Sniffu – obscure LBS application for good reasons

by: admin Sunday, June 15th, 2008

Rating: It’s fine if your friends have removed child lock

Whilst researching whether 3 UK really has – as I suspect- blocked outside attempts to access its LBS information, I stumbled across an impressive mobile app from MX Telecom – namely, Sniffu.
It would be great except I haven’t been able to get anybody to agree to be tracked (sniffed) by me so far.

Replying to my email query concerning the current status of access to 3’s location data, Mark Hawkins,
communications manager with MX Telecom told me, “3 have never opened up their system to allow any aggregators to access such LBS CellID information, up to now.”

However, they are now seriously considering opening this up. MX would hope, given our strong relationship with 3, that we’d be amongst the first to be offered access.”

I’m still waiting for 3 UK to get back to me on this subject. But in the meantime, Hawkins told me to check out his company’s live LBS application – Sniffu.

You wouldn’t believe how difficult I found it to sign up to this application. For starters, the whole thing is blocked on 3 so trying to send the appropriate text ‘now’ to 60506 wouldn’t work.

Never mind, I thought, try Vodafone. This time the application is blocked for a different reason. Not a lot of people know this but with Vodafone you can’t erase the child protection lock if you haven’t got a credit card. For some reason Vodafone demands this as proof you’re over 18.

My friend’s T-Mobile also experienced the adult block, too so I finally managed to get onto Sniffu via the Orange network.

It’s a clever concept. You send out invites to your mates. If they’re over 18 and accept you can see their location using CellID. All for a mere 50 pence a ’sniff’. It’s possible to sniff yourself for free to test the system and it worked, very very well.

The map sent by Sniffu was very easy to follow. Now all I’ve got to do is find some-one whose handset doesn’t block adult (over 18) content. To protect children, Sniffu is designed that way, of course.