GeoPorn™
So along with the new 3G iPhone that launched on Friday, the new 2.0 software that runs on both the new phone as well as the original iPhone was released to the public. The AppStore that was added with this update will likely have more impact in the long run than the new version of the iPhone; it’s essentially created an easily-accessible venue for eager developers writing useful (and some useless) applications to easily distribute them to eager customers.
Upon delving deeper into the AppStore for the iPhone, I find that more than a couple of the new apps utilize the ‘Location Finder’ aspect of the phone. While the new iPhone 3G uses GPS to find “where you at,” the original iPhone uses a combination of WiFi hot-spot records and mobile-phone tower triangulation to parse together an often-accurate location. There are apps that will get your location and look across Flikr to show you photos taken near where you are, others that tell you near-by restaurants, another excellent one that can tell you where the nearest subway station is.
One of the favorite in my circle of Apple-loving, iPhone-toting dorks is an iPhone client for Loopt, a funny little free app that uses the iPhone 2.0 software’s location-finding support to let you track friends who’ve naively agreed to join your friend list by showing a “pin” on a google maps-type interface. Beware: This will also betray your own location to others. Loopt then combines that with the ability to add the type of snarky one-sentence zingers you see on Twitter, which show up for anyone looking at your icon. In addition, you can keep a diary of where you’ve been if you want, as each message is paired with the location info and in chronological order. Photos too. I’m guessing that there’s going to be an update that will make the phone start ringing if you get within a few blocks of one of your friends. Maybe it’s already there; I didn’t look at all the preferences.
It occurred to me that I was starting to obsess over what you could do with this ‘geoporn,’ as I want to call it. It’s a wave that’s coming our way fast - yes, the Helio had similar friend-finder stuff, yes, ‘geo-tagging‘ photos has been around for a while (Hurry up and add support to iPhoto, Apple), but not yet on any devices that have sold as much, and therefore will be used by as many people as this new generation of mobile phones like the iPhone.
Imagine the exciting and frightening aspects of being tracked like a tagged dog - that’s about what it’s like. I’ve started getting calls from people who sound like they’ve been briefed by some high-level secret organization about my activities: “Oh yeah, I saw that you were in my area earlier, I was gonna call you.”
I’m not sure how I feel about it. You saw where I was? Or “You saw where I was and you didn’t call?” I don’t know if I’ll stay involved with it. But it is sorta cool when you notice that a good friend is only a few blocks away. I met up with someone yesterday that I never would have known was in the area - he was surprised to learn Loopt gives constant updates of one’s location.
Obviously there’s a privacy concern, and of course you can turn Loopt off or hide your location from others. But I starting wondering about all of this ‘geoporn’ again - I’m thinking it might make my life seem smaller than it feels when, paying more attention then ever, I catch on that I’m basically hovering around the same five or six blocks, or that most of my geo-tagged photos are within a one mile radius. Eh, who knows.
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Moving on, my friend Tyler Askew had an extra ticket to see Ricky Gervais perform at MSG tonight. Funny guy, although I’m not accustomed to seeing him do stand-up. Thanks Tyler, I owe you Benihana or something! But the real funny thing of the night was this phone-booth ad spotted while walking through Chelsea:
What up with that coy middle-management guy on the left? Watch that left hand, buddy! That could make the workplace an uncomfortable enviroment! At least the morning after…
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