> There are plenty of other wireless commodity devices in the world > that can be programmed. Why not spend some energy on discussing those > instead...
I agree with Jim here. But it does bear witness to the unfortunate ways corporate decisions have continued to hamper development of geolocative services. The providers have kept gouging for the services, in my opinion as a way to hold the market hostage for some holy grail of billable monies. Once upon a time it used to be they crippled wireless traffic because of genuine throughput issues (can you say Ardis?) but it's fair to say that's no longer as much of an issue. The upside is if Apple's vaporware phone is in enough hands it MAY serve as a mechanism to drive change in phone provider mentalities. I'm not holding out a lot of hope for that, but it's clear none of the other players in the phone market have been willing/able to make the effort. I mean, look at what a train wreck it's been. First the network's too slow, then they overcharge for it (to hide the slowness). Then they turn around and SELL YOUR PHONE RECORDS. Imagine why the public is gunshy, it's too expensive and they'll pimp your usage data to anyone with a buck. Gee, what's the next story that'll be in the news; burglars start trolling social networking maps and amazon wishlists to find out who's got the goods, and when they're not home. Meanwhile I'd really like a decent feedback loop between my home, the services I use and the products I buy, and the locations I travel, WITHOUT being pimped out to telemarketers and criminals. And I'd like it cheap. I'm, of course, not holding my breath. It's probably a topic worth further discussion. But is this the right list for it? -Bill Kearney Syndic8.com _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking
