State of World GPS
Monday, October 20th, 2008Just when you think that the world is collectively moving in a more digital wireless direction, you get a reminder that everyone has different definitions of progress. Despite all the great advances for GPS based systems, including having 10% of all iPhone apps using the Location API, some governments simply don’t trust that sort of knowledge to their people.
It turns out that Egypt will not allow its people to have GPS location devices such as a GPS enabled phone unless they have a license from the government. Now the people are smuggling in their smart phones. Bizarre. The sad part is that a GPS guided tour of popular tourist destinations in Egypt would be so cool. Hopefully, Egypt will notice that as part of the anti-GPS club, it now has lots in common with the other two countries that ban their citizens from having GPS devices, North Korea and Syria. Yeah, that will look great on the tourist literature.
