Gift giving blues? Get some clues...
I had an interesting experience with a cool Windows Mobile app last night. I was invited for dinner to someone's house for the first time. While driving to their house, I remembered good etiquette and decided to pick up a small gift. Not knowing the family so well, I didn't know what to get. I needed something more interesting than a box of cookies, but didn't feel totally comfortable with a bottle of wine. The family has kids but I didn't know their ages.
Someone once gave my family an indoor plant, and I thought that was a very thoughtful gesture. So I drove up to a Fred Meyer store and started looking in the plants department. I found some great looking plants but then began to wonder if it really is an appropriate gift. Some people spend way too much time growing things around their house while others simply neglect plants. If only I could peek at this family's backyard or landscaping, I might be able to guess whether they're "plant people". Oh, and do they even have a yard? What kind of house is it – an apartment, condo, townhouse or something larger?
While pondering all this, I suddenly remembered having Virtual Earth Mobile installed on my Pocket PC. So I quickly loaded it up and entered my host's address (from an email invitation). In a few seconds I had a direct bird's eye view of their home and neighborhood.
Perfect! It's a single family home and the backyard is relatively sparse. So instead of a plant let's go with something more decorative – I picked up a small vintage clock with a pendulum that would look nice by a living room fireplace (which a home like this most likely has). OK, so a satellite image of someone's home may not be the best gift guide, but it does give you some frame of reference. For instance, if I saw a children's play area in the backyard I'd probably have considered a toy or something.
In-car navigation systems may have this sort of functionality in the future. Check out these articles:
Virtual Earth Mobile, written by my colleague Jason Fuller definitely does a great job at this. As I think about it, there are a number of scenarios where satellite imagery might come in handy. Download a free copy of this cool app for yourself, or read some background information from its author.
Have you had any interesting experiences with Virtual Earth Mobile or other Windows Mobile apps lately? We'd love to hear your story.
Comments
- Anonymous
February 19, 2006
Jack Bauer (24) uses it all the time in his series to find out where all the bad guys are!
Be nice to have a street map overlay on this too.
I'm in the process of investigating a few app ideas to develop and will keep you posted! ;-) - Anonymous
February 20, 2006
If your device has GPS, you could send back your location to a central server, and then all your friends could access that and overlay it over the map so they could tell where you are. Of course, that's probably only useful if you are a bad buy, and want Jack Bauer to know where you are. - Anonymous
February 20, 2006
holaa lo nesesito - Anonymous
February 22, 2006
Is this a catalog item that can be included into the winMobile kernel or has to loaded seperately - Anonymous
February 22, 2006
The comment has been removed - Anonymous
February 27, 2006
The clock certainly was a great idea. We love it ! - Anonymous
March 01, 2006
The comment has been removed