12/2/14 1:07 PM

So, for the last few months, every Tuesday and Thursday morning I drive to South Windsor, an adjacent town, to play pickleball. Yes, I’ve joined the legions of retirees who were looking for a competitive sport a step beyond shuffleboard. I can reach the South Windsor border in about 10 minutes but it takes about 25 minutes to get to the gymnasium on the far side of town.

Unrelated, I recently started using my iPhone's calendar, although as a retiree it seems like the only things I enter are doctor’s appointments. But I’m trying to get in the habit of checking the calendar every morning. The iPhone has a nifty feature - you don’t have to drill down to the calendar app, you can simply swipe downwards on the screen and a page appears that gives the weather and any scheduled calendar events for today and tomorrow.

This morning, a Tuesday, I swiped down and in addition to the standard information I found an interesting note. I was informed that it would take me approximately 23 minutes to drive to South Windsor. I’m both impressed and a little concerned about this. I know the cell company and gummint can track me and I know the phone has GPS capability, but that it can look at my pattern of driving and make a predictive alert based on the day is a little spooky.

Or is all of this old hat and I’m late to the party?

12/2/14 1:20 PM

"is all of this old hat and I’m late to the party?"

Is the software that is gathering said data new to the party/OS version is the question? The device capability has been in place for a long while I am guessing. Is it enabled when we think we shut it off when you have the settings to do it. And does it only look like it is disabled with Big Guv/Bro using the data? Conspiracy crap aside, this would not surprise me.

In my android it gets this done with google and wi-fi services, but you can not have that active. Same with the pop ups I get on FireFox location tracking.
I kill it in some hope I am not getting tracked. ;)

All used mostly for marketing and selling trend for dialing marketing, we hope. ;)


Is there a 'Lightbeam' type app for I*s and Droids is another question? And/or Ghostery apps for the smart phones?

12/2/14 1:33 PM

It also knows the speed of your serve and the name of your mixed doubles partner.

BTW, how do you like the game?

12/2/14 2:12 PM

I'm enjoying it very much. It's the first time I've participated in a sport where I can honestly say I'm one of the best players in my area. It helps that the local group is mostly retirees and that as old timers go, I'm one of the younger ones. So my quickness and mobility is better than most of the other players.

On the other hand, my brother and I visited your lovely state to play in the Senior Games pickleball tournament some months ago and got our *sses kicked pretty badly. Who knew that Maine was such a hotbed of pickleballers?

12/2/14 2:50 PM

"Who knew that Maine was such a hotbed of pickleballers?"


They probably play through the winter with frozen snowballs and ice spikes attached to their feet.

12/2/14 3:35 PM

I wish my phone knew where I was going.Then at least 1 of us would know...

12/2/14 3:42 PM

Obviously, who it is telling is the bigger issue. ;)

Your phone is telling on you! ;)

12/2/14 4:28 PM

You phone knows where you are all along. It needs to know that so it knows when to switch to the next cell tower etc.

Now with GPS, it knows it to a lot better precision. Wifi helps further.

In the past, all that was kept hidden from the user, and the data largely un-analyzed. But the data had always been collected, and probably stored all along too.

Now they start running some analysis algorithm and it looks like they got some mmeaningful result out of it too. So get ready for very targeted advertisement

12/2/14 6:32 PM

The latest (or last week's) issue of the Economist had a big article about this very issue - the mix of "man I like it that my devices help me out so much" and "man I am creeped out by how much my devices know about me." The thinking is that we will become more and more accustomed to devices "thinking" for us that we will accept the creepy part and enjoy the benefits.

Me, I'm not really sold on it. For example our new house has "anticipatory thermostats" that raise the set point in order to get the temperature to the set point at the time you program. That means the furnace kicks on at different times in the morning depending on how much the house cooled down overnight. Me, I just want the darn thing to kick on when I program it to kick on. Rather than seeing this "feature" as a benefit, I see it as something I have to work around. That said I understand how the vast majority of people would see this as desirable.

12/2/14 7:20 PM

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Me, I just want the darn thing to kick on when I program it to kick on.

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12/2/14 7:34 PM

The fancy versions of those anticipatory thermostats read outside temp vs inside temp and adjust the water temp at the boiler accordingly. Can lead to some pretty significant fuel savings.

12/2/14 8:03 PM

I use Google Maps to check on traffic conditions for my work commute. Google has about the best traffic reporting I've seen, knowing that they are quietly polling a gazillion phones that have their map app on them to generate those reports.

Not a problem for me.

What I do find annoying is in the process of tracking the routes I take (with or without the map app providing directions) they have generated a typical suggested route based on my most common route taken and not will no longer suggest other potential alternatives, being almost too smart for my own good and assuming I always want the same. And no way to turn it off as far as I can tell.

12/2/14 8:05 PM

I am surprised google's gps/map services don't steer you past certain retail, clusters of stores etc. ;)

12/2/14 8:09 PM

Hell, my phone knew my class schedule when I was in college. Given a week or two it learned my patterns.

Now it knows the Y, my work address and home of course.

The phone just looks for patterns where you are using it. We are creatures of habits and it is easy for the iPhone to figure out our patterns even with the GPS off because even if you don't use the Wifi in a building, it knows the signal was there and the cell towers.

I am okay with it as long as my iPhone is not reporting those habits to Apple or .gov. Apple says they don't sell off your info and in fact really torqued the .gov with iOS 8 because the security is to tough. Evidently even Apple can't hack your data anymore.

Cook stated the the don't need to sell your data, they are business of selling you stuff.

12/2/14 8:16 PM

I simply turn on the a/c using my smartphone when I'm about to leave the office.
I leave at a different time each week and day. My thermostat has wifi enabling manual remote control

12/2/14 8:30 PM

I have all kinds of timers setup in my house. Thermo, two 220 circuits on timers for Water heater and a crawl space circuit with a dehumidifier and circulation fans. I am going to put another out in the CT room on the 4k watt 220 heater soon. ;)

Very analog, really... ;)

12/2/14 8:56 PM

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What I do find annoying is in the process of tracking the routes I take (with or without the map app providing directions) they have generated a typical suggested route based on my most common route taken and not will no longer suggest other potential alternatives,

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12/3/14 7:59 AM

AFAIK, Google tracks all phones in which that they have apps installed. I assume, all as pretty much all the Google apps tell you they use location services. If location services is enabled on a iPhone, then the GPS is in operation. They do this tracking in the background and is how they determine and generate traffic reports as well as travel habits.

I know about habit tracking as I don't need or use Google Maps to go to one of my 2 Italian deli's, yet if I do a search in Maps for either of these business, they come right up on top in the search list, so I know Google is aware I frequent these locations.

As to are they routing me past shopping possibilities ?, that's impossible to determine as pretty much everywhere in the NYC metro area is chock full of national chain targeting centers. The directions routing I get from G-Maps usually routes me on a parkway in the south shore of L.I., which has no major shopping center along the route, so I assume direct routing as well as my habit generated preferences take priority,

12/3/14 11:44 AM

"As to are they routing me past shopping possibilities?"

That was mostly tongue in cheek that comment. ;)

12/3/14 11:48 AM

I don't know about "smartphones" but my Samsung flip-style dumb phone has on/off settings for the GPS function. I have mine set to go on only for 911 calls.

12/3/14 8:17 PM

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why do you care what time you want the furnace to kick on?

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12/3/14 10:06 PM

"That was mostly tongue in cheek that comment. ;)"

Yup, but this is what it's coming to.

12/3/14 10:10 PM

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Cause I don't want it to come on before my alarm and wake me up while heating up my bedroom.

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12/3/14 10:11 PM

"Cause I don't want it to come on before my alarm and wake me up while heating up my bedroom."

I would think it would be desirable to have the room up to a comfortable
temperature as you are awaking. Thus you're not getting into a freezing cold bathroom and shower, etc....

Sounds like your heating system is noisier then mine (baseboard hot water, so reasonably quiet).

12/4/14 7:54 PM

Actually I like to sleep in a cold room, so having things heating up before I want to get up is not my favorite thing. Our system is actually pretty quiet, but our house is much quieter so the slight extra noise of the furnace fan can wake me up.