Facebook and CityWare - Going Blue

Just over the bridge in Bath, a team of researchers have been combining Facebook and communication technology to track 'real life' encounters . Users register with Cityware (a Facebook tool) which tracks and links users in the real world via Bluetooth - in short, it lets users find out if any of the people they bump into regularly is a Cityware user and has a profile of Facebook.

To get it to work, you need a Facebook account, a Bluetooth device and the Cityware application (at present, the system only works in a number of cities in the UK (where Cityware has setup their nodes/infrastructure)). The users must have a Facebook account, install the Cityware application and register the Bluetooth ID of their mobile phone or laptop with the software. These Cityware nodes are computers which constantly scan for Bluetooth-enabled devices in a given area, and send that information back to servers (which compare the IDs of the gadgets with any enabled Facebook profiles).

When you go back to your Facebook account, you can then see a list of all the devices you were near and the link to profiles of people who have tagged themselves on Cityware. Outside of the Web2.0 site, connecting with users in the 'real' world, the project has another aim - to see how cities operate, what the links are with the movement of people and how as a result, how viruses (both digital and biological) spread in the urban environment.

However, before this research is completed, the researchers are looking for a way for users mobile phones to alert each other when they near another Facebook user who shares common interests or common friends. Nice :-)

iPhone fever

The Apple iPhone launches in the US this Friday and looks like being the one of the most anticipated tech product launches ever.

Apple are entering an extremely competitive and crowded marketplace and the iPhone is yet to undergo the mass-usage feedback that will ultimately decide whether it hits or misses. However, early reviews from both the tech and mainstream press are overwhelmingly positive with the New York Times stating the “iPhone matches most of it’s hype” and Bloomberg reporting that it’s a “beautiful and breakthrough mobile device that lives up to the hype and will inspire lust in technology shoppers.”

The Financial Time also offers it's analysis here.

We’ll keep an eye on how the iPhone is received but if anybody is heading over to the states and gets to play with one, get in touch and let us know what you think.