Let's face it: we're in love with the idea of secret location trackers. In The Da Vinci Code, the bad guys slap a location-tracking button onto Tom Hanks' clothing. In The Matrix, a location-tracking scorpion robot crawls into Keanu Reeves' abdomen. In Total Recall, a tracking device is implanted into Arnold Schwarzenegger's nose.
Many parents may have fleetingly harbored the fantasy of equipping their children with such tracking devices (though perhaps not through their noses or navels). You could find out instantly where your teenager was, or find out that your middle-schooler didn't come home after school because of a rendezvous you forgot about.
But this is one sci-fi gadget that's no longer fi, thanks to advanced sci--satellite-based tracking based on Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. At least five companies--Wherify Wireless, Guardian Angel Technology, Disney Mobile, Verizon Wireless and Sprint--have built GPS tracking into something children carry voluntarily: cell phones.
The super-simplified Wherifone ($100), for example, is intended for very young or old customers. Because it has no number pad, it's probably the smallest cell phone you've ever seen--about the size of a Fig Newton. On the company's Web site, wherifywireless.com, you can program three of its four speed-dial buttons to dial Mom, Dad and Gramps, for example; the fourth summons an address book containing 20 more numbers. The phone can receive calls from any number, although you, the wise parent, can restrict incoming calls using the Web site.
The phone comes in five colors. The plans range from $20 a month (60 minutes of talking) to $47 (200 minutes); checking a phone's location counts as one minute of calling.
To pinpoint the phone's location, you call up the Web site, enter your password, click "locate," and presto: an icon appears on a map--either a street map or actual satellite photo. In the photo view, you can zoom in enough to see individual buildings. These are existing satellite photos--you won't actually see your child standing there--but this feature is still creepy and awesome.
You can even watch "bread crumbs" appear on the map as the phone moves around (cost: one talk-time minute apiece). That could be helpful if you're trying to assist someone lost on the road, or in the kinds of emergencies encountered primarily in your nightmares.
The Wherifone is not, however, a full-blown cell phone. It looks and acts more like a Star Trek communicator. Its screen is crude, tiny and black-and-white. There's no Internet, ring tone downloads, games, camera or text messaging, though some parents might consider that a bonus. The phone has a hissy quality that makes all calls sound as if they're coming from the seashore.
The phone from Guardian Angel Technology (guardianangeltech.com ) is quite a collaboration; the company makes neither the phone (Motorola), the cellular network (Nextel), nor even the billing plan (Boost Mobile).
Instead, what this company brings to the table is the GPS software. The company offers three phone models, none of them cutting edge, and one of them (the $75 base model) looks as if it's from 1994. You can also buy any phone from the greater selection at boostmobile.com, and send it to Guardian Angel for GPS enhancement. Many of these phones offer Nextel's walkie-talkie feature.
On the upside, the GPS tracking on the Guardian Angel phones is more sophisticated than its rivals'. For example, you can see a full 30 days' worth of "bread crumbs," which could settle the occasional argument about your teenager's whereabouts the last few weekends. And you can opt to have street names superimposed on the satellite-photo view (just as in Google Maps, which powers this feature).
The downside is the pricing: $30 a month just for the tracking. You can start and stop this service as needed, but it's still much more expensive than its rivals.
Then again, the Guardian Angel phone is prepaid, so there's no annual contract, monthly bill or credit check. You buy minutes in advance. Such a plan makes sense for many young consumers, although the minutes are pricey (20 cents each, 10 cents at night and weekends).
Coolness factor
If you're worried that classmates will make fun of the weird-looking Wherifone and Guardian Angel phones, consider Disney Mobile. Its flagship phone ($50 each after rebates and with a two-year commitment), looks like a cutting-edge sleek flip-phone — because it is one. This phone, made by LG and dressed in red and silver, has a camera, video capture, text messaging, Bluetooth, speakerphone and voice dialing, plus Disney-themed ring tones, wallpaper options and phone themes.
You get five free location checks a month; additional checks cost 50 cents each. No bread crumb feature is available, and you see only street maps--not aerial photos.
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