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Posts Tagged ‘Time Traffic’

Navigon keeps MobileNavigator iPhone app fresh with 3D terrain views, Facebook / Twitter integration

Hey, software engineers of all shapes and sizes — are you keeping an eye on this? Navigon is releasing yet another significant update for its continually improving MobileNavigator iPhone GPS app, and at this point, we reckon these guys and gals should get some sort of medal for pursuing innovation on an existing product rather than leaping to “the next best thing.” The latest refresh adds in three primary features: 3D terrain views, a 3D panorama view ($9.99 extra) and in-app connectivity with Facebook and Twitter. As you’d expect, the latter enables users to broadcast current position, destination and ETA to social media outlets, which should make existing Foursquare addicts overwhelmed with joy. Version 1.5.0 also throws in MyRoutes, which is said to analyze your driving habits, patterns, location and time / day in order to provide “up to three routes clearly displayed in-map with ETA, distance and driving times for each.” Best of all? It’s just $69.99 ($20 less than normal) until February 15th, while the real-time traffic add-on is reduced $5 to $19.99 for the same duration.

Navigon keeps MobileNavigator iPhone app fresh with 3D terrain views, Facebook / Twitter integration originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Audi teams up with Nvidia for next-gen MMI replete with Google Earth, Vibrante entertainment system

Continue reading Audi teams up with Nvidia for next-gen MMI replete with Google Earth, Vibrante entertainment system

Audi teams up with Nvidia for next-gen MMI replete with Google Earth, Vibrante entertainment system originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Green Watch: Crowdsourcing Air Quality Measurements

Yesterday, during a meeting with a number of startups in Paris, we met up with the team behind the Green Watch project. Just like Google collects data from cell phones with GPS chips to aggregate real-time traffic information, this watch measures ozone levels and noise pollution. The watch connects wirelessly to the wearer’s mobile phone and sends updates to Citypulse, an open platform for receiving and storing environmental data. The Green Watch is currently only a prototype and not available for sale.

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While it is still an early stage project and mostly meant as a proof of concept, the Green Watch does opens up interesting possibilities. Currently, environmental data is typically collected at a small number of locations. In Paris, for example, only 10 public sensors measure the air quality for the whole city.

Crowdsourcing the measurement of environmental data could make it possible to create a real-time map of current ozone levels, for example. Through the Citypulse platform, the Green Watch project wants to make this data available for free. Citypulse was developed by the members of Citu, a group of French university labs, startups and government organizations.

How Do You Convince People to Wear These?

Of course, in order to turn this project into a commercial success, the developers would first have to persuade users to buy these devices for completely altruistic reasons. The prototype is also rather bulky. Also, as wrist watches are slowly being displaced by mobile phones, the developers will have to give users a good reason to wear a watch again. Air quality sensors, after all, don’t work very well in trouser pockets.

Disclosure: The author met with the Green Watch team during a lunch that was sponsored by Cap Digital and Invest in France.

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Google Maps Navigation: The First Killer App for Android 2.0

Android 2.0 just got its first killer app: Google Maps Navigation. Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 will be available for free and will be part of the default Google Maps app on Android 2.0 phones. The service offers all the features that users expect from a modern GPS app, including traffic data, 3D view and turn-by-turn voice guidance. Because it’s connected to the Google cloud, the app can also display street view images, satellite imagery and real-time traffic data. Google also implemented a voice recognition feature.

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Disrupting the Mapping Industry One App at a Time

Two weeks ago, Google severed its ties with Tele Atlas and started to display its own mapping data instead. Today’s launch of the Maps Navigation app explains why Google decided to do this. Google can now display these maps without having to pay royalties to a third party and without having to negotiate a new contract with Tele Atlas.

By making this a free product, Google is disrupting the mapping and GPS navigation market. Mapping companies like Tele Atlas or NAVTEQ make their money by licensing their data to GPS developers like TomTom or Navigon. Google, on the other hand, can give this product away for free.

For now, the app will only be available on the Droid, but in a press conference earlier this morning, Google also said that these navigation capabilities would eventually come to other phones, including the iPhone.

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iPhone Developer Steals Customers’ Phone Numbers, Calls Them

Company calls customers in attempt to sell paid version of mobile app

Within iTunes’ user ratings section of iPhone application mogoRoad, a real-time traffic monitoring tool available in Switzerland, several users claim to have received phone calls from the development company behind the mobile software. Reportedly, the company is asking the app owners if they would like to purchase the paid version of the application. While unsolicited sales calls are annoying and intrusive, the bigger issue here is how did the company get its customers’ phone numbers to begin with? According to mogoRoad, the information came from Apple.

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The recipients of the unwanted calls said that they were contacted a few weeks after the initial installation of the mogoRoad application. An operator would then try to sell them the paid version of the mobile software. If pressed as to how the company got access to their phone number, the operator would generally respond that the information was provided by Apple.

That seems unlikely since Apple does not provide this sort of private information to App Store developers nor does it provide direct access to that information via the iPhone SDK (software development kit), the tool used by developers to build their mobile apps.

Apple Doesn’t Provide Phone Numbers, but They Do Provide Access

However, it’s not entirely inaccurate of the company to say that Apple did provide them with the customers’ phone numbers. Although Apple doesn’t directly give out this info, they do provide a relatively easy way for any app developer to retrieve mobile numbers from the phone. In other words, Apple didn’t give out the numbers in question, they just provided access to them. 

Although mogoRoad won’t admit it, the most likely explanation as to how they retrieved the phone numbers involves the use of an undocumented feature which allows any Apple iPhone/iPod Touch application to access the phone number of the device on which it is installed. In an article on tech blog Ars Technica from earlier this year, the process of doing so was described as “a shockingly easy thing to do:”

Apple sneaks in a hidden symbolic link between the app’s sandboxed preferences and a global preferences property list…Peek in Library/Preferences with "ls -a". You’ll find a symbolic link to /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist, which is where (among other items), you’ll find a preference called SBFormattedPhoneNumber. This preference provides exactly what the name implies: the user’s phone number formatted to the current locale.

In checking with multiple iPhone developers this morning, we confirmed that the trick still works as described above.

It’s Not a Bug, It’s a Feature

Believe it or not, this isn’t actually a security hole in need of patching – it’s more of a feature. “It’s important to remember that perfectly legit applications can reach your phone number plus your entire address book as well,” Ars Technica blogger Erica Sadun wrote back in January. “Applications can also obtain personal information from most of the iPhone file system…”

While the large majority of app developers out there would never do anything quite so nefarious as what mogoRoad did and undoubtedly wouldn’t want to risk alienating their customers in this fashion, it’s unsettling to know that they could. And every time you install a mobile app, you’re putting yourself at risk.

As of now, Apple hasn’t officially responded to requests for comment as to how they will proceed with regards to this situation, either to us or to the blog originally reporting this story, French site Mac4Ever. However, given that the development company has clearly abused an undocumented feature, that should be enough to get them booted out of the App Store…hopefully for good.

Many thanks to MacWord, which pointed us to this story.

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TUAW Follow Up: CoPilot Live missing features

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, App Review

Our Saturday review of CoPilot Live [iTunes Link] raised some interesting questions among users of the US$34.99 app.

TUAW reader Jeremy sent us an email this morning wondering why the Live Local Search feature of the app is now a paid feature, when it was free on the first version that was released. This clever feature used an internet connection to find nearby points of interest, even though the maps and bulk of the POI database are on the app itself. It was a great way to keep the app up to date, using a blend of static maps and info with an internet supplement.

With the latest update to the app (version 8.0.0.096) that feature is now part of a US$19.99 annual update that also adds real time traffic updates and gas price searches.

At first blush, it seems like features should not be taken away in an update. I contacted ALK, the app developer, and received a response from spokesperson Mary Kelly:

“Local Search was included in the first release of the App as a taster of this premium feature. We did not advertise it as being an included feature in our original App or at any time promote it as being included. In fact it was listed on the App description as a premium service ‘coming soon’. We may offer similar trials for a limited period for other services in the future. The Live Services which we promote as ‘included as standard’ remain so, namely: LiveLink location sharing and Live Weather.”

The company apologizes for any confusion. CoPilot Live still remains a pretty good deal for a low-end navigation service. I found quite a few map errors and omissions, but the company has set up a mechanism for people to report any problems with the accuracy of the maps.

I can understand users being upset at losing the feature, and ALK should have made it more clear that Live Local Search was just a temporary sampler of a future paid service.

TUAWTUAW Follow Up: CoPilot Live missing features originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW Follow up-CoPilot Live missing features

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, App Review

Our Saturday review of CoPilot Live [iTunes Link] raised some interesting questions among users of the US$34.99 app.

TUAW reader Jeremy sent us an email this morning wondering why the Live Local Search feature of the app is now a paid feature, when it was free on the first version that was released. This clever feature used an internet connection to find nearby points of interest, even though the maps and bulk of the POI database are on the app itself. It was a great way to keep the app up to date, using a blend of static maps and info with an internet supplement.

With the latest update to the app (version 8.0.0.096) that feature is now part of a US$19.99 annual update that also adds real time traffic updates and gas price searches.

At first blush, it seems like features should not be taken away in an update. I contacted ALK, the app developer, and received a response from spokesperson Mary Kelly:

“Local Search was included in the first release of the App as a taster of this premium feature. We did not advertise it as being an included feature in our original App or at any time promote it as being included. In fact it was listed on the App description as a premium service ‘coming soon’. We may offer similar trials for a limited period for other services in the future. The Live Services which we promote as ‘included as standard’ remain so, namely: LiveLink location sharing and Live Weather.”

The company apologizes for any confusion. CoPilot Live still remains a pretty good deal for a low-end navigation service. I found quite a few map errors and omissions, but the company has set up a mechanism for people to report any problems with the accuracy of the maps.

I can understand users being upset at losing the feature, and ALK should have made it more clear that Live Local Search was just a temporary sampler of a future paid service.

TUAWTUAW Follow up-CoPilot Live missing features originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CoPilot Live smooths the rough edges in nav app with new update

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone, App Store, App Review

I took a look at CoPilot Live [iTunes link] almost exactly a month ago, and it was a pretty good, inexpensive nav program, but it had quite a few rough edges.

Those rough edges aren’t so rough now, and the app is certainly competitive at a price of US$34.99.

Improvements from the last version include:

• The ability to dial a POI (point of interest)
• Improved GPS performance
• A full QWERTY keyboard (the last version was alphabetical)

The app also offers real time traffic information, gas prices, and something called live local search. Those features are an extra purchase of $19.99 and I did not have those services for my test.

As in my previous drive around, GPS acquisition was rapid. The maps look fine. The ‘voice’ was clear, and directions were concise.

Although the company claims maps were updated for this release, there seemed to be a lot missing in my neck of the woods, and reports from users of the new version are not positive in that regard. As I tried to navigate to my house, CoPilot Live could find the street but not any house numbers, even though my street has had houses on it for at least a decade. Continue reading for more about the CoPilot Live update.

Continue reading CoPilot Live smooths the rough edges in nav app with new update

TUAWCoPilot Live smooths the rough edges in nav app with new update originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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