So, as one might expect given my propensity to hack around with google maps, I’m fascinated by the idea of GPS receivers inside cellular phones. Cell phones have a significant advantage over traditional GPS devices in that not only can they pinpoint your location, they can immediately send that information. Immediately upon receiving your location, a 3rd party (say, your cell provider, google maps, etc…) can return relevant location-based information. Very cool.
Nearly all cell phones now have forms of GPS capability built-in, as GPS is now required by the U.S. FCC for enhanced 911 services, although in many cases GPS capabilities area actually assisted GPS, estimated by proximity to cell towers and not retrieved via satellite. However, as discussed recently on NPR recently, and I’m sure many cell owners have discovered, cell users can’t necessarily get at the information. Privacy concerns are play a significant role in this, of course, though one also has to believe cell providers are protecting location information until they can figure out how to make money from it..
I discovered all this a year or so ago, with my Sanyo SCP-2300 — GPS enabled, and I could turn the GPS function on and off, but good luck getting the phone to spit out a latitude and longitude. 911 could find out where I was, though, as I discovered when I called to report dangerous roadkill on Alberta’s highway #2.
Anyway, it turns out Sprint / Nextel in the U.S. is bucking the trend, allowing access to GPS on Motorola iDen phones, which has prompted the fellows at Mologogo to write a little J2ME live tracking app which plots you (and your phone) on a google map, on your phone. As an added feature, you can specify a server URL to which to post this location when obtained (via HTTP GET), and even ask your phone to show you where your fellow mologogo-friends are. It’s also free.
In Canada, iDen phones are sold by Telus Mobility for their Mike network, and, it turns out, Telus also allows GPS access on these phones. So, when my recent move from Toronto to Edmonton provided an excuse to buy a new phone, I figured I’d try see if I could create a little live blog tracker here in Canada and hooked myself up with one of these fellows (an i850, as in the photo). It works! Wanderingken.com tracks my wanderings in real-time (provided I’ve got mologogo running and it’s sunny outside). If you’re watching at the right time, you’ll even see the marker move before your very eyes. My own little Where’s Tim.
Here’s how: You’ll need both a USB data cable (I haggled a free one from the cell store guys) and a Motorloa Java application loader. Good luck, though, on the application loader. Motorola has an application form here, but it’s rather restrictive. Or, you can try wade through this site (as I did, and ended up installing a 7-step something or other that did, actually, work). Complex as hell, and only necessary because both Sprint / Nextel and Telus see fit to disallow downloading J2ME application types via the mobile browser, something Bell Mobility, interestingly, does not restrict.
After that, you’ll need to create a little end-point url which saves latitudes and longitudes arriving as GET parameters into a server-side file, and specify this url in the mologogo preferences (on your phone). Then, map the latitude and longitude to a place name via geonames, sprinkle in a a little google maps code and an Ajax-based periodic updater, and ta-da, live tracker.
