loopt, the Palo Alto-based startup and GPS tracking system specialist, has this week revealed that it has signed up with leading wireless telecommunications provider Sprint Nextel in order to bring its revolutionary "social mapping" technology to customers right across the United States.
By utilising loopt’s social mapping system, mobile customers will be able to "facilitate real-world interaction" to find and connect with their friends via select Sprint handsets equipped with GPS capabilities.
In terms of on-the-go features on offer through loopt, users will be able to share their location and status messages with friends, send out proximity-based messages, and also view "geo-tagged photos and content" while remaining mobile.
"The most common mobile question in the world is 'Where are you?' and we're excited that loopt will be able to answer that question for Sprint customers who choose to participate," trumpeted Sam Altman, loopt’s CEO and co-founder. "The way we communicate on the mobile phone is about to change forever, as loopt on Sprint puts an end to missed connections and facilitates real-world interactions."
According to the company’s official blurb, loopt is presently the only social mapping system capable of automatically updating the location of everyone in a user’s private network of friends (every fifteen minutes) before then displaying that information directly on the host handset via a street map application.
Beyond its obvious social advantages, one particularly useful feature is that loopt also emits an alert when a network friend is in close proximity, which should duly put an end "to missed connections in the mall, at the movies or around town." Furthermore, loopt also allows its users to dispatch messages to groups of friends and also send proximity notes to suddenly nearby friends in order to meet up simply on the spur of the moment.
loopt’s handy "geo-tagging" function allows users to utilise the service’s journaling feature, which geographically tags locations so that personal experiences can be captured and shared between networked friends. From a privacy standpoint, loopt sets itself out as 100% permission-based with users only ever sharing their location details and information with approved friends that are also actively using the loopt network.
For those interested mobile customers concerned about avoiding the occasionally unwanted attentions of friends, loopt can also be deactivated on either a specific friend-by-friend or entire friends list basis.
More than 25 Sprint and Nextel handsets will receive loopt functionality over the next few weeks with users looking at a monthly fee of just $2.99 USD (plus standard charges) in order to enjoy an even closer and more convenient relationship with both their mobile and their friends.
In November of 2006, loopt was launched on Sprint subsidiary Boost Mobile and duly signed up more than 100,000 customers in its first three months of service.
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