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Samsung Releases GPS Phone
To save everyone from downloading that PDF file, here's the relevant section (innovative capitalization and punctuation in the original):
"America's First GPS Enabled Wireless Phone Designed to Support Location Based Services of the Future Imagine having a phone that can use GPS technology to provide you with....
- Driving directions
- Traffic service
- Entertainment/services location
- 911 emergency location services
- Location of family/friends
Location services for 911 calls are not currently available. While these services are not available today (or) (are still under development), this leading edge phone has the technology required to support such network based services upon their launch.
Settings
The settings allow you to turn the Position Location ON or OFF. If the option is turned OFF, the Sprint PCS Network cannot locate your position using the Position Location feature. This option is automatically turned ON when an emergency call is placed, then turned back OFF when the call is completed.
To turn Position Location ON or OFF:
1. Press for Main Menu.
2. Press for Locator.
3. Press for Settings.
4. Read the Position Location disclaimer by using the Up & Down arrows.
5. Press to display the Setting screen.
6. Press the Up or Down arrows to cycle between the available choices.
7. Press to Save and exit.
We all knew this was going to happen. It begins, wearable, trackable equipment... It can turn itself on? That can't be good.
Jim
It bugs me that slashdot is so US centric. These babies have been available for ages in other parts of the world, so what is the news?
--
nyri
Ah.. But can you use the phone as an external GPS device? i.e, can it out put NMEA data for use with a palm or other handheld as an external GPS reciever? Now that would be useful.
How about a story that details the gross unreliability of Slashdot: Either it's not responding or when you go to submit or delve into a thread you either get an error or get dumped back to the main page. It's been like this for several days now and I'd say has a 75% reliable uptime lately. It would be nice to be told what's up rather than the Microsoft approach of "the problem must be on your end".
I'll bet you could hack the phones to relay a different GPS coordinate than they're located at. Imagine prank calling someone and they do a trace, only to see that you're somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean...
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
They could combine a GPS-enabled phone with a scent-detecting device. At some point in time, it'll detect the presence of burning bud and have a pizza delivered to wherever you happen to be.
Ooohyeah.
GSM can locate you within a cell, why waste time, money, intellectual powers, technology on something it's not intended for. As for the one useful feature - the map - if you need it get a normal gps for your car (or hand.) Just as usefull.
Look a monkey!
The evil hacker from Charlie's Angels won't have to spend so much effort to track down Charlie.
Guvegrra?
At this year's world orienteering championships in Finland a GPS based tracking system has been used to track the competitors (and provide this information to the spectators).
Technically it is a mobile phone from Benefon integrated into a vest and a seperate GPS antenna (also in the vest) to improve reception. Every 20 seconds a SMS is sent to a server with the position information.
Moe finally tracks Bart prank calls cuz he used Homer's Samsung phone with GPS enabled on by default. :)
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
Of course we're all waiting for the day when even more is integrated - and it'll come fairly soon. It takes very very little more to add a voice recorder, an MP3 player, and user programmability (via something like Java). You could program it to track your kids and phone in their location every 15 minutes. Haha, the heck with privacy from the phone companies, how about the parents???
It will take a bit more for a fully functional computation device - that'll take some seious improvement in user interface technology for small devices. We're still a ways away from big displays on an ever shrinking device - I think it's time for the paradigm shift to kick in away from LCD displays - and cell phone technology is just the incentive. As long as those patenteers stay away from monopolizing good ideas!
How about offering one of those to Osama bin Laden and his followers? Don't they need one to keep in touch with each other?
Karma stuck at 50? Add 2-5 inches.. err.. 2-5x Karmas Count to your pen1es.. err.. Karma all naturally and private
Okay, you have a Samsung phone that can pinpoint your location (should you choose to let it)...
In Portland, OR (I used to live there), they have some of these electronic billboards that can cycle through a set of animated advertisements. Imagine having a number of these everywhere, that could automatically change their ads based upon who happens to be standing around or driving by...
Scary or kinda cool (from a tech standpoint anyway)?
-----
"You spilled my egg... I needed that egg."
And with a bit of work could lead the cops to your stolen phone/goods. Would be nice to have a GPS modem as well for tracking stolen hardware.
make Linux, not Microsoft. sin(beast) = -0.809016994374947424102293417182819
Ok being paranoid about GPS letting "big brother" track you is stupid. The phone company has to track you anyway because if they don't your calls will get dropped whenever you leave a cell. They have to know where you are and where you're going so they can hand you off from one tower to the next as you drive. Just having your average cell phone turned on allows the phone company to track you.
Its easy to be paranoid when you're stupid.
According to this commweb article you can only disable the commercial services, not the E911 services. So for privacy measures, you'd still be able to be tracked.
You'll probably get problems like:
You can only use this coolcompany-steeringwheel when you've got the gps on.....
the world is evil...
GPS is cool, and future emergency GPS location will be cool too.
What concerns me is that the phone relies on the network to get restaurant and driving directions. My Visor with appropriate GPS springboard and something like Vindigo allows me to find nearby stuff using a local database (i.e., on the client). My SprintPCS phone has a feature that lets me set an alarm at a specific time. However, this feature only works when my phone is in the phone network. That is, even though my phone should be perfectly capable of keeping time, it needs a digital PCS signal to actually do so.
If I use this phone to do anything with the GPS aside from finding my own location, I'm forced to send the PCS network my location. While I really don't care that much about the privacy of my whereabouts, I certainly don't need anyone sending me ads targeted to my present location.
Buy Hex-Rated Stuff, fight the DMCA!
privacy concerns need not worry. According to the manual (p122, large pdf file)
the user does have the ability to turn the 'Position Location' off.
I'm one of those with privacy concerns, but this phone does nothing to allay my concerns.
I want to use the nifty features but still have my privacy. Why does the deal have to be "use the feature and be abused by having the information used without your knowledge?" Why can't seemingly smart people figure stuff like this out?
The Nobel Prize (that's like a +1 Informative) in economics was awarded today in part for the research that showed how one side of a transaction having information that the other side doesn't have can tilt the balance so far that the market fails. I'd like to be able to walk into a shop and negotiate a price that is not based on full knowledge of my movements (perhaps at a competitor) being revealed.
yes, I could turn off the service, but that is a Luddite response which has nothing whatever to do with protecting privacy. Please God, make people smarter: privacy entails a lot more than checking "Jedi Knight" on the census form, or being able to unplug a solid state disk drive when the black helicopter people come through the front door. It's about being able to enjoy the fruits of the modern economy without being abused.
Sorry, gang, but this "innovation" seems utterly useless. Here's why.
1) Why do you need a GPS phone? If you don't know where you are, you ask, or buy a map for a buck or two. The only people who would ever buy a GPS phone are the same kinds of people who get confused looking at rotary telephones.
2) Paper maps don't run out of batteries, or break.
3) Paper maps wont cost you $30 a month.
4) There are plenty of Road Atlases available in bookstores, many of which provide comprehensive data on where you are and where you want to go. They cover every major metropolitan city in the world, streets and landmarks included, and cost a fraction of the amount of money you'de blow on a useless (not to mention difficult to read) GPS phone that will not only eat your batteries, but will eat your money.
5) The GPS doesn't provide you with any unique information. Your speed, distance and travel times can all be figured out in your head or on paper, probably in less time it takes you to fire up the damn thing and take a reading from satellites.
6) Only titanic idiots ever get themselves truly lost anyway. Trust me, I live near a forest preserve. Morons go in there all the time, totally unprepared, no maps, no money, no clue. If you suddenly find yourself so far away from civilization that you need to use a GPS to locate your position (nice fantasy world there, by the way) , you sure as hell aren't going to be able to place a cellphone call. There wont be any nearby towers to handle the call. Gee, didn't think about THAT one, didja?
7) A five-minute reading of any basic book on Astronomy will teach you how to find your location anywhere on earth, day or night.
You don't even need a magnetic compass.
So, who wants to step up to the plate and give me ONE irrefutable reason why ANYONE would NEED a GPS-Enabled Cell Phone?
Cheers, (and yes, PROPAGANDA is still running,
Bowie J. Poag
Can't they get a pretty good reading on where you are using triangulation between the different cells? Or is that only in the movies?
Putting evil tracking putposes aside for a moment, if all cars had these in them, and anonmously relayed location and speed info a system could be setup to route cars around roads just like packets around a network.... It holds some neat promise, but lots of technical and social things to work out.
-Paul
I want a phone that is advertised to get me laid more. then I'm happy. until then my 8890 is plenty cool.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
If it's an evil plot, rest assured it isn't a corporate one. The FCC's requirements for E911 service are putting a whole lot of pressure on the cell providers, who face stiff fines and executive action if they can't use their phones to track you by 2005. If you think that the FCC is overstepping it's bounds with this one (I personally thing a regulated spectrum is an overstepped boundary, but that's just me) you know what to do.
I rejoice that there are owls.
well, i'll rest easier knowing my privacy is insured, and in case someone does find me, what, i pay my premium, and they pay out a giant claim?
wishing corporate america had a spell-checker, bob.
I find it strange that this phone boasts that it's the world's first GPS-enabled phone, yet the GPS features only take up two pages of text in the manual, and one of those is the title page.
... it turns them back on for the duration of any emergency calls. Aside from 911, how would the phone know what constitutes an emergency phone call?
Also, the manual mentions that if you've got GPS features turned off
"Hi we're just calling to let you know, Vinny and 'Low Blow' McGurk are on they're way to break your legs at the corner of 99th St. and 101st Ave, please stand by"
crazy dynamite monkey
Anyone got a timeframe for when one of these things can actually be USED?
How DARE you steal the fp without the all-knowing AC's permission? How dare you post insigtful things before we say grace? The troll queda will have revenge for this!!!
I think that tracking should always be on! It would help prevent terrorism!
Prehaps congress should institute legislation which requires all cell phones to have GPS technology built in. And digital music protection, just to be safe.
Why hasn't the media reported this?:
Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy:
Caspian Sea Region
The most important thing is this: The ability to turn it off. There is no valid reason for anyone to have the potential to track where my phone is if I choose to not want that feature.
Good for Samsung! Just think if the phone ran Micro$oft Windows CE?
yes afghanistan is strategically important in terms of petroleum. fine so we kill two birds with one stone (hurt bin Laden etc and stabilize the region and make it easier to get the oil). i have no problem with that.
trolls, sllort, whatever. my user info is broken too, it's a known bug. he makes a good point!
Think you could post a few more articles about GPS man?
Who cares, GPS is not that exciting, i don't think geeks really care, it's mildly nifty at best.
Give the GPS crap a break...
man I dunno we should just try it out sometime. It's just a suggestion. I dunno. Let me see how are we doing on time, hal? OK we have time for one more. This one comes from the baseball herald and uhhh
is that tracking is turned on by default. Why do I think this?
I'm sure I'm NOT the only one (by far) who thinks this way, but here goes anyhow: They have a huge opportunity to collect detailed market data if they leave it on by default. For now, this probably isn't a huge deal, but you can bet they'll get very good very quickly at mining the data.
Next thing you know, you wake up one morning to a mailbox full of pizza coupons (sent by various partners to your cell provider), due to the fact that you skipped into a Pizza Hut the night before to say hi to a few friends.
Just FYI, I'm not trying to be truly extreme here. I personally love the possibilities opened up by this technology (gotta get me one of those). I'm just typically a bit wary of the marketing implications of anything like this. Thoughts? Flames? Please send on, I'm looking for other perspectives here.
Folks might like to look at http://www.fcc.gov/e911/ to see why this is being done.
Basically, this US mandate requires among other things, that mobile phone handsets that are capable of reporting location must be on sale by 1 October 2001, and that 100% of mobile phones sold after 31 December 2002 must include such capabilities.
Required accuracy of location reporting will initially be to within 50 meters for 67% of calls and within 150 meters for 95% of calls.
Of course, there are many other benefits too - but also many worries I guess.
-- Mike
> The manual doesn't say whether the phone
> initially defaults to "Tracking On" or "Off".
But the press release does. It says the service is 'opt in'. I took that to mean GPS is off by default.
yeah, like Jesus cares.
http://www.signalsoftcorp.com
Now when I'm stuck in traffic I can look at my phone to find out that traffic is bad.
I don't really mind double posts on
The story is about a cell phone. Why did Slashdot use the PDA icon? Wait, let me guess, they couldn't find a picture of a cell phone. Typical /. research -- none.
There's an AIM chat client. But if the person you're chatting with sends to you while you're composing a message, you lose the message.
The voice dial feature uses a completely separate phone book from the regular dialer. So you have to put in some numbers twice.
Despite all the connectivity features, you simply have to enter phone book info by hand, period.
There's a handy little button to turn the bell into a vibrator, so you won't get lynched if your phone rings in the movie theater. Except that button only controls voice calls...
I could go on and on, but you get the idea. I think it's safe to assume that the GPS part will never do anything really useful. Maybe someday, Sprint will get it together enough to have the phone say, "Hey, you want Szechuan? The Blue Lotus is 2.3 kilometer's NNE!" But I'll lay money they'll never get this tied into your Mapblast account!
Here is a thought. Have people voluntarily turn on the GPS tracking feature (not me). When the user makes a call, have Sprint monitor the strength of the signal and the location of the reciever. If you do this enough, with enough people, you can make an accurate map of signal strength across the country.
Then, when RadioShack tells me that SprintPCS will work in XX area (which I know is not the case most of the time), I can show them a map and say, "In fact, no. Look at the map!"
--- At my sig, unleash hell.
Just my $0.02 worth
-mrbkap
...like the guy from myboot says, the first line of any conversation involving a cell-phone is "Where are you?"
:^)
This provide a handy way to stop that.
--Robert
Because you can choose not to buy the thing! One more difficult problem in security solved with one swell foop.
Besides which, if you're on a digital cellphone, they can triangulate your position from various cell sites anyway.
"The question isn't whether you're paranoid, Lenny, the question is whether you're paranoid enough."
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Does this use satellites or cell sites to figure out the position? If it uses cell sites, it wouldn't help much in places where there is no cell service.
I read an article in Wired a while back that the folks over at MIT's "Oxygen" project are working on a way to use these phones as a type of realtime cursor. They say that with an electronic compass and GPS (military grade), you would be able to point your phone at a building and the phone could tell you information about the building. The example they cited was a restaurant where the phone gave you the menu for the restaurant from out in the street, and offered you the chance to make a reservation. I thought it was pretty cool.
Of course, if I think about it hard, maybe that isn't such a great idea. I can just picture what the cell phone would say about my house in five years:
Address: 1313 Mockingbird Lane
Phone: 699-555-1212
Type: Residence
Owner: LDOPA1
Currently: Masturbating
I don't think I want that to happen...
The Dopester
"Yes, I'm a Karma Whore, but I'm doing it to pay my way through school."
Hey!
I hate to come off sounding like too much of a purist (and will probably even get modded to OT for this), but...
How is the PDA icon for a CellPhone accurate? Granted this thing is far more than a Cell, but I don't think it warents the PDA icon...
Sorry... Just a random thought...
I'm not a prophet or a stone-age man,
I'm just a mortal with potential of a super man.
Whoever rated this as offtopic has obviously not seen the simpsons ever. Stupid fuck. Might as well rate the other ones in this thread as offtopic too. Cunt.
If I remember correctly, the first commercial GPS cellphone was the NaviTalk by Garmin . It was released a few years ago, and was recently updated.
-john
I used to be a Sprint customer. This phone is exclusive to the Sprint network.
Let me give to you some advice, if you are thinking about buying this phone;
Phoenix Arizona has pretty good Sprint service. I never had a problem there.
I hear that Salt Lake City Utah also has pretty good service.
Service in Denver Colorado is DEATH! When I moved here, my phone was constantly beeping as it went in and out of service, in the middle of the damn city! Service was often oversubscribed and incoming calls were missed, outgoing calls were sometimes not possible.
Trying to cancel my service was the worst though. They refused to do it! I had to call back three times before I got someone who I only had to say "Will you please cancel my service" a mere three times to before they actually did it. They were desperate to not let me cancel the service.
Horrid.
If I understand it correctly, a service provider already knows where you are accurate to a cell. Therefore, they already have the information to suggest nearby restaurants, cinemas, etc. - they do not *really* need GPS to tell you that! Or am I missing something here?
rmathew.com
It would have been pretty sweet if I could have called my cell provider, asked them where my phone was, and sent the cops to pick up the perps and my vehicle.
That LoJack thingie is a good idea, but GPS location under *my* control for *my* property is something I'd definitely buy.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Because most Americans are paranoids it is so easy to attack you.
..."bite my shiny metal European ass!" ;)
I'm reading reply's to this news and it sure makes me laugh!
Please take a chill pill and enjoy the 21 century and new services (in Europe its well known and used for long time) with your mobile phones.
Cheers and BTW
"Read the Position Location disclaimer by using the Up & Down arrows"
Hem,
This asks for a disclaimer ?
like in EULA ?
such as "this device cannot be used to track you except if somebody really wants to track you he'll just have to dial your phone number and reprogram your locator if needs be" ?
I would like to have a look at this disclaimer beforehand, oplease...
THEN, I was willing to buy a Palm Vx just for the cheap GPS, but if this does GPS and phone, when will they add PDA ?
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
this is when, you americans having a broad sense of humor, that the guy @ police station reports you position to his superior, who calls the Navy to see if they have any Destroyer or sub in the location....
and then they nuke you out of sheer boredom. 8)
BTW a locator is good, but if you prank this way you should better also hide your caller ID, phone serial, chip code & serial, and call throught an unregistered network, for those track you too...
(I am pleased to remind you that your phone broadcasts your location every 30 seconds to cinfirm the relays you are at this location, and this is done throught many codes and auto ID...
So nowaday, if you want to prank, you just steal somebodys phone, use it, return it, and then smile when he/she gets busted by the feds.
Hoping to hear from you 8)
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
More interesting are the issues around release of location information, how would /. Readers respond to these questions?
Would you be prepared to release your location when making calls, in much the same way that your phone number is currently released. Your location could only be read by those with appropriate equipment. We will probably be required by law to release this information on all emergency services calls (999, 112 911)?
- No, I would not want my location released at all. (except emergency calls)
- No, Normally not released, but I would be able to release it by selecting an option when making a call.
- Yes, but only to services approved by (My network operator).
- Yes, released on all calls, except when I specifically specify not to release the location.
- Yes, released on all calls.
Would you want the location of callers calling you (who have released their location) displayed on your phone display?- Yes, display the grid reference of the caller.
- Yes, display the direction and distance of the caller from my current location.
- Yes, display the nearest town name to the location of the caller.
- Yes, but only if the information was provided free of charge to me.
- No, I would not be interested in this.
. Would you allow the release of you current location to a caller who is calling you?- No, I would not want my location released at all.
- No, Normally not released, but I would be able to release it by selecting an option.
- Yes, but only to services approved by (My network operator).
- Yes, released on all calls, except when I specifically specify not to release when answering the call.
- Yes, released on all calls.
.
Would you allow the tracking of your phone to enable (My network operator) and other companies to extract statistical information on your movements for providing information on traffic congestion and other services. All identification information would me masked so it would not be possible to identify you from this data?- Yes. I would trust (My network operator) to manage this information securely.
- Yes, Only if I then had access to the traffic information.
- Yes, but I would want to select who received the information about me.
- No, I would want to opt out of this sort of service.
- No, I don't think (My network operator) should collect or release this information..
Would you want (My network operator) and other companies to send you information messages about events happening near to you?- Yes, only when I requested them.
- Yes, as soon as they happen and I am in the area.
- Yes, but I would want to select which companies information I receive.
- No, I would want to opt out of this sort of service.
- No, I don't think (My network operator) should collect or release this information..
Would you be interested in a find a friend service. The network would look thorough a list of your friends numbers to see if any of them were near you. Only friends on your list would be able to find you?curtail the usefulness of such a phone:
I guess this makes it useful if you have the phone in the car, hooked up to the car's power supply and antenna. Not very good though for city animals like myself!
Personally, I'd like to see base-state triangulation done by the phone combined with GPS. That would be cool.