Wednesday, September 23. 2009

Details on Twitter's Geo Data Storage for Upcoming API

You can read a nice summary by Gina Trapani at SmarterWare. Highlights: opt in only, location info dropped after 14 days, Twitter encourages developers not to store data and to "fuzz it up." The API was to launch today, but it's delayed a bit.

via @tinacary

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Social Networking at 16:50 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Tuesday, September 22. 2009

Rseven - "Lifecaching"

Rseven is as service that not only geotag, but also back up all you do with it - talk (it can record calls), take pictures, text, etc. With that archive you know everything you "did" today. As VentureBeat notes, recording others without expressly saying you are is illegal in some states. The app debuts at DEMO this week. I don't even have a digital camera, so clearly, I'm not that interested in documenting my life... That said, I can see how folks who's lives are business all the time (lawyers?) could use such a tool (if it can be made legal and secure and all..) Only certain OSs are supported: Windows Mobile phones and on Nokia and Samsung Series 60 Symbian ones.

- VentureBeat

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in LBS at 08:32 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

FourSquare for Business

It's time for the LBS-social networking app (game?) to begin touting local establishments. It's launched FourSquare for Business to help business promote themselves to users of the app. For now, there's no talk of charging businesses, but it's got to be part of the longterm plan, right?

- Mashable (1, 2), via Mobile Entertainment News

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Social Networking at 08:20 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Monday, September 21. 2009

Update: Stealth Mode Location Tech to be Unveiled Next Week

The press release came out at the end of last week and offers no further information - save that the solution involves "self-learning."

At the same time Bruce Sterling at Wired is all excited about Nokia's ongoing "indoor positioning" solutions and Microsoft's use of Tags (2 D bar codes) to help people navigate indoors. (The two videos failed to excite me.)

I'm getting antsy with all this talk - when will these technologies (and the tech from Rosum that uses TV signals for the same purposes) be in use?

--- original post 9/11/09 ----

The company is called GloPos and it's expected to come out of stealth mode next week. Its killer tech? A solution for locating handsets that requires no GPS or wi-fi. Instead it uses cell tower information - but it's far more accurate than old school algorithms. Further, it'll run on pretty much any phone (even those older ones in drawers...) with 1-40 meter accuracy, indoors, outdoors and underground. The handset sends a data chunk to servers to prompt return of location information.

How the company will offer the tech (to handset makers, to carriers, etc.) is unclear. The company is a spin off for 4TS in Finland and is headed by two guys with experience at Nokia and Ericsson.

- GigaOm

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in LBS at 07:06 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0) |

Thursday, September 17. 2009

Two of Top TechCrunch 50 Winners Tap Location

The big winner of the event was RedBeacon which turns local search into "local companies bid for your work." The company takes home $50,000 and about $1.3 million in partner advertising.

One of the two DemoPit winners (as voted on by attendees) was location-based app Chyngle. It's is a peer-to-peer marketplace where "users interact with others within their Ultra-Local Environments (ULEs)—any large venue where a large number of people congregate, be it a hotel, motel, park, stadium, school, and so on."

- press release

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in LBS at 08:26 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Monday, September 14. 2009

Centrl Goes from Mobile to Web

Some location-based apps start on the Web then port to mobile devices. Centrl has done the opposite. It's been available on the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Nokia for a year and a half, but just this last week launched a Web app. It integrates with other social networks.

- TechCrunch

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Social Networking at 06:53 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |