Set and forget location tracking with Droid and Latitude
Big win for my personal informatics quiver. I didnt even know it, but with Google Latitude enabled on my Motorola Droid and location history enabled on the Latitude site, I now have set and forget location tracking using Google's latitude apps. I enabled it last night and when I got to work this AM I check my latitude history and it appears my droid had been quietly phoning home while I trundled into the office through the Western Addition and Tenderloin (see above image). I didn't press record, I didn't hit go. It just did it. A+. Those of you grounded firmer in reality than I am may ask how the hell this is useful at all. Its not exactly useful yet. It matters to me because looking at our lives through the lense of data and tracked behavior is going to become more useful and powerful in the next few years. There is an interesting group of folks that meet under the guise of "The Quantified Self" and get together around the states to talk about this stuff. But the main reason I have switched on latitude is so that I can have a nice stockpile of data when the analysis and aggregation tools start to arrive on the seen.
Currently I track...
- Personal finance using Mint.com
- Productivity / software usage with RescueTime.com
- Listening habits with Last.fm
- Travel with Dopplr.com
- Now location with Google Latitude
- And soon, sleep and fitness with FitBit
