Meridian works with companies that want to bring detailed location awareness to their mobile apps using their Wi-Fi networks as guideposts. If you’re Aruba, that’s not a bad feature to have in your access points. Read more »
The iOS app is 99 cents and uses geo-location to help people keep grocery lists and be reminded of what items they need to buy when they’re in range of their most frequented markets. Read more »
Sylvain Grande, who led the development teams behind the Here mapping and location-based services platform, will start in a new role at SoundCloud next week. He won’t have a direct replacement. Read more »
People’s movements are highly predictable, researchers say, making it easy to identify most individuals from supposedly anonymized location datasets. As these datasets have valid uses, this is yet another reason why we need better regulation. Read more »
Grafetee, which makes it extremely easy to collect and display location-based data, is now offering more customizable, API-driven services to paying users, from bloggers to local authorities. Read more »
Wi-Fi has moved from an at-home convenience to a public service as mobile devices continue to take over. Here’s a look at the new opportunities to connect with consumers, and how businesses can easily screw it all up. Read more »
Life360 has received a lot of interest from automakers as location-sharing becomes a hot technology in the connected car. It’s planned car app lets you know not only where the kids are but how to get to them. Read more »
Nokia’s mapping and location-based services suite will be available on multiple platforms and open to third-party developers. This gives the company an OS-independent platform to exploit, and a chance to make the most of smart glass. Read more »
Telenav’s latest iPhone update has some nifty new collaboration features, including the ability to notify friends and family or your ETA and for multiple users to converge on the same location. Read more »
Ping4 wants to become to use its hyper-local geo-fencing technology to build a finely tunable emergency alerts system for any public safety agency. Read more »
Facebook is set to launch a location-sharing service similar to Apple’s Find My Friends and Google’s Latitude, according to a report from Bloomberg. Read more »
Ori Allon, a two-time entrepreneur who sold his previous companies to Google and Twitter, is back now with a third startup called Urban Compass. The details are scarce but it will be a local, human-powered service that relies on algorithms to mobilize workers. Read more »
AT&T is offering an SMS location-based offers service, while Verizon is delving deep into the handset to cull web and app usage information for its deal targeting purposes. Both programs are opt-in only in an attempt to head off the inevitable concerns over privacy. Read more »
Qualcomm is building indoor positioning into its IZAT platform in hopes of making indoor location-based services just as common as outdoor services. The upgrades are going into its current generation of smartphone chipsets, but Qualcomm is working with Cisco on a network-based platform as well. Read more »
In going global, Facebook forgot to think about local. Entrepreneur Brian McConnell says the behemoth—or a competitor—could quickly and easily make a hyper-local service to benefit both users and local advertisers too. Read more »
Geoloqi, a small Portland, OR startup that made it easy for mobile developers to add background location tracking and geo-fencing to their apps, has sold to ESRI, a longtime provider of mapping and planning tools for governments, companies and educational institutions. Read more »
As the mobile game is shifting from hardware to services, Apple needs to have more deep services of its own, rather than relying on competition. And maps is an important control point for the company. Read more »
Locu, a Boston-based startup that came out of MIT, is releasing a local business information API for developers and publishers. The API will let them access deeper local data on not just menu items but all kinds of detailed information on product descriptions and customization options. Read more »
Standalone GPS navigation makers continue to face the battle against smartphones and location based service apps. At least one of them is embracing the change: TomTom first added support for Facebook Places and now it includes Foursquare, making it easier to get directions and check-in. Read more »
Google’s move to buy travel publisher Frommer’s highlights how local and travel are coming together. Increasingly, the best travel services are focused on treating you like a local. And local services are becoming great resources for people looking to spend time in an unfamiliar city. Read more »
Why check your phone for deals when you can check your car dashboard instead? Ford has integrated deal-broker Roximity’s location-based offers app with its Sync connected car platform, allowing drivers to verbally search for nearby bargains without slowing down. Read more »
Indoor-positioning-startup Wifarer has landed its first customer, the Royal BC Museum, in Victoria, Canada. Wifarer and the BC, however, aren’t just slinging location-triggered coupons. The museum is using Wifarer technology to create an object-aware virtual guide to its exhibits. Read more »
Barnes & Noble is skipping out on Google Maps for tablets and is partnering instead with Berlin-based mobile map company skobbler. skobbler’s ForeverMap 2 app is available in the Nook store today, and Nook will open up to location-based app developers later this year. Read more at paidContent »
Location-based social network Foursquare is rolling out its long awaited promoted updates, an advertising product that allows local and national businesses to push out specials, news and pictures to Foursquare’s more than 20 million users. It’s the start of Foursquare’s big monetization push. Read more »
Foursquare is building out its merchant services by adding a new tool called Local Update that allows businesses to reach loyal customers nearby with news and updates. This is part of an effort to make Foursquare’s business tools valuable enough that merchants will pay for it. Read more »
Location data provider Skyhook has an update to its mobile SDK for Android that will provide persistant background location tracking with no or negligible impact on battery life. That could be a big help for location-based apps that have suffered because of battery constraints. Read more »
Foursquare’s ambitions to become the primary recommendation resource for users is the driving vision behind the latest update to its iOS and Android apps, which include a host of improvements to its Explore feature and an improved social structure that encourages more interaction. Read more »
Skobbler until now has been known as the maker of the popular GPS Navigation 2 app, which is built using the crowdsourced OpenStreetMap platform. But the company sees a much bigger opportunity in turning its experience with OSM into a tool for other developers. Read more »
Foursquare plans to offer personalized coupons through a redesigned app in July, part of a larger effort to start making money through the location-based social network. The Wall Street Journal reported that Foursquare will allow merchants to pay for special placement of personalized local offers. Read more »
After attracting attention last summer for social commerce initiatives with Foursquare and Facebook, last week American Express announced a new coupons hook-up with Twitter. Amex has the potential to be a powerhouse in social commerce, but so far that potential remains ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The future of location-based services is in commerce, payments and deals, said Sam Altman, founder of Loopt. He just sold his startup to pre-paid card provider Green Dot and is working on mobile payment products. That’s where he said location will have the biggest impact. Read more »
New York City kicked off voting on Thursday on its third annual BigApps competition, which rewards apps that use its open data sets. But one of the most popular resources appears to be Foursquare, which is in use in more than half of the top apps. Read more »
Mainstream mobile users have been slow to embrace location-based services. But location apps could really see a boost through the smart use of voice activated AI systems like Siri, which can help users more easily unlock the world around them. Read more »
Life360, a mobile family safety app, has been on a tear and is now up to 10 million users. That growth has helped the San Francisco start-up pull in a $3.5 million Series A round from a host of investors. Read more »
Gowalla has had a good run in the location-based check-in market, taking on Foursquare before getting lapped by its New York rival. Now, Facebook is confirming it has bought the team behind Austin-based Gowalla to bolster its new Timeline feature. Read more »
Prospective college students are already using their mobile devices to upload Facebook photos, update Twitter, and text their friends. Now, colleges are beginning to use smartphones, too — as recruitment tools. YourCampus 360 is one company smartphones as platforms for a full-blown college tour and information business. Read more »
Apple is not done taking on application makers with iOS 5. It just announced it is launching a new location-sharing feature called Find my Friends, that will allow users to easily share their location with other users. It should spark some competition with existing location-sharing services. Read more »
Last week I caught up with Naveen Selvadurai, co-founder of the New York-based startup, Foursquare. While I’ve spent a lot of time chatting with his co-founder Dennis Crowley, it was the first time I got to spend quality time with Naveen; here’s part of our conversation. Read more »
As our demand for data increases, so too do the number of mobile devices and services. Add to that the infrastructure needed to support such connectivity, and a wide, complex picture of the mobile industry emerges. This report examines the various sectors of the mobile landscape and what the future holds for each. Hardware, cloud services, mobile search, advertising, location-based services and the growing ubiquity of the Internet of Things will all play an important role in the concept of mobility as it shifts and evolves over the next several years. With the help of more than a dozen contributors, GigaOM Pro presents a comprehensive analysis of the companies and trends that will lead us into the next era of mobile. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
In a matter of hours, Facebook is going to host f8, its annual developer conference. By now we have all heard everything that is coming at the event. Sources say Facebook will make some sort of announcement around NFC technologies at the event as well. Read more »
