Word: phoning
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Rachel's first breathless call was to her grandparents. "Guess what, I have my own cell phone," exclaimed the cutting-edge fourth-grader through her shiny, tricked-out handset. The perplexed, interstate scowls at other end of the line were easy to envision. "Why do you need that?" retorted her disapproving elders virtually in unison. My nine-year-old didn't have an immediate answer, but instinctively and ineffably, she knew she had arrived...
Your cell phone is spying on you, but don't be afraid. Thanks to better mapping technology and hyperlocal services tailored to the small screen, the latest wireless gadgets can automatically pinpoint your location and then direct you to everything from the nearest Chinese restaurant to where your friends are hanging out. And while it may seem creepy to have your phone keeping tabs on you even when you're sleeping, this isn't some Homeland Security nightmare. It's just an easier way to find people and places nearby...
Mobile social networking is hot. The new Drift phone from Helio comes with a feature called Buddy Beacon that lets you see your location on a map that pops up onscreen, thanks to the global positioning system (GPS) chip built into the phone. You can also see where any of your friends are--assuming that they authorize it and own the same $225 phone. Targeted at teens and twentysomethings, the idea is that if you always knew your friends' whereabouts, it would be that much easier to meet up with them. "We create a natural extension of what people already...
...cyberstalking your friends isn't your bag, you can still use your phone's GPS genius to find businesses or get driving directions on the fly. Sure, this option was already available on some phones without GPS, but it worked so poorly that hardly anyone ever used it. Now the $200 Verizon enV, a smartphone released in January, shows your position on a map and suggests everything from dry cleaners to plumbers nearby. Other cool offerings include the Dash Express, a $700 portable car navigation system on sale this spring with Yahoo!'s Go! local search...
...these GPS gizmos? After all, not everyone is willing to pay $100 a month to hound her friends. Free services, on the other hand, make money on advertising. But there's not much room for ads on a screen about as big as a Post-it. The mobile-phone ad market brought in just $200 million in 2006, according to the Yankee Group, vs. $16 billion for online ads. Nonetheless, ABI Research expects revenues for location-based services in North America to spiral from less than $1 billion last year to more than $13 billion by 2011, partly because...