Global Positioning System

Apple and Google took a drubbing from the US Senate yesterday over location based services. At issue — Apple’s use of GPS data collected on iPhone in order to improve the accuracy and speed of location fixes.

As I wrote in July 2009, iPhone (and I’m sure all other mobile handsets today) uses assisted GPS, or AGPS, which is an amalgam of WiFi, cell tower location, and GPS data, to locate the device. It is a dramatic improvement over GPS alone. Early mobile location services were simply too slow. It could take a minute or two – sometime three – to fix location on a handset that supported GPS but not AGPS, and who has time to wait that long just to find the location of the nearest Starbucks?

I think there is legitimate concern when any company collects identifiable personal location data. The iPhone apparently does this when it tracks your location on your own handset in order to deliver you, personally, a better experience. iPhone keeps a database of locations I’ve visited on my handset. Periodically, according to Apple’s claims, personally identifiable information about me is stripped from the data, and then submitted to Apple to improve the quality of their global location database.

I’m okay with that. Some might not be, but I am.

What Apple claims to be doing is no different than how many other businesses anonymously “crowd-source” data from individuals in order to provide a better service for others – think Amazon recommendations, for example, or the way in which Microsoft collects anonymous crash reports from PC’s. Moreover, the improvement in service that has resulted from the collection of this data is dramatic. There simply wouldn’t be any location based services on handsets if Apple hadn’t done this.

What the Senate committee needs to do is to ensure that the location data being collected, and how that data is being used, is disclosed sufficiently to the customer in order to allow the customer to determine what is disclosed. And any data which is collected needs to be stripped of personally identifiable information and made anonymous before it is transmitted to Apple or any other vendor.

I believe Apple was mostly doing the right things with this data already. And while we should all welcome any privacy oversight that the US Senate is willing to offer, it should concern everyone that what appears to be a heavily politicized process will result in a diminished quality of service as Apple releases “bug fixes” to appease the committee in this high profile hearing.

Let’s hope this doesn’t degenerate into a witch hunt.

Apple defends iPhone hot-spot logging (msnbc.msn.com)
The difference between Apple and Google at the Senate hearings (tuaw.com)
Sen. Al Franken vs. Apple’s ‘Bud’ Tribble: The transcript (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
Senate panel grills Apple, Google on location data (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

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In April of this year the Ontario Government passed hands-free legislation. It is likely to go into effect some time this fall, and when it does all forms of handheld devices that can be used in a car will be banned – this includes GPS receivers, satellite receivers, iPods and other gadgets. Penalties will be stiff, including fines of up to $1,000 and up to six demerit points.

Recently I’ve been using the Contour Design SurfaceSound Compact Bluetooth Speaker in my vehicle. This speaker clips to the visor above the driver. The microphone is on a small swing down arm, which also activates the bluetooth radio. When receiving a call, you simply swing the arm down. In a second or so the bluetooth connection is made, and you are able to speak. When finished the call, swing the arm back, and the unit turns off.

The battery life is outstanding when used as I described. Since last November, when I acquired the SurfaceSound Compact, I have charged twice. That’s right – two times.

Sound quality is also good. The 2”x3” speaker allows good volume and reasonable quality audio. With a little practice, the microphone arm is easily placed where you can be heard, without interfering with your driving.

Contour Design 00903-0 SurfaceSound Compact Bluetooth Speaker: Electronics

ASIN: B001AMW7TY

The biggest challenge is in placing a call. iPhone makes this very difficult because it has no support for voice dialing – a major omission. There are a number of aftermarket voice dial applications available. Say Who Dialer works well. You can either speak the name of a contact, or speak a phone number. Say Who then dials the intended recipient. With a large address book like mine (nearly 5,000 contacts) it’s reasonably accurate, but most of the time I find myself simply speaking the number for the recipient. It’s much faster and more convenient than looking the number up on the iPhone.

Nevertheless, even with Say Who Dialer, it’s impossible to meet the requirements of the Ontario legislation when placing a call.

The application must be started, which means picking up the iPhone, finding the application on the springboard, and starting it.
Once started, the voice recognition is started by pressing a large colored button on the screen, and speaking into the iPhone microphone. You cannot simply speak to the bluetooth microphone, because that microphone isn’t activated until the dialer is invoked.

Until such time as Apple provides a proper voice dialer, the SurfaceSound Compact is a great solution for receiving a call with iPhone. To place a call legally, however, it seems the only way to do so will be to bring the vehicle to a stop.