Google Latitude API Now Available
Posted by BA on May 24, 2010 in Internet, Internet Privacy, Location based services | 42 comments
We’ve covered Google Latitude in the past. Google Latitude is an-add on to the Google Maps and a location based service that allows you to share your location with your friends and family. In case of mobile version of Latitude + Google Maps, you control who gets to see your location but with Google Latitude API, your location can not only be shared with some of the people you choose to share your information with, but you may agree to share your current location with websites, software, third party software solutions or other location based systems.
What are the possibilities?
The possibilities are unlimited with basic information being very simple. For example, if a lot of people in your city use Google Latitude on your mobile, a software solution may get to know about a traffic jam on the road ahead and can recommend you a different path. This is how Google Maps application could possibly show traffic information for several parts of the world without having physical traffic surveillance in place.
Similarly, you can turn on your home lights, air-conditioning or heating systems as soon as you reach near your house. Even your garage door could open automatically on your car’s arrival. I can write an app which could recommend few friends about a coffee shop that will not be far for all of them and they can meet up over a cup of espresso.
Privacy Concerns
Exciting possibilities but I’m not here to discuss application ideas that could be made on top of Google Latitude and maps. This actually concerns me one step further about the privacy. If I have Google Latitude running, I’m leaving a trail of my location and this trail could be used for all the malicious things one can think of. Good old days are gone when a Sniper could miss a chance of killing a movie hero just because he took another path :p
I know Google has been very responsible about the privacy issues but that always opens the possibilities for nasty advertisers giving me a call on my cell phone on the middle of the road saying “Hey, look to your left, that’s the ice-cream shop you always wanted to go to” or a telemarketer calling me, “Good morning! As you are standing on traffic crossing and you have another 3 minutes to wait for the light to go green, do you want me to tell you about our latest credit card?” Life will be way trickier if not insane.
Regardless of all the issues that could arise with this kind of service:
- I’m still ready to use Google Latitude to share my location with my family and close friends.
- I’m still ready to work on the Google Latitude API to come up with yet another killer application nobody else can think of
- I’m still excited to know yet another possible way application developers can come up with very interesting solutions for us
Are you impressed, excited, happy, worried, concerned or disappointed about this new development? Please do leave a comment 
Where the %@&# did I park my car?
Posted by BA on Sep 23, 2009 in Uncategorized | 0 comments
If you are a BlackBerry user and usually forget where you parked your car in a large parking lot or may be in a street a few blocks away, this application named vqCarFinder is a life saver. The idea is very simple. The application uses the GPS and BlueTooth in your BlackBerry phone to do the wonders. First time you use it, you have to configure it with your car’s Bluetooth. This will tell your BlackBerry whenever you leave your car and it will save the location in the application. If you don’t have a Bluetooth device in your car, you can buy one as a bundle with this application and simply plug it into the cigarette lighter slot of your car. When you return to the parking lot, you can open the app and can see where it recorded the parking location last time.
You can buy this app for only $10 or can try it for free.
Read MoreUfone’s U-Track Maps, A Sheer Disappointment
Posted by BA on May 27, 2009 in Uncategorized | 1 comment
I was really excited to see U-Track maps‘ availability on Ufone‘s website. According to my earlier post, the usage charges are very high but I was still interested to check it out at least. As promised, here I come with a review of the solution.
Introduction
U-Track maps is an XHTML based mobile website. I was expecting it to be an installable application. Anyways, before I go in details of the application features, I must tell you that if you try using the solution, you will, almost instantly notice that its an integration with Naqsha.net. Well, Naqsha.net is one of the serious efforts done so far in navigation domain in Pakistan, but I must say, things are pretty pre-mature right now and Naqsha.net. Moreover, integrating with U-fone, they have tried to increaset there user base significantly, which is a good sign. On the other hand, they have not anticipated such big traffic loads, especially during the first few day’s free trial time and their site seems broken at several points (see below).
Solution Walk-through
As soon as I got a Ufone connection, I dived in and launched the device browser. The first link on ufone’s mobile site http://wap.ufone.com was U-track maps.
I opened it up, selected the city and the only thing I could do on the page was “Search”.
I typed a search string and and well, quite a long list of related items came up. I selected one of the item and I could see its location on somewhat nastily orange-themed rip-off from Google maps images. That’s it! You cant do much more than that.
The map that shows up, is well, kind of detailed but its in small size, its irritating orange and green colored, road and place names are hardly readable and until you know the city well you cant figure out much from this map. That really kills the need of navigation anyways. I could see three options under the map, 1) View Larger Image, 2) Make a route and 3) Search nearby, but all 3 of the links were broken (actually application crashed or something, was that because of the heavy traffic load?). See video for details.
U-Track Map, Walk-Through
Feature Feedback
Following is the feature list and comments for each feature:
Solution Type
Web-based mobile application/web-site. I expected it to be a GPS-enabled or at least location aware installable application.
Search Places
Search results are quite detailed ( the list is usually long) but they are irrelevant to your current location. In addition, only names of the search results are listed, no additional information like phone numbers, web links, email address, nothing! You can select a location and can view it on map.
View on Map
You can select one item from the search results and can view it on map. The site shows an image showing a street map with a marker showing the destination. If you select a road to be shown on map, it shows two markers named Start and End.
View larger map image
When viewing a map, you may want to see a detailed map. This feature is available but the link broken. (See video)
Make a route
This was the only exciting feature for me but unfortunately, this link was broken as well
(See video)
Search nearby
Link broken again (See video)
Review Summary
In short, the solution is a total-disappointment. Most of the features are not working, but even if all its features start working, it is no-where near its available competitions. I will soon write a post about its competitors.
The Good:
- The application is browser based, so the number of supported handsets is very large.
- A lot of places have been listed and are available for search, thanks to Naqsha.net
The Bad:
- There is no way you can search near your current location, no self-location detection mechanism utilized (GPS or Cell tower location)
- No details, phone numbers, email , web-link or photo etc. available for the public locations/businesses available in the search.
- The names of the roads, places and locations are hardly readable on the map.
- Orange color dominance on the map (just because of Ufone color) is really irritating.
- No voice support (obviously being a web page) for people using it as in-car navigation system.
- Too costly as discussed in my last post
The Ugly
- Make-a-route option to your searched destination, the link is broken.
- View large map, link broken
- Search-nearby, link broken
I will soon write a detailed post on U-track map’s available competitions. Stay tuned!
Read MoreUfone launches U-Track Maps
Posted by BA on May 15, 2009 in Uncategorized | 0 comments
Ufone has jumped into the location based services with their navigation system named UTrack Maps. This is a welcome addition to the available location based services in the local market. This launch is pretty much in time because other mobile based navigation services, in which Google Maps is one of the popular ones, are still in their infancy and Ufone has a chance to take over the market. From its description, it looks like a wap-only solution, though I yet have to try out the system. If you get a chance to try it out, do give us your feedback.
The main features of the service as described by the service web-site are:
- Locate a position (Point of interest) on map.
- Radius search (Search nearby)
- Routing and Distance
Please note, that routing and distance services (point 3 above) is not part of the Google-Maps-Mobile’s local offerings as yet which can be Ufone’s unique selling point here. On the other hand, the use of this service will be very heavy on the user’s pocket. As opposed to Google-Maps-Mobile’s free search and location information, Ufone will charge you Re. 1 to view a location on map, Rs. 2 to view a route, Rs. 1 for searching for a location nearby and if you want to view a large image that will again charge you Re. 1. Standard GPRS charges will also apply in addition to all above. This is really expensive, is’nt it?
The details of the package are available on Ufone website. You can simply start off by visiting http://wap.ufone.com from your mobile phone (obviously using ufone).
I will try out the service and will possibly post a review.
Read MoreTwo new add-ons to Google Latitude
Posted by BA on May 5, 2009 in Uncategorized | 0 comments
Two more simple but useful add-ons to google maps + latitude are available now. Google latitude allows its users to share their current location from their mobile devices with his/her friends. So far, it was only possible to share your location with other latitude users. Latitude has gone beyond that point now.