One Japanese university has come up with a new use for the iPhone, or specifically the phone’s global positioning system. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, 550 Apple 3G iPhones have been given to students at Aoyama Gakuin University, in Tokyo to insure that students actually attend classes.

In the past, students often had friends answer for them during roll call. With the iPhones, a student has to enter his ID number into an iPhone application at the beginning of class. The phone can then pinpoint the student’s location to make sure he’s actually on campus. Granted, the student could still loan his iPhone to a friend, but college officials are betting that students won’t like to part with their mobile phones.

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