Palringo, the instant messaging applications for mobile phones, has added live location information to the latest version of its application – Palringo Local.
Said to be accurate to the suburb or even street-level in a city, and to the closest named town in rural areas, Palringo users can opt to display their location alongside their status, for fun, personal, social, business or any other purpose.
Palringo Local goes live today for Microsoft Windows Mobile users, and will be delivered as an automatic update for existing users. Roll-out will follow for other popular mobile device operating systems – including Symbian OS-based phones, Java, BlackBerry and iPhone – completing before the end of 2008. Palringo Local for desktop/laptop editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system also goes live from today and will be automatically updated. .
Kerry Ritz, Palringo's CEO, said: "Since the dawn of the mobile phone era, we've all listened into or been part of mobile phone conversations in which the two parties have asked each other where they are – or, with SMS, spent a message establishing those facts. Now, people won't need to do that; provided someone wishes to 'show' the basic instinct to 'know', even if it doesn't matter, is satisfied."
"But there are also quite practical reasons for showing your location: if you're part of a group all meeting in one place, like a sports team; or you want to know where your delivery drivers are without investing in expensive systems. Whatever your reason to show your location, now you can," he explained.
Anyone using Palringo Local must specifically opt in to display their location; users can opt in and out at will. Even opted-in, users retain control over which contacts can see their location. Location may also be set manually.
The popular instant messaging services with which Palringo integrates are: AOL Instant Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Gadu-Gadu, ICQ, Jabber and Windows Live. People can also use Palringo to contact their friends using iChat, Apple's IM application.