Sunday, March 18, 2012

Foursquare Tracks Your GPS Location Constantly

foursquareGPS apps use location data in a wide variety of ways—from helping you connect with friends to remembering where you parked your car. As these sorts of apps have become more and more common, the general public has started to be a little more wary of who is able to keep track of their exact GPS coordinates. Foursquare, the popular app that allows users to find new places in their cities by leaving and reading reviews. This, of course, means that foursquare has to keep track of where you are so it can leave a note on the map for other users. Now, with a new update, Foursquare not only keeps track of where you are while in the app—it tracks your location even when the app is closed.

For example, if you frequent a sushi place in your hometown, Foursquare will store that information and when you travel, it will send push notifications letting you know about good sushi places in new towns when you travel. That doesn’t sound too bad, right? I mean, who doesn’t love finding new places? Until you start thinking about it. I mean, we take our phones with us everywhere. That’s a whole lot of potential information that Foursquare has decided to cash in on.  read more

Use GPS To Unlock Secret Messages

TracesIn the digital age, it seems like people have become more and more detached from each other as social media and messaging becomes more and more common. A new app, called Traces, is trying to change that with an immersive messaging system that uses GPS location and augmented reality to force users to get out of the computer chair and go and find messages from friends. Half treasure hunt, half phone messenger, Traces is a really unique and awesome use of GPS technology that I just had to share.

“Facebook and WhatsApp broadcast frequent, out-of-context information that’s of very little value to you, leaving you a completely passive receiver,” said Beau Lotto, CEO of Ripple Inc, based in San Francisco, which created Traces. “Instead of reading tweets in a random location you can choose the location to add context to your delivery,” Lotto said. read more

Affordable App Keeps Hikers Safe On the Trail

logoHeader

When you are hiking or camping in remote locations the first and most important rule is to let someone know where you will be and when you’ll be back. It’s a good idea to have some sort of distress beacon to send out your GPS coordinates in case the unthinkable happens, but if you are on a budget, those GPS distress signals can take a mighty chunk out of your wallet. So, why not just use your cell phone as a beacon?

The web-based application HikerAlert is designed to do just that. Before you leave for your trip, you can give it some of your information along with your intended travel route and return time. If you don’t check in with HikerAlert after your scheduled return time and date, it will automatically send an email and text message to your listed emergency contacts with all the information they would need to relay to emergency response personnel including GPS location, route and equipment information, etc. read more

New App Takes Some Creepiness Out of Location Sharing

closely_app_iphoneThe idea of being tracked in real time and sharing that information constantly with people is more than a little stalkerish and very creepy. A new Android app called Closely is looking to remove the creepy factor from location sharing and tracking. Created by the German company Familonet, Closely is an app designed for small groups to easily keep in contact with each other and share specific location information using a combination of GPS, Wifi, cell tower triangulation and algorithms to determine location.

Unlike most other apps of this nature, Closely integrates with Facebook to allow you to find your friends easily. Once downloaded, you can send invites to contacts to similarly download the app and create a ‘group.’ The app will only shares information with people in your group and only locations you have set as acceptable via geofencing. So it isn’t going to be tracking you every second and will simply send automatic messages to your group when you enter or leave predetermined areas like school, work or a favorite meeting place. The app also allows for chat and pictures to be shared within the group.

read more

Sygic Debuts Navigation App With Dash Cam

sygic blackbox

Why pay for an expensive dash camera that will take up yet more space on your dash when you can just use your phone to record accidents and incidents? I certainly can’t think of a reason, and now Sygic GPS Navigation users can do just that with Sygic’s new BlackBox app.

This new add on application uses your phone’s camera as a dash cam and works simultaneously with Sygic GPS Navigation for iOS. The interface for BlackBox is pretty straightforward: You turn on the feature and then mount your phone to a dashboard mount and start driving. The app will record the view from your vehicle in a continuous loop with embedded GPS coordinates, speed, time and date. read more

Sygic Maps Celebrates 55 Million Users With Sale

sygicGPSNavigationandMapsAppProvided you are willing to fork out the money, Sygic is one of the better navigation and mapping applications for your smartphone available. Normally, I would say that the price is a little prohibitive for most but if you have been eyeing this application, then this might be your lucky day.

Sygic is celebrating reaching the 55 million user benchmark by having a 55% off sale on their World maps (marking them from $125.99 down to $55.99). While it’s still a chunk of change, if you find yourself travelling a lot, then it might just be worth the money, especially with such a hefty discount. Many of their regional maps are also reduced by 50% in honor of this landmark achievement. According to their site, this discount will be available until October. read more

Endomondo App Syncs with Pebble Watches

ENDOMONDO LOGO

Endomondo, the popular social fitness network, has introduced a new smartphone app that syncs with Pebble and helps users meet their fitness goals. This free app from Endomondo allows users to start, pause or stop a workout while exercising and can display up to three configurable data metrics, such as distance traveled, heart rate and workout duration – making it one of the most advanced fitness tracking apps for Pebble.  Additionally, the app vibrates Pebble smartwatches for each mile or kilometer completed, and will briefly display a performance summary. read more

Group GPS Helps You Locate Friends During Outings

 

5group_gps-view-location-sharing

Location sharing using GPS is quickly becoming popular, but most apps only allow you to share and track your own location. With the new Group GPS app, available for iPhone, users can create activity groups and track everyone who joins, no matter how far away they are. Have a friend who is constantly late or someone who always has errands to run elsewhere? Now it will be easy for you to catch up with everyone at concerts, trail rides, pub crawls or family get-togethers. The app was initially designed to help keep track of cycling groups, but the possibilities are nearly endless! read more

Stay Organized with GPS Location Based Reminders

EasilyDo is one of many apps designed to help organize your life with location-based services.

EasilyDo is one of many apps designed to help organize your life with location-based services.

If you are anything like me, there are days when I have the memory of a goldfish and end up making multiple trips to the same places and forgetting things anyway. Fortunately, I must not be the only one, because there are several apps available for iPhone and Android that are designed to send location-based reminders using GPS. Need to pick up milk? We now have an app for that. read more

Best GPS Apps for Android

Garmin universal smartphone mount

The Garmin universal smartphone mount makes using your smartphone as a GPS practical.

 

Smartphones are incredibly powerful machines, capable of just about anything. So why is it so hard to find a good, functional app? We have searched through dozens of apps and found what seem to be the best free and paid apps on the market for Android. Many of these are also available on iPhone. read more