The Baristas have to admit we're suckers for high-tech gadgets. So when we heard an NPR piece a couple of weeks ago about two Montclair guys who'd figured out a cheap way to combine cell phones, Google maps and global position systems, we were intrigued.
Meet the Mologogo guys: Jason Uechi (left) and Chuck Fletcher, two unassuming Montclair dads in their late 30's who've figured out a way for people to track the physical location of their friends using cell phones. It only works on Nextel, so most people use it on cheap Nextel Boost phones, which retail for $50, and which you can buy from Jason and Chuck pre-loaded with the Mologogo software for $100.
The fun of the device is that you log in your own location to a central tracking system, which allows your Mologogo friends to know where you are ... and vice versa. In addition, you can program in all kinds of things you might want locations of: all the local Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts or gas stations, for example. You can use it like a cheap GPS device, pulling up a Google map of your destination if you get lost. And you can also get your e-mail on it. All for $6 a month.
A poor man's Blackberry? "A poor man with good eyesight," Uechi jokes. Fletcher says Mologogo appeals to "geeky experimenter types" from the Facebook generation, people who don't have privacy issues with friends (or the public, if they choose) knowing exactly where they are in real time.
"It's not about being hidden," says Fletcher. "It's about being exposed."
So far, the Mologogo guys are keeping their day jobs in New York City, where they do high-tech graphic design kind of things, and they're only making enough money to cover their expenses. And NJ Transit still laughs at them everytime they call over to see about doing a local transit application with their technology. "There's a 50-50 shot we'll turn it into a real business," Fletcher says. But who knows? When NPR ran the piece, their website was so overwhelmed by the response that it crashed. And after Google's $1.65 billion purchase of You Tube yesterday, anything seems possible.
What's next? How about a Baristanet-Mologogo Halloween map, which would allow you go find the best decorations, haunted houses, and most generous candy dispensers -- and let you see where your friends (or kids) were trick-or-treating in real time? It's altogether possible. Stay tuned.
I heard that Google is looking to buy them out.
But seriously. Love to read things like this. Good luck to them.