Yesterday, T-Mobile pushed a firmware update for G1 phones. RC33 doesn’t include Cupcake, but it does fix some random stuff. The hanging on Messaging was getting pretty annoying. It would do it with anyone I had a long texting history with.
As a special bonus, it includes native support for Google Latitude built into the Maps application. If you haven’t heard, it’s basically Google’s answer to Twitter. You can set updates to your friends with your location, a short message, or even a picture (but it would be through MMS). You can manually post your location whenever you wish, or you can have it automatically track you through your phone’s GPS.
As you can imagine, there’s already a ton of articles out about how dangerous Google Latitude could be.
Consider this article. Is the author’s wife right to be concerned that he has geo-tagged pictures of their home (with valuables in the background) and then revealed that he was leaving town without her for a business trip? Are you scared that someone could find a time-stamped and geo-tagged photo of you in a public place and then follow your stream to find out where you lived?
I don’t have much in the way of valuables or good looks, nor do I think I’m particularly offensive to people around me, so I’m not worried about being stalked, robbed, raped and/or killed. (Not necessarily in that order.) But it could be a lot easier nowadays with all the location-based technology there is out there.
I remember back in the good old days when finding people was a challenge and I was 1337.
By the way, I geo-tag my posts, so I’ve been trackable for a while. You’d have to catch me around the time I posted to be sure it was accurate, though. And I’ve enabled my phone to automatically track me, so feel free to send me a stalking invite if you’re so inclined.
what’s your gmail addy?
Oh yeah, sorry…
dinhluong at you know the rest.