Sunday, September 9, 2012

Get "Connected" [Entrepreneurship Post]


Get "Connected"

My entrepreneurial idea is one for an app that would run on both Apple and Android products, particularly smartphones, ipads and tablets.  The app, called “Connected” is one that allows you to stay in touch with your friends easily no matter where you are.  Using Apple and Android integrated software, this app automatically shows the location of your closest friends via GPS right on your mobile device.  You will never lose your friends again!

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Have you ever been out in public, say, the mall, a concert, downtown, on college campus or even in your local neighborhood and wonder where your friends are or what they are up to?  You can try to call them, but sometime cell coverage is poor, it’s too loud, or you’d simply rather not try to work out a meeting point. Some apps like foursquare allow users to update their location to show their friends what they are up to, however, this does not always help people stay connected.   Waste no more time getting together and getting connected.
            A new app called “Connected” is one that automatically locates your friends that are nearby on your phone’s contact list and pinpoints them on a map of your surrounding area via GPS.  This app integrates Google Maps satellite technology for GPS tracking/location service.  The app also works directly with the latest Apple and Android software packages to connect and find other users just using their number from your contact list. 
            The app is simple and easy to use.  Download it from the App store on any mobile device (iPhone, Android smartphone, iPad or tablet).  The app will ask you to allow it to use your contact info to locate your friends.  If you only want to locate certain friends, you may manually select contacts from your contact book to locate and stay connected to.  Once you have chosen who you would like to connect to, you just click ‘get connected’ and messages will be sent to all your friends via SMS text (or iMessage should you be on iPhone with Wi-Fi).  Your friends will be able to download the app as well to locate you if they wish and they must also chose if they would like to allow you to locate them.  Once you choose to locate a certain friend, say Maria, for example, you can either choose go to the app itself to locate Maria, ask siri (or android voice command) to find Maria using ‘connected’ or you can go into your contact list, find Maria and choose ‘get connected’.  The app will immediately locate Maria on an easy to read map, give you directions (either by car or on foot) to Maria and assist you to Maria via voice directions if you so wish.
            Once your friends allow you to locate them – although some may not – you can now stay up to date in real time about where they are.  Other features that the app includes are similar to foursquare where users can check into locations that notify other users who are ‘connected’ to be notified if they so choose.  If you want to invite a bunch of friends over to a party or specific location, you can do so with the click of a button.  Check which friends you want to invite, type a short message (optional) and send them the location, which sends as a pin.  When your friends receive your ‘connected’ message it will include a location pin that drops right on their mobile device map and gives them directions to get there.  

-MattCobuz

2 comments:

  1. Matt,

    Awesome idea, it definitely is a great way to stay "connected" with the people in your contacts. Though you should checkout the iPhone app, Find my Friends. It is a similar idea but I don't know if it offers iPhone and Android tracking. I also think the privacy and request settings on your app is a better way of handling this type of connectivity.

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  2. Nice idea. I like how you can easily send your location as a pin to anyone on your contact list. This would be especially useful in noisy environments. I think a cool feature you could look into adding would be to show users what restaurants/entertainment is in between two people. For example, I could connect with a friend who lives an hour away and "Connected" could show us what restaurants are in between us, or if there are any cool concerts happening.

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