Pinwheel offers Virtual Notes on the Landscape and other LBS News
Flickr and Hunch co-founder, Caterina Fake, has launched a new online venture called Pinwheel where users can leave virtual notes pinned on a map. This location-based startup idea is still currently in invite-only private beta mode, but has already generated a lot of buzz online.
The potential difference between this and all the others just like it? Big name behind it.
- PSFK
Geoloqi, a powerful platform for next-generation location based services, officially launches today along with its language agnostic SDK for iOS and Android, and proprietary API. Geoloqi offers a complete stack of geolocation tools, including geo-fencing, messaging, security and analytics, that empowers the enterprise, government and developers to unlock the full potential of real-time location-based services and easily layer geolocation onto any device or application.
SpatialMatch.com, an overlay technology that can be embedded on an agent's website or perhaps on an entire multiple listing service, enables buyers to pursue properties using any number of lifestyle criteria. That's over and above the usual number of bedrooms and bathrooms and price, the benchmarks on which most people base their searches. ...
At CheckYourLandlord.com, potential renters can guard against dealing with shaky "accidental" landlords who turn to renting because they can't sell their underwater properties. Even though the owners are collecting rent, they sometimes can't keep up with their house payments and lose their properties to foreclosure.
For free, a renter can limit his or her risk by using the website to search databases to determine whether any notices of default have been filed against the property. Of course, there's no guarantee that the landlord won't run into financial difficulty after the place is rented. But at least you'll be warned before you sign a lease if he's already in trouble.
For $28 you can learn if the landlord owns the property, has filed for bankruptcy or other off-putting circumstances.
- LA Times
A recent ruling on GPS tracking has prompted the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to turn off about 3,000 tracking devices, says FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann. The Supreme Court ruling on US v. Jones, which found that placing a GPS tracker without a warrant constituted an illegal search, has apparently caused a "sea change" in the Bureau, leading it to draft broader guidelines for both GPS device use and related questions regarding the right to privacy.
