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iPhone Position Triangulation - Firmware Upgrade

posted by lxnyce on Wednesday January 02, @11:29PM   Printer-friendly   Email story  Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
A couple days ago, news about an iPhone GPS was announced. Today, AnyGeo reports about the upcoming iPhone firmware upgrade which gives the iPhone's Google Map's application position triangulation capability using cell towers, essentially turning it into a free, bad accuracy GPS. For links to movies and more articles of the system in action, head on over to AnyGeo. If you're interested in the video, the Google Maps portion is shown at ~5 minutes in this link.

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Application Domains: Location-Based Services, TomTom, Nokia and more 3 comments [+]
Here's a few geonews items mainly related to cellphones and location-based services. Spatial Sustain informs us of the new "send to GPS" feature linking Google Maps and TomTom devices. Second, MacRumors discuss an Engaget story about TomTom (possibly, it's a rumor!) developing a GPS module for Apple's iPhone. Meanwhile, APB links to a NYT article wondering if Nokia can make serious inroads in the American market of cellphones and location-based services, and finally, APB runs a short entry on TeleNav and Navizon offering free small location-based services applications. Several related previous stories copied below.
iPhone GPS Now a Reality [+]
The location capabilities for the iPhone has been discussed quite a few times here, see related stories below, but also this discussion on whether the iPhone needs GPS capabilities or not. Now Mapperz informs us a third-party GPS add-on for the iPhone and iPod Touch will start shipping in February at the price of 89$US. Great news: the software used is open source, bad news: it requires your iPhone/iPod Touch to be 'jailbroken' (maybe this will change with the upcoming SDK?). The description: "The iphone locoGPS module allows jail broken iphones to finally have GPS functionality. This module is in development and will be shipping in February. All software is open source and more applications are being written every day. The locoGPS module gives you the ability to explore all the benefits of GPS from a device that is small enough to put on a keychain." There's also Google's My Location new feature which works on the iPhone now.
Application Domains: Location Awareness On iPhone Is Here [+]
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For more information, and screenshots, head on over to the GeoThought blog.
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In press release by SkyHook Wireless they announced that they are powering the wifi based portion of the new iPhone software location awareness. From the release:

Apple is using Skyhook's Wi-Fi positioning software for the new Wi-Fi location positioning feature in its Maps application on both iPhone and iPod touch. Using WPS, iPhone and iPod touch users can now locate themselves in the popular Maps application with the tap of one button.
This is some nice news from skyhook and lends credence to their theory that wifi is a good method for geo-location determination.
Application Domains: Ask.com Mobile Speak Directions [+]
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For a more detailed summary and video of the system in action, head on over to AnyGeo.
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