Review: BlueRadar
Score:
68%
Version Reviewed: 1.05
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There’s a scene in the classic film “Alien” where the crew of the Nostromo piece together a motion tracking device so they can attempt to discover where the Xenomorph is without getting eaten. It’s a nice piece of kit, but in the modern world of smartphones, a bit unnecessary, because they could have easily used Ingraal’s BlueRadar application instead.
BlueRadar allows you to see when Bluetooth enabled devices come into range of your phone, and it does this in a very nice interface and with some good usability touches. It allows you to keeps a log of the names of all the Bluetooth devices that have ever come into range of your phone. Finding those devices is a matter of discovering the devices in the same way as you normally pair them, or manually entering someone’s Bluetooth ID directly. Any Nokia phone should display this with *#2820#.
Another interesting touch is that BlueRadar will be able to see a Bluetooth device that is in ‘un-discoverable’ mode, as long as the Bluetooth functionality is physically turned on.
So where could BlueRadar be useful? Personally, I’m thinking conferences, where you have arranged to meet someone. Punch up your Bluetooth ID and send (SMS) this to whoever you’re meeting. You could build up a list of “interesting” people you need to bump into, and you’ll be safe in the knowledge that while you’re walking the floor if you get close then you’ll get an alert. Actually that might be a worthwhile feature to add to BlueRadar, the ability to read and send an SMS of your Bluetooth ID code to someone in your Contacts.
Ingraal make another number of suggestions, including meeting people at airports and clubs, or having a good old game of hide and seek. It’s one of these applications that gives you functionality and leaves you to make the best use of it. How about locating a wayward child in a supermarket (just smuggle the old 3650 into their back pocket)?
It’s worth pointing out that, obviously, Blue Radar is not directional, even though there’s a lovely sweeping blue radar screen. You’ll simply get an ‘in range’ warning, but with that 10 metre (ish) range of the radio transmitter you should(!) be able to look around and find the person holding the device – or you’ll be within “Are you here, Rafe?” shouting range! Of course the standard ‘safe’ practice everyone recommends is to leave Bluetooth turned off, for battery and security/nuisance reasons, which if followed would pretty much negate BlueRadar’s effectiveness.
BlueRadar does what it sets out to do, and does it in a friendly way. Whether the functionality is something that you actually need, or can make use of, is another question entirely. It’s cute, and I’m sure a handful of people will regard it as a godsend – pupils at school able to tell when the teachers are approaching for example – but for the rest of us (and myself) I was left feeling that the application has been written because they could, not because it was needed.
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at