Presumably taking a note from Japan, it's being reported that South Korean police are backing a highly controversial plan that would equip each new mobile sold in the nation with a GPS chip. Reportedly, Song Kang-ho, chief of the investigation bureau of the National Police Agency, has stated that the government has "already submitted a related bill to the National Assembly," and the general idea here is to crack down on the rise of kidnapping and various other crimes against children and women (not much different than we Americans having such a chip for E911, really). Granted, there's not a lot of supporting evidence that this is actually set to go down, so until we see it inked in stone, our skeptic hats are remaining in place.

[Via textually, image courtesy of The New York Times]

It's not like the Japanese government hasn't dabbled in GPS (and RFID, too) tracking before, but the nation's latest idea involving Big Brother is (unsurprisingly) catching a fair amount of criticism. Reportedly, Japan wants to equip senior defense officials with GPS-enabled mobiles, and it's making no bones about the reasoning behind it. Quite frankly, it's looking for ways to keep a more watchful eye on officials' whereabouts after a higher-up was recently "treated to hundreds of expensive rounds of golf by a defense contractor." Reportedly, the handsets would only be given out to senior staff "required to report for duty in the case of a security emergency," but a number of anonymous individuals have already expressed disdain for the plan through local news outlets. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear, right?

Although it's still not clear if Stephen Colbert was forced to actually shell out some hard-earned cash in order to procure his very own iPhone, one thing is certain: he finally owns one. The comedic talking head announced (and shamelessly boasted about) his new toy in a clip dubbed "March to Enslavement," where he made the not-so-wild prediction that one day we'd all bow to the robots we eagerly create. 'Course, that may be somewhat of a stretch, but the potentially forthcoming Apple iEye contraption may be closer to reality than we humans would like to believe. Frightened? Wait 'til you take a peek of it after the break...

[Thanks, Dylan]

Just in case fixed sensors all across the country, bomb-sniffing bees, and Bay Area nuke detectors weren't enough to make you rest easy, Homeland Security is cookin' up another safeguard at the expense of privacy. Reportedly, the Department is looking into the idea of "outfitting cellphones with tiny, sensitive detectors that would alert the government and emergency responders to the presence of radiological isotopes, toxic chemicals, and deadly biological agents." Essentially, future mobiles could come pre-loaded with such a device that continuously monitors said chemicals and sends off alerts via GPS if anything goes awry. Of course, officials are expecting "quite a few hurdles" along the way, one of which will be battling the privacy advocates who don't understand that their handset probably already contains the technology for Big Brother to see everywhere they go. No word on when these plans could take effect, nor whether older phones will be retrofitted with the toxic sensors, but we can already envision quite a few false alarms care of the cellphone-totin' chemists in the crowd.

[Via Textually]

It's no secret that China is rockin' some serious server power dedicated to filtering its SMS airwaves of unthinkable topics like Taiwan, democracy, and pornography, but other countries are getting in on the action, too. Belarus and Iran have both been called out in recent months for listening to its citizens' texts, and in Belarus' case, sending them as well. Although the technology for real-time filtering by keyword is largely homegrown (or so we hope), predictive text manufacturers like Tegic (disclaimer: Tegic is owned by Engadget's parent company's parent company, AOL) are receiving pressure from handset manufacturers to double- and triple-check their dictionaries for words that could be considered distasteful in countries with more oppressive governments than our own. Personally, discovering a word missing from T9 has never prevented us from typing it manually, but nonetheless -- between this and M-Track, we're about ready to head down into the Engadget bunker with a year's supply of Spam and just ride this whole thing out.

[Via textually.org]

With consumers seemingly on the fence regarding mobile TV, it will be interesting to see how a new British reality show fares at selling two-minute daily episodes for 50 pence a pop. "Get Close To...," as the show is known, was developed by Big Brother creator Peter Bazalgette, and will feature content shot by members of the pop group Sugababes while they tour with singer Robbie Williams. In an attempt to make viewers feel more involved with the program (and come back the next day to pay for another installment), the Sugababes will solicit videotaped dance routines that fans can send in for possbile incorporation into the group's stage act, and some of the obligatory reality show "challenges" that the band has to complete will be chosen by the audience. The show, whose first episode airs this Friday, is being viewed as an experiment by co-owners Universal Music, UK carrier O2, and Big Brother-producer Endemol, who seem to be testing the waters for more pay-as-you-go serial programming.

[Via MocoNews]