In the event of an emergency, please refer to your cell phones for any and all relevant emergency procedures.  Wow, could that really be the case?  According to new reports, before too long, it will be.

That’s right friends, Emergency TEXT Messages are officially coming to these United States in the event of some crazy disaster of some sort.  According to the article I just read:

“The United States plans to create a national emergency alert system that utilizes text messages that will be delivered to mobile phones….In 2006, the United States passed the Warning Alert and Response Network Act, which requires upgrades to the nation’s emergency alert system. The law requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to develop ways to alert the public about emergencies.” 

Hopefully they don’t put all their eggs in one basket, as it were, with this emergency system because if a disaster is That bad, wouldn’t cell reception be a bit iffy anyways?  Hmmm…no doubt they will work the kinks out, and my thoughts are, if you can combine the Emergency Text system with WHERE’s GPS Widget system, you’ll really be onto something.  Imagine being able to send Emergency text messages pre-loaded with all the GPS information you need to get from wherever you Are, to wherever you need to BE at all times.  Imagine being able to rapidly locate your friends, family or lost people through GPS tracking widgets?  Not bad friends, Not bad at all.

Just thought in lieu of the WHERE Widget of the Week, I should show you some WHERE Awesomeness. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I do know that one way I can describe it is through this amazing screenshot of the WHERE front page from today.

How rad is it that 10 out of the 15 finalists in the Navteq LBS Challenge were built on the WHERE platform? Amazingly, stupendously, mind-bogglingly rad. Check out the screenshot for the pretty visual of the achievement. Me likes.

Just a friendly reminder if you actually forget to click the pretty picture, here’s where it leads.

Yes, it’s featured again!  Why, you might find yourself asking?  Simple, the weather is FINALLY changing ’round these parts and instead of flaunting the Weather Widget to celebrate, I decided I’d throw out the Fore! Widget to show you that the very moment it gets warm enough, I’m ON the golf course baby.

That’s right, the WHERE Fore! Widget does just that:  “Want to get in a couple of holes during lunch? The Fore! widget will find the closest golf course to your location so you can get a quick 9 in.”

How cool and simple and amazingly helpful is that?  Very.  Now hurry up Mother Nature, I need to get out of here and onto the course!

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, working in this industry occasionally doses you with some Wow moments of “this is the future.”  I just so happened to awake this fine Monday morning to be bombarded with yet another of these, and it’s stuff like this that makes me very pleased to be writing about, and working in such a rad industry.

Today’s wow moment comes at the hand of a potential use of your ordinary cell phone in a much bigger, much broader, and much more awesomely important task:  Warding off a terrorist attack.  Believe it.  According to the article I just read:

“Researchers at Purdue University of West Lafayette are working with the state of Indiana to develop a system that would use a network of cell phones to detect and track radiation to help prevent terrorist attacks with radiological “dirty bombs” and nuclear weapons…” 

Say WHAT?!  That’s right, CELL phones might provide the essential link to stopping and avoiding a nasty terrorist attack that None of us want to see on CNN later.  It’s stuff like this that makes having GPS in your phone a whole lot more impressive than we ever thought possible.  I love it.

I don’t know if you’ve heard but there is an absolute flood of information concerning a pretty major shift that’s going down all over the cell phone world: cell phone service providers are FINALLY opening their doors to unlimited plans!

That’s right, Verizon kinda led the charge, but Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile look like they’re following suit, all ranging from $99 on up based on what you want. Rumor has it Sprint Access Pack, as it’s called, is $119.99 a month and includes unlimited voice, unlimited messaging, and web browsing. Wow, sweet steal of a deal.

That said, it’s no secret why this week’s WHERE Widget of the Week is none other than Sprint Stores. What it does, is beyond simple: it finds any and all Sprint stores that are around You at any given moment. With the new unlimited plans hitting the shelves, NOW is the time to get in there and load up!

30 minutes or less or your pie is FREE!  Remember those days?  Yeah, too long ago right?  How much does it frustrate you when you order a steaming hot pizza, you begin to salivate because you’re so hungry, and then an HOUR goes by and no sign of the pie?  Ugh.

Those days, my happy pizza eating friends, might be rapidly coming to a close as multiple Pizza companies are now adding GPS Live Tracking to your pizza delivery.  Imagine that, you’re sitting down, wonder where your pie is, and you just check a map online, updated every 15 seconds, and see exactly where your pizza is sitting.  Heck, if it takes too long, why not just ride out and meet the guy halfway?
According to the article I just read:

“For the stores where TrackMyPizza is available, about 18% of all delivery customers in the last 60 days have gone online to track their pizzas, even if they ordered by phone…Online orders are up 100% since the service started, and that’s a big advantage to a pizza shop. Not only does it save employees time answering the phone, online customers spend on average about $2 more with each order, since they can see the full menu.” 

Ahh, a perfect marriage of technology and food.  I love it.

Monday I wrote about some buzz taking place about Buddy Beacon’s extended functionality.  In it, I addressed some potential concern for the “big brother” type tracking that some people incorrectly believed could be taking place.  Today, on this happy Friday, I found another post that took place last week about people getting excited about Buddy Beacon, and truly seeing it going into mainstream use.  The “Wave of the future” as it were.

To be honest, I could not agree more.  The article mentions that,

“We believe that this sort of application will become very mainstream especially among younger users who have been raised with social networks, IM and near-constant connections to their friends. Interoperability is a key strategic feature of the application although it’s not on the two largest carriers, AT&T or Verizon at this point.” 

We agree and we can not Wait to see where we will all go from here.

I don’t know where you all are that just so happen to be reading this, and as such, I have no idea what kind of gas prices you’re facing.  I just know that where I live, it’s darn expensive, and pretty darn annoying.  Every time I fill up I wish all my wishes that I had some OTHER kind of fuel to be filling up on.  Some OTHER technology propelling my car forward.

Lucky for some of you out there, that dream is a reality and you DO fill up on other things besides good ol’ gasoline.  That said, for all you E85′ers out there, this WHERE Widget is just PERFECT for you.  The official description of the WHERE NearE85 Widget is this:   “Using this widget will allow you to see the nearest 5 retail E85 fuel pump locations with hours and payment options. NearE85 maintains the most comprehensive list of E85 fuel pumps in the US.”

Groovy.  Log in, add it, load it up and you’ll be buzzing along in no time at all.  The environment will thank you, while it’s busy slapping me around.

Listen up all you developers with great ideas out there, a new contest is rolling in!

If you’re a developer, you may want to consider entering the NAVTEQ APAC LBS Challenge. Judging will be held in Singapore, but developers from anywhere in the Asia Pacific region are encouraged to apply.

The NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge has a prize pool valued in the millions of dollars.

As usual, no phone is necessary if you build with WHERE. And you can use the WHERE phone emulator instead of the Nokia SDK/Emulator on N95.

Here are the dates to keep in mind:
* Fill out the quick registration form with NAVTEQ by March 7th
(http://developer.navteq.com/site/global/lbs_challenge/apac/home/p_apac_home.jsp)
* Build your entry with the WHERE Developer Program by March 28th
(http://developer.where.com)

Just wanted to do a quick post to show you other places that buzz for the Buddy Beacon’s extended functionality is taking place.  It always makes me happy to wake up and find people all around the country talking about things I am truly excited about.

One such post I just found over at TimTechs News and to be honest, they seemed a bit worried about this being a “big brother” type thing where we’re all being watched.   No worries friends, and someone has already placed a comment about just my sentiments!  Buddy Beacon is in no way a tracking application, and just as Markus commented, it only updates your location when you tell it to do so.  In no way is Buddy Beacon a lojack of the future, no no, it’s a tool to help you, and all your friends know where you are and where you’ll be whenever You feel like it!

Buddy Beacon is a rad tool, and I think the more people play with it, the more they’ll fall in love too.