location

Google has added an experimental feature to Gmail that automatically lets the recipient of your e-mails know where you penned your missive.

Gmail Labs announced in a blog posting Tuesday that Gmail users can now append their e-mail signature to include their current city and country location. If you are overly officious, or travel frequently and enjoy "place dropping" to your friends and colleagues that you are in Dubai, Dublin, or, um, Duluth, this feature will appeal to you.

However, Google software engineer Marco Bonechi acknowledges that because the feature keys in on your IP address, it may … Read more

Apple reportedly is gearing up to offer location and multi-touch developer tools in its Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system, according to a report in AppleInsider

The geolocation tools will take a page from the iPhone software development kit (SDK), by way of the CoreLocation framework, according to AppleInsider. The CoreLocation works inconjunction with the Mac's networking hardware, aiming to provide a GPS-like experience.

Apple's next generation OS will also provide developers with programing interfaces that are Cocoa-based, as a means to maximize the use of the multi-touch features within the MacBook and MacBook Pro … Read more

Just because the Internet has broken down geographic barriers, don't assume that Google doesn't care about geography.

The company plans to launch software called Latitude on Wednesday that lets mobile phone users share their location with close contacts. Google hopes it will help people find each other while out and about and to keep track of loved ones.

"What Google Latitude does is allow you to share that location with friends and family members, and likewise be able to see friends and family members' locations," said Steve Lee, product manager for Google Latitude. For example, a … Read more

Location-based networking service Loopt has now gone live in Google's Android marketplace, and is compatible with "select phones" that run the open-source operating system.

As with other handsets' versions of Loopt, the app lets you track your Loopt-using friends on a map and find other members in the area. They can also share their location with social-networking and messaging services like Facebook and Twitter.

Prior to launching its iPhone and then Android apps, Loopt was restricted to carriers with which it had signed contracts, like Verizon and Boost Mobile. Typically, it was a subscription service that cost … Read more

NEW YORK--GPS map maker Navteq is teaming with its parent company Nokia to help drivers get more accurate information about traffic conditions.

Before Nokia bought Navteq last year, the two began working on a project in conjunction with the University of California at Berkeley called Mobile Millennium that uses GPS-enabled cell phones as traffic monitors or "probes" to collect real-time traffic data.

A pilot program using more than 10,000 handsets has already launched in the San Francisco Bay Area. And on Tuesday the companies were showing off the technology at the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress here … Read more

Voice search is improving all the time, and Google brings the best we've seen to date. Its stellar iPhone app uses the accelerometer to activate search. When you hear a beep after lifting the phone to your ear, start speaking your search term. The accuracy of the listening software combined with the newly added MyLocation feature brings (mostly) spot-on search results that are localized to your whereabouts. As with versions of the Google Mobile App on other mobile platforms, this one also includes a tab of shortcuts to other Google services, including Talk, Reader, News, and Photos (Picasa Web).… Read more

Verizon Wireless and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are teaming up to create a new mobile application to help families plan their trips and get the most out of their Disney vacations.

With more than 90 percent of its guests walking through the gates with mobile phones, Disney Parks and Resorts executives see cell phones as a perfect way to connect with their customers.

On Wednesday, Disney will announce it has entered into an exclusive multi-year agreement with Verizon Wireless. The two companies will develop an application, which will be hosted by Verizon. Also as part of the deal, Verizon … Read more

LOS ANGELES--Windows 7 has a new programming interface designed to make it a whole lot easier for software to figure out where in the world a PC and its user are located.

That should make it easier for a whole new range of location-based services from finding nearby friends to LoJack-like PC tracking programs. Even search could be a whole lot better if the search engine knew where you were. Indeed, searchers often enter their city with their location to try and get just that benefit.

"There's so many times you have to enter in where you … Read more

Loopt, the friend tracking software developer, has struck a licensing deal with a Qualcomm subsidiary to help lower the cost of providing location services.

The company will announce Thursday that it has signed an agreement with SnapTrack, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, to use QPoint location-based server software to provide social mapping and other advanced location services.

Location-based services are expected to generate a lot of money for carriers in the future. Already, most major mobile operators are offering some kind of location-based service, such as GPS-enabled navigation or tracking. But the service hasn't taken off in any … Read more