If Android manages to clear the porting obstacles that await it as it's distributed over more than one reference device, and if it manages to deliver a high bar of quality (at least as high as the SDK has shown so far), it could really change the way we live/work. Those are some big ifs ... but some exciting ones nonetheless.
Very cool. The "life mode" is the incredible part. Here's a thought about where this could go: Imagine if multiple Android users could have their locations published live to the other devices. You could look through the life view screen and track the location of your contacts through walls or other obstructions.<p>(Edit: I saw the end of the video and it looks like they're already one step ahead of me with the live location broadcasting).<p>Parents who want to keep track of their children at Disneyland could spot them through a crowd of people without calling them and getting them to describe where they are. Maybe this could be useful in search and rescue missions. The ELT (Emergency Location Transmitter) on downed aircraft could be equipped to broadcast in this way, to make it easier for teams trying to find the aircraft.<p>Something about this reminds me of FPS video games, where the "Objective" is marked on your screen so that you can see where you need to go even though it happens to be on the other side of the map.
It's cool, but lets keep a few things in mind:<p>1) When navigating a 2d plane, or looking for things in a 2d plane, an overhead view is just as practical. Although you could argue this lets you see data points farther ahead of you, a good overhead view implementation could do the same thing.<p>2) This would be nice viewing differences in elevation. Finding your car in a parking garage for instance. However, GPS has an elevation error rate about 3 times larger than its horizontal rate. (Also most gps's don't work well in things like parking garages). This means you'll only be able to detect the elevation of something within ~30 meters on most phones.<p>Mostly I see this being fun, but not anymore useful than other, more traditional ways of looking at maps. It might prove helpful to people with exceptionally poor spacial thinking (if thats the term you use to describe people who can't read maps, I'm not sure).
I hope the guys who made the video get to check out
labs.live.com/photosynth/<p>Photosynth would allow Androids screen to display actual pictures of the situation when zooming in using the satellite view (not live view). The various people in live view could also add images to locations not already documented by photosyth's database.<p>Someday,<p>D T
You can read interview with them:<p><a href="http://tinyurl.com/4p4tg2" rel="nofollow">http://tinyurl.com/4p4tg2</a><p>In other note: notice the robotic dinosaur in middle bottom of the video (30sec)
This is bloody AWESOME!
Although they could develop the application for the iPhone right now, since it has all the required hardware inside. I'm worried about GPS accuracy although.
Reminds me of that scene from Fight Club where he's in the condo with the little IKEA names and prices floating next to the furniture and accessories in the room.