Every file you create is tagged with three new, additional pieces of metadata: latitude, longitude and altitude. That's on top of the date and time data we already attach to every file.

I certainly understand what meta-data is and I use it all the time. When I first read your post I was quite inspired by the possibilities. A lot of my mobile computing is location based. The Mac locations help, but don't go far enough.

However, I'm reminded how hard it is to get rid of meta-data. People tend to just copy documents and then edit them. That's fine if everyone's word processor is very smart, but the reality is they're not.

I've got many documents on my network that all have the same title in the meta-data. Most people don't ever update document meta-data. Eventually that will change (I hope). Another example is how people start "new" threads in email by simply repying and changing the subject never realizing the "References" aren't erased.

My other concern is privacy. Imagine some whistleblower writes a document exposing the government for some terrible offense only to be arrested at the location they wrote the document.

I have no doubt there are lots of smart people thinking about these things. I'm hopeful that as Apple takes meta-data to the next level they'll do it in a consumer friendly way.