[aprssig] Anybody seen mologogo.com?

[KC2MMi]

They aren't APRS but I'm thinking they may be an interesting alternative if
someone is familiar with Java programming.

Apparently you can buy a Boost prepaid cell phone (wait, don't scream yet) for
$99 from them, including an airtime credit and a custom Java applet on the
phone. For 20 cents per day--six bucks a month--they say this can have unlimited
use of the web interface from the phones, which are Nextel phones with built-in
GPS. ($99 for a pre-coded phone, data cable, car & home chargers, and ten dollar
airtime credit.) No monthly phone contract needed since it uses the prepaid
service and only is using the web service at 20c/day, they say.

And the phones, as currently programmed, can read the internal GPS every xx
minutes and then report it back to their server, which is running GoogleMaps to
display the positions of all the phones.

So...couldn't this be an APRS resource? Modify the Java code to send the
position to a different server (i.e. an APRS server) and if necessary send it in
a different format?

I know, that's not ham radio. But it presents an inexpensive way to get a RADIO
AND GPS and get that data reported out in realtime from most parts of the
country--and get that traffic OFF CONGESTED APRS FREQS.

I haven't verified their claims, I haven't looked at the Java applet, I'm not a
programmer. And no, I don't want to spend six bucks a month when a radio could
do it for free. <G>

I'm just saying that there's an interesting tool out there, at a reasonable
price, that might tie into APRS and the APRS servers very nicely. It would seem
worthy of a look, no?