Peer Discovery

[Joel Newkirk]

Presuming that V1 devices will lack bluetooth, what other means exist
for one device to recognize proximity of another?

With SMS we could communicate with a few 'friends' and keep updated as
to GPS locations, but that depends on cell carrier and manually
inputting number/email/something.  GPRS wouldn't be useful, since most
GPRS services (in my experience) don't allow inbound connections, and
there'd be no easy way (short of an external server) to identify the IP
of a potential peer device, locate it, or push data at it.

What about a scenario like a conference, where two individuals meet and
want to exchange contact data? I'm thinking about people who 'beam'
their business cards between PDAs, for example.

Put two Neos in a room with no cell service - can they find each other?
 Even with service, if nobody punches in 'codes' on each?

Several ideas I've read on the list depend on autonomous communications
between devices, but short of entering a number and subsequently
communicating via SMS, I don't see it.

j