Ed Fotheringham
Smart & Wired: Public Display of Affection
March 1, 2005
Some of the most interesting GPS uses are not yet on the market but should hit within the next few years, says Waybright, adding that future applications will merge digital photos and GPS. “Right now HP software lets you manually identify locations. The logical progression is having your handheld automatically tag an image with latitude/longitude information,” he says. “That will let you sort photos by place—so you can pull up all your Hawaii photos in a flash. In the future you’ll be able to show me on a map, ‘This photo was taken near so-and-so.’ ” Research in Motion’s Balsillie says GPS will also enable more day-to-day practical applications. “If your PDA knows your mom’s birthday is next week, it can remind you of that fact when you’re close to a store,” he says. Adds IDC’s Linsalata: “We’ve got all these people out there with PDAs. GPS lets them use their devices in another way. It expands what they can do with what they already have.
Garmin International, 913.397.8200, www.garmin.comHewlett-Packard Co., 650.857.1501, www.hp.com
IDC, 508.872.8200, www.idc.com
LoJack Corp., 800.456.5225, www.lojack.com
MapTech Inc., 888.839.5551, www.maptech.com
Navman, 866.962.8626, www.navman.com
Northport Systems, 416.920.9300, www.fugawi.com
OnStar Corp., 888.466.7827, www.onstar.com
Research in Motion, 519.888.7465, www.rim.net
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