JewPS: track Jews with your iPhone. At first glance I wondered if neonazi skinheads or the Islamic Jihad was behind this one, but noooo. According to Keren Hayesod and the Jewish iPhone community it’s a kosher GPS app that is coming soon for iPhones. I’m still not sure what to think. If it’s genuine I can only imagine how it will fuel underground cultural and religious evolution.
Curious Christian
Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective
JewPS – track Jews with your iPhone
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6 responses to “JewPS – track Jews with your iPhone”
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i am going for a parody 😉 totally not serious
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So basically it’s a way for Jewish people/kosher people to find each other? That kind of makes it similar to the new Bandana app, which is a way for gay people to connect:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/acme-atronomatic-releases-bandana—the-gaydar-app-for-the-iphoneipadipod-97589209.html
I wonder if we’re going to be seeing more of these kinds of apps.
In some ways, I can see where both apps can be handy, especially if you’re visiting a new area and want an easy way to find like-minded people. Of course, I can also see where some people (like neo-Nazi skinheads and other hateful people) could find some nefarious uses for such apps, too.LikeLike
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Andy, if it’s a parody, the ruse is unusually elaborate. Given there has been talk of merging social media with GPS for a little while now I’m going for genuine.
Jarred, thanks for the heads up on the “Gaydar” app. Again, I’m sure you can imagine how this could be abused too.
I’m sure we’re going to be seeing more apps like this. Consider: anarchists, furries, druggies looking for a hit, Trekkies, Scientologists, classical music fans, etc. Ok, maybe not necessary for Emos, they stand out anyway, but you get the drift. I can easily imagine using something like this to identify fellow Anabaptists at Christian festivals like Blackstump. In someways it would be like the mainstreaming of flashmobbing.LikeLike
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My only question is how does it know if a guy walking on the street is Jewish? I can understand finding businesses and Jewish locals but how does it know if that is a Jew while that woman is not?
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Jonathan,
I assume that the application only locates users of the application. If you’re running the app, your iPhone is likely constantly reporting your location to some server. The central server can then relay that information to other app users.
Bandana works in a similar way, except it uses the iPhone’s bluetooth system as a sort of “proximity sensor” so that when two users of the app get within a certain distance of each other, their iPhone informs them.LikeLike
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467304575383522318244234.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
An article today about cell phone GPS being used for stalking.
Also can be used to find lost people…so good and bad.LikeLike
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