Living With Location-Aware Devices

Wired Magazine editor Mathew Honan took it upon himself to test out what it would be like to thoroughly take advantage of location aware software. Activating as many location based applications as he could, Honan tried to live an extremely open lifestyle where he constantly broadcast his every move, and actively used these applications to meet up with new people and find new things. His experience was mixed, and illustrates the complexities of dealing with this new kind of living. It seems there are many serendipitous benefits, potential mishaps and downright dangers to filtering your world with a 100% digital guide and constant monitor.

He explains the good:

I was starting to revel in the benefits of location awareness. By trusting an app (iWant) that showed me nearby dining options, I discovered an Iraqi joint in my neighborhood that I’d somehow neglected. Thanks to an app (GasBag) that displayed gas stations with current prices, I was able to find the cheapest petrol no matter where I drove. In Reno, one program (HeyWhatsThat) even gave me the names and elevation profiles of all the surrounding mountains. And another (WikiMe), which displayed Wikipedia entries about local points of interest, taught me a thing or two about the San Francisco waterfront. (Did you know the Marina District exists largely because a land speculator built a seawall in the 1890s?) These GPS tools were making me smarter.

And the not-so-good:

Geo-enthusiasts will assure you that these privacy concerns are overplayed: Your cell phone can be used to pinpoint your location anyway, and a skilled hacker could likely get that data from your mobile carrier. Heck, in the UK, tracking mobile phone users is as simple as entering their number on a Web site (as long as they give permission). But the truth is, there just aren’t that many people who want to prey on your location. Still, I can’t help being a little skittish when I start broadcasting my current position and travel plans. I mean, I used to stop newspaper delivery so people wouldn’t realize I was out of town. Now I’ve told everyone on Dopplr that I’m going to DC for five days.

Wired: “I Am Here: One Man’s Experiment With the Location-Aware Lifestyle”