Google Latitude - real-time friend finder
- From: "Wolfgang S. Rupprecht" <wolfgang.rupprecht+gnus200902@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 07 Feb 2009 10:49:50 -0800
Google finally came out with the obvious hack for their gmaps program, a
real-time link to the GPS that many smart cell phones now have. If one
signs up for the program and cons one's friends into signing up also,
then one can see those friends appear in semi-realtime on a gmaps
backdrop.
http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html
I've been using it on a Google G1 phone for a few days and so far the
results are a bit mixed. The update rate is fairly slow so one often
gets many minute old data. The cell phones (at least the G1) also are a
bit too aggressive at shutting down extraneous peripherals. The GPS
just isn't kept on long enough to get a good lock when the phone isn't
in use and displaying maps. Obviously they can tune this and almost
certainly will in subsequent firmware versions. The unfortunate effect
under the current firmware is that the phone falls back to using
cell-tower and wifi auto-location when it is just sitting in your
pocket. The displayed position in my case is 1 block away using wifi
and 1-mile away when using cell-tower location.
Is anyone else playing with this program yet?
-wolfgang
--
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht http://www.full-steam.org/ (ipv6-only)
You may need to config 6to4 to see the above pages.
.
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