location

Apple responds to query about privacy policy changes

Apple has provided an unusually detailed accounting of how it handles customers' location information and privacy, following a query sent to the company by two Congressmen.

The iPhone maker reiterated in a letter published Monday that it does not share location information with outside parties without a customer's permission. If customers agree to use location-based applications, like Foursquare or Twitter or iAds, location information is collected by Apple in a way that does not identify the user.

A small bit of panic arose when Apple updated its privacy policy on June 21 for customers using devices that run iOS … Read more

Gowalla: We're still in the location race

It's been fewer than four months since the much-hyped "location wars" of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, where eager onlookers were quick to pit rival "check-in" services Foursquare and Gowalla against one another to see which one dominated the social-media-crazed nerdfest. Yet, by most accounts, Foursquare has emerged victorious.

Earlier this week, a set of statistics made the rounds claiming that Foursquare is now five times bigger than Gowalla and is growing 75 percent faster. A source in the location space added a tidbit in a conversation with CNET: not only is Foursquare winning … Read more

Congressmen query Apple on privacy policy changes

Apple's privacy policy update for iOS device users has attracted the attention of Washington.

On Thursday, coinciding with Apple's high-profile first day sale of the iPhone 4, Reps. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) announced that they have sent a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs expressing their concerns and asking for answers regarding reports that Apple is gathering location information on its customers.

"Given the limited ability of Apple users to opt out of the revised policy and still be able to take advantage of the features of their Apple products, we are concerned … Read more

Apple advises users how location data can be used

Apple updated its privacy policy to underscore that when you use location-based services on your iOS device, Apple will be sharing your location with that service.

The update, which came on Monday, added this to the company's overall privacy policy:

To provide location-based services on Apple products, Apple and our partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of your Apple computer or device. This location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide … Read more

Find recent items quickly

Fresh is a small, low-cost, file-management utility that essentially offers an amped-up version of the Finder's "Recent Items" lists, along with a quasi-replacement for your Desktop called "The Cooler."

The app's streamlined interface consists of two simple "zones," or panes, which display your "Fresh Files" (basically, anything that's new to your computer or recently changed) and "The Cooler" (a user-defined collection of files that you want to have quick access to). "Fresh Files" is particularly great for tracking downloads and Mail attachments, and the Cooler … Read more

Tag, you're it!

Modern-day digital cameras can record a wealth of information about the photos they take, everything from details about the camera itself to exposure and flash information. One other very useful type of information that can be stored within image files is location data. Although many newer cameras have GPS capabilities built-in, images taken with older cameras may lack this information. Panorado Flyer makes it easy to add location data to existing images using Google Earth, ensuring that you'll never again look at a photo and wonder, "Where was that taken?"

Panorado Flyer is incredibly easy to use. … Read more

Google reinterprets your mobile history

If you're the kind of person who likes to trace your own footprints, you may be interested in the new experimental feature that Google introduced Wednesday for mobile phones.

When you opt into the Latitude location feature on Google Maps and enable Location History, you'll find a brand-new beta dashboard view that doesn't just report your meanderings in a linear, chronological way, but will attempt to group your visits by trends, like trips away from home. The addition of map thumbnails helps keep data visual, liberating your history from traditional text-based constraints.

Privacy has been a key concern of late, … Read more

Yahoo buys mobile social network provider Koprol

Though Yahoo may have wanted to buy Foursquare, the company has found another way to hook into the world of location-based social networking.

Yahoo announced Tuesday that it has bought Koprol, a social network for mobile users. Based in Jakarta, Indonesia, Koprol lets people make friends, share photos, and find popular nearby locations all on the go. The news comes a day after Yahoo and Nokia extended their 5-year-old partnership with an eye toward the rising interest in geo-location offerings, pledging to bring Nokia's Navteq mapping service to Yahoo, and Yahoo's e-mail and instant-messaging technology to Nokia's … Read more

Google open-sources My Tracks GPS Android app

Google has released the source code for an an Android phone GPS program called My Tracks, which lets people record where they've been, log journeys in Google Docs, and post their trip maps online.

"You can expect My Tracks to become better than ever with the contributions we hope it will receive from other developers, and also that many applications which work side-by-side with My Tracks will be written," Google engineer Rodrigo Damazio said in an e-mail list posting Friday. "For instance, one could easily build an application for tracking fitness activities, geocaching, aviation, and so … Read more