Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I don't think I ever said that; the point, to get back on topic, is that people should have the right to as much privacy as possible in their movements and activities, and not be forced to have those movements and activities open to general access (even if it might be social custom). If someone wants to have their location known at all times, fine, but under no circumstances should that be a requirement. And maybe you think it's paranoid to even think it might be required, but look at how fast the various internet providers agreed to turn individual internet search records over to the government as soon as they were asked to. In these days it becomes more and more necessary to be vigilant in preserving one's civil rights.

There is an off switch in iPhones to turn off location services. I'm sure Snow Leopard will have one, too.
 
or you could be downloading some illegal files and your computer tells the RIAA were you are located.

Except if you are downloading files, then you would have some form of IP address with logs in all way from your computer to the host.

The IP is generally associates with a geographical region, so all core location is going to do is improve resolution, and then it's a private API so only programs you approve can access it. Well unless you are running in some very inscure mode like admin account with no password and just hit enter to any window that presents itself.

Just not sure where all the fear comes from.
 
It might be excessive for friends to use, but what about companies that have employees on the road with phones? Having people out on deliveries or service calls, and being able to see where they are in the day and tracking their progress is a great tool for management.

Colocation for the Military, in theater, across various branches and more to collaborate in groups, combined as a mesh distributed network, purely of their own private design [off-the-grid/on a wireless bandwidth highly encrypted] can be very useful.
 
I'm safe.... couldn't locate me. I stick out my tongue at the Men In Black :p .... quietly though, and inside a closet. :D

Don't you realize that the moment you began to type, "www.skyhook..." they saw that and disabled the triangulation on your machines, so you'd feel safe.

Just because you don't feel paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
:D
 
The iPhone doesn't have a GPS.

It has an A-GPS, but thats a different matter entirely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_Phone

A-GPS is not some lesser form of GPS, its 100% real GPS chip that reads the same gps satellite signals as any other GPS out there.

It just starts up faster, and is more accurate when there is poor satellite signal. So A-GPS is better than 'plain' GPS.

Edit: Or you could even try the product page: http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/maps.html
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_Phone

A-GPS is not some lesser form of GPS, its 100% real GPS chip that reads the same gps satellite signals as any other GPS out there.

It just starts up faster, and is more accurate when there is poor satellite signal. So A-GPS is better than 'plain' GPS.

Edit: Or you could even try the product page: http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/maps.html

Its completely different, it uses cellular networks to traingulate your position and then cross references it with the satellite later on when the link has been established.
 
Its completely different, it uses cellular networks to traingulate your position and then cross references it with the satellite later on when the link has been established.

Uh, actually, A-GPS just means "assisted GPS". Instead of 3 satellites attempting to guesstimate in triangulating your location, cellular triangulation acts as an assist in pinpointing your location. If a person wears a bright reflective safety vest, the person is still the fundamentally the same person.
 
Uh, actually, A-GPS just means "assisted GPS". Instead of 3 satellites attempting to guesstimate in triangulating your location, cellular triangulation acts as an assist in pinpointing your location. If a person wears a bright reflective safety vest, the person is still the fundamentally the same person.

Here is how it actually works:

When you turn a GPS chip on, it obviously has no idea yet where in the world it is. It first has to receive a signal from three or four satellites. All the satellites transmit GPS data at a frequency of exactly 1,000,000 Hertz. But because these satellites are all moving around earth at high speed, the doppler effect means that you receive them at slightly different frequencies, depending on where they are.

So the first thing your GPS does is scan the frequency range around 1,000,000 Hertz until it finds frequencies for a few transmitters, and that can take quite a while. With A-GPS, the cellphone part figures out roughly where you are, maybe within a mile, and what time it is. Knowing your position and the time, the GPS can calculate where the satellites are, and what frequencies they can be received on. So instead of checking all the frequencies, it only checks frequencies where the satellites actually are, so this first phase of detecting the satellites works a lot faster.

From then on, A-GPS works exactly like a normal GPS. It won't use the cellular information anymore, because it is less precise. Analogy: I put you in a dark room with a light, turned off, and a light switch. And I put a little beeper just besides the light switch. The beeper doesn't help you see, but it helps you find the light switch.
 
I'm in the process of making this:

itouch_kb.jpg

Make it better looking and you can sell me one.
 
An awesome idea would be for Apple to intergrate a small multi-touch trackpad into the bottom left of the Aluminium keyboards, purely so you can peform gestures, whilst browsing (multi-tasking?). I would buy it straaaigght away. It is my dream. LOL

:D

-Sam:apple::apple::apple:

EDIT: I'll make a concept idea later, when I get my Mac back from a friends.
 
Thank you, know they know where I am

Not to worry. Any application running on your machine today can get your location.

Prove it! Okay, just go to:

http://www.skyhookwireless.com/#


Two things, first, you have to request this lookup

Second now all those who have tried it have installed a third-party plugin that can locate them. Something they likely did not have before you posted this and they clicked on the "locate me" button on the site.
 
While there are lots of fanciful orwellian uses for CoreLocation, I think the things that will really matter are the little things.

For example: I work between a number of offices belonging to one organisation and I have printers set up on my laptop for each office on each site. A really good use for CoreLocation, would be to detect that I am trying to print to a printer that is actually 40 miles away and suggest that I choose a closer one before 20 copies have printed out and I've figured out that the printer standing next to me isn't actually broken.

Perhaps not everyone is as absent minded as me when setting up print jobs, but it is so easy to just hit command-P, return.
 
I've said this for years. It's pretty funny when people say "I don't know how I'd manage without my mobile." Err, the same way you did before they were invented...

It sounds horrible. Didn't y'all actually have to take a girl, who you haven't even slept with, out to dinner, shows, etc. just to get laid. That sounds horrible. Im sure glad i live in the "[gsfgf 1:45AM] hey, you want to come over" generation of booty call by text message.
 
It sounds horrible. Didn't y'all actually have to take a girl, who you haven't even slept with, out to dinner, shows, etc. just to get laid. That sounds horrible. Im sure glad i live in the "[gsfgf 1:45AM] hey, you want to come over" generation of booty call by text message.

You've been getting too many ideas from the movies. People were pretty much the same before as they are now. Telephones worked just as well, and they've been around for a long time.
 
I'm in agreement, I think a touch screen table is something Apple has in the pipeline and will hopefully delivered by the end of the year. I know a lot of people feel that it's too much a niche product and there wouldn't be mass use for it, but I don't agree with that at all. If OS-X went completely touch screen I could see host of applications and services that could benefit from it. Imagine drawing in Photoshop by drawing directly on your screen.

I draw directly on my screen everyday... with my sparkly little cintiq. :p
It's awesome...
:D
 
My desktop Mac never moves, and I know my own latitude and longitude better than a triangulation will determine it. I wonder if I'll have to put up with the approximation it produces.
 
Make it better looking and you can sell me one.

Sorry, can't change the colors of the keyboard/multi-touch gesture surface.

As far as layout goes, The arch and inward rotation of each key row reduces ulnar deviation of wrists that makes conventional keyboard usage cramped and uncomfortable.

While the mirror-symmetric slant of the key columns may look unfamiliar, it fits your fingers' natural flexion/extension path on both hands almost perfectly! This way your fingers will naturally stay centered on keys as they flex within each column.
 
Sorry, can't change the colors of the keyboard/multi-touch gesture surface.

As far as layout goes, The arch and inward rotation of each key row reduces ulnar deviation of wrists that makes conventional keyboard usage cramped and uncomfortable.

While the mirror-symmetric slant of the key columns may look unfamiliar, it fits your fingers' natural flexion/extension path on both hands almost perfectly! This way your fingers will naturally stay centered on keys as they flex within each column.

Ergonomicly, I like it. I just don't like the color/font/etc. I thought u said u were working on the new kb. Or r u just taking a stock in from (now defunct) fingerworks and adding the num pad?
 
Ergonomicly, I like it. I just don't like the color/font/etc. I thought u said u were working on the new kb. Or r u just taking a stock in from (now defunct) fingerworks and adding the num pad?

Joining 2 products, Apple has them all patented.
 
Er, iPods and iPhones ask the user whether an application is allowed to access the location information.
Why do you believe this will not be so with Macs running Snow Leopard?
Something UAC-like?
 
A-GPS and Hybrid Locating

I think some people are confused by the difference between A-GPS and hybrid locating methods.

A-GPS is _only_ about locating yourself via GPS. (Thus the "GPS" name.) The assistance ("A-") part consists of a network-based server giving the device the latest information on the location, timing, state and orbits of the visible satellites... or even doing all or most of the calculations for the device (as in the case of smaller Verizon handhelds) and giving it back to the phone.

The A-GPS data can be accessed via a carrier-specific back channel, or over the internet, depending on the implementation. (The latter is more popular these days, being carrier independent, albeit requiring the use of data.)

Hybrid locating uses multiple sources or can fall back on more than one. This is what many people mean when they say that their phone uses cell ids, WiFi hotspots, and GPS together.

The phone might start with the most coarse (and quickest) method and work its way towards the most precise. Or it might depend on the API call made. (For restaurant searches, you don't need to know your exact location, but for driving instructions, you do.)

It also depends on what's usable. Many phones will try to use GPS, but fall back on cell triangulation if you're indoors or otherwise out of GPS reach.

A confusion point is that the A-GPS server does usually use your connected cell tower as a basis for figuring out which satellites are good for your device to look for, and as a first location approximation.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.