Lets get one thing straight: Microsoft wasnt actually stupid enough to call their new GPS feature the avoid ghetto app when they applied for a patent…But it immediately became the name of choice for a smartphone function that mines violent crime stats to help users avoid an unsafe neighborhood.
…But heres what bothers me even more: I worry that this app (along with many others) heralds the death of street smarts.
Whatever happened to being able to look around you and use your eyes and ears (not to mention your nose) to determine whether you were somewhere safe or not?
Whatever happened to looking at the people on the sidewalk around you, and the businesses on a given street, and deciding whether this was a place you wanted to be or not?
I love my iPhone, too, but I dont need it to tell me which way the wind blows.
