The Grey Lady writes about innovative applications for the cellular telephone. Zipdash lets cell phones with global positioning systems (GPS) get traffic information instantly.
"The Zipdash application displays a map of traffic speeds as green, yellow and red arrows, graphically representing traffic jams and bottlenecks. The company plans to add features, including route planning and accident alerts. The service will be free to cellphone users and Zipdash is planning to create a business by selling accurate traffic information to Web sites and other publishers," writes the Times.
"The system is available in the Bay Area and is expected to be extended nationally in the coming months."
These sorts of appications are common for cell phones in Europe and Japan. Such innovations, however, have yet to become commonplace in the States. When that time comes, though, bibliographic information may be the sort of data that people want available through their phones or other handheld device.
John Markoff. "That's the Weather, and Now, Let's Go to the Cellphone for the Traffic". The New York Times. (Registration required.) March 1, 2004.
Posted by K. Matthew Dames at March 1, 2004 11:59 AM | Send to a friend! | Topic(s): Mobile Devices, Peer-to-Peer