Thanks to a new service, you may not have to ask or answer that question. Glympse, which launched on Monday, joins Loopt and Google Latitude as the newest location-based service that uses cell phones’ GPS capability to tell people where you are.

Glympse, which is free, has taken a different approach. Unlike Loopt, which requires the sender and recipient to sign up for service and download an application, Glympse requires almost no effort on the part of the person who is following you. All they have to do is click on a Web link on a computer or a Web- enabled phone to see where you are on a map.

To transmit your location, you need to download an application to your phone and use the application to send a “Glympse,” which authorizes that person to follow you for a specific amount of time and send them the link they need to see you on a map.

Another way it differs from both Loopt and Google Latitude is that Glympse can automatically time out after tracking someone for four hours. The person being followed can also choose a shorter monitoring window, like 30 minutes.

To its credit, Loopt is also permission-based and sends reminders that you may be sharing your real-time information. Google’s Latitude service, which also requires you to give permission to be followed, only displays your approximate location — within about a half mile — but doesn’t show precisely where you are.

With Glympse, you might not know the person’s exact address, but you’ll probably be within a hundred feet.

The coolest thing about Glympse is when you are following someone on the move. You can pinpoint them on the map, see their speed, and see when and where they stop.

I used it to follow Glympse co-founder Bryan Trussle as he rode in a car from my house to San Jose. I saw him get on and off the freeway and pull into a parking lot. At one point I caught his car’s driver exceeding the speed limit by a few miles an hour.

As he compared his actual location to what I saw on my PC, we found there only a slight lag between the two — a difference of 10 seconds on average.

While I realize that some will consider this technology a little creepy, there are practical uses for it.

Some police departments, delivery services and businesses spend a lot of money on equipment to do what Glympse could do for free.

For one thing, it can reassure parents and family members that their loved ones are safe.

I remember how nervous I was when my 16-year-old daughter would use the car or ride in other kids’ cars. We’d insist that she call us when she arrived and made her tell us where she planned to go. If she had a Glympse-equipped cell phone, we could have checked in on her from time to time — and we would have known if she was speeding too.

And rather than calling people to let them know you’re arriving in 15 minutes, they can track you online or on a Web-enabled phone.

The Glympse’s public beta currently works only on the T-Mobile G1, which uses Google’s Android operating system. The company is working on versions for the iPhone, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry.

Disclosure: Glympse, as well as its main competitors, Loopt and Google, are supporters of ConnectSafely.org, a nonprofit Internet safety organization I help operate.

Unlike all previous Blackberries, the Storm doesn’t have a QWERTY keyboard. Instead it has a touch-screen reminiscent of the iPhone with icons for launching applications and letters and numbers for typing or dialing the phone. But there’s an interesting twist. When you touch an onscreen icon, letter or number it simply highlights it. To make anything happen you have to firmly press down on the screen. When I first heard about this technology, I assumed that RIM had found some clever way to imbed lots of little switches to enable users to type on the screen but the screen is actually one big switch. All you’re really doing when you press it is confirming that you really wanted to click on the highlighted key. It does have one advantage over the iPhone’s touch screen in that you’re less likely to accidentally issue the wrong command simply because you touched an icon. That physical feedback is fine when it comes to launching programs but when trying to type an email, I found it tedious and tiring. I’m not a big iPhone touch-key fan, but I do find it easier to use than the Storm.

To its credit, the Storm copies the iPhone’s ability to automatically know if you’re holding it in portrait (vertical) or landscape (horizontal) mode but it’s very slow to respond when you turn it on its side. And it’s not the only sluggish part of this phone. There is a brief but noticeable delay when you launch applications though it is fast when you type phone numbers and messages. What’s more, if you to type an email while holding the Storm in landscape mode you get an onscreen QWERTY keyboard but if you hold it in portrait mode you get this wacky “SureType” keyboard with two letters on each key. If you’re typing words, the software is reasonably good at figuring out your intentions but if you’re typing a web or email address its guesses are often wrong.

One thing missing in the Storm is WiFi. It does use Verizon’s relatively high-speed 3G phone network but that’s not as fast as a good WiFi network. The iPhone and the Blackberry Bold both support WiFi.

The Storm comes with a relatively generous 8 gigabytes of memory which should be adequate if you use it for music but not too much video but it does work with larger optional memory cards. Unlike the iPhone it has a removable battery, which is a good thing and it has a better than average web browser. It lacks the iPhone’s ability to resize images by pinching with two fingers but it does let you use one finger to move around the screen or tap twice to zoom in.

One thing I like about the Storm is Verizon’s excellent cellular network. Even though most Verizon phones don’t work overseas, the Storm will because it has an GSM SIM card that can be used in most other countries, albeit at a very high roaming rate.

What I don’t like is its user interface. Aside from the touch screen, I just find it confusing to use.

I have mostly good things to say about the Blackberry Bold. If you liked earlier Blackberries, you’ll probably love the Bold. It has all the familiar Blackberry features including a decent-size keyboard and a trackball. It also has a terrific (480 x 320) screen, WiFi connectivity and, like the Storm, a still and video camera, a media player and GPS. Other nice touches include a very sharp screen and both the Storm and the Bold also have a standard (3.5 mm) headphone jack so you can use any headphone. But, for a portable device, the Bold also has a surprisingly good built-in speaker.

With only 1 gigabyte, the Bold doesn’t have nearly as much memory as the Storm but it does allow you to install an optional microSD card for up to 16 gigabytes of memory — comparable to the $299 iPhone.

The phone doesn’t have an award winning design but it does have fake leather back which actually looks and feels kind of nice. The phone — and its keyboard — are a bit bigger than the Blackberry Curve but it still fits nicely in a pocket.

Because it uses the AT&T network GSM network it can be used overseas.

Most of all, the Bold is a tried and true Blackberry. It’s what happens when a company sticks to its knitting, making subtle improvements on what it does well rather than trying to imitate what others have done. It’s innovative but Blackberry users will find it familiar. But one thing they could do to improve it would be to add a touch screen without taking away the keyboard.

The phone, which is manufactured by Taiwan-based HTC Corporation, will be available from T-Mobile starting Oct. 22 for $179, with a two year contract.

Like the Apple iPhone, it features a touch screen (3.2 inch) to easily launch applications but there are also five dedicated buttons, including very handy menu and home buttons, plus a trackball.

If you want to make a phone call while holding it in portrait mode you can bring up an onscreen dial-pad, but if you want to enter text – perhaps to respond to an email or access a web page, you have to turn the phone on its side and slide out the physical QWERTY keyboard.

I like having a physical keyboard – the lack of one is my major complaint about the iPhone. The keyboard is okay, but I prefer the extra travel you get when pressing keys on the Blackberry Curve. Without a backlight, the G1 keys are hard to see in the dark.

When you slide out the keyboard, the phone goes from portrait to landscape mode but it doesn’t do that just by moving the phone.

I’m surprised and disappointed that it doesn’t give you the option of also bringing up an onscreen keyboard for typing text. Seems to me they could have offered that along with the physical keyboard but perhaps that will be corrected with a software update or a third party application.

And therein lies the real promise behind this phone. Like the iPhone, there is an icon on the main screen that brings you to an application store (it’s called the “Market”) where you can download applications provided by independent developers.

So far there are only about 40 such applications, compared to thousands for the iPhone, but if Google is successful in evangelizing Android, it’s safe to assume that a lot more applications will be forthcoming.

Unlike Apple, Google and the cell phone carriers have said that they will permit virtually any application – even if it competes with the economic interest of those companies. For example, there is already an application called iSkoop that lets you make free or inexpensive international and domestic calls using Skype. Warning to merchants – my favorite application lets you use the phone’s camera to “scan” a product’s bar code to look up reviews and comparative prices.

The G1 comes with only one gigabyte of memory compared to eight gigabytes for the $199 iPhone or 16 GB for Apple’s $299 version. However, the G1’s memory is on a removable microSD card, making it very easy and reasonably affordable to expand the memory up to 8 gigabytes now and, probably, 16 or more in the future. An 8 GB card can be purchased for about $25.

As you might expect, the G1 comes with a dedicated Gmail and Google calendar application where your mail and calendar are always in synch with Google’s web-based applications. This can be extremely convenient if you regularly use Gmail and Google calendar on your PC or Mac, but possibly a deal-breaker if you’re not a Gmail or Google Calendar user.

There is another email application that works with other POP3 and IMAP email accounts but, so far, not Microsoft Exchange mail which is used by many companies.

Unlike every other smart phone I’ve used, the G1 doesn’t come with software to synchronize your calendar or address book with a PC or Mac, which could be a big problem for many people but not for those who already use Gmail or Google Calendar. Microsoft Outlook users can get their data into the G1 by first using free PC software to synch with Google’s web applications.

The phone does come with a USB cable to transfer music or photos between the phone and a PC or Mac. Unlike Apple products, it uses the same standard Mini-USB connector as the Blackberry and many digital cameras. You can also charge the device from a computer’s USB port.

The interface is pretty intuitive. You get a relatively sparse home screen but you can reveal all of the applications by tapping or dragging a tab on the screen. There are actually three main screens that you move between by flicking in an iPhone like gesture. You can bring up a menu to add any application or icon to any screen by holding down your finger for a few seconds. It’s not intuitive but it’s easy to use once you figure it out. Like the BlackBerry, but unlike the iPhone, you can make a call by just typing the person’s name from the home screen.

The G1 has the second best web browser I’ve seen on a phone – almost as good as the iPhone’s. The G1’s browser does let you use your finger to move about the screen and you can zoom in or out by taping on a plus or minus icon. That’s not bad, but not as good as using two fingers to pinch and zoom or contract an image on the iPhone. When you’re in the browser you can press the menu to bring up screens to enter a URL, search, set a bookmark or switch to a new browser window. This is a pretty versatile browser for a hand held device.

There is also an Instant Message program that supports AIM, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

The phone does have GPS and Google Maps. You don’t get turn-by-turn directions but I was able to easily use the map application to help me find an address on a recent car trip. You can view the map from street or satellite view.

The G1 does have a music player and it comes with a stereo headset that connects to the USB port. Unlike the iPhone and the consumer oriented BlackBerries, there isn’t a standard audio jack. I think that’s a real shame especially for people who like to use higher-end headphones, plug music players into a car stereo or, like me, tend to lose headsets.

I’m told that an optional adapter is available but that’s one more thing to buy and possibly lose. Although it supports Bluetooth headsets for talking on the phone, it doesn’t support stereo Bluetooth music headphones.

In addition to transferring music from a computer, you can purchase songs via the Amazon MP3 store. The songs are unencrypted and you can copy them from the G1 to a PC or Mac by connecting the two devices with a USB cable and dragging the file as if between disk drives. There is no synch program like iTunes.

If you’re a YouTube fan, you have plenty to watch but that’s it when it comes to video. That’s a glaring omission which, I hope, will be remedied by third party developers.

The G1 phone works on T-Mobile’s high-speed G3 network as well as its slower Edge network. I found G3 coverage in most, but not all, parts of the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas where I tested the phone and I was pleased to be able to get coverage, albeit a bit slower, at several car stops between the two cities on U.S. 101 and Interstate 5.

Depending on use, the battery typically gave me between about 3 and 4.5 hours of use but, unlike the iPhone, the battery is removable so heavy users can bring along a spare.

T-Mobile’s $25 data plan includes unlimited email, web access, 400 text messages and Google Talk access. For $10 more you get unlimited text messages and instant messages. Both plans give you access to T-Mobile WiFi hotspots. You’re also required to have voice plan starting at $30 a month.

Bottom line: The G1 is an excellent phone but lacks a bit of the fit and finish of the iPhone. It’s easy to use but not as intuitive as the iPhone. I like it a lot better than any Windows Mobile phone and – for consumers – it competes well against the BlackBerry but doesn’t bury it. It’s definitely not ready for corporate use.

Of course, this is only the first of the Android phones. Google’s Open Handset Alliance includes many carriers, including Sprint and cell phone makers LG, Samsung and Motorola. Over time we’ll see a lot of choices including phones with different form factors than the G1 as well as new applications.

Still, if you want to be among the first to play with Google’s entry into the phone application market, the G1 will serve you well.