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Global positioning system (GPS) technology has so far been limited to helping you locate yourself on a map or figure out the best route to your destination.
Last month, two out of 12 local companies made it to the semi-finals of the APAC 2009 Navteq Global LBS Challenge, a competition held by United States-based digital map provider Navteq, which aims to find more innovative uses for GPS.
If you are prone to losing your mobile phones or would like to share your location while broadcasting a live video web stream, these companies have something unique to offer you.
Nano Equipment (www.neseapl.com)
Live video-streaming services that allow you to broadcast to the Web from your mobile phone aren't new, but local firm Nano Equipment adds a twist to it.
Its live streaming mobile application uses the phone's location-sensing feature to locate you on a map so your viewers know where you're streaming from. It records the stream too, so viewers can play it again.
Video is known to be a bandwidth hog, and could cost you a bomb if you exceed the amount of data allotted to your subscription plan.
Nano's live streaming service does not eat up any data that is part of your subscription plan, making use of free incoming video calls instead.
"Our mobile application will send an SMS and initiate a free incoming video call," explained Mr Liew Kong Nam, managing director of Nano Equipment.
"When you accept the call, it streams the video to the Web - the only charge you'll get is from sending the SMS."
And there's little lag when the video is broadcast to the Web.
"Video calls are designed to be instantaneous," Mr Liew added.
The live streaming mobile application is compatible with Series 60-based devices such as the Nokia E71 and N85. Download it at www.mobilegeocast.com.
tenCube (www.tencube.com)
It drives people crazy when they misplace their mobile phones because losing all those contacts can be a heart-wrenching hassle.
Mobile phone software firm tenCube, first runner-up at the Asia-Pacific edition of Navteq's LBS Challenge, hopes to solve this predicament by adding a location-tracking feature to its WaveSecure software.
Originally developed for police and military use here, WaveSecure helps users lock their mobile phone, back up and remotely wipe out data.
"The primary purpose of the location-tracking feature might be to find the phone when it is lost. But from what we've noticed from more than 500 beta users, they often use it when they've forgotten where they've placed their phones," said tenCube chief executive Darius Cheung.
WaveSecure is offered by SingTel under its PhoneSafe service.
In other countries, mobile phone owners can buy it from tenCube and load it on their phones. The software works on Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60-based devices.
"We might offer it directly to users in the future, but for now, SingTel has exclusivity on the software in Singapore," said Mr Cheung. "You can also expect an Android version in the third quarter."
- TODAY/yb
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