I tell you, I’m looking forward to getting hold of an Android-capable handset to try out all these wicked applications coming our way. There’s so much developer freedom — *so* much.
One application that caught my eye recently was Trak.
“Trak”, the site’s front-page reveals, “is an Android based Twitter client that can Tweet your geolocation, and read and display the geolocations of your Twitter friends. With street maps, satellite view and all.”
I’d have that in a minute. Here’s a screenshot of some Twitterers on the Trak map – I highlighted’em in red:
I can imagine applications like these being heavily, heavily used. I can’t wait to see how they perform in the real world!
What's the revenue model?
And if you can think of one – what would you be willing to pay?
Free food always attracts the masses – what would be fascinating to understand is what would it take to convert the masses to fare paying customers?
You're absolutely right Peter. That definitely remains to be seen.
In the meantime, Brightkite does something very similar.
Ah yes that's very much in my could-be-good folder. I'm looking forward to
seeing how it's actually, actually implemented. Anything that involves me
having to actually type “I'm at the Soho House Hotel” simply won't work
though. Only the geeks will do that. Your average normob can't be arsed
and will be too busy worrying about chocolate.
I've just had a look. Oh dear – you do actually have to type your location (although you can setup presets like 'home', 'work' etc). Why don't they support GPS? Surely that's the obvious solution! Fair enough, have a non-GPS option but not even giving people the ability is insane.
Yahoo also have something similar (using GPS) in the works.
I think the short answer, Martin, is because most handsets simply don't
support GPS. And if they do, you then need to write an application for each
one that will interface with it's GPS receiver and pass that to the online
service. Dream on if you want this to work with your average RAZR. Ergo
text is the way ahead.
Most GPS handsets are S60 or Windows Mobile so you'd only need 2 apps. I suppose if America is your target market then yes, text is sadly the only viable option right now but GPS will make the whole service so much easier, faster and usable.
Agreed. You've also got Blackberry too. Then you have to ignore everyone
who uses a sony, samsung, LG and so on. Arse.
Wonderful. If only Google had not bought Jaiku…I hope my point is pretty obvious. Jaiku for S60 already hints at something like that, Google not integrating it into Android is highly unlikely.
Wonderful. If only Google had not bought Jaiku…I hope my point is pretty obvious. Jaiku for S60 already hints at something like that, Google not integrating it into Android is highly unlikely.
Wonderful. If only Google had not bought Jaiku…I hope my point is pretty obvious. Jaiku for S60 already hints at something like that, Google not integrating it into Android is highly unlikely.
http://bit.ly/pt2tv do people really want to tell the world exactly where they are SCARY #android
http://bit.ly/pt2tv do people really want to tell the world exactly where they are SCARY #android