return for toys !!

Technorati Tags : Treo650, Mashup, Location, Web2.0, Phone2.0