We all love our mobiles. We take them with us everywhere we go, we sleep with them and we buy them little accessories. It’s only a matter of time before we start getting married to them; it’s just a case of choosing a ring [tone]. But do our mobiles love us in return? Well it seems so because now they’ve started to save our lives.

We all know about apps. We stick them on our ‘phones for amusement, entertainment and information. They can make photographs look funny, they can make Angry Birds get angrier and they inform us when a celebrity has died, so that we can instantly Tweet about how we once walked past them in a supermarket. But now some clever person has come up with an app that can make heroic people come to your rescue.

A Terrifying Scenario

Picture the scene: you’re lost in Snowdonia in Wales – a terrifying prospect in itself. You’re alone, you’re cold and you’re vulnerable. At any moment now, someone could come up to you and start singing. Or even worse; a person could corner you and tell you about how Dr Who is filmed in Cardiff. The clouds are descending and you can’t see your hand in front of your face.

This terrifying scenario is exactly what happened to one 33-year-old Liverpudlian male on Saturday 23rd June, 2013. Once he realised he had no clue where he was, he notified the emergency services. Two mountain rescue teams were sent out and they were assisted by something called “Sarloc”.

The App That Saves Lives

Now we know what you’re thinking; “Wasn’t that the creature in the big hole on Tatooine that Luke Skywalker nearly fell into in Return of the Jedi?” No. Sarloc is an app that enables heroic rescuers to locate lost Scousers. The app is triggered by emailing a link to the lost person’s smart ‘phone. They then click on the link, that triggers the app, that sends the signal, that the rescuers can follow. Apparently it’s accurate to within just one metre.

We at Fresh Air Studios do a lot of work for mobile service providers and we all love our mobiles. In fact, some of us even treat our mobiles to luxury weekends away at health farms. It’s good to know that someone out there is using the technology to save lives as well as make lives more entertaining.

To find out more about this story, feel free to have a look at the original article from the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23020638

A Terrifying Scenario

The App That Saves Lives

Of course by highlighting this app we are by no means encouraging or telling you to get lost.

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