Mobiles Reach Out To The Web
A company in the UK is working on a different sort of location-based system for mobile phones called "Hypertags". The idea is that, instead of sending location based information over the standard mobile network, companies could place these special hypertags at specific locations, where they would transfer information to mobile phones via infrared (and eventually bluetooth). So, you could have a movie poster that would transmit additional information to the people standing in front of it. Or, you could use it to send information about a historical landmark. The system just sends a link, and then the phone would access the internet to get the actual information. What's unclear from the story, though, is if these hypertags need to be requested, or if they just start appearing on your phone as you walk past. If it's by-request only, then it sounds like a reasonable plan. Otherwise, it's only going to serve to annoy people with location-based spam.
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