ArrivedOK: Send Flight Info to Twitter, Blogs, Email, SMS
How many people do you call when your airplane lands? If you’re like most, you probably dial at least three or four people to tell them you’ve arrived OK, that you’re on (or off) schedule, etc.
Well, ArrivedOK hopes to change that and make it easier.
The site is in beta right now, but is currently working and open to testers. It basically works like this:
Before you leave, you set up your list of who’s to receive the alerts. You can have your limo company, your spouse, your office, friends, anyone you want on the list. They can be sent text, email, tweets, etc. You can even have it post to a blog. You can even set up multiple destinations, stopovers, layovers, etc.
Once it’s set up, you have only to send it messages once in transit.
So you leave and land in Dallas, where you’ll be picking up another flight to New York. You send a text from Dallas and your list gets alerted to your arrival in Dallas (along with your itinerary, to remind them of your time table). Landing in New York, you do it again. The next morning, after your meeting, you get on another flight to Miami, then swap and are on your way to Paris. Again, ArrivedOK keeps up with you.
For international travelers, this can also mean a big savings in roaming or international rates. Why? You only send one text instead of making several calls or sending several messages.
You can even customize messages with extra text while on the run by entering that with your ArrivedOK update. What could be cooler than all this?
How about if it worked automatically? Well, that’s what they’re testing. See, the other stuff is fairly rudimentary by today’s standards. Anyone can set up a Twitter feed and send SMS to it, after all. What they’re working on is tracking your phone itself.
See, when you board the plane, you have to turn off your mobile. Well, that logs you off the mobile network and ArrivedOK can track that. When you log back on (disembark), the phone logs back into the network and ArrivedOK notices this and sends your next message automatically. When you log off and back on again, it assumes you’re at your next stop and sends the next one.
Sweet!
The system works pretty good, though being in beta it does have some bugs—especially with the international parts on this due to network handshaking. So far, though, users are impressed and say it’s pretty accurate. You can also put yourself on the network so you receive the ArrivedOK alerts, of course, which tells you whether it’s working.
Definitely cool use of technology. Plus, it’s free while in beta! Check it out!
