Tag: GPS

Color, the $41-million-in-funding location-oriented photo sharing startup, is susceptible to simple GPS spoofing. With nothing more than a jailbroken iPad or iPhone, you can use FakeLocation to trick Color into thinking you're somewhere else. Within seconds you can be browsing photos that were snapped thousands of miles away. With a little digging, you can pore through photos not intended for your ...

Just when Instagram had reached the peak of trendiness, along comes the next big thing in mobile photo-sharing: Color. Color is an iPhone/Android app that lets you share location-tagged photos. What's new about Color is the way it builds your contacts: it shows you photos from people who are currently within 100 feet of you, whether you know them or not. If you're around someone all the ...

[Full disclosure: AOL is the parent company of both MapQuest and Download Squad] MapQuest for iPhone has been highly successful, and now Android users can take the app for a test drive, too. MapQuest had reported more than 1.4 million Android users visiting its mobile website every month, and those users will definitely enjoy the native MapQuest app for Android. Fire it up, and MapQuest ...

Google Latitude, Google's location-sharing service, just added the ability to check in at a location. You can now attach place names to your location, rather than just sharing your position on the map. Users of Google Maps for Android 5.1 can take advantage of these new check-ins, which bring Latitude a bit closer to location-based social networks like Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places. ...

Nike+, Nike's GPS-powered running tracker for iPhone, just got more fun. The latest update adds a multiplayer Nike+ Tag feature that lets you challenge multiple friends to a game of tag. You don't literally have to tag your opponents, though, you just have to avoid being "it" by running faster or farther than they do. Here's how it works: After you finish a run, you can start a game of tag ...

You're standing dazed on a street corner in Palo Alto. Suddenly you realize, "Oh crap, I need to rent a car so I can rendezvous with the guys at Fronty's Meat Market!!" You whip out your Nexus One, search for car rentals, and bingo! A hyperlocal ad for an Enterprise location just half a mile away appears. Now you've got your wheels, and the Donbot won't have to teach you a lesson. If you ...

As much as I've always wanted to use Nike+ with my iPhone, I stayed away because of the required hardware. Well, the new version of the app doesn't require Nike+-equipped running shoes, so I'm ready to shell out my 2 bucks and hit the trail with nothing but my iPhone's internal GPS. Nike+ GPS gives you a readout of your speed, pace and distance covered, plus a visual record of your run using ...

Augmented reality, at the moment, is a bit kitsch. It's a technology that's been threatening to emerge for years but, like "virtual reality," it's always been held back by technological constraints. Until the last year or two, most AR and VR implementations involved you wheeling around a laptop (or strapping it to your back!) -- and VR still requires a silly pair of glasses. That's all about to ...

A lot of people have used map software to trace out messages across the world's roads, but Nick Newcomen is the first to actually drive the routes and map them with a GPS. Newcomen traveled over 12,000 miles around the US, starting from Texas, to spell out "Read Ayn Rand" across the American landscape. His work is now the biggest piece of GPS writing ever recorded. Whether or not you like Rand, ...

Normally this one would fall just outside the Download Squad perimeter, but who doesn't enjoy chuckling at an unlucky criminal? And besides, there's software involved -- which you'll be able to download at some point -- which does kinda make it relevant! See, this particular thief strolled up and nabbed an iPhone out of an unsuspecting woman's hand. Unfortunately for him, the phone was in the ...

The iPhone's built-in alarm clock app is pretty good -- multiple alarms are nice, and it's very easy to set -- but there are some things it just can't do. For example, it can't wake you up automatically when you reach your destination. Sleep Blaster can, though. If you're on a train or a bus, you can set Sleep Blaster to wake you up when your GPS detects that you've arrived. I can't count the ...

Google's turn-by-turn GPS navigation software for smartphones has today been enabled in western, continental Europe... and Canada! If you've not used it before, Google Maps Navigation, despite carrying Google's omnipresent 'Beta' tag,' is as good as GPS navigation gets. It might not be quite as refined as commercial, big-bucks navigation systems, but the sheer number of awesome features easily ...

Google has just launched a new service -- Location History -- that keeps track of your movements. Before you get your panties and/or beard in a twist, you can delete your location history at any time. It's private, too: neither your friends or the public can see your location history. Now, with that out of the way, are you grinning like a fool at the prospect of how awesome such a tool is, ...

Although they've been overshadowed by nightmarish privacy concerns lately, Facebook's upcoming location features are starting to get some buzz again. This time, it's been more-or-less confirmed that Facebook will be introducing Foursquare-style checkins, at least on mobile versions of the site. Some code for a "location" tab in the touch.facebook.com version of the site seems to indicate ...

When Google launched turn-by-turn navigation for Android phones, everyone read it as a slap in the face to Apple. Sure, Google may power the iPhone's Maps app, but Android was going to have the exclusive ability to replace that expensive TomTom (or other name-brand navigation system) in your car. Earlier this week, Google started rumors that all that might change, and its free nav software would ...