SafetyGrid

Personal Safety App SafetyGrid Extends Availability with New Version 1.22

jim — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:38:13 +0000

SafetyGrid released version 1.22 this week which is now available in more than 37 countries and we’re adding more in the coming days! The latest version of SafetyGrid provides the ability to sign up for the monitored alarm service via in app subscription. You can still subscribe to the SafetyGrid monitored alarm service via the SafetyGrid website which includes the option to also subscribe as monthly vs the annual plan in the app.

SafetyGrid’s monitored alarm service utilizes a Globally Capable Response Organization, GEOS. GEOS can handle situations globally, and can handle multiple languages. For more information about GEOS and the SafetyGrid Monitored Alarm service, visit the Monitored Alarm Info Page.

The SafetyGrid software will be getting translated into multiple languages as well. SafetyGrid is still currently a free download! Make sure you take advantage of that today!

Help keep your loved ones safe with SafetyGrid!

Regards,

Jim Hankins

President, SafetyGrid

SafetyGrid Version 1.21 Released! – Supports AutoDial of Numbers such as 911 Free!

jim — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 20:55:00 +0000

We are happy to announce the release of SafetyGrid 1.21 to the App store. SafetyGrid now supports the powerful ability to automatically dial numbers for your area (such as 911) during an alarm. You enter the auto dial number into your settings and if present, Dial # will be presented as an option during an alarm event.

SafetyGrid also supports other alarm classifications such as Police, Fire, Medical and General as well as Silent Alarm which will be extended in the next release to offer duress and pass codes scheduled for Version 1.22 in a week or two.

Because SafetyGrid still has the default behavior of disabling your screen saver and auto lock when in the foreground, we’ve also changed the actuation method to a press and hold for 3 seconds vs. tap. This will help prevent inadvertent actual alarms from being sent. When you press and hold the SafetyGrid panic button, the phone will present a screen asking you to specify the alarm type (such as dial 911), once selected the alarm will immediately be sent or if you have selected a specific number, the phone will immediately dial. Phones that support simultaneous voice and data will enable you to constantly update your current location sent to your contacts as well as converse with the police or other safety personnel. If you don’t select an alarm type, the phone is in a 10 second count down and will vibrate each second to attempt to notify you that you’ve triggered the alarm. After 10 seconds, the alarm will be sent with a Not Provided alarm type unless you’ve selected an type or pressed the cancel button.

Even more exciting, we’ve been able to lower the cost of our monitored alarm service significantly. We’ve separated the search and rescue insurance coverage out and it’s now available for purchase as an add on. While the SAR benefit is really nice, it is more appropriate for remote locations vs urban use where search and rescue operations are less prevalent. SAR is now a separate add on for existing Monitored Alarm customers as well as the popular Medivac Service which covers up to $1,000,000.00 of medivac costs!

To help keep the costs down and always have a free option, we’ve removed the free alarm credits for voice broadcast services. They are still available for purchase for US / Canada numbers. We are determined to help make a difference by merging the proven benefits of 911 and other assistance numbers with the benefits of mobile smart devices and advanced software and services. We believe that reducing the time it takes to get critical information to first responders as well as notification to family and friends who may posses information that first responders need will save lives.

Further, simplifying the request for help process by reducing the number of buttons required is also a significant benefit.

We continue to work with the help of 911 centers to learn how we can improve SafetyGrid and we value your comments as well. In fact, all of the features incorporated into this release to include the very significant price decrease are a direct result of feedback from people just like you! Thank you for checking out SafetyGrid.

Please Be Safe and remember to Always Be Aware of Your Surroundings!

Regards,

Jim Hankins -

President / Founder

SafetyGrid

SafetyGrid is highlighted on CNN HLN ISSUES with Jane Velez-Mitchell!

doreen — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:30:41 +0000

The SafetyGrid App for the iPhone and iPad was recently highlighted on Jane Velez-Mitchell’s show ISSUES, which is on live weeknights at 7:00 p.m. EST on HLN.

Jane Velez-Mitchell and CNN legal analyst Holly Hughes were discussing a recent attack at a college as they listened to 911 calls that were made by two potential victims who were hiding from convicted rapist Robert Hitt, fresh out of a 10 year prison stay for raping a student at the very same college campus this incident took place. Using the same MO as he did previously; he used a knife to threaten women into compliance as he went door to door terrorizing an entire houseful of female college students as these two brave women dialed for help.

The SafetyGrid App was named by Holly Hughes as a tool for women to use to help protect themselves against crimes such as domestic violence. Both Jane Velez-Mitchell and Holly Hughes committed to downloading and using the app on their own personal iPhones!

Naturally this endorsement of SafetyGrid was well received by viewers nationwide as we saw a flurry of activity on our servers as viewers downloaded and began testing the app for their own personal use.

SafetyGrid will continue to provide useful ways for people worldwide to take action against danger and ensure their own personal safety and well being. Stay tuned for more updates to our app and future stories highlighting our app!

SafetyGrid 1.20 Released

jim — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:40:39 +0000

SafetyGrid, the personal safety app for your iPhone and iPad released version 1.20 this week. This is a free minor update and is recommended for all users of previous versions. SafetyGrid 1.20 makes the following changes.

If SafetyGrid is running and placed in then placed in the background, on return it will switch to the Alarm Screen
SafetyGrid disables autolock and screen dim unless an active alarm is in progress.

You can download today on the App Store!

Spring Break 2012 Made Safer with SafetyGrid for iPhone and iPad!

doreen — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:28:53 +0000

Spring Break 2012 is just weeks away!!

The name alone strikes fear in the hearts of parents worldwide, and yet a gleam in the eye of restless students everywhere.

No self respecting high school senior or college student wants to be left behind while the masses are out partying having the time of their lives. So how does one help make a parent feel “good” about their child taking off for points south, and how do students convince their parents that it really is o.k. that they are going?

Well, one can start by installing the FREE SafetyGrid app on your student’s iPhone or iPad. For an additional measure of safety add the 24/7 Monitored Alarm Service to their phone and parents worldwide can rest peacefully knowing their student is protected in the event of an emergency worldwide.

Should your traveling student find themselves in a situation where they require emergency assistance – for example if they find themselves in a situation where they may need to be located and rescued, this service is available to fund the cost of their search and rescue virtually worldwide! Just one press of a button on their cell phone alerts up to 5 contacts that they require help, as well as alerting the GEOS Emergency Response Center – a worldwide resource for search and rescue services. 911 does not work everywhere – when an emergency happens you don’t have time to research local emergency numbers.

For as little as $9.99 a month you can purchase this service which includes the cost for private aircraft/helicopter charter, private search teams, etc. that may be deemed necessary by GEOS to aid in their rescue. It will provide up to $100,000 per year to fund the cost of such Search and Rescue operations worldwide, and it is underwritten at Lloyd’s of London. It works virtually worldwide!

Who would need such a thing you ask? Everyone.

The State Department estimates approximately 100,000 American college students will head to Mexico this year for some fun in the sun – Cabo San Lucas, Cancun and Acapulco are all popular destinations for Spring Break 2012.

Jamaica is a another popular choice for spring breakers – Ocho Rios, Negril, Montego Bay, Nassau and Kingston all tout that they are the perfect setting to relax and celebrate with your friends.

What students may not know is that all of these popular tropical destinations have records of dangerous and potentially violent activity.

Drug violence has claimed the lives of many Americans abroad this year and there are even reported instances of people even being robbed in their hotel rooms while they sleep. Daytime kidnappings by small gangs are on the rise – travel too far off the “safe” path and you may find yourself being held for ransom.

Whatever the destination, spring break outside the country can be dangerous. That’s not to say that staying in the States is that much safer – Mexican border towns- places like Tijuana, right across the border from California often times face the same safety concerns. Tourists are easy prey for opportune thieves – we often let our guard down when we’re out and about having fun with friends.

In fact, why not buy a package for the whole family? The GEOS Gold Membership is $119 per year and covers up to 4 family members per one (1) premium account for up to$100,000 in search and rescue costs (2 x $50,000 per year). This coverage is an automatic recurring billing item and is shared (non-concurrent use) coverage for up to 4 family members. Buy GEOS Gold Now!

Have questions, please feel free to contact us at SafetyGrid anytime.

SafetyGrid Version 1.18 Released

jim — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:09:32 +0000

SafetyGrid Version 1.18 is released to the App store (may take 24 hours to be visible for everyone). SafetyGrid version 1.18 includes fixes for the new Check In Feature. The Check in Feature, introduced in Version 1.17 allows you to do a simple checkin with just your contacts (vs the entire social media planet which can introduce their own safety issues). You have the option to provide a location or not and an option to just say I’m ok or type a custom message to send along with your checkin.

We’ve also made some settings screen changes to reduce confusion on the GEOS contacts there. These contacts will no longer be selectable unless you are a GEOS monitored alarm subscriber. The place for the automated alert contacts is on the contacts screen and we now guide you to this screen during the setup process more clearly. Hopefully this will help simplify your setup experience.

We will have 1 more update out before the end of the year (yes, we’ve been busy). Apple gets really busy this time of year so we can’t commit they’ll have it to you in time but we certainly will have it to them! We are also hard at work on the Android Version of SafetyGrid coming soon. (I foresee some egg nog powered coding coming up this year by yours truly) Wah Hoo!

Don’t forget, please reach out to us with any questions via our support page. Also, if you have feature requests or ideas, drop them in our forum! We’d love to hear from you! Truly we would!

SafetyGrid Launches Ability to Give the Gift of Safety for iPhone and iPad!

jim — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 20:25:04 +0000

Today SafetyGrid has launched the ability to give the gift of Safety. You may now instantly sign up friends and loved ones for the ultimate in personal Safety additions, SafetyGrid’s monitored alarm service with Search and Rescue protection. See our online gift page for details.

Happy Holidays!

Team SafetyGrid

SafetyGrid Panic Button for iPhone / iPad New Release

jim — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:42:13 +0000

SafetyGrid version 1.17 has been released to the App Store.

Our next release will follow in the next week (already submitted to Apple) and will be a maintenance release providing fixes and user interface improvements.

This will be released as Version 1.18 followed by our next feature release which will include, amoung other things, the ability to classify the type of alarm at the time of sending. We will post an updated feature list in the next couple days along with screen shots of the new features.

New! SafetyGrid for iPhone and iPad Version 1.17

jim — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 02:51:54 +0000

SafetyGrid 1.17 will soon be available on the App store!

SafetyGrid version 1.17 brings brand new features! Our New Quick Check in feature simplifies sending a quick update to just your contacts. While most social media sites provide this feature, many people are concerned (and rightly so) about sharing their locations with such a wide audience as a social media site. The SafetyGrid checkin feature only goes to your contacts. Simple as that! You can send a checkin, with or without your location as well!

The checkin feature can also be requested by your contacts. If you have push notifications enabled, you will get a request on your device and with as little as a press of a button, your reply can be sent!

SafetyGrid CheckIn

The Map on the new Check Ins screen now also supports smooth user tracking with standard follow and follow with heading. The navigation icon at the top right toggles between UserTracking On/Off and On with Heading enabled. You can now also freely pan about the map and zoom in and out (when user tracking is toggled off) to explore your surroundings.

Location Tracking on the Map View is only while being viewed. As with all location services, it’s dependent on the user accepting the use for location services in order to enable the service.

We will be offering more features on this screen in the next release which will include the option for “Geo Fencing”. There are numerous safety applications where features like this will really come in handy as I’m sure you can imagine. We’re REALLY excited about this. Plan for the next update to be out before the end of the year just in time for the Holidays!

Speaking of the Holidays, we recognize that SafetyGrid is often something you wish to provide as a gift along with monitored alarm services for your loved ones. We’ve eased the

SafetyGrid Setup Screen

setup features as well to enable a simple two step process for setup.

Upon initial launch of SafetyGrid, you will now be taken directly to the setup screen and prompted for which type of setup you require. When you select Received Gift, you will be be then prompted for a User Name and password and then SafetyGrid will setup your device from the network with all your initial settings preconfigured!

It’s really that simple! When you order once of the services online as a gift, the receiver will get an email letting them know (these can be scheduled of course for a date in the future) which will provide a link to download SafetyGrid and the ScreenShots of the two step setup process. Nothing could be simpler to help keep your loved ones safe!

We’ve also improved the contact screen. Now the names of setup contacts show on the main contact screen along with their Enabled or Disabled status. Furthermore the enabling and disabling of Alerts no longer sends the canned emails to the contacts. They will now only be sent with new invites or removals.

Finally the contact details can now be changed both by the contact themselves (via their web login emailed to them at the initial invitation) as well as in the contact screen. The contact details screen will automatically update from the server upon view to get the most up to date information. This automatic update also occurs on the settings screen which is handy for those of you who have more that one iOS device.

Separate Contact lists are still provided on each device so you can maintain different people in each contact list.

One last change is how we manage test alarms. You will not be decremented on your alarm credits anymore for SMS Text messages. As such we’ve changed the main screen in Test

Enabling and Disabling Voice Alerts for Test Alarms

mode to toggle only Voice Alerts on and Off (Actual Alarms can not have voice alerts disabled and so that switch is not visible when test mode is off.) Previously this switch was labeled SMS/Voice. Of course if you’re testing and you don’t want to bother a contact, you can use the improved disable alerts switch on the contact details screen. This will disable both SMS Text and Voice Calls for test AND actual alarms however so do keep this in mind.

Well that’s it for a quick sneak peak of the latest features coming your way in the next FREE update on the App Store! We expect to see the new version on the App Store in the next 2 weeks. (Maybe sooner! so watch that App Store Updates Badge!) Of course we’ll make the announcement here, on Twitter and Facebook and your email list. This site is also available via and RSS Feed. Check the top right of the site for links to these and more!

As always we welcome your feedback on what you’d like to see on future versions SafetyGrid. We have a few exciting ideas ourselves that we can’t wait to share for the next release! We’re about to knock your socks off! So stay tuned! And yes, Android users, your time will be coming Soon as well as Blackberry! We’re hard at work here to help make SafetyGrid the worlds best mobile alert solution.

Regards,

Jim Hankins

President / Founder

SafetyGrid

Beta Testers Needed!

jim — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:46:22 +0000

We’re looking for beta testers for the next version of SafetyGrid. If you own an iPhone 3GS or higher or an iPad 3G or higher and are interested in becoming a beta tester with us. Please utilize the online support page and let us know by using Beta in the subject line.

There is limited space for this beta so get your request in soon! If selected, you will be notified via the support ticket for next steps to obtain the beta.

Regards,

Jim