Verba @ McAWilliams.com

What the hell is this all about, I hear you ask, well I love Twitter, so much so that I reckon Twinkle (a twitter application for the iPhone) is my most used app on the phone. I use it constantly, on the bus, in work, at home and if you have not got into twitter you should, its a great way to meet like minded people and have a chat or laugh or even gain useful information.

One thing I tried on Tuesday while on the bus into work, was to ask a question and see what sort of replies I got, I was amazed at the amount of people that replied and so decided to have a question each Tuesday and Thursday morning between 8am and 8-15am.

Todays question was in relation to the iPhone and its location capabilities. On twinkle for instance, your position in the world is found and sent to other twinkle users. Because of this you sometimes find people who you have never heard of or met replying to something you may have said.

So the question was “With the location features on the iPhone, do you find this advantageous or plain ole stalkerish”

BluPsych was first to take the bait and said “One less question for me to ask is one advantage! I use it every day in about half the programs I use”

bigstevie1275 was next up, he finds that its “a bit of both really, its good to know where other iPhone users are, but not so good if your out sick and your boss could check where you are.”

Topgold made some very valid and interesting points “You have to be comfortable with permission based stalking whenever you open your personal gear to public tracking” he continued with “Some people don’t like their passports telling near field sniffers that they are walking by! just like some people getting toothed by long range bluetooth snipers that sit outside dublin and cork cafes!”

I asked these guys what sort of distance have they set the phone at to search for people?

Bigstevie was first on here “Being that Im from Northern Ireland I’ve got mine set to 1000km so it covers both Ireland and the UK” In essence Bigstevie can see tweets from other twinkle users 1000km away.

sineadcochrane joined in at this point saying “Location based services will be great to interact with in the future, if implemented properly” things like “billboards in London train stations will send you ringtones and mp3’s. Kinda niffty. Opt out by turning bluetooth off.”

Topgold added to this with “I get a freaky feeling when a location sends me something. It’s quite lively in old East Berlin. Escorts send promo videos. Closer to home, turn bluetooth on near the Burlington during your normal work day. Book your evening entertainment over the air!”

Icedcoffee and debbiemet, 2 people who have yet to own an iPhone, did join in aswell but found it hard to know what we were on about, when I tried to explain to debbiemet, I got the reply “oh that sounds quite cool. Want.”

So it looks like location based devices are going to stay from those answers. Personally I love it, its a great way to interact with people all over the world. I can see a lot of people getting a bit freaked out by it all, I was the same when I first started using twinkle and got spoken to by people I had never heard of, but all in all my twitter questions would never have happened if it was not there!

On the other side though I have set the phone to look for twinkle users everywhere (the world) and saw some stuff to be honest I don’t think the people would have liked me to have seen! some very personal things indeed.

Many thanks to all that took the time to chat this morning on Twitter (twinkle), it was a great hour of chat and debate and I look forward to next Tuesday’s question time.

Stumble It! Digg this Del.icio.us Google Technorati Reddit