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Helio had this available in 2006 They called it "Buddy Beacon":

Buddy Beacon is the new way for Helio members to synchronize their social lives and tell friends where the fun is. Rather than calling or texting, Helio members can switch on their Buddy Beacon and use satellite technology to broadcast their location to the friends they add to their Buddy List. When they turn on Buddy Beacon, their Buddy List friends can see their location on a map along with a nearby address. Members can add up to 25 Buddies to their Buddy List. When members change locations and want to let everyone know the party is on the move, one simple command refreshes the location. Want to hide out? Just leave Buddy Beacon off to enjoy a night of privacy or to slip out the back of the club into the VIP room."

That's been out since 2006. It's been available for the iPhone since April 2008. Google is late to the party on this.

Mobile carrier Helio was founded by known Scientologist Sky Dayton. Like Diskeeper's founder, Sky Dayton also abused his position to promote Scientology, but Sky was a bit more subtle about it. On two occasions an Exchange meeting invite for a presentation located in a conference room in Helio's corporate headquarters was sent to the entire company. The invitation read, "Sky Dayton has invited representatives from his prep school alma mater, the Delphian School in Oregon [...] to do a presentation..." and contained a personal endorsement of the school by Sky. Questions were to be directed to a Helio employee in the Human Resources department. A quick bit of research revealed that the Delphian School is one of Scientology's many front organizations. Sky Dayton's recruitment of employees' children to Scientology did not stop until an employee threatened to sue under the EEOC.

You don't want to work for a Scientologist. Before you accept a job offer, find out whether the company is run by them.

Honestly, they can't call it unlimited anymore. Unlimited has a set definition. It's not open to interpretation. If you introduce caps, or limits, well, you're giving a different service.

Why? Helio still markets their "unlimited" internet with a *160MB*
limit.

3G with a 160MB limit, just like a firetruck using a silly-straw to put out fires.

At least Verizon's "unlimited" plans have a 5GB limit but they don't let you use Wifi.

Honestly, they can't call it unlimited anymore. Unlimited has a set definition. It's not open to interpretation. If you introduce caps, or limits, well, you're giving a different service.

Why? Helio still markets their "unlimited" internet with a *160MB*
limit.

3G with a 160MB limit, just like a firetruck using a silly-straw to put out fires.

At least Verizon's "unlimited" plans have a 5GB limit but they don't let you use Wifi.

Apple should have started up their own cell phone company. ;-) Or at least bought some tower space (?) on an existing network.

Starting up a new cell phone company is extraordinarily cost prohibitive, even if you can get the spectrum in the first place. Ditto for co-locating on anyone else's towers. A much more viable option would've been for Apple to become an MVNO like Helio .

Unfortunately, the Ma Bell attitude continues to prevail to this day. The carriers' fascist control over cell phone devices suffocates any potential innovation in them. The same thing happened with wired phone service until the FCC enacted the Carterphone regulations. The sad thing is, it will continue to happen for wireless devices until the FCC extends those regulations to the wireless industry.

Until then or until a new carrier comes along with something different, I plan on continuing with a phone that just simply makes calls and refuse to pay for many of those extras the cell phone carriers peddle.

For those whose soul isn't currently owned by the traditional carriers, it may be worth checking out Helio. They seem to offer a lot more value and innovation in their phones. Their plans aren't unreasonable and they have good coverage due to leasing capacity from the traditional carriers. There may be some hope after all.

The most "location aware" portable thing right now is Helio. It has GPS. It has Myspace integration. It can display all the pizza outlets near you. It has "Buddy Beacon", so your Myspace buddies show up on a map display. It's a true 3G device. Does music, video, data, and voice phone.

What it doesn't have is customers.

The Helio store in Palo Alto is across from the Apple store. And nobody is buying. The day the iPhone came out, the Helio staff were playing GTA on the store's big display, due to a total lack of customers.

Apple's "iPhone" is really an old-style content delivery device. The new frontier is social networking. Check out Helio. Helio integrates Myspace, GPS, and mapping. BuddyBeacon shows where your friends are, on Yahoo maps. Apple has nothing like that.

Helio is a 3G device, too. Music, videos, fast web browsing, and more. Plus stereo Bluetooth - no more dweebish white wires.

Across the street from the Apple store in Palo Alto, we have the Helio store. Helio "don't call it a phone" is another integrated communicator device, and may be cooler than the iPhone. Not only does it have music and video, but it has direct Myspace integration. There's "Buddy Beacon"; if you're not in "cloaking mode", your position shows on your friends' maps. These are integrated, of course. Social networking is now location-aware.

The iPhone is mostly about content delivery, "Web 1.0" stuff. Helio is more about social networking, "Web 2.0" stuff.

Get an iPhone, get entertained. Get a Helio, get laid.

Helio is a joint venture between South Korea's SK Telecom and EarthLink. They launched a slick new device (don't call it a phone =)) last week called the Drift that includes a hybrid GPS receiver (real GPS and A-GPS). It launched with a couple of GPS-enabled services: GPS-enabled Google maps and Buddy Beacon. The latter sounds pretty similar to Boost's solution, but takes a different approach to privacy.

With Buddy Beacon, users must intentionally broadcast their location to their friends list. It does not constantly track your whereabouts and auto-broadcast your new locale. It's more like "find me here" than "i'm searching for so-and-so..."

Helio is a joint venture between South Korea's SK Telecom and EarthLink. They launched a slick new device (don't call it a phone =)) last week called the Drift that includes a hybrid GPS receiver (real GPS and A-GPS). It launched with a couple of GPS-enabled services: GPS-enabled Google maps and Buddy Beacon. The latter sounds pretty similar to Boost's solution, but takes a different approach to privacy.

With Buddy Beacon, users must intentionally broadcast their location to their friends list. It does not constantly track your whereabouts and auto-broadcast your new locale. It's more like "find me here" than "i'm searching for so-and-so..."