Big Brother Is…Improving Your Cellphone Service?

We’re not generally fans of your cell phone handing out tidbits like your GPS location like they’re candy, because it offers the potential to be abused and quite frankly, most people who want that information don’t need it. Big corporations shouldn’t be able to track your movement any more than the government should.

Unless it means that YouTube video on my phone will stream more smoothly. Oooooh, kitties!

Leave it to MIT to make your every movement being watched something actually worth doing.

As we all know, most smartphones come with an accelerometer and a gyroscope, to detect orientation and mostly because it sounds neat in the specifications. In addition, they might be loaded with all sorts of goofy crap; the Motorola Xoom has, no kidding, an altimeter and a barometer. Plus they all have GPS capability. Even dumbphones have that, at this point.

The idea is that, instead of the current clumsy system of “handing off” between towers, the phone feeds that location data to the towers so they can anticipate where you’ll be and what tower you’ll be using. That will mean smoother service and more bars wherever you go.

Of course, you’ll be feeding your location to a corporation that thinks your civil rights are for sale but…kitties!