Mike Flacy

So I’m in Vegas yet again in 2009, this time for PMA.  That’s the Photographer’s Marketing Association, for those that have never heard of it.  (Similar to me approximately 2 months ago.)  So far it has been much more chill than CES, an absolutely insane madhouse of electronic gadgetry.  It’s probably about a fourth of the size, if that.  I’m here because the company I work for purchased a digital camera review site and we want the transition to go smoothly.   Another two days of shaking hands and kissing babies.

• 30 days ago, I was driving from South Carolina to Los Angeles without a full time job.
• 20 days ago, I was on my first interview at a social networking company in Westwood.
• 10 days ago, I was on my third callback interview with a tech company in El Segundo.
• 5 days ago, I had three different job offers in my lap.

So I moved again.  This time it’s Los Angeles.  I bought a new car (Mazda3 sedan) and started planning a trip across eight states to setup a new life in L.A.  I said my goodbyes, loaded up the new ride with my earthly possessions and started the road trip.

But before I left, I loaded up a few helpful road trip iPhone applications.  Travelocity was good for finding hotels near my GPS location.  Gasbag was excellent for finding the cheapest gas in the area.  Where was also decent for gas stations and Starbucks.  I relied on a separate GPS unit for turn-by-turn directions.  It was invaluable after stopping over in Memphis.

If you haven’t experienced Middle America before, there’s no better way to envelop yourself in the rural lifestyle than driving across the country.  It was a little disconcerting at times where driving across long, empty stretches of Texas and New Mexico, but still worth the experience.

Favorite Exit: Exit 237 in Oklahoma on Interstate 40W.  Do yourself a favor and stop at the Hungry Traveler.  The place is in a desolate part of Oklahoma, the epitome of the middle of nowhere.  I had a delicious mushroom and Swiss burger polished off with the best slice of blueberry pie that I’ve ever eaten in my life.

Favorite State: Arizona.  Perhaps it’s just the northern section, but the slow transition from rocky desert landscape to lush, green mountains is really quite breathtaking.  I stayed on Route 66 for one night after passing through Flagstaff.  It made me think of the Pixar film Cars.  (RIP Paul Newman.  He was awesome as the voice of the Doc.)  The gorgeous farmland of Oklahoma is in a close second.

Least Favorite State: North Texas.  The entire area smelled like cow manure from one end to the other.  My overnight stay in Amarillo was incredibly boring.

Favorite Overnight Stop: Memphis, TN.  I got to see some old friends and eat two delicious plates of sushi.

I made to L.A. after four days.  It didn’t rain one time during my trip.  I’m staying on Wilshire Blvd. near UCLA.  I might have lucked out with finding an excellent roommate and place to live on Craigslist.  Only time will tell.  It’s going to be interesting to see how well I can acclimate to the city.  It’s overwhelming and exhilarating all at the same time.

• I enjoyed the premiere of The Shield’s final season this week.  It was a slow start considering the pacing of the previous episode, but it laid some brilliant groundwork for future story lines.  I’m thinking Shane lives, Ronnie goes off the deep end, Vic and Acevada take down the Mexican cartel in a very bloody fashion and Dutch finally goes to jail for strangling neighborhood cats.

• Finding a new place to live on Craigslist has been disappointing to say the least.  Trying to make a long distance connection with a potential roommate is somewhat dampened by the anonymity of the Internet. Ugh…

• I had some of the worst sushi in my life today.  Japanese marinated mushrooms might sound tasty, but the ones I ate were the consistency of rubber and completely flavorless.  Yelp is going to get a mouthful of unhappy words from me this week.

• True Blood on HBO was an offbeat show.  It reminded me the feeling I got when watching Carnivale for the first time.  The oddball choice of setting in the deep south is strangely interesting.  I doubt it will make it past a couple seasons though.  Entourage was excellent as usual.  Eric looks a bit like a clone of Ari though.

• I’m really crossing my fingers for iPhone’s 2.1 firmware this week.  It’s rumored to be coming out with the new version of iTunes on the 9th.  I’d love to see turn-by-turn GPS implemented, but any other super secret iPhone powers will be welcome.

• My favorite Hulu video of the week: Taco bed!

I was chatting with a friend about the upcoming 3G iPhone and we got stuck on the topic of GPS for a while. Obviously GPS isn’t a new idea. Plenty of people are perfectly happy with their in-car GPS systems or even the current capabilities of their GPS enabled phones. There’s no real added value for current GPS owners to switch over to the iPhone specifically based on the hardware.

Apple’s strategic advantage will be in the applications that are created with live tracking GPS in mind. Apple already demoed Loopt.com; an app that tells you your friend’s exact location, recent pictures, little messages and alerts you when they are nearby.

The possibilities are so ridiculously intriguing. For instance, imagine twittering, blogging, or updating your Facebook / Myspace status with not only a message, but also your current location automatically.

Locating nearby restaurants is nothing new for GPS, but imagine a one click Yelp.com application that automatically recommends the top 3 nearby Italian restaurants based on user reviews and according to your GPS location.

Imagine a music application that offers a list of upcoming, nearby concerts based on the type of music you keep on your iPhone (or your Pandora.com likes / dislikes) and your current GPS location.

Imagine being in an unfamiliar city and desperately needing to find a public restroom. One button click on the iPhone, your GPS location could be sent to Mizpee.com and a list of the closest toilets (along with reviews if you are a clean freak) would pop up along with directions to each.

Imagine not only all of your pictures being geo-tagged with locations due to GPS, but also tossed into a map-like trip diary documenting vacations as you travel or even the mundane details of your life; all via a one click social networking app on the iPhone.

Imagine sitting at work and hitting a one click Craigslist search that allows you to find nearby apartments (obviously to save on $4 a gallon gas) based on your current GPS location.

The point I’m trying to make is that the iPhone is going to make this type of techy GPS stuff incredibly easy to do. Blackberry already has plenty of GPS apps, but they aren’t for the casual phone user; they are mostly for the tech-heads. Ideally, iPhone users will just load up the App store with one click, download & install a GPS application within a few seconds and away they go. The streamlined process will ultimately increase the number of users and bring these sort of live tracking applications into the mainstream very quickly.