[pri79269]

So I saw this in my RSS feed and I thought it was great. Not as an Apple fan, but as a parent. My son is 14 and I know one thing, he doesn’t MOVE from the living room to his bedroom without is iPhone. That being said, we live in a big city and it drives me nuts when he forgets to call to say “Mom I made it home from school.” Or “Hey, They called football practice today so I’m staying at school.” This new feature will allow me to receive notifications when he leaves or arrives at any given location. I’m sure there is an app for that, or some other company has been doing it better, for longer, but we currently use iphones so this feature coming to iOS6 makes this Mom feel a lot better.

Read the entire article here Apple Will Let You Geo-Fence Your Friends or see an excerpt below!

Got an iPhone? Need to keep tabs on people? Want to your spouse or boss or pals be notified when you leave work, say, or arrive home? Then the upcoming version of Find My Friends is for you.
The updated app, which will launch with iOS 6 this fall, comes with a geo-fencing feature — that is, you can designate an area around yourself, as small as a building or as large as a state. When you arrive or leave that area, your friends can be notified.
As with all notifications in Find My Friends, this can be set for a limited time only. But we hear some Apple employees are already using this feature to let their bosses know when they’re arrived at the office — and even when they’ve left their house. (After all, it’s a long commute from San Francisco to Apple HQ in Cupertino; chances are, you’ll be late.)....

[johnenglish]

They also integrated geofencing with Passbook. So if you have a boarding pass on your iPhone it'll automatically pop up when you arrive at the airport, or you movie tickets will pop up when you arrive at the theatre.

[pri79269]

Thats Nice!

[xandermac]

I really like how Apple use Geo-Fences. I use them all the time with the reminders and calendar apps. Adding them to the phone options is also a very clever idea "call back when I leave here" will be very handy.

Geo-Fences in FMF will be a nice feature for parents but I don't really see it being used a great deal beyond that, especially for me. Apple employees may want their boss to know when they've left home but that's a bit too much if you ask me. A little "cult like". Having said that I'm one that doesn't combine my work/personal life in the least, they are two completely separate entities. I have plenty of friends, if one of them dies I "might" consider taking a colleague on as a replacement.

[Chrisy]

Verizon Wireless offers this feature on all of their phones (iPhone Included). It's called Family Locator. There's a ton of options, and yes, it has been available for about 7 years I think.

Andorid has it as an app. It is available for BlackBerry phones as well. Dumb phones too!

Cool that iPhone has it now. I use Google Maps Latitude to view locations but it doesn't send a text alert...yet.

I like to see where my friends are for fun. I don't need alerts but it is handy sometimes.

https://products.verizonwireless.com..._familylocator

[pri79269]

lol, agreed! I'm only using it for my boys. Beyond them, my sister is the only other friend I have in that app right now.

The addition of geo-fence to the phone option now leaves me with no excuse but to return calls. I'm horrible about ignoring a call because I'm in the middle of something and forgetting to call back. My mom calls me at work all the time and by the time I leave the office, I'm so focused on what's for dinner or who has little league practice that I always forget to call back. She'll appreciate this one.

[xandermac]

Duplicate........

[xandermac]

Verizon Wireless offers this feature on all of their phones (iPhone Included). It's called Family Locator. There's a ton of options, and yes, it has been available for about 7 years I think.

Andorid has it as an app. It is available for BlackBerry phones as well. Dumb phones too!

Cool that iPhone has it now. I use Google Maps Latitude to view locations but it doesn't send a text alert...yet.

I like to see where my friends are for fun. I don't need alerts but it is handy sometimes.

https://products.verizonwireless.com..._familylocator

This goes beyond just locating the phone. The iPhone has had location/tracking for quite a while. This expands the capability to allow Geo fencing. For example you could set a geo-fence around your kid and if he wandered outside of the area you would receive a notification. Or you could set up a geo-fence at a particular destination and when you've reached that proximity you could send an alert to whomever you're meeting with to tell them that you're almost there or have arrived. Plus it is free unlike Verizon's version but nothing on Verizon is free so this on their iPhones will probably annoy them.

I doubt I will use this feature but I can see it being helpful for parents.

[app_Developer]

There is a geo-fencing API coming for BB10 so we can build apps like this. (We have corporate apps where the configuration of the app refreshes immediately as you move around facilities or when you leave work at the end of the day, so that's why we want this).

I'm not sure if it will be available to us by the time BB10 launches. But as soon as this is available, people can make apps like this for BB10 also. This is becoming a really popular feature on iOS and Android.

[pri79269]

Verizon Wireless offers this feature on all of their phones (iPhone Included). It's called Family Locator. There's a ton of options, and yes, it has been available for about 7 years I think.

Andorid has it as an app. It is available for BlackBerry phones as well. Dumb phones too!

Cool that iPhone has it now. I use Google Maps Latitude to view locations but it doesn't send a text alert...yet.

I like to see where my friends are for fun. I don't need alerts but it is handy sometimes.

https://products.verizonwireless.com..._familylocator

Yeah AT&T has family locator but we tested it and it wasn't accurate at all. In addition they wanted like $9 a month. No thanks.

[Chrisy]

Family Locator sets boundaries as well. When the phone goes outside the set walls, an alert is sent. It's the same thing as what iPhone just released.

However, it is a monthly fee, like most carrier ad-ons.

[pri79269]

This goes beyond just locating the phone. The iPhone has had location/tracking for quite a while. This expands the capability to allow Geo fencing. For example you could set a geo-fence around your kid and if he wandered outside of the area you would receive a notification.

And that's what I like! He'll be driving soon and going into high school next year he'll be getting rides with friends. We live in a sort of master planned community so schools, restaurants, recreation, stores etc are all there. No reason for him to be on dangerous interstates and main highways. I could put a Geo-Fence around our community to ensure he didn't sneak off to the mall after practice *lol

[xandermac]

However, it is a monthly fee, like most carrier ad-ons.

Which makes me wonder whether Verizon will even allow Apple's free version? Verizon have combated iMessage by introducing their rapey "everything" plans, the cheapest of which is now $90 for a plan with 1GB of data, but losing these "addons" to a free apple alternative has to really annoy them. I guess we'll see whether they start to try and take back some control.

Holy crapppp! $9.99 per month! $240 over two years verizon want for that service, oh yeah, they won't be thrilled with Apple.

[Chrisy]

I would think so. It's so crappy how carriers charge for things that are found free elsewhere. Like navigation. As far as I know every platform has free audible navigation now (Google Navigation, BlackBerry Traffic).

Although VZ Navigator did go from $9.99 a month to $4.99 a month. But still, I always go with free if it's decent enough to replace a paid service.

SMS for example is like a 200% markup or somethingi blocked texts out of spite to save money. There are too many FREE messaging alternatives to pay $20 a month for text and picture sending.

Carriers need to throw in included services to give us value back. They always raise plan prices and lower data allowances and we have to take it.

The carriers are so greedy, lol. But yeah, the fenced in feature is pretty old. I'm glad to see it's free on iPhone. Maybe that will force the carriers to include in with smartphone data plans.

[pri79269]

Family Locator sets boundaries as well. When the phone goes outside the set walls, an alert is sent. It's the same thing as what iPhone just released.

However, it is a monthly fee, like most carrier ad-ons.

Well perhaps AT&T has this option as well. Either way FREE beats $120 a year. They get enough of my money lol

[Chrisy]

Heck ya. Stick it to the carriers!