Woznaik (co-founder of Apple) is at it again. This time around he’s leveraging his new companies’ location-based technologies to seucre mobile data. The approach marries GPS location information with encryption so that data is only accessible in certain places. Outside of those areas the data is unavailble.
This scheme sounds like it may address some critical concerns I’ve been hearing from potential enterprise cutomers when it comes to the Tablet PC. Some corporations control their IP very, very closely and they’re not too sure about putting crucial data on mobile devices that someone could walk off with–no matter how productive it may make people. This location-based approach might alleviate their concerns.
I think the concept can be expanded further too. Many times people want to control down to the application level too. For instance, if you walk into a “sealed” lab, any and all Internet access must be disabled. Woz’s product might be able to provide this feature. It’s a big issue for some companies where Tablet PCs, for instance, can be carried from one workspace to another.
Now I’m not too hot on the dongle idea. I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable walking around with a Tablet if a dongle is dangling about. Maybe a custom box can be made that holds the dongle firmly against a Tablet case.