SameCell

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Welcome

SameCell is a fun, free and simple to use application that alerts you by email whenever you come within a pre-defined proximity of people, places and events that you’re interested in.

1. SameCell Overview

The application gives you complete control to build your friends list and define your interests. You can also set your proximity and privacy preferences. SameCell estimates your location based on the current cell tower that you’re phone is connected to. GPS is NOT required to use SameCell. However, if your device has GPS, you can improve proximity accuracy and gain access to additional features by enabling GPS.

A list of primary features follows:

Share proximity with friends via email alerts and the “who’s nearby” feature.
Share and view actual mapped location with friends.
Tag and share places with friends and/or all SameCell Users.
Subscribe to Place Categories and receive alerts when near a tagged place.
Create same-time same-place event alerts to share with other users.
Subscribe to Event categories and receive email alerts of nearby events in real-time.
Find your lost or stolen BlackBerry using the “Locate” feature on the SameCell.com website.
Share your location with a non-SameCell user via the “LocateMe” feature on the SameCell.com website.
Use the “Locate” feature as a safety function to monitor the location of your children or elderly family members.

1.a. Setup Options

Select “Options” from the application menu to change application-wide preferences. Additional help is available at the bottom of the Options screen.

1.b. Navigation

The main screen is divided into three tabbed sections; Friends, Places, Events. Move your trackball to highlight one of the tabs and click to open that section. There are action links at the top of each section that provide single click access to features such as “add a friend”, “see who’s nearby”, Tag a Place” and “send an alert”.

1.c. Friends Section

The Friends section contains a list of your SameCell friends. Scroll your trackball up or down to select a friend. With the selection box on a friend, click your spacebar to enable/disable proximity sharing with that friend. You can change the proximity range by scrolling your trackball left or right. Click on the menu button and choose edit to go to the friend edit screen.

Note: When you add a friend to your friends list, the application with send them an invite with instructions on how to proceed. Your friend will have to install the SameCell application on their smartphone and accept your sharing invite.

1.d. Places Section

The Places section contains two lists; Places Categories & My Places. Places are stationery locations that have been tagged by SameCell users. Scroll your trackball up or down to select a category. With the selection box on a category, click your spacebar to enable/disable the category. If you disable a category, you will not receive any email alerts when you are nearby that type of place. You can change the proximity range (i.e. how near you need to be before an alert is sent) by scrolling your trackball left or right.

NOTE: The “My Places” list allows you to view and edit places that you have tagged. You can tag a place by clicking on the “tag a Place” link at the top of the Places section.

1.e. Events Section

The Events section contains a list of Event categories. Events are same-time same-place situations that have been submitted by other SameCell users. Scroll your trackball up or down to select a category. With the selection box on a category, click your spacebar to enable/disable the category. If you disable a category, you will not receive any email alerts when you are nearby that type of event.

You can send an alert to other nearby users by clicking on the “Send Alert” link at the top of the Events section.

1.f. Disable SameCell

SameCell Sharing can be turned on or off from the Main Screen menu at any time by selecting “Turn Sharing Off”. When SameCell is turned off (stealth mode), your location will be ignored by the proximity matching engine and no proximity matches can be made. When sharing is off, you will not be able to see the proximity of any of your friends. On/Off status is indicated by the green (On) and red (Off) icons at the top right corner of the SameCell main screen.

1.g. Deactivate SameCell

If you no longer wish to use SameCell, please select “Deactivate SameCell” from the main screen menu. Deactivating will disable your account and ensure that you don’t receive any further proximity emails. Once you have deactivated, you will need to uninstall the application. This can be done on most BlackBerrys by navigating to “Options-Advanced Options-Applications”. Scroll down to the SameCell item and select “Delete”.

If additional help or support is required, please email us at support@samecell.com

2. Working with Friends

The next step after activating your SameCell account is to add friends and groups who you wish to share proximity and/or location with. Adding a friend is as simple as picking their name from your existing address book or typing in their email address. To protect each user’s privacy, person-to-person proximity sharing must be approved by both parties.

When you add a new Friend, SameCell will send your friend an invite email. After your friend installs SameCell, your name will appear on their SameCell screen and they will be prompted to accept your sharing invitation. The following fields enable you to control proximity ranges and privacy levels for each friend.

Email Address or Group Name:
Type your friend's email address or select it from your address book. You can also use a Group Name (public or private). See www.SameCell.com for more information on how to use Groups.

Proximity Sharing Active:
Use this option to toggle proximity & Location sharing on or off for this friend. (SHORTCUT: You can toggle this option from the main screen by clicking the spacebar)

Proximity Range:
This setting determines how close your friend has to be before SameCell sends you an alert email. (SHORTCUT: You can adjust this setting from the main screen by scrolling your trackball left and right)

Hours Before a Repeat Alert:
To avoid excessive alerts, SameCell will not send a repeat alert about the same friend until this timer has expired. 4 hours works for most friends in most circumstances, however you might wish to use a higher setting such as 24 or 36 hours for coworkers or neighbours.

Share My:
SameCell will alert you when a friend is nearby, but it will not share actual location between friends unless this option is set to "Proximity & Location". If you set this option to "Proximity & Location", then your friend will have the option to see your current location on a map. The location will be quite accurate if your phone has GPS. If you do not have GPS, the location will be an estimate based on the current cell tower that you are connected to. Location sharing is denoted on the main screen by red push-pin icons. The left push-pin indicates that you are sharing your location and the right push-pin indicates that your friend is sharing their location with you.

3. Tagging a Place

This feature allows you to “tag” your current location and share it with Friends and/or all SameCell users whenever they are within a certain proximity of the tagged location.

Category:
Select the category that best describes the place (i.e. your current location).

Share With: You can share private places such as “Jason’s cottage” with friends or you can share public places such as your favourite seafood restaurant with all SameCell users.

Proximity Range:
This setting determines how close a place has to be before SameCell sends you an alert email. (SHORTCUT: You can adjust this setting from the main screen by scrolling your trackball left and right)

Place Description:
Type a brief text message that describes the place, it’s address and your reason for tagging it. Example; “Jimmy’s Crab Shack, 100 shoreline road, great food and service”. Descriptions must be 160 characters or less.

Note: The actual location assigned to this place will be based on your location at the time you save (send) this place.

4. Sending Event Alerts

This feature allows you to post a real-time alert that will be sent to other SameCell users who come within 3 miles (5 km) of your current location within the next 30 minutes. You can use this feature to share event information, traffic reports, safety information and/or any other information that is useful based on time & place.

Category:
Select the category that best describes your alert.

Include My Email Address:
Alerts are anonymous by default, but you can choose to have your email address sent with the alert thus enabling a recipient of your alert to contact you by email. This could be useful in the event that you need assistance.

Send Me a Copy:
Select Yes to have a copy of the alert emailed to you.

Alert Description:
Type a brief text message that describes the event or situation such as; “Traffic jam at HWY 501 eastbound at John St.”. Descriptions must be 160 characters or less.

5. Application Options

The options screen is used to activate your SameCell account and to manage your application preferences.

Email (Account Name):
Select the email account that you wish to use to receive SameCell proximity alerts. Your email address will become your account name.

Name (Optional):
Name is optional, however we recommend that you enter your name (or an alias) so that your friends will be able to more easily identify you.

Distance Unit:
By default all ranges will be specified in miles. You can change this setting to Km (Kilometers).

Use GPS if Available:
GPS is NOT required to use SameCell. However, if your device has GPS, you can improve proximity accuracy and gain access to additional features by enabling GPS.

Reconcile Invites:
If you have multiple email accounts. SameCell can attempt to reconcile invites to your alternate email addresses. For example, if you activated your account using smith@blackberry.net and another user sends you an invite to smith@hotmail.com, SameCell can automatically map both email accounts to your SameCell account provided that both email accounts are setup on your BlackBerry.

Gender (optional):
By default your gender will be set to “Not Specified”. SameCell offers some gender specific services such as proximity matching with a member of a specific gender. You must specify your own gender to participate in gender specific functionality.

Locate my Phone:
This feature allows you to locate your lost or stolen phone by logging in to the SameCell.com website. You can also share your location with friends if you tell them your locate password (below).

Locate Password:
Enter a password here that will be used to login to the “Locate My Phone” feature (above) on the SameCell Website. Your password must be 30 characters or less and use alpha-numeric characters only. You may change your password from this location as often as you wish.

6. Additional Information

Additional information about SameCell and the SameCell application for other platforms can be found at: www.SameCell.com

6.a. Privacy

The SameCell Service provides a means for you to connect with people you already know or people you wish to know based on personal preferences and geographical proximity. The SameCell Service uses a variety of methods including cellular network technologies and GPS technologies to estimate your proximity to other people of interest to you. SameCell's technology was not designed to track your precise location or movements, however others may be notified that you are nearby and may have the option to see your location on a map if your SameCell preferences are set to allow such notifications. To protect your privacy and personal security, it is imperative that you have read and understand how the SameCell Service works and that you have read and agree to the SameCell Terms of Service.

6.b. Proximity Accuracy

By design, SameCell's technology makes a connection between two friends when they fall within a pre-determined proximity of one another. Our proximity matching techniques do not require the exact location of either user in order to derive this proximity estimate.

In the context of social networking, SameCell believes that a proximity-based approach provides an appropriate degree of accuracy and privacy for most users. As an optional feature, friends can choose to share both proximity AND location thus allowing one friend to see another friend's approximate location on a map.

SameCell's hybrid proximity matching engine supports a broad range of location technologies including the following:

* Lat/Lon coordinates from smartphones with built-in GPS
* Lat/Lon coordinates from smartphones with Bluetooth-based GPS devices
* Cell tower information from GSM networks
* Cell tower information from CDMA networks
* Geo-coding of real-world location descriptions such as street addresses, intersections or zip codes

Each of the above techniques offer varying levels of accuracy and in some cases may also present an update lag, especially when a user is travelling at high speeds. Cell tower based technologies and postal codes, for example, present an accuracy that can be +- several miles, whereas GPS technologies and exact street addresses provide a high level of precision. The SameCell technology is designed to work with this hybrid data structure and to build relationships between locations so that accuracy will improve over time. In most cases proximity will be detected within each range to a fair degree of accuracy.

6.c. Usage Examples and Suggestions

Emails from SameCell

When the SameCell server finds a proximity match (i.e. Two people who have a friend or group keyword match and are within the defined range) it sends an automated email out to each user advising them of the match. These emails will appear in your inbox with “SameCell” as the sender. Wherever possible, SameCell attempts to provide useful information such as the matched friend’s name in the subject line. To ensure uninterrupted service from SameCell, you may need to add "SameCell.com" and "SameCell.net" as approved domains in your junk email filters.

At certain times you may find the proximity alerts to be overwhelming. For example, imagine if you had a group name such as “Harvard Class of 84” that you used to meet up with old school friends when you travel. If you happened to be attending a school reunion, you would likely be swarmed with redundant emails advising you of people who are nearby. The simple solution would be to toggle sharing off for that group during your time at the reunion.

A common user mistake is to respond to a proximity alert email when trying to contact your friend. Note that the email was actually sent from SameCell's servers, so responding to it will not reach your friend. The email address of the friend you wish to contact is actually contained in the body of the email. Simply click on the address link in the body of the email to email the friend who is nearby.

6.d. Getting Help

Application Upgrades

SameCell will periodically upgrade the SameCell application with new features and/or bug fixes. An upgrade option will automatically appear in the SameCell main menu when a new version is available. Simply click on this option and the upgrade will run and usually complete within 30 seconds or less. If the feature changes are significant, you may be notified via email.

Technical Support

For technical support, please reference this product area of the website first. If additional help is needed, send an email to support@samecell.com. Please provide a detailed description of the problem you have experienced.

For additional information, visit www.SameCell.com