Google Latitude Review
It's supported on iPhone, Android, color BB, Windows Mobile, and Symbian. There is really no installation. You just point your mobile browser to google.com/latitude and login. The control you have over who can see you is excellent. You have to confirm everyone who can see you and vice-versa.
The whole thing runs on your mobile browser, which means it's using the Google Maps ajax api. It's actually not as smooth as using the native cocoa api, esp when you are zooming.
In terms of accuracy, I thought it was pretty impressive. I don't know why Norm had the experience he did. There were a few moments for me when it was a mile off, but once I started moving (in car or bike), it was spot on. When I was driving, it didn't go off the road once .. even on the smaller roads in Morristown. On my way to LM, I saw Luke heading down the Parkway to the birthday party.
One caveat I have to throw in is that I kept my screen on the whole time. I'm not sure if the accuracy would be there if you turn off the screen .. I say this because if you turn the screen off, then turn it back on, the screen kinda reloads and skips to your new location. So I'm not 100% sure if it's still tracking while the screen is off. And since it's using ajax/javascript, they probably don't have the controls over the internals when the screen is off. One thing that is interesting is that since it runs on Safari, I think this thing may actually work even if Safari is not in the foreground. The Apple programs like Mail (and I think Safari) are allowed to run in the background. So maybe I can run both MotionX and Latitude at the same time. Will have to test that out later, but I need someone to help me.
This thing is totally useable in a race setting. What is cool is you can even see how your teammates and competitors are doing. The only challenge is getting them to install it and use it.
By far, the best part was that I could see my handsome face moving across the screen as I rode: