Slashgeo

David Cizek writes " Locify (www.locify.com) offers location enhanced browsing on the mobile phone. It is free GPS application for J2ME phone.

As users browse usual web pages on the inbuilt xhtml browser, the GPS coordinates can be sent with each request to the webserver and they can get location relevant data (if the service offers them).

Developers can create location based services as easy as programming web pages.

Locify relies on developers — their goal is not to create our own services but give reason for developers to write them. Although Locify created a couple of sample services — like Twittering your location, Save My Position and Show Me on Map. The code is well documented so developers can learn and inspire.

Locify is free and open.

See and watch more on www.locify.com or read Locify blog."

Slashdot currently has an article on the subject. Head on over to their site to see the many reactions from the huge slashdot community. Here is their summary : "'New research that makes creative use of sensitive location-tracking data from 100,000 cellphones in Europe suggests that most people can be found in one of just a few locations at any time, and that they do not generally go far from home.' More interesting than their conclusion, however, is how they got their data. 'The researchers said they used the potentially controversial data only after any information that could identify individuals had been scrambled. Even so, they wrote, people's wanderings are so subject to routine that by using the patterns of movement that emerged from the research, "we can obtain the likelihood of finding a user in any location." The researchers were able to obtain the data from a European provider of cellphone service that was obligated to collect the information. By agreement with the company, the researchers did not disclose the country where the provider operates.' Any guesses which European country requires cell phone providers to record where their customers make calls, and then allows them to give that data away without disclosing that they have done so?"

GPS Business News reports on an upgrade to SkyHook Wireless' mobile positioning engine, XPS 2.0. "The original XPS was switching between Wi-Fi and GPS; now XPS 2.0 combines raw Wi-Fi, GPS and cell tower readings to produce a single hybrid calculation. In difficult indoor and urban environments, XPS can, for example, leverage signals from just two GPS satellites to improve Wi-Fi location accuracy by 35%+, said Skyhook.
...
The addition of cell tower positioning also increases availability so that users at least get a fallback location regardless of environment."

SkyHook also seems to be licensing its technology to chipset manufacturers, as reported here "CSR offers a Wi-Fi chipset and a Bluetooth/FM/software GPS chipset as well as its own eGPS software that reads cell tower signal to augment the GPS positioning."

Indoors or out, I can determine my position and not miss a beat (but might miss a little accuracy...)

SlashDot is currently discussing an article about this. Here is their summary : "According to a release issued by Rocky Mountain Tracking, an 18-year old man, Shaun Malone, was able to successfully contest a speeding ticket in court using the data from a GPS device installed in his car. This wasn't just any old make-a-left-turn-100-feet-ahead-onto-Maple-Street GPS; this was a vehicle-tracking GPS device — the kind used by trucking fleets — or in this case, overprotective parents. The device was installed in Malone's car by his parents, and the press release makes no mention if the teenager knew that the device was installed in his vehicle at the time."

From the Ogle Earth Blog : "Finally! Live georeferenced mobile phone web video: Live mobile phone video streaming site Qik and live GPS phone position site Ipoki have collaborated to let you live stream video from your mobile phone to the web while also showing your location in real time. Here's the obligatory YouTube showing it off:"