Google Latitude Comes to the App Store

[ahayes]

I have been using an alternative Latitude app called PlaceTrack for months now and it works great. It's not free, but it is developed by an indie developer and works really well. You can save location history on the phone and it also allows you to set the location manually so you can be somewhere you aren't.

For those concerned about battery life, I haven't noticed any issues with PlaceTrack. It sits in the background and is notified by the phone when the location changes by more than a certain amount (the phone knows this already thanks to cell tower triangulation without running the GPS.) Then the app will wake up, take a quick GPS reading and go back to sleep. You can configure it not to wake up if you are moving fast to save battery life.

The location icon stays on all the time, but that is just iOS letting you know that an app is requesting location updates from iOS. It doesn't mean the GPS is on.

http://www.tranquilli.org/placetrack-a-google-latitude-updater-for-iphone/

 

[kdarling]

Some friends and I were talking the other day about how different it was being a kid before cell / smart phones.

Remember? You had all sorts of valid sounding excuses to tell your parents, like:

• "I couldn't call you to say I was going to be late, because there were no working phone booths."
  
• "I'm sorry, I couldn't call you because I didn't have a quarter."
  
• "Hi, I'm staying overnight here at Johnny's house, okay?" (And you were really 100 miles away at the beach, but without caller ID, who knew?)

And they certainly couldn't track you. So thank God we didnt' have this technology when I was growing up, but thank God we do have it now that I have children. lol

 

[alent1234]

Why do people think that other people care what they are doing?

after watching kids scream for attention on the playground while mommy is yapping on the cell phone all the time, my theory is that all these what am i doing now apps are made especially for attention whore people who's parents didn't pay any attention to them

 

[arkmannj]

1) I don't care where everyone else is.

2) I don't care to tell everyone where I am.

Maybe I'm just starting to get old, but this is like "places" in Facebook, I just don't get why people want everyone knowing where they are and frankly it's a clutter of a mess when I see statuses everywhere saying 'Person X is here, and Peron y is there' all over the place.

All that aside, I do like seeing more Google stuff for iOS


For people saying Divorce rates will go up becasue of this app, I have to ask: Is it the app or stupid people using the app that would make the rates go up?
If divorces did go up from this, it's either becasue people are doing things thay shouldn't and get caught and/or becasue they were to dumb to use the privacy settings.

 

[valkraider]

1. Only friend people you trust.
2. Set the ones you want to know to "best available" location.
3. Set the ones you want to know less to "city level" location.
4. Don't friend burglars or stalkers.
5. Don't turn on the "web badge" functionality which lets everyone see your location regardless of your privacy settings.

That said, anyone know how much data this thing will consume?

 

[alent1234]

Nice app, but I'm still a bit weirded out by all of these location apps. If I want to hang out with someone, I'll just call them and ask to hang. It strikes me as odd that people will find a friend's location using something like Foursquare and then just show up unannounced.

but with foursquare all the attention whore people have something to be proud of if they get a mayorship.

 

[SheepWorrier]

I've had the app installed for about 4 hours now with background updating enabled and my battery has decreased by 20%. In that time, I've walked a few hundred yards, but obviously not enough to switch cell towers and trigger an update and watched about an hour of video.

So in this short space of time, the battery drain seems fine - no more than usual.

I personally love this app for situations when I'm in the middle of a long drive home and my other half can just check on the PC how far out I am, rather than having to call me to find out.

Also the Latitude history is quite fun, but apparently I spend 0 hours at work - don't tell my boss

 

[redcupr]

Some friends and I were talking the other day about how different it was being a kid before cell / smart phones.

Remember? You had all sorts of valid sounding excuses to tell your parents, like:

• "I couldn't call you to say I was going to be late, because there were no working phone booths."
  
• "I'm sorry, I couldn't call you because I didn't have a quarter."
  
• "Hi, I'm staying overnight here at Johnny's house, okay?" (And you were really 100 miles away at the beach, but without caller ID, who knew?)

And they certainly couldn't track you. So thank God we didnt' have this technology when I was growing up, but thank God we do have it now that I have children. lol

Ahhhh, so young you are. I was able to say:

"I'm sorry, I couldn't call you because I didn't have a DIME."

 

[valkraider]

Maybe I'm just starting to get old, but this is like "places" in Facebook, I just don't get why people want everyone knowing where they are and frankly it's a clutter of a mess when I see statuses everywhere saying 'Person X is here, and Peron y is there' all over the place.

It's really different than facebook or foursquare.

You don't "check in" anywhere. It just shows where you are to anyone who you friend when they go into Google latitude. If you don't want to see where your friends are, don't go into Google latitude.

And you can set the granularity to "city level" so your friends can see maybe where you are basically, but not too detailed...

It's really kinda cool, and worth checking out...

 

[zman2100]

Having a location service like this constantly running in the background would absolutely destroy battery life.

 

[*LTD*]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

Useless and potentially dangerous. Google keeps rolling out random tracking services like this. Oh, that's right, they're an ad/search company.

 

[vincenz]

Don't see this being used much outside of very familiar social circles... Maybe it's a little too forward-looking even for this generation.

 

[arkmannj]

It's really different than facebook or foursquare.

You don't "check in" anywhere. It just shows where you are to anyone who you friend when they go into Google latitude. If you don't want to see where your friends are, don't go into Google latitude.

And you can set the granularity to "city level" so your friends can see maybe where you are basically, but not too detailed...

It's really kinda cool, and worth checking out...

thanks for the clarification, maybe I'll give it a try sometime

 

[E.Lizardo]

For those who seek further integration into the collective.
"We only seek to increase quality of life,Number One."

 

[whathesaid]

I won't be using it myself, but i can see how the 'youth' of today would use it.

It reminds me of a super version of 'Find my iPhone' that others can see. which could also be quite useful.

 

[Roessnakhan]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

Useless and potentially dangerous. Google keeps rolling out random tracking services like this. Oh, that's right, they're an ad/search company.

But if Apple made it, it would be useful and innovative.

 

[Consultant]

Stalking people (um friends)? Not for me.

Perhaps Google robots don't call people? =p

 

[*LTD*]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148)

Useless and potentially dangerous. Google keeps rolling out random tracking services like this. Oh, that's right, they're an ad/search company.

But if Apple made it, it would be useful and innovative.

Probably not. But it would at least have a great UI.

 

[HLdan]

Ahhhh, so young you are. I was able to say:

"I'm sorry, I couldn't call you because I didn't have a DIME."

Well that just shows how OLD you are.

 

[valkraider]

Look folks. If you have a cell phone and it is turned on, the government and the cell phone companies already track you.

(Geeze, doesn't anyone watch movies?)

If you have a Google account and use it from your phone, Google already knows where you are in many ways. Every time you read GMail or do a web search or Google Reader or any of those, Google gets your basic location via GeoIP. And what do you think is happening when you use Google Maps - you think Google ignores your location then?

You can set the privacy levels, and you can choose who sees it. You can turn off the "history" tracking.

And if you are planning on committing crimes, or you don't want the government to track you because you are an activist or a communist or whatever you don't want the government to know - don't carry your phone with you.. Also don't use your credit or debit cards, and don't check out books from the library.

Seriously, why did you buy a data-enabled phone with a GPS device in the first place if you are so opposed to using it?

 

[room237]

can't figure out how to share only city-level location, doesn't seem to be a feature on the app or in latitude website. anyone else?

 

[spazzcat]

but with foursquare all the attention whore people have something to be proud of if they get a mayorship.

Foursquare is basically a game to see who can get more badges or mayorships...

 

[valkraider]

can't figure out how to share only city-level location, doesn't seem to be a feature on the app or in latitude website. anyone else?

When you friend someone and they show up in your friends, you can then set the city level.

I am not sure if it is a quirk, but I had to do it on my phone and on the web based latitude - could be an early bug?

On the web, you need to look at your friends then click the profile link for the friend then you can change the setting. Should then have a little group of buildings next to the friend representing city access.

On the iPhone client you select the friend, then click the blue arrow on the right, then set the "privacy" settings.

 

[room237]

When you change cell towers, it updates the status. This functionally is built in to iOS...

I check on the dashboard on google latitude and it seems to have been updating my location several times a minute. i've just been sitting at my desk. this might in fact be a battery drainer.

 

[neil1980]

Sounds a really good thing to me.. though wish it was built into google maps rather than a separate app.

You don't want someone to know where you are.... then turn it off?

For me it sounds ideal for meeting people, Say your meeting a friend down the pub, you say 8 and your there on time but your mate isn't... do you get a drink in ready for them or are they miles away still?... start up latitude and you can see there only a couple of mins away so may as well get a drink in... or alternatively they haven't even left the house yet so you just get yours.