There's a fascinating piece over at Unwired View on a recent Google patent application for 'activating applications based on accelerometer data'. Along the lines of Rafe's thoughts on smarter software (of which more in Monday's podcast), the idea is that your phone detects what you're up to and automatically presents the applications it thinks you might need. Is this a step in the right direction or the tip of a dangerous iceberg? My thoughts below.
Read on in the full article.
Well, we don't need Google to do this,
check mobots.org and do it now on your Symbian.
On Pocketinfo there was recently dicussions about :
1. SMS - messaging while driving ( car , scooter , bike , segway)
2. Calling while driving ( idem )
These situations can be described as : Regardless Unlead Projectiles moving through the real world .
A smart set of sensors could stop this , for instance by making the Network unavailable , or maybe just shutting down the smartphone .
Google could be a great help for the real world . I mean both : the Phone-user and possible victims .
😊 Regards jApi NL
This should strike fear into those of us who remember the versions of MS office in which "Clippy" can't be turned off.
"It looks like you're getting into the car, would you like some help with navigation?"
"It looks like you're lost. Would you like some assistance?"
"It looks as if you're about to throw your mobile device into the canal. Would you like some help with that?"
neilhoskins wrote:This should strike fear into those of us who remember the versions of MS office in which "Clippy" can't be turned off.
I personally love the location based apps that I am using. I am currently using handy profiles which automatically switches my phone to silent during meetings (provided of course I have it on my calendar), and also when I go to watch movies at certain multiplexes. I also use a different profile when in office (a more quite one) and I dont have to remember to switch it when I am in office.
More apps like these will certainly be useful.
jApi NL wrote:On Pocketinfo there was recently dicussions about :
1. SMS - messaging while driving ( car , scooter , bike , segway)
2. Calling while driving ( idem )
These situations can be described as : Regardless Unlead Projectiles moving through the real world .
A smart set of sensors could stop this , for instance by making the Network unavailable , or maybe just shutting down the smartphone .
Google could be a great help for the real world . I mean both : the Phone-user and possible victims .😊 Regards jApi NL
Good plan; I personally have no deisre to use my phone while on a passenger on a bus. Or (in the shutting down case) to use the GPS system that has been so expertly included in my device while driving or to play music via A2DP through my car's speakers.
More seriously, I suspect that because of these use cases (which are just off the top of my head, there are probably loads of other) your idea would never get off the ground.
Why don't you just let Google plant an RfID chip in you bottom? Let us not forget that google is a marketing company. I was the CIO at Americas second largest direct marketing company and our holy grail was tracking consumers behavioral activity. You can lie on surveys, interviews, focus groups, but your activities tell me more about you then psychoanalysis.
If you have a major credit card they can tell with 98.7 % certainty if you will be divorced within 18 months. But purchase data is not as reliable as activity data (You may have bought nappies at the chemists, for a friend, but you don't have kids.)
That is why I will always buy my Nokia's unlocked - Love Nokia apps because they are not a maketing company and only want to tie me to Nokia products - not sell my data or invade my privacy with push marketing. Never load ANY Google, Yahoo, MS apps because they violate my privacy.
Think about it...
Smart apps are great...but all google apps feed user data back to the mothership. You pay for these "Free" apps by allowing google to read your data. They read your g-mail, read your agenda if you sync, capture your wherabouts with latitude.
Patenting this would prevent software development (by non-marketing entities) form creating useful software that does not violate the users privacy.