Let’s say I have a friend, one that shows up for his own football game 2 hours late, and possesses such charismatic bravado and unabashed, steely-eyed confidence that his coach still lets him play, miffed yes, with pulsing veins at his temples and a ruddy, spotted face flecked with saliva, but with the corner of his mouth in an upturned half-smile after he sees my friend play with the speed, strength and power of the virile young man he’s become. Of course, being so young and virile, and of a slight brash and cocky personality, he has the teenage tendency to disappear at odd hours of the day, and into the night, returning phone calls only at his convenience, and responding much more to the less personal, and less invasive use of text messages.

Or, let’s say I wish to meet a friend, in some obscure location, a quaint, quiet and tidy neighborhood coffee shop with no webpage, the kind with decoupage and antiqued blue countertops with tiles from Madrid, and a certain je ne sais quoi flair to the air. My friend is either too lazy to know the address, or doesn’t know the address, and meeting up suddenly becomes a chore, a treasure hunt of ridiculous effort just for a cup of piping hot joe (and just because it’s cute and local, doesn’t mean the coffee is any good). Here is where iLOCi2 by GTX Corp. comes into play – a GPS location service, this iPhone app shows you an exact location of where someone from your contact list is currently situated. This is great for mothers everywhere, since keeping tabs on children is a tough feat – especially once they reach the adolescent years and no longer want to speak with “mom” on the phone in front of their cronies. If you are a mother, simply request your son’s location, and he simply has to accept this request with a single tap and his iPhone will automatically relay his mapped position and address to your iPhone. Zooming in on the Google map, the features are 3-d and transparent, allowing you to more accurately see where he is. Regardless of whether the person whose location you request is using the app or not, through push notification he will be notified of the request.

I was super excited to try out iLOCi2 because – syntactically awkward and easily forgettable name aside – I often have difficulty figuring out where to meet someone if he’s currently not at a major landmark, an address I already know, or a place that registers as a business on the iPhone, such as Starbucks. Even if we meet at a park, it’s nice to know what side my friend will be on, so I don’t have to search through faces and bushes, feeling defeated until I run the whole length of several blocks (this has happened several times in Golden Gate Park, a park bigger than some of the local neighborhoods). It’s only too bad I can only request the locations from friends in my contact list who also downloaded iLOCi2 to their iPhones. And the worst part? The free Lite version only allows 2 people from my contact list, so unless I dwindle down my priorities to two people (Sorry, Mom, I’ll continue hunting for you the old-fashioned way), I have to purchase the $2.99 full version to include up to 8 people, who, by the way, have to each spend the $2.99 on iLOCi2, as well. I know this is for privacy reasons, but I think after seeing the fee, most of my friends’ initial excitement would wane in favor of their usual location-based anonymity. Too bad, because meeting up with you would be fun!

After convincing my boyfriend to download the Lite version, I happily requested his location and his information was immediately relayed back to me once he accepted my request. His blinking blue dot peered up at from the Google map of his location, at CleanFish headquarters on Decatur Street in the SOMA district of San Francisco, CA. When zooming in ridiculously close, I could even pinpoint where in the building he was – at the time, since we were talking on the computer, I easily reinforced my assumption he was at his desk. Sure, it’s a little creepy and, I’ll admit, a tad tacky, asking for someone’s location, so unless you’re meeting with someone, or checking in with your child if you’re a parent, don’t request the locations of your friends, or worse, significant others, at odd intervals throughout the day! I’m sure during a guy’s night out, carousing with friends and swigging a few beers and burgers, the last thing my boyfriend wants is a “iLOCi2 Notification Alert: Jackie (jackie@jackiejudge.com) has requested your location.” Hmmm, how courteous and medicinal sounding. That, and the fact is says “Alert.” It may as well say “ALERT! ALERT! Nervous and generally anxious Girlfriend on the prowl!” For the sake of defending my sanity, I would never send such a thing. In fact, I never call my boyfriend. That’s how secure I am. *laughs on the inside*

The push notification feature is pivotal to iLOCi2, and without it, it’d be seriously inefficient (a location service based on the person voluntarily checking the app for location requests? Phew, glad that didn’t happen). If you request the location of a person who currently doesn’t use the iLOCi2 app, then he’ll receive an email where he can download it and accept the location request – that is, download it after he flip flops back and forth over whether the nearly $3 price tag is worth it. After that inner debate goes on for a few minutes, you may not even care to know the location of this person anymore.

Bottom line is iLOCi2 is definitely worth the price for mothers who want to put it on their kids phones, and if it’s within their budget to purchase iPhones for their children. That’s quite the bottom line, that tiny demographic. Otherwise, I would recommend for iLOCi2 to expand its user base to accommodate more people without having to limit oneself to the 8 person maximum for a fairly steep $2.99. The price, itself, isn’t steep, but concerning it’s for a location service that saves time, but isn’t ground-breaking, or a must-have, the price is probably a bit much for people who have to pay on both ends.

It’s definitely a step in the right direction, though.