This is an interesting development for a number of reasons. Firstly, it bypasses the iPhone entirely. It doesn’t use GPS, it uses AT&T’s cell location data to triangulate your location (like A-GPS). With your permission (and $4/month) AT&T is sending your constant whereabouts to Loopt. The service is also operating through AT&T and their billing system (which is more tedious to navigate) rather than Apple’s iTunes ecosystem. This is the same tracking information that police would request if you had committed a crime and were being chased.
We’re a bit leary of this whole system. While AT&T can already track your location without your say, a service that does this for another business could be another level of privacy concerns. Also, the $4/month charge is questionable because it is something the iPhone could do on its own. An extra monthly charge to let an application run in the background seems unfair. Plus, why does Loopt get to use this service while Google Latitude and other social Networking applications (FourSquare?) are closed out? An always-on locations service should be an API that any developer should have access to. From Loopt:
You can sign up for the trial here. This is the first service for the iPhoneTM to do this – Loopt continues to push the boundaries of location technologies to provide you with the best experiences possible. We will provide this separate Always-On Location Service to a limited set of Loopt users on a trial basis in order to help test-drive it. Your first 14 days of service are FREE! Standard data and messaging charges apply. If you do not cancel prior to the end of the free 14 days, you will automatically be subscribed and charged $3.99 per month thereafter unless you cancel service.* Fill out the form below if you’re interested in applying to join the trial. We can only grant access to 5,000 of you, so get going!
