Family member locator apps will grow into a big business as tracking services gravitate from specialized devices to the smartphone, according to Berg Insight. Sixteen million people use a GPS or cellular tracking service today, but smartphones will drive that number to 70 million in 2016. Read more »
Trying to share your photos with friends after an event? Say hello to Flock, the app that uses location services on your phone and Facebook connect to aggregate photos taken by a group of people in the same place, at the same time. Read more »
With new products from a variety of players like Google and Isis comes a potentially confusing year as the term “mobile wallet” gets thrown around repeatedly. What exactly is the “mobile wallet”? Here are some important definitions for those looking to make a move in the space. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Geoloqi, a Portland Ore. start-up, said it’s ready to take location-based services to the next level with a new developer SDK that makes incorporating location services easy. The location platform enables real-time tracking, geo-fencing, messaging and analytics while remaining very efficient on battery usage. Read more »
T-Mobile added a new family locator service called FamilyWhere to its suite of carrier-specific Android apps on Tuesday. The software is powered by Safely, which now has passed one billion “locates” for premium subscribers. Will T-Mo customers pay after the free trial or simply use Life360? Read more »
A new iPhone application called Highlight hopes to use the data we are sharing about ourselves, our interests and our friends on social networks and combine it with persistent location data to help connect people who might have things in common. Read more »
Oink, Kevin Rose’s much-discussed app about rating not places, but things within places, is now in the App Store. It’s a little like Yelp, and a little like Foursquare, and a little like Foodspotting. But will this pig fly? I kicked the tires to find out. Read more »
Virtual training assistant apps on the iPhone can really help motivate a workout. Zombies, Run! is an app designed to help you get fit using the virtual threat of a zombie outbreak, and a rewards system that gathers items throughout your run to help you “survive.” Read more »
Grey Area co-founder and CEO Ville Vesterinen, at GigaOM’s Mobilize 2011 on Tuesday, discussed a growing trend: location-based gaming. One of the company’s most significant discoveries about mobile games has to do with how little they seem to actually be played on the run. Read more »
By 2015, the worldwide sales of NFC-equipped handsets will reach 263.6 million units, with the cumulative total at more than half a billion compatible devices. This report covers the current landscape for NFC, examines the technology’s different forms of deployment and forecasts its future. It also examines the various deployments of NFC technology — mobile payments, point of purchase, augmented reality — and the challenges businesses, carriers and handset makers face moving forward. Companies mentioned in this report include Google, TapIt, Amazon and NTT DoCoMo. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apple could face a number of payouts in South Korea based on its methods of iPhone location information collection and storage. A lawyer who won himself one million South Korean won ($936 U.S.) based on the issue is now looking to help others cash in. Read more »
Foursquare and Yelp are moving into more direct competition, feature by feature. On Monday, Foursquare launched a new feature that allows users to create lists of the places they’ve checked into or plan to visit, bringing it further into the review and recommendation space. Read more »
Senator Al Franken released a letter Wednesday calling for the institution of mandatory privacy policies from all apps offered via the official software marketplaces of Apple and Google. He argues all apps should disclose what info they gather from a user, and how they use it. Read more »
Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) chaired the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee meeting today called “Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy.” Apple’s Bud Tribble and Google’s Alan Davidson provided testimony, along with a number of other industry and government witnesses. Read more »
The U.S. Senate has posted a notice for an upcoming Judiciary Committee meeting on mobile privacy, to be held May 10 at 10:00 AM EST in Washington, D.C. Apple VP of Software Technology Bud Tribble will provide testimony at the session. Read more »
Apple released iOS 4.3.3 (and iOS 4.2.8 for Verizon iPhones) Wednesday, changing the way location information is stored and backed up, as well as a number of other fixes and improvements. Apple promised this update after the location storage cache was widely publicized two weeks ago. Read more »
According to Boy Genius Report, Apple is preparing to release iOS 4.3.3 “within the next two weeks, possibly sooner.” The purported update will specifically address the iPhone “tracking” issue that has mesmerized the mainstream media, and deliver fixes promised by Apple last week. Read more »
Apple’s Steve Jobs, Scott Forstall and Phil Schiller discussed in more detail some of the announcements the company made today regarding the white iPhone 4 and recent concerns over the usage and storage of location information on iOS devices. Read more »
In its explanation of the collection of anonymized location data from iPhones, Apple provided a rare glimpse into its future plans. The company revealed it’s collecting traffic data from devices, too, in order to build “an improved traffic service” for iPhone users. Read more »
Apple answered questions about location information and storage on the iPhone in a press release issued early Wednesday morning. The official statement follows last week’s revelation at a location services conference that Apple’s iOS 4 included an unencrypted location tracking log file. Here’s Apple’s full statement. Read more »
Steve Jobs has allegedly issued one of his typically terse email replies regarding the location tracking database that resides unencrypted on all iOS devices, according to MacRumors. The email told a concerned user that Apple doesn’t track location info, but that its competition does. Read more »
Sen. Al Franken may be after answers from Steve Jobs, but last year, Congressmen Edward J. Markey and Joe Barton asked similar questions and got an answer from Apple SVP and General Counsel Bruce Sewell. That letter answers some of Franken’s questions regarding iOS location info. Read more »
Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) wants to know why Apple’s iPhone collects and stores device location data in an unencrypted file. Franken penned a two-page letter asking nine questions of Apple CEO Steve Jobs in response to yesterday’s news regarding the “consolidated.db” file. Read more »
A recent study found that mobile devices and apps can help drastically improve the appeal and usefulness of public and shared transit options, but only if companies and legislators take a cue from some of the good examples already out there. Read more »
Developers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden recently discovered that your iPhone or 3G-capable iPad has been regularly recording your device’s location since the introduction of iOS 4. All of the data regarding your device’s whereabouts during the past year is easily accessible using a simple app. Read more »
New iPhone app Guardly is all about location sharing. It basically constitutes the app’s main selling feature, since without it, it’s arguably just an auto-dialer. So how did location services go from being a privacy boogeyman to a highly sought-after feature in just two years? Read more »
A new app launching today provides a single-tap multi-target alert system for your iPhone or iPod touch. Guardly automatically alerts users of your choosing if you feel you’re in danger or want to quickly and easily alert authorities to your location and current situation. Read more »
The iPhone Facebook app received an update Monday, including new features and bug fixes. New features include the ability to view your Places check-ins on a map, and the ability to check-in at Events you’re attending. It also introduces the ability to unfriend using the app. Read more »
Still haven’t decided which iPad 2 to buy? A new report claims the Wi-Fi-only iPad can get GPS info as well as a network connection from an iPhone 4 via that device’s Personal Hotspot sharing feature, which might affect your decision. Read more »
There seems to be quite a bit of confusion about what exactly “Assisted GPS” on Apple’s iOS devices is, especially regarding navigation-based app requirements. It can be a bit complicated, but understanding what it means could help you decide which iPad to buy. Read more »
Asking questions and getting useful answers is the idea behind a new crop of community-assisted recommendation/Q&A apps that have appeared on the web and on mobile platforms. One entrant, Localmind, whose iPhone app is nearing launch, really shows off the promise of this new app category. Read more »
Android users have had Google Shopper for over a year now. Google finally decided to port the app over to iOS, and it became available in the App Store yesterday. We took it out for a spin to see how it performs in the real world. Read more »
Google Places with Hotpot is now available as a free download from the iOS App Store. The Yelp competitor from the search giant provides location-based recommendations for restaurants, bars, attractions and other points of interest. It’s been available for Android since July 26, 2010. Read more »
Task Ave is a new iPhone app that makes use of Apple’s recent background location API to notify you when you approach a venue where you need to get or do something. It’s a good use of the tech, especially for the extremely absent-minded like myself. Read more »
The always-unpredictable mobile space enters 2011 at a particularly dynamic time. Carriers are now bringing 4G networks online, even as their definitions of “4G” vary. Meanwhile, mobile data consumption is exploding and the FCC trying to settle on policies both to regulate the industry and to ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Since Apple doesn’t provide detailed release notes with each of their beta installments, it’s understandable that details about less obvious features and changes would only come to light gradually, as people poked around and tried different (and sometimes unusual) things with their devices. Computerworld’s Seth Weintraub […] Read more »
