How do you feel about letting your significant other keep dibs on where you went on your lunch break or giving your boss the ability to know first hand whether there really is a traffic jam preventing you from making that 2pm meeting?
If this kind of big-brother scenario doesn’t give you the creeps then take a look at Google Latitude, new software that works with Google Maps to let mobile phone users share their location with close family and friends or a wider circle of contacts. Using GPS and cell-tower triangulation technologies, Latitude lets people who opt-in to the service to share their precise location or something much less exact and adjust the settings on a friend-by-friend basis. The software currently works in the United States and in 27 other countries.
Latitude supports most Blackberrys, some Android-powered phonea, Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile 5.0 devices. Google says Apple iPhones and some Sony Ericsson devices will eventually be added to the mix, and for non-mobile users, the software can be installed as an iGoogle gadget on a desktop or laptop.
It’s the opt-in part that Google hopes will address the multitude of privacy concerns associated with these kinds of location services. There’s a social networking aspect as well as Latitude lets you be in touch directly via SMS, GoogleTalk, Gmail or by updating your status message.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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