Well, 6th Sense Communications has decided to jump into the location-based "personal networking" market, going toe-to-toe with the likes of Nokia Sensor and Mobiluck. If you don't quite remember, let me refresh your memory ... "personal networking" is where you generally search for and then, once found, interact with other people in your immediate area, generally via Bluetooth wireless technology on your mobile device, to send messages, pictures, etc... basically, taking the art of flirting to the mobile-tech level.
However, whereas Mobiluck is free to use (once you purchase the software), it's my understanding from the quick blub about 6th Sense on Windows For Devices, that you can get the software for free, but you must pay for data services to use it (ie... you are making server requests via the carrier). In other words, what seems to happen in their own words is this (from Windows For Devices):
"6th Sense says its approach differs architecturally from similar applications such as Nokia's Sensor and MobiLuck, in that it is client/server-based rather than peer-to-peer. By having much of the processing done on a remote server, the client application can be made smaller and simpler. Additionally, new features can be added on the server, without having to upgrade the client. Also, security is improved because no user data is exchanged over Bluetooth, the company adds."
The article goes on to say:
"On the other hand, one disadvantage of the client/server approach used by 6th Sense is that communications between the server and the mobile phones running the 6th Sense app incur over-the-air data transfer charges."
If you're still not following, basically, this is what happens:
You sign up for an account online ... and you store all of your information there. Then, you fire up your client application you have on your phone ... which I'm guessing (I will download it and play with it later) has some kinda unique ID for your profile in it or something ... then, when you search your location with the client (using Bluetooth technology), it can find other profiles .. and if you want information about that profile, you have to fire up your 3G/GPRS connection to get it (this is where you run up data charges).
I won't pass judgement on this take just yet (gotta try it first), but it's an interesting way to do what can be doing with simple P-2-P applications. I can see the good and bad (as the article indicates, too, above) pretty quick ... interesting to say the least. I suggest you all download it and let me know ... I'll do the same.
[ Technorati Tags: Bluetooth Mobiluck Nokia Sensor
6th Sense Social Networking ]
2 comments:
Thanks for blogging about us! you are right, we are taking a different approach. We wrote a short blog post listing some of the advantages here. Like you said, please try it out (even better, try it with a friend) and we'd definitely like to hear any feedback from you or anyone else that has tried it.
-Mike
Co-founder, 6th Sense
Hi Mike:
Thanks for the reply ... yeap, I signed up, but you guys don't have a UIQ client yet ... I'll have to download it to some of my test S60 phones and try it out ... I'll try to send some feedback (or at least blog about it again) once I make it happen. Also, I'm wondering how I can get 6th Sense as a service on Jellingspot ... ;-)
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