A beau and arrow solution

Where art thou, Romeo? If Romeo had had a Windows Mobile phone equipped with Vito Technology’s new FindMe application, Juliette would have had no problem in locating her beau. I guess you could call it a beau and arrow situation.

The FindMe arrow represents yet another ingenious text message or SMS solution coupled with GPS. Send a text message to a mobile phone with FindMe installed on it, and the program will respond with its current latitude and longitude. You can then paste those coordinates into Google Map to see exactly where the called party is located.

Note that the sending party need not have FindMe installed, jus the receiving party. But, the sending party must have the key code that initiates the process.

I plan to have a lot of fun with this while I’m traveling this summer. All you have to do is give your code word to the calling party and they use that as the keyword in the text message to initiate the process.

Of course, this all presupposes that you have a Windows Mobile device with built-in GPS. Currently, you cannot use an external antenna; the GPS must be built into the phone. However, in future versions, Vito plans to accommodate external antennae as well.

I found this amusing. After I installed FindMe, I couldn’t find it. Normally a newly installed program appears in the Programs directory, but not FindMe. Accidentally, I scrolled down on my Today screen desktop and there it was, a banner scrolling across the screen warning you that it would only work three times until you registered it. After you register it, the banner text changes to indicate that it is installed and can be contacted via SMS. Tapping on the banner brings up the control panel where you can change your code and settings. It also allows you to send the location message via email, if you so instruct.

It’s probably not a good idea to rob a bank while you’re packing FindMe software. It does suggest, however, certain applications that the cops could use for people under house arrest or on parole. Isn’t text messaging wonderful?

The good news is that for the time being, FindMe is FREE. You can find it at www.vitotechnology.com. While you are there, take a while to peruse some of the other Vito offerings. As you will see, Vito is big on GPS. But there are many other useful programs as well such as Voice2Go which enables you to give voice commands to your pocket pal and SoundExplorer, which is an MP3 recorder/player and WAV to MP3 converter.

Romeo goes on to speak of “the fairest stars in all the heaven.” One of my favorite Vito applications is AstroNavigator II. This handy night sky scanner hooks up to GPS so it knows exactly where you are and the time of night so that it can display a screen full of the heavenly bodies you actually observe whatever direction you turn. Just tap on an object on the screen to learn all about it. What a great way to star gaze. I wish I had had AstroNavigator when I was working on my Boy Scout astronomy merit badge.

Of course, you can’t do any of this on an iPhone.