Simple and sweet this week because where I live, it just so happens to be DUMPING snow, and shows no sign of letting up, or warming up.  Lets face it, we always want to know what the weather is like, and what it will be like, but how much does it suck having to find a TV or newspaper, turn it on, wait for the weather channel to do your local area, or worse, sit through local news for the weather section?  Yeah, not cool.

Also, it’s not all of us that every day carry around our laptops with wi-fi enabled to always be able to check the weather online.  SO, for the rest of us out there that still want to know what’s going on in the sky’s above our heads, the WHERE Weather Widget is just that awesome.  Drop it in your widgets, turn it on, and Bam, you are immersed in the comings and goings of Mother Nature.

So, get your raincoats out, or put them away, but your snow boots on, or your flip flops, and check your WHERE Weather Widget to tell you what it is, what it will be, and what to expect in between!

Hey ya’ll, something VERY awesome in the pipeline here at WHERE! All you developers listen up, as you can use WHERE to enter the NAVTEQ LBS Challenge. You can build on WHERE using standard programming languages, and don’t have to build a custom application for the NAVTEQ official Nokia N95 emulator.

• Grand Prize. $50,000 USD in cash
• 3 Runners-Up Prizes. $10,000 USD in cash
• Semifinalist Prizes. Invitation to Las Vegas judging ceremony and two night’s hotel

WHERE is a Gold Sponsor of the NAVTEQ LBS Challenge.
The NAVTEQ LBS Challenge is the premier event in the location industry and is very closely followed by the industry press as well as the venture community. Many of the previous winners of the Challenge have gone on to found successful companies.

The WHERE platform is the most rapid way for developers to enter the LBS Challenge. The WHERE tools allow you to build your app on PC or Mac, with a text editor or any IDE, from anywhere in the world. No prior mobile experience is required.

To enter the NAVTEQ LBS Challenge with WHERE:

1. Build your application using the tools at the WHERE Developer Program. Instead of the official Nokia N95 emulator provided by the NAVTEQ LBS Challenge, you can use WHERE.
2. Fill out the online application form at http://developer.navteq.com/site/global/lbs_challenge/americas/register_submitsolution/
   p_register.jsp
3. Email the URL of your WHERE app to create@where.com to confirm your entry in the LBS Challenge.

Questions? Let us know at create@where.com.

Short one today friends, countrymen, turkey eaters.  I just wanted to take a brief moment to wish you and all yours a very Happy Thanksgiving from everyone here on the WHERE Team.

Take today to eat too much,  talk too much, hug too much, laugh too much and steal that extra slice of pie.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 

You have friends, I have friends, they have friends, and we have friends.  We all have friends and with the technology running rampant these days, yes, I said “the technology,” we all have more ways of keeping in touch than ever. Chances are, my friends, if you have been keeping in touch via an Instant Messaging client for long, you have at one time dabbled with AIM.  I know I Have, and do.

That said, this weeks WHERE Widget of the Week is the AIM Buddy Finder.  Straight from the WHERE website, here’s what you’re in store for the moment you load it up onto your phone:

“When you and your buddies use AIM Buddy Finder, you can show each other where you’re hanging out. AIM Buddy Finder on WHERE works with the AIM application on your computer and it is even better with the AIM Location plug-in.” 

In a word:  Groovy.  Log in, sign in, and FIND those friends that until now have just been little icons on a little buddy list.  The only scary part, now you have to talk with your mouth, not your fingers.  After all these years typing, that might just be terrifying!

Happy Monday friends.  I don’t know what you’re weather is, but mine is terrible so I’m happy to be inside writing this, instead of shivering out.  That said, I just found an article that warms me up even more, as I absolutely love starting the week off with fresh ink.

So, without further ado, head over and check out the post “Where Do You Want To Go Today? uLocate Can Help You Decide.”  It’s a great article about this great company and even has some walkthroughs of the process, the website, and some of the awesome Where Widgets.

Head over, read up, then think about installing the WHERE service on YOUR mobile phone.  After all, if you’re at all like me, you need all the help deciding you can get.

I think the fact that GPS has officially crossed over into one of THE foremost technologies of the future is no longer a debatable fact.  Companies like us at WHERE are proving just how inventive you can get with GPS, some great ideas, and the strive to make life easier.  Other people, in totally separate realms, are proving that great things are being done in completely different ways.

Case in point and your random article of the week:  GPS collars on Oregon cows are helping ranchers, farmers and yes, researchers keep tabs on the livestock and learn a lot more about them.  These collars can find the animal, track them, and even send an email back to the owner as to exactly where they are, what they are doing and help create patterns that could help reduce predator attacks, feeding efficiency, and who knows what else.

The bottom line is, the technology is amazing, it’s cool, it’s now, and it’s going to continue to be now for a long time.

Welcome to Winter…almost.  While your home city/state might not be covered in snow just yet, mine isn’t, there’s a good chance that it will be soon.  That said, if you’re at all like me, that is a good thing and you just can’t wait til you get to ski or snowboard, even if you only have time to go once.

This, my friends, is the reason that this weeks WHERE Widget of the Week is Ski Report.  Very simply, the WHERE Ski Report Widget finds the nearest ski reports to your exact location and tells you the latest information on snow, trails open, lifts running and weather.  Wow, sure beats asking around town, doesn’t it?

So, if you’re a powder hound and ready to hit the slopes, this is the Widget for you.  Head over, load it up and hit the hills.

This little gem from the FAQ comes at the exact right time for many of you across this nation.  Why? You may ask…simple, because holiday season and that means that there’s a very good chance you will be getting or giving a new cell phone.  Trust me, the holiday lineups for most major carriers are Sweet, I have my eye on one already.

That said, the question of the day is:  I get a new phone, how do I reload WHERE on my phone?

The simple answer is from the FAQ, so I’m going to let them take it away!

I get a new phone, how do I reload WHERE on my phone?

On most mobile carriers, when you purchase a new phone you will have to re-subscribe to any applications such as WHERE that you previously had on your phone. For instructions on how to subscribe, please see the question ‘How Do I Get WHERE on my Phone?’.

Once you’re subscribed to the WHERE application on your phone, you can change your phone model by visiting www.where.com and clicking on the ‘Change my phone model’ link at the bottom of the page.

This, must be posted in its entirety, because it’s amazing, it’s rad, it’s amazingly cool use of GPS technology, and, well, it could eventually save a whole lot of lives.  Here you go, head here to read it in it’s original home:

“OnStar Unveils Stolen Vehicle Slowdown LBS

General Motors’ location-based services (LBS) subsidiary OnStar said October 9 that it has demonstrated technology that will gradually and safely slow down a stolen vehicle.
OnStar Stolen Vehicle Slowdown will allow advisors working with law enforcement services to send a signal to limit fuel flow to the engine, gradually slowing down the stolen vehicle. The idea behind the technology is to prevent a potentially dangerous high-speed chase, as well as aid in recovery of the vehicle.
Stolen Vehicle Slowdown is an enhancement to OnStar’s Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance, which uses GPS to pinpoint the location of a vehicle reported stolen. OnStar receives approximately 700 Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance requests from subscribers a month, and has helped in 28,000 requests over the past decade.
Stolen Vehicle Slowdown is powered by Onstar’s newest generation of hardware, and it will be available on nearly 1.7 million 2009-model vehicles in the United States and Canada.
The process for Stolen Vehicle Slowdown is as follows:
* Once the vehicle has been reported stolen to law enforcement, the subscriber can call OnStar and request Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance.
* OnStar will use real-time GPS technology to attempt to pinpoint the exact location of the stolen vehicle and provide this information to law enforcement.
* When law enforcement has established a clear line of sight of the stolen vehicle, officers can request OnStar to slow it down remotely.Safeguards are in place to ensure that the correct vehicle is slowed down, according to GM.
* OnStar then sends a remote signal to the vehicle, slowing it down gradually.Research has shown that 95 percent of OnStar subscribers want the Stolen Vehicle Slowdown service available on their cars and trucks, according to the company. OnStar subscribers have the choice to opt out of the Stolen Vehicle Slowdown service at any time if they prefer not to have this capability on their vehicle.”

I think I can very easily sum up why this week’s WHERE Widget of the Week is StubHub.  First, how many of you tried to get tickets to ANY of the World Series games in Colorado?  Any?  Show of hands?  Yeah, well if you did, chances are good, and I mean REAL good that you struck out just as badly as the Rockies themselves did.  Frustrating no?

Good news friends, countrymen, Red Sox fans, the StubHub WHERE Widget makes your life a whole lot easier!  Simply log in, boot it up and you’ll be able to “Find nearby concert, sports, and theater tickets available through stubhub.com!”  Not too shabby, not too shabby at ALL. No waiting in long lines, no pushing refresh 1000 times in a row on your computer, just open up the phone, and find all you need to find.

So, head over to WHERE, sign into your account and take StubHub for a test drive!  I bet you’ll love it.