Google Earth knows where I am

This photo is a screen shot from my iPhone using the Google Earth app. It can geo-locate you (see the blue dot) and then track you in realtime. I love the development of useful software that helps you based on knowing where you are.

Jim White, who us driving me today, put me onto the O2 traffic line (dial 1200 from any O2 phone) and you get traffic info based on where your phone is calling from. Cool.

Luckier than most

These two fellas, proudly displaying tickets 3 and 4, were my line-neighbours for several hours yesterday morning, in that queue of early-adopters drooling in anticipation of getting their hands on their very own iPhone 3G. I think #3 was Ashley, not sure, and you know I never asked the other fella his name. Been in England too long - people's names, where they live, work, etc is their own business! And that of every facial recognition camera in the country, I guess. Who will pass it along to the intelligence authorities, who might just have someone working there who could sell data to someone else, that ends up on Google, delivering targeted ads to your iPhone that now also knows where you are.

Numero Uno for that iPhone

Fiona - Lucky Lady Number 1

A lady called Fiona (did not ask her surname) beat me by 5 minutes into first place in the line outside the O2 store in Worthing yesterday. The ocassion was the launch of the new iPhone 3G, and I have to admit to have been anticipating its arrival for some time now. I got up at 4am, to walk into town, and getting there just before 5am. Fiona looked relieved that she was not the only silly person in West Sussex! It took about 15 minutes for number 3 to arrive, and after 6am there was a steady flow of people adding to the length of the line. It was a pretty sociable queue, especially seeing that Brits hate standing in lines at the best of times. In the first 50 or so, there were only three ladies!

I still think I could separate the hardened 'I use Apple stuff for everything' crowd from the plodders like me who are still chained by circumstance to PC and Windows Apple geeks just always seem to have that look of feeling just a little bit luckier than others.

The doors opened at 8.02 - great marketing for a company called O2, and us first two were processed in less than 10 minutes - new account, credit check, pay for the phone, and out the door. Then the O2 servers crashed mightily under the weight of every store in the country trying to register new accounts. More than 24 hours later, I still have not had my actual phone service turned on, waiting (mostly) patiently for O2 to rach me in their huge pile of pending activation requests. The new phone is awesome. I suspect it will change radically the way I can work on the road, or away from the office. The interaction opportunities for citizen journalism and field reporting are whizzing round in my head - can't wait to test some of them out.