Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhoto 6.0.5 Hidden Google Maps Integration And Possible Apple GPS-enabled Device (Camera/iPod/PDA/Phone)?
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
bjdku said:You are foaming at the mouth.
HELL YEAH BABY!!!!! iPhone is the one thing that I have been waiting for - for like an age man!!!! If it has these features then - I don't know what I'm going to do - I'm going to be wanting to travel around and use this bad boy and also be at home to able to use my mac....
Who needs a social life when you have an iPhone - you can make new friends and get there quickly!
Woo hoo!
Macam
chicagdan said:
Most (if not all) new cell phones in America have built in GPS as a result of an FCC mandate for Enhanced 9-1-1 capability in mobile devices. Apple may simply be taking this required expense and turning it into a way to get more value in their device by linking it with a built in camera/iPhoto/GoogleMaps. This certainly seems like one of those "why didn't anyone else do that?" sort of (in retrospect) obvious moves that Apple is great at.
But the fact remains, most new cell phones in the U.S. at least already have GPS built in so the location of the phone can be tracked by emergency responders. It's hardly something new being developed by Apple that will make the iPhone any more subject to governmental data-mining abuse than any other mobile phone.
longofest said:
could be. but honestly i don't think that's a good thing. it just makes the equipment more expensive, clunky and less capable than dedicated devices. after all you don't need that feat all the time. only once in a while and then you bring the extra gps. cramming a gps in nowadays small P&S or even DSLR's is just expensive and complicated.
my two cents.
How many cameras out there support this. Some cell phones with camera & GPS exist, Motorola just intro a new Nextel phone with camera and Navigation.
I am not sure I am going to pay all the extra money to have the GSP antenna and chips added to cost of my camera. I think I can remember where a picture was taken.
I am not sure I am going to pay all the extra money to have the GSP antenna and chips added to cost of my camera. I think I can remember where a picture was taken.
macam said:
You are going to be so disappointed when they announce the phone and you realize that they just released a phone. Yes, the phone is designed by Apple and has a nice UI, maybe one somewhat unique feature, but you're essentially going to be getting a fairly regular phone with a feature that most people would never use often.
I realize that it hasn't been released yet, but the iPhone will never live up to the hype. The number of people who have said they're waiting for it to be released in order to buy it is staggering.......and a bit scary. I wouldn't be waiting for a product when I haven't seen a photo of it, when I haven't seen a features list, a technical specs page, or even a release date. That's crazy.
Sounds like my idea for the jPod
There is a space in the market for a new kind of gadget. I'll call it the jPod. That's j for "journal".
The jPod is the opposite of the iPod. The iPod mobilizes the sounds and images on your computer. You can take them with you for your own use or for others around you. The jPod captures the sounds and images from you and others around you and puts them on your computer.
More here:
http://homepage.mac.com/bagelturf/files/c1b0b98d3be7c344e88595a68ba4fc53-409.html
There is a space in the market for a new kind of gadget. I'll call it the jPod. That's j for "journal".
The jPod is the opposite of the iPod. The iPod mobilizes the sounds and images on your computer. You can take them with you for your own use or for others around you. The jPod captures the sounds and images from you and others around you and puts them on your computer.
More here:
http://homepage.mac.com/bagelturf/files/c1b0b98d3be7c344e88595a68ba4fc53-409.html
This makes perfect sense. It's actually a very elegant solution. Expect to see it integrated into Aperature as well.
More and more cameras (and photographers) are getting into this GPS metadata thing. I've started to see GPS units that mount onto a camera's hotshoe and sync up to the photos with a cable.
It's great that someone thought of scripting a button that inputs that metadata into an online map system. It's a simple script for sure. Still, it save me from having to copy and paste coordinates into Google Maps.
I wouldn't count on this having anything to do with a new apple product. It looks like it is just an added function, increasing the user experience. That's the kind of thinking that makes OS X the great operating system we all know and love.
More and more cameras (and photographers) are getting into this GPS metadata thing. I've started to see GPS units that mount onto a camera's hotshoe and sync up to the photos with a cable.
It's great that someone thought of scripting a button that inputs that metadata into an online map system. It's a simple script for sure. Still, it save me from having to copy and paste coordinates into Google Maps.
I wouldn't count on this having anything to do with a new apple product. It looks like it is just an added function, increasing the user experience. That's the kind of thinking that makes OS X the great operating system we all know and love.
I think there's a huge market for this. Anyone who is into taking pictures would enjoy this.
There's a website (or used to be anyway) that was being developed before Google came into the picture that integrated pictures using GPS data onto a map of the US. I can't remember the name of it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
There's a website (or used to be anyway) that was being developed before Google came into the picture that integrated pictures using GPS data onto a map of the US. I can't remember the name of it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
iPhone comments
Hype often makes a good product look worse upon release. Nothing new there.... But why would people get excited over Apple releasing a cellphone, despite having no real info on the details of it yet?
Simple! Most of us are frustrated with the horrible user interfaces on cellphones, and the lack of usability. I've owned several that made dialing numbers on the keypad too much of a chore. My Razr I use now is decent, but even it has horrible engineering flaws - like putting small buttons down the side that always get pressed accidently when the phone is on a belt-clip. You end up accidently changing the settings for the ringer, etc. My Treo 650 had serious problems with call volume being too low. Almost every Treo owner had to pay extra for a shareware program called "VolumeCare" just to fix that! I'm just hoping Apple can overcome a lot of that, and build a cellphone with an elegant but logical UI!
Hype often makes a good product look worse upon release. Nothing new there.... But why would people get excited over Apple releasing a cellphone, despite having no real info on the details of it yet?
Simple! Most of us are frustrated with the horrible user interfaces on cellphones, and the lack of usability. I've owned several that made dialing numbers on the keypad too much of a chore. My Razr I use now is decent, but even it has horrible engineering flaws - like putting small buttons down the side that always get pressed accidently when the phone is on a belt-clip. You end up accidently changing the settings for the ringer, etc. My Treo 650 had serious problems with call volume being too low. Almost every Treo owner had to pay extra for a shareware program called "VolumeCare" just to fix that! I'm just hoping Apple can overcome a lot of that, and build a cellphone with an elegant but logical UI!
Abstract said:
Whether you're a fan of GPS or not, I'm convinced Apple is just laughing themselves silly at every production meeting. I don't know who's responsible, but somehow, when other companies come up with fiarly useful, or at least utilitarian apps and features, Apple just ALWAYS comes out with something just a little bit cooler and little bit more fun.
Useful? Who knows. Half the crap in OS X isn't really "useful" in the real world sense, but it sure is fun!
Useful? Who knows. Half the crap in OS X isn't really "useful" in the real world sense, but it sure is fun!
funny, my post was deleted.AvSRoCkCO1067 said:
anyway, I definitely think this sounds pretty gimmicky. it might be kind of neat if its free, its not something I would spend any money on...
chicagdan said:
Um hello...
GPS units do NOT broadcast out to the world your location. They recieve only.
Now, your cell phone broadcasts out your location to the world, but you don't seem too worried about that now do ya?
Now, if indeed this is an iPhone, then you're already broadcasting your location so who cares... but GPS units all by themselves only receive signals from satelites.
It would be better if Apple concentrated on getting IPTC metadata stored in the picture file itself and made iPhoto aware that IPTC comments etc. actually existed. currently Mac OS X and iPhoto are somewhat retarded in their ability (i.e. inability) to handle this type of info.
I certainly would find that more useful than Google maps integration.
I certainly would find that more useful than Google maps integration.
AvSRoCkCO1067 said:
It's a technology with a LOT of potential once it's on a handheld device, especially when coupled with mobile Google maps. For example, you could do a quick search for the nearest Starbucks, nearest movie theater, etc., and get directions to go there (maybe even with a full navigation system like cars have).
The photo integration is definitely interesting, but by no means a "killer" app. The killer app for GPS is definitely providing local information and directions. I would definitely love to have that on my iPhone. The main thing I use the web browser on my phone for is precisely to look up movie times or try to look up directions when I'm in a pinch. If the iPhone provided a GPS-enabled Google Mobile application that made it much faster to get the information I'm now getting somewhat slowly and clumsily, that would definitely be something I would pay a little extra money for...
Please include azimuth
This isn't new, EXIF has location tags for a while; but most of the existing solutions only record location and altitude, not azimuth. I think I've written here before explaining that if only a camera included azimuth tags (and of course the already-recorded zoom and lens size tags) a company like Google could harvest the web for images and build a virtual world with QuickTime-VR like technology that would allow one to virtually visit and travel through anywhere on earth, if somebody had taken of a picture of the right spot. You have issues of lighting, seasons, etc, but if people set their cameras' clocks this can be handled too. Actually if you have GPS the clock can be set from the GPS signal, so that's better too.
This isn't new, EXIF has location tags for a while; but most of the existing solutions only record location and altitude, not azimuth. I think I've written here before explaining that if only a camera included azimuth tags (and of course the already-recorded zoom and lens size tags) a company like Google could harvest the web for images and build a virtual world with QuickTime-VR like technology that would allow one to virtually visit and travel through anywhere on earth, if somebody had taken of a picture of the right spot. You have issues of lighting, seasons, etc, but if people set their cameras' clocks this can be handled too. Actually if you have GPS the clock can be set from the GPS signal, so that's better too.