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Google Latitude Saves Woman’s Purse

Categories: LBS
By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 1:50 PM

Google Maps for Mobile had launched a location-sharing portion a few months ago called Latitude, which, despite its socially creepy connotations, actually helped a San Francisco resident get her purse back from dastardly thieves. Janina Valiente’s BlackBerry Bold had Google Maps installed and was happily tucked away in the purse when a man took it and ran for the hills. After calling up her sister, who had permission to see her Latitude position, police were able to track down and apprehend the crook. Besides being a feel-good story that gives due credit to the awesomeness of location-based services, a lot of folks are still skeptical about making their exact wherabouts known to anyone or anything. The fact is, Latitude, and most (if not all) LBS services, gives you full privacy control. Hopefully this story is just one of many examples to come of how GPS is shaping mobility. Check out the full story on CBS.

[via TechCrunch]

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.