[IP] Wanted: New Friend, Must Have Bluetooth
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 24, 2004 3:27:57 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Wanted: New Friend, Must Have Bluetooth
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Wanted: New Friend, Must Have Bluetooth
Wed Jun 23, 2004 12:31 PM ET
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?
type=technologyNews&storyID=5495824&src=rss/
technologyNews§ion=news>
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Student Gracinia Lim has made new friends thanks
to mobile phone software that alerts her to compatible people nearby.
She is an early customer of a service in Singapore called BEDD that
uses Bluetooth wireless communications to scan strangers' phones for
their personal profiles.
The application joins a swelling number of Internet and mobile phone
based services that offer to widen people's social networks.
Users download the BEDD software into a compatible phone, complete a
short profile of themselves and include a description of who they want
to befriend, or an item they want to buy or sell.
The software automatically searches for and exchanges profiles with
other phones that come within a 20-meter (65 ft) radius. Matched users
are given each other's contact details.
"I've become close with people that I've never known before, built up
a close clique of friends whom I chill out with, sleep over at their
homes and go for late suppers with," said Lim, 19.
The software, created by futures trader Stephen Carlton and Swedish
engineer Olle Bliding about three years ago, was launched last month in
Singapore and will be rolled out in most of Asia by year-end. It costs
S$0.98 ($0.571) for 30 days of unlimited use.
BEDD differs from rival services in that it relies on phone-to-phone
transmission, running on the short-range Bluetooth technology.
Other mobile-based dating services in Asia -- such as Singapore
Telecommunications Ltd's MyCupid and Bharti Airtel of India's
TrackUrMate -- exchange information through a central database. Carlton
said BEDD has over 1,000 users in the city state and hosts
get-togethers in coffee bars where people let their phones make their
introductions. As the number of customers grows, the chances of meeting
a compatible person at random in the street or on a bus will grow.
"People spend tons of money at dating and matchmaking agencies or on
personal ads -- for a small amount of money, this software could help
change their lives," Carlton said.
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