Product Sniff
Manufacturer Useful Networks
Price Free software app: Sniffs 50 pence a shot
Download software Sniffu
Alt Txt 'now' to 60506
Web site www.usefulnetworks.com

WHAT COULD be better than a means of locating your buddies now matter what kind of mobile phone they have? No need for a satellite driven GPS capability or any of that nonsense.

Well, Sniff from Useful Networks works with regular mobile phones and all your friends and family have to do is sign up.

It's at this stage that things start to go somewhat pear-shaped. Especially with the UK version. For reasons of privacy, it's essential for your buddies to give full permission for you to 'sniff' them before the service will work.

In Blighty, that means certifying yourself as being over 18. Which is all well and good but it proved to be an obstacle that none of my initial five buddies ever got over. For various reasons, they couldn't seem to get themselves upgraded.

This is actually a flaw in the concept too. The individuals you most want to sniff are definitely going to be errant teenagers. So if you get their handsets upgraded to use the service, they also have access to porn and gambling sites. Oops.

However, Useful Networks' CEO, Brian Levin, admitted, "We totally agree with you, age verification is a huge issue for us. This is something that all Location Based Services are required to implement [by the operators]."

Levin conceded that, "The operators make it so onerous for subscribers to age verify, that we lose a significant number of people who try to get to us, but won't bother getting out their credit card to age verify." That also means people with credit records shot to pieces can't get on either.

He added, "We have also heard from people that they are concerned if they do age verify, they will get spammed by adult content providers - this is not true. "

The next obstacle is that in the UK the service isn't compatible with all five major networks. 3 confirmed told the INQ that it doesn't let location-based data out to any third parties at all.

So having downloaded the Sniff app and having no buddies, the INQ resorted to sniffing itself. Which proved to be a disaster. TWe were actually sitting in a bar at London's Waterloo and the Sniff system said we were two miles away. Previous attempts were much closer but not spot on.

To be fair this could probably be put down to Orange's location database being flawed. When the INQ sniffed Mr Levin in central London on Vodafone it was accurate to within a couple of streets.

Meanwhile the INQ looks forward to trying alternative systems which aren't based purely on CellID like Sniff is.

For those who want to give Sniff a go, at least the Sniff app is free. Text the word 'now' to 60506. Or go onto the Sniffu web site.
There's even a free Facebook app which makes it easy to ask your friends to sign up to the Sniff service.

Levin claims that Sniff is "wildly popular in Scandanavia, in Sweden and Denmark, where we have over 175,000 users and growing fast."

Sadly, it wasn't wildly popular over here with us. µ

The Good
Works on any regular GSM phone.

The Bad
Very difficult to sign up for the service.

The Ugly
Accuracy can be up to two miles out.

Bartender's Verdict