Evert's dashboard

I know that Brightkite is going to have a native app for the iPhone that takes advantage of the GPS, but you still have to do manual check-ins. I just hope that there is also going to be an automatic (periodic) checkin system that does the check-ins for you. This option, in my mind would be a great addition.

For example: I could be walking/driving around. During this time I would not manually check in, that would be cumbersome. But a auto check in system that would check-in every 5 min and than delete the last position (check-in) could be useful. A friend that is on brightkite.com could get realtime information, and get alerts when i am within 200m. My friends could be better in-touch with me.

This feature could also be nice for a enroute feature. My check in, like now is orange. When i would go it becomes red, indicated i am not anymore there. Instead a new marker appears that is green, indicating that is my real-time position (or at-least less than 5 min old), meaning that i am enroute. This could be useful for the following. For example: I have an appointment with some friends, with this feature they can see where i am and know if i'm going to be on time. Of course there are many more applications to this feature. Brady I would love to know what you think about this :)

''You're already 10x better than the other stuff out there.'' I second that! :D

I thought so to at first, but check out there FAQ, there are cost. Something like 2.99 per month. PS: I still dont have an answer to my question: Is there going to be background, fully automatic, periodic (for example every 5-10 min) check-ins using GPS for the iPhone?

Well that is great when you can write apps, but for someone like myself, that cannot write apps, i need to have this the periodic-auto-update-gps-option build-in :)

Thanks Brady for this quick response, amazing, far better than the 5-7 day turnaround on Flickr!:D

Just one little question more :)... Since the Brightkite team is working on the desktop app for OSX is it possible that, just if you guys have the time, to aslo make a dashboard widget? That would be the ultimate way of quickly checking where your friends (colleagues are). I know you're waiting for developers to do this with the API, but an official widget from your team would be the best user experience...

Dear Brady,
You also have this desktop app in the works for OSX?

I need an option build-in that can automatically check in every 5-10 min (in the background), for the iPhone that would be great! – Evert, on June 30, 2008 15:06