Pinpoint precision and the new Internet

Some of the most important hardware in our mobile data world doesn't sit under cell towers or on the shelves of electronics retailers. It's up in the sky in geosynchronous orbit, keeping precise atomic clock time and beaming latitude, longitude and altitude down to billions of devices, vehicles, cell towers, ATMs and even pets around the globe.

In wireless, the GPS network of 24 satellites was crucial long before the advent of the first navigation phone. It used to work in the background, providing the time stamp needed for wireless networks to sort out encoded conversations, but it has since become a key element in the mobile services and applications we use on a daily basis. GPS isn't just powering our mapping and navigation services, its eking into our social networks apps, it's fueling new presence and social location services, it's helping to make restaurant recommendations, and even enabling new classes of network games and Internet dating services. We've squeezed every possible use out of GPS imaginable, right? Far from it. As GPS becomes more accurate, what seems like a wealth of location-based applications will seem trivial. Ultimately it could fundamentally change the Internet, turning a virtual information world into one that is physical and very real.