An
interesting patent of Apple’s relating to a social networking app surfaced recently.
Dubbed iGroups, the app aims to solve the pitfalls of traditional social networks, like Facebook,
that require users be a member before being able to participate. Instead, iGroups creates a
virtual social network based on proximity.
To set the scene, imagine a casual weekend enjoying drinks at a bar. Your device would be able to
detect others nearby and allow for easy communication by the tools already built into your
device: SMS, email or by phone. If you’re a Mac user, you could loosely term this as
Bonjour for your iPhone.
A Network Of Proximity
The idea of a network based on proximity is intriguing considering the technology built into
mobile devices that can help facilitate this. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, for instance, both allow for
discovering new devices that are within range. But the problem arises when a user leaves. If they
are out of range, they are excluded from the network.
iGroups attempts to solve this issue when it first detects other users. At this point, the
devices exchange a token (or handshake, if you will). These tokens are tagged. If there happens
to be a trusted source at this venue, for example, like a wireless access point or perhaps a
website setup for this purpose, devices can exchange tokens with it. Before this gets too
technical, let’s agree to call the trusted source “Wilma.”
This accomplishes two important things. The first is that Wilma can match or correlate tokens to
determine groups and their members. When my device approaches and exchanges tokens, Wilma now
knows what group I’m part of and similarly, I’ll know other group members that have
checked in with Wilma. This process allows the network to grow by allowing its users to infer
other users through this daisy chain process. Further, tokens can be exchanged through a variety
of mechanisms: Wi-Fi if available, Bluetooth if desired or even 3G. By supporting all of these,
it becomes much easier to visualize a realistic image of the network and prevents the network
from being stifled because users are not exchanging tokens by just one method that not all
devices may support.
The second important goal that this serves is solving the issue of users leaving range and thus
losing the whole social networking aspect. If a user interacts with Wilma either at the event or
afterwards (through something similar to MobileMe, perhaps), the user can see the entire group.
Even if they are just uploading exchanged between Fred and their self, the inferring process
described earlier will allow the rest of the network to be recreated. As Fred moves on and
continues to exchange tokens, even after our user has left, they are still connected to the same
event and will appear as part of the group. Mac users? Think of this as being similar to Smart
Folders. The group “knows” who its members are by this process of exchanging tokens,
even if not all of the users are present at the same time.
It’s worthwhile to mention that any sort of implementation of such a technology would of
course be completely optional and protect the privacy of users if they did not wish to
participate. Further, the patent sheds light on the fact that the tokens themselves do not
contain information that would identify any particular user or device. Merely the tokens act as a
way to tag an association with a specific group.
Still, the idea of creating these virtual social networks on the iPhone is appealing. In some
regards, there are applications on the market that attempt to deliver similar functionality, like
Loopt. However, as mentioned earlier, these solutions
still require users to have an account with them which can be problematic if you meet someone and
want to exchange information but they are not a member of Facebook or LinkedIn. Instead of
waiting for them to sign up and register a profile, iGroups solves the whole problem faster.
This definitely isn’t Apple’s first foray into patents on social interactions, but
none of them have seen the light of day. With rumors of iPhone 4.0 around the corner, however,
perhaps there is a substantial social component waiting to be unveiled. What do you think about
the potential of iGroups?
Unless you have
been living under a rock all this while, you would have known about the Google Nexus One
smartphone that is touted to be a “superphone” by Google, as it squares up against
the almighty Apple iPhone which has a worldwide legion of rabid fans, ready to come to its
defense any day. Well, the Google Nexus One also has a different moniker, where it is known as
the HTC Desire – previously known as the Bravo. Guess all of the hardware specification
will more or less remain the same as the Nexus One, as this model will retain more than a handful
of quality features to keep you hooked to it. More on the HTC Desire will be explained right
after the jump.
Recommandations
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
