Blipz, a small software company in Encino, California made big waves this week in the mobile phone industry after releasing its first iPhone application, OFind. The $0.99 software was uploaded to the Apple AppStore early Monday morning, and by 11 a.m. Apple reported that over 2 million people had already downloaded the only application that tracks the real-time movements of Osama Bin Laden.The State Department and the Department of Defense were quick to praise the company’s breakthrough. “We’ve been waiting for this app since it was announced at CES [Consumer Electronics Show] in Las Vegas last year,” said Gen. Jake Turgidson. “We're waiting for Congress to approve the expenditure, but we're confident that we'll have it by next spring."
The application uses the iPhone’s built-in GPS navigation and satellite links to send real-time updates to the app’s users. “We set up the program to only show people that match a specific set of criteria: male, Middle Eastern, over 6’5”, a large entourage carrying automatic weapons nearby, and a giant dialysis machine,” said Derek Pyle, lead programmer for OFind. “It turned out that it wasn’t really that difficult.”
Blipz CEO Howard T. Duke isn't content to rest on his company's recent success, though, and yesterday announced yet another application to be released by the year's end. “I was inspired by the frustration my 3-year-old faced with his newest book,” said Duke. “Let’s just say that Waldo no longer has any place to hide.”
