ICEBeacon

ICEBeacon, created by Clear Wave Mobile, is a potentially useful little app. When I say useful I mean that it has the potential to be literally a lifesaver for someone.  The basic functionality of ICEBeacon is that it provides a quick and easy way for users to send pre-setup texts to  people in the event of an emergency. The user can have all of their important medical and personal information that would be needed in the event of an emergency sent to important contacts such as loved ones, gaurdians, doctors, etc.   

The important thing is that all of this information is filled out initially when you purchase and install the application. Once this inital setup is complete, hopefully the user will never have a need to use the app again. But in case of an emergency all that is required is to push a button within the app and an emergency text will be sent out immediatly to anyone the user set up to recieve it.  

Here are some of ICEBeacon’s features:  

• One-touch activation
• Sends four automatic text messages
• Picture for identification
• Name, age, blood type, allergies, medications, medical condition
• Insurance information

All in all I like the idea of having an app like this in my phone “just in case”. I can say that I’m not really sure how often something like this would actually be necessary though. This could be really usefull for elderly people as they might be most likely to have a large list of medical issues and are also most likely to need medical assistance. You do need to have a cell or internet connection for this app to work obviously so that can be one drawback if you are somewhere very remote.

I gave this app a solid 4 finger ranking because I believe it can be useful for certain people that have medical issues. Also it’s very easy to use. A recent update to the app now allows it to leverage the iPhone GPS and also send out texts worldwide; a handy upgrade.

One last item to mention about the app is that ICEBeacon’s App Store description also highlights that it is the only such app to have partnered with the American Red Cross. It helps a little with the app cost to know that a portion of it is going to a good cause. 

“Through a partnership with the American Red Cross, 25 cents from every download will be donated to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund, with Clearwave Mobile committing a minimum of $250,000 in donations by July 1, 2010. The Disaster Relief Fund enables the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, emotional support and other assistance to victims of all disasters.”

Posted by Rich DeBell
on Sep 10, 2009
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