Relevant news update

I've been too busy to regularly keep up with my Bloglines feeds lately, and now I'm being totally swamped! This is an attempt to list some of the more relevant items from my backlog of news...

Airbus calling

"Airbus aircraft will be outfitted for mobile calling from next year, a move that puts the European manufacturer on the same track as rival American manufacturer Boeing."

I think I've already discussed the ramifications of allowing mobile calls during flights in an earlier post... But basically the airlines will have to be veeery careful when implementing this because of the whole annoyance factor on other passengers, but SMS is the ideal mobile option here, coupled with another silent activity - surfing the net on your laptop's broadband connection.


Mobile tracking service goes on sale in UK

"Mobile phone location service KidsOK has gone on sale in the UK today, allowing parents to locate their child using a mobile phone."

Again, it all comes down to trust between the parent and the child - if it's a younger child then it's not a bad idea, but teenagers will easily find a way to get around this if they are trying to escape their parents' prying eyes. What I like about KidsOK is that they're contributing to charity as well. =)


Marrying Maps to Data for a New Web Service

"David Gelernter, a computer scientist at Yale, proposed using software to create a computer simulation of the physical world, making it possible to map everything from traffic flow and building layouts to sales and currency data on a computer screen."

Just another interesting story on the continuing battle for online mapping supremacy between Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, and how they're trying to ensure enough support for developers to build compelling applications. Which all makes perfect sense, of course!

Right, now it's time to go through the mobile blogs to see what I've been missing these last few days...