Tone: Point and Shoot Takes on New Meaning Tone #20 (page 25) Jan/Feb 2003 San Francisco's GeoVector has been working in New Zealand with Microsoft, HP and Vodafone to develop and fine-tune pointing application technology for the world market. You take a specifically designed PC Card, plug it into your iPaq Pocket PC or HP's new Tablet PC, hook up to Vodafone's quick GPRS network and you're away. It uses GPS to figure out where you are and a heading sensor to determine what you're pointing your device at, and then GeoVector's technology to tell you useful information about what you're looking at (within reason!). For example, a tourism application can tell users what landmark or hotel they are looking at, how much the room rate is, or even what's on the menu that night in the restaurant. Developed using Microsoft's .NET compact framework, there's already more than 40,000 things you can point at and get more information on in Auckland, with a lot more on the way. It's got a lot of other practical applications too, like in real estate (point at the area you'd like to live to get listings) or sports viewing (point at the America's Cup boats to get more info), finding friends or cafés etc. But the real fun is in the one they're still trialing - a real life version of Doom, played on the streets rather than on your computer. Users can play head to head in the same town or even in different cities and countries. The Real Doom trial has seen people in Auckland, Christchurch and San Francisco all battling it out in the same Real Doom environment. Watch out for suspicious looking people running round with iPaq Pocket PC's at a town near you. Please read the Terms & Conditions for Use. These include guidelines governing appropriate use, and viewing or download of material in this section is considered acceptance of those Terms & Conditions.