JotYou: SMS, Only Creepier, and A Deadpool Candidate
Why would I find a service that sends you (or someone you know) an SMS creepy? Well, because it has to use GPS to know where you are!
Leo Blanco over at The Mobile Weblog (a blog I occasionally write on) discovers a service called JotYou that allows you to send SMSes to people when they get to a specific location. Sounds like a neat idea–until I see that it requires GPS in order to work unless you have a Windows Mobile device with WiFi.
As much as I spew my thoughts into the blogosphere or even on Jaiku and Twitter, where I do announce my location, I draw the line at announcing where I am down to within 100 feet, or whatever the non-military GPS satellites give me in terms of accuracy. That’s not something I’m willing to give to just anyone.
Privacy issues aside, the battery on my Nokia N95 with GPS enabled won’t last the day–it can barely do it as it is. Given that this service relies on GPS–something that just isn’t in all that many phones yet, and the fact there’s basically asking to broadcast their GPS coordinates at all times–I can’t see this idea lasting. Of course, I could be wrong.
P.S. — If you try and visit jotyou.com without Javascript enabled, you’ll end up on some other site. This link will work if you, like me, run NoScript and/or disable Javascript by default.
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Comment by anonymous
JotYou doesn’t do anything unless you explicitly run it.
Assuming you do, JotYou doesn’t track you - well - unless you explicitly use the “tracking group” feature. That feature is designed for rallys, games, footraces, etc., i.e. events where you specifically want to be tracked so people can watch progress on a Web page and map on mobile. For that 4 things must happen 1-someone creates tracking group 2-that someone (group owner) enables tracking 3-that someone invites you to group 4-you enable tracking on your mobile phone.
You (as message sender) can look to see if/when a message was delivered, but you can’t see the GPS coordinates of where the person(s) was when it was delivered. You can deduce, of course, that they were somewhere in the area you sent the message to, which has a minimum radius of about 1/2 mile. I think “they” should take this as a feature request - option to shut off visibility as to whether message was delivered or not.
I use external Bluetooth GPS with my N95, even though it has internal GPS. External gets a fix much more reliably (indoors, etc.), and battery life is 10+ hours. You didn’t mention time-to-fix, which is horrible on N95, because it’s autonomous. With external Bluetooth GPS TTF goes from a couple of minutes max to maybe 10-20 seconds max, and often a second or two.
You can’t beat WiFi for TTF or indoor use, though. Either it gets a WiFi fix or it doesn’t, When it does, it’s instant.
WiFi location can’t work on Java, unfortunately, because Java won’t allow the WiFi scan. JotYou / Windows Mobile is available now with hybrid GPS/WiFi.
The GPS/Java version already runs on N95, but of course no WiFi location support. A native Symbian with hybrid GPS/WiFi location is in the works (of course requires total rewrite of the program).
And looks like that goofball fixed the no-script-redirect error. He said to tell you “thanks phoneboy, my bad, nice catch, and pretty cool site you have here!”
Comment by PhoneBoy
I know you explicitly have to run the app–why no native S60 app? That’s not the point. The point is I’d rather not be broadcasting my GPS coordinates to anyone, if I can avoid it. Even if only the folks at JotYou see it, that’s too many people from my point of view. Then again, maybe it’s my natural paranoia or skepticism.
When GPSes are more prevalent in phones, this might be a cool app. Right now, though, it seems a little ahead of it’s time.
Comment by anonymous
OK, I understand and respect your position on this; it’s not for everyone. But to be clear, the folks at JotYou do *not* see your GPS coords either.
>>–why no native S60 app?
s60 native version will be ready in a week or 2. Trapster.com native s60 version is already released (same company).
Comment by PhoneBoy
Maybe I’ll do a piece on trapster: a social network for speeders?
Comment by anonymous
hey, the cops like it! It beeps, you slow down, they give next guy a ticket, and they slowed 2 people down!
Pingback by Trapster: Document Speed Traps On The Go
[...] I admit that I gave the folks at JotYou a bad time. Turns out they also are doing this thing called Trapster that lets people with GPS-enabled phones document the exact location a speed trap or red light camera is. [...]
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