Update: Friday Facebook announced it would acquire Glancee and its 20,000 current users. Per RWW "Glancee is a smartphone app that tells you when people with similar interests are in the same location as you."
- Glancee
- RWW
--- original post 3/6/12 ----
The hot LBS apps per DigitalTrends? HIghlight and Glancee, two passive "find nearby people of interest" apps.
There’s a new trend set to emerge at this year’s SXSW know as “ambient social networking.” At the helm of this burgeoning trend is the budding two-person startup, Highlight, headed by founder and CEO, Paul Davison.
While in the past, Foursquare and Gowalla were the location-based apps that made headlines, the latest innovation a is new breed that sits on your phone and runs silently behind the scenes.
- DigitalTrends
I'm not sure if the timing of this announcement is related to SXSW but it might be. Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai is leaving to do something new.
- C|net
LocalScope has a SXSW update:
Its been an exciting weekend for us here at Cynapse. We released an update for Localscope - v2.1 with new features, improvements, fixes and more. Further terrific news is that Apple has yet again chosen Localscope as one of their favorite apps on the App Store Staff Favorites section! Its an awesome feeling of accomplishment each time, inspiring us in our endeavors of consistently improving Localscope
v2.1 introduces an Interactive Full Screen Map view with pinch, zoom and pan functionality to get a quick bird's eyeview of a point of interest and its surroundings. Localscope now leverages the iOS5 Twitter integration enabling a smoother experience for users to share locations. We've also added support for the Turkish language. We now support 20 languages and are proud to reach out to such a diverse set of audience across the globe.
- via e-mail
by Adena Schutzberg on 05/07 at 04:39 AM |
Comments |
Skyhook, the world leader in location information, context and intelligence, today announced TweetCaster, the #1 third-party mobile Twitter app, has integrated Skyhook's Location Engine in its Amazon Kindle Fire. Location services are now available on this device for the first time.
- press release
MapMuse today announced the release of Main Street Locator, a free app that connects users with historic Main Street districts across the USA. Main Street, Inc. is a grassroots economic development initiative sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that helps revitalize commercial districts through preservation-based strategies.
- press release
The mobile app ‘Girls Around Me’ got a lot of press recently. What does it do? What you'd expect: finds girls. How? But using the Foursquare API (until the company turned off access due to breaking terms of API use and the company behind it removed it from the Apple iTunes Store), Google Maps and Facebook. It was said to allow those interested to see their full name, photos, and send them messages. The app was on the market for some months before a journalist at the Cult of Mac wrote about it in the last few days.
- Forbes
by Adena Schutzberg on 04/02 at 03:00 AM |
Comments |
The new release of Google Maps for Android (for Android 4.0 phones) includes:
-
redesigned the Navigation home screen in Android 4.0+ to make it easier to enter a new destination or select from recent and favorite locations by swiping left or right.
-
crisper, less cluttered map that is easier to read
-
prioritzed transit mode (subway over bus, less walking, etc)
Get the update from Google Play (was Android Marketplace).
- Lat Long Blog
There's also new oblique imagery for many areas in the U.S. and two abroad:
US:
Atlanta, GA; Canyon Lake, TX; Charleston, SC; Dallas, TX; Houston, TX; Lakeland, FL; Lubbock, TX; Orlando, FL; Port Charlotte, FL; Roanoke, TX; San Luis Obispo, CA; Smyrna, TN; Walker, LA
International:
Adelaide, Australia; Cordoba, Argentina
- Lat Long Blog
by Adena Schutzberg on 03/29 at 05:08 AM |
Comments |
In a large infographic MapQuest shared a variety of stats related to number of routed miles in six months of 2011 (and its equivalence in moon visits, etc.), whether women or men use the service more (women do) and popular searches. There's also a map of the use of MapQuest on Black Friday. Most valuable numbers are at the bottom: how it ranks among other services.
- MapQuest Blog
Newly-released Android app
ObscuraCam lets users pixelize faces and strip metadata from internet video.
It also strips out GPS data so citizen journalists and activists can protect themselves and/or those they cover. Of course, those simply concerned about personal privacy can use it, too. An earlier release suported just still pictures and a sibling will add in more data using the mobile device's sensors. The app is in the Knight New Challenge.
Telenav, Inc. begins offering its free Scout for Apps service, an HTML5, browser-based, voice-guided turn-by-turn GPS navigation service, to all mobile web and app developers. Optimized for iOS now, Android later.
by Adena Schutzberg on 03/27 at 04:50 AM |
Comments |
The patent is titled Advertising based on environmental conditions. It's quite simple, per the very short abstract:
Information about an environmental condition of a remote device is received, the environmental condition being determined based on a signal output from a sensor of the remote device or a sensor coupled to the remote device. An advertisement is identified based on the environmental condition, and the advertisement is provided to the remote device.
So, in theory, if it's raining, you might get ads for raincoats. This is already done to some extent on weather webites. High allergy day in your area? And ad for Claritin appears! It's also possible to sense background noise - say that of a concert - and based ads on that. The patent was applied for in 2008 and granted on March 20.
The privacy folks are concerned of course and there are the requisite comparisons to Minority Report. Google for its part notes it patents all kinds of ideas; some never are implemented in products.
- BBC
- Atlantic
by Adena Schutzberg on 03/27 at 04:00 AM |
Comments |
