On-The-Go Mobile Coupons: Almost As Cool As Minority Report. Not Quite As Creepy.

In the Steve Spielberg movie Minority Report (yes, I make some references to it about once a week), there's a scene in which John Anderton (Tom Cruise's character) is walking through an urban retail center and his eye is getting scanned as he moves which is serving up custom greetings and deals from retailers. It's both creepy and cool. But that movie is set in 2054, we're not there yet. But AT&T had a demo at its Tech Showcase today that is inching closer to that. As you can see in the video below, the idea behind AT&T's system is that you can walk around a city with a phone in your pocket and get alerted when a nearby retailer has a deal for you. Users of Foursquare and soon Loopt will recognize this concept , but AT&T's idea is a bit different. By using AT&T's network as the bridge to be constantly updating your location (assuming, of course, you opt-in to such a feature), these retailers are able to push these coupons to your phone via SMS. Currently, something like Foursquare requires that you "check-in" to a place to see that there is a deal there or nearby.