Want to meet your friend, but you’re worried they’ll get lost on the way? A solution introduced by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) yesterday will solve such problems.
The “Open GeoSMS” is a platform that allows cellphone users to text the meeting point to their friends — with a map included.
For example, the platform will help users of the “Papago” portable navigation device to text the map details to iPhone users. The iPhone owner just needs to open the text and tap on the URL link which will instantly connect to Google Maps, pre-installed on the iPhone, ITRI manager Chuang Kuo-yu (莊國煜) told reporters.
“This is a standard platform that we have created for different phones to easily access maps via a simple text message, despite the different operating systems and map software used in the phones,” he said.
Users who don’t have a smartphone will also benefit. They can subscribe to location-based services from the four telecoms operators with monthly fees ranging from NT$50 (US$1.50) to NT$99. Or they can still click on the URL in the text message they receive and connect to the map via GPRS.
Maction Technologies Inc (研勤科技) — one of Asia’s leading e-map navigation software developers which owns the Papago-branded devices, Internet phone service provider EVERY8D Co (互動資通) as well as telecoms operator Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) are some of the partners to offer related services.
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