GPS is turning cellphones into social mapping devices

Laura Holson reviews how services like Loopt and Buddy Beacon let friends keep track of each other's whereabouts using the Global Positioning System chips available in many mobile phones.

This is viewed as a boon for the Millenial Generation, who seem to not mind sharing their location, and other, details about themselves online. It may prove useful for parents tracking the location of cell-phone-toting children, and for (grown) children tracking the location of their wander-prone, Alzheimer's-diagnosed parents.

Others seem more circumspect.

"We don't know what the implications are," [Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation] added. "We seem to be getting into a period where people are closely watching each other, and there are privacy risks we haven't begun to grapple with."

Buddy Beacon is marketed to employers to keep track of employees.

Q. Social networking meets mobile mashup, or Loss of Privacy 2.0?
Photo: Ocean (black) from Helio.

Palm scuttles Foleo companion device (A Message to Palm Customers, Partners and Developers)

Ed Colligan, Palm CEO, delivered the news in a September 24, 2007 open blog message, "I have decided to cancel the Foleo mobile companion product in its current configuration and focus all of our energies on delivering our next generation platform and the first smartphones that will bring this platform to market."

The Foleo was announced in May 2007 as a mobile companion product designed to provide a readable screen and usuable keypad, to be used in conjunction with a smartphones or handheld mobile devices.

Q. Does the concept of a very portable deviced married to a slightly less portable companion lighten your travel worries, or does it weight you down?

Microsoft unveils new 'Surface' computer

Here is a look at Microsoft Surface, a Windows Vista-based PC with a 30" touch screen turned into a table. With an up to $10,000 price tag at present, Microsoft doesn't feel consumer versions may be available for up to 5 years. They should be available in T-Mobile stores by November 2007. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. and Harrah's Entertainment Inc. are among the early adopters.

Surface uses cameras mounted underneath its acrylic frame to sense external objects, and it can recognized barcodes on common items. Be sure to check out the intriguing video and article hosted by KING-TV's web site.

Q. Which surface in your work, home, or travels would be more useful if compute-enabled?