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| 31 | Reserving a chauffeured town car or limousine today can be as easy as moving a red pin on an interactive map.
With car-service mobile apps from companies such as LimoRes, Limos.com and Uber coming into their own, smartphone-wielding travelers looking to book a ride have handy new alternatives to making their reservations over the phone or online.
While the free LimoRes (iPhone) and Limos.com (iPhone and Android) apps can help you make a car-service reservation throughout much of the USA and globally, Uber's free app (iPhone and Android) currently offers reservations only in New York City and San Francisco/Palo Alto for immediate, "on-demand" service.
Among the whiz-bang features of the LimoRes app's "ride now" reservation in New York City and of the Uber app is the ability to view your assigned driver's location and estimated arrival time on a map.
To be sure, most town car reservations in the USA are still made with a phone call and not a smartphone app. But with new smartphone alternatives, this could change.
None of the three companies operates its own fleet. Rather, they all contract with town car and limo companies.
All detect your location, if you give your consent, using your mobile device's GPS capabilities.
The apps from New York City-based LimoRes, which is in the process of rebranding as GroundLink, and from San Francisco-based Limos.com are more similar than they are different.
With the LimoRes app you can use GPS to select your current location, depicted as a red pin on a map, move the pin to another location or manually enter your desired pickup and drop-off points.
The app then displays images of car classes and you can view the total rate, including gratuity, tax and various fees (but not the tolls).
The Limos.com app likewise plots your current location with a red pin and lets you search for... newsfactor.com » | | 32 |  SEOUL (Reuters) - Apple Inc's South Korean unit has been fined 3 million won ($2,855) by the country's communications regulator after the iPhone and iPad maker collected location data from users without proper authorization.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 33 | South Korea's communications regulator fined Apple's local operation 3 million won ($2,830) for what it says is the illegal collection of iPhone user location information.
The Korea Communications Commission announced Wednesday in a statement it has ordered Apple Korea to pay the fine for violating the country's location information laws.
The amount is insignificant for Apple -- the Cupertino, California-based tech giant earned $7.31 billion in its fiscal third quarter -- but South Korea's decision to impose the fine might influence regulators elsewhere.
Apple Inc. has faced various complaints and criticisms since revelations in the U.S. in April that iPhones were storing the locations of nearby cellphone towers and Wi-Fi hot spots for up to a year. Such data can be used to create a rough map of the device owner's movements.
"Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone," Steve Park, the company's local spokesman, said after the release of the KCC statement. "Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so."
South Korean media reported that the fine was the first to be imposed on Apple over the location information issue. Park said he did not know if that was true.
The KCC also demanded that both Apple and Google Inc. ensure that user location information on their mobile phones be saved in an encrypted form.
"We are currently reviewing the KCC's decision," Google said in a statement. The Internet search company said it has been "cooperating closely" with the commission. Google was not fined.
Mountain View, California-based Google acknowledged in April that phones running its Android software store some location data directly on phones for a short time from users who have chosen to use GPS services.
Apple and Google have said they only record the location of Wi-Fi hot spots and cell towers to improve service, and tracking can be... newsfactor.com » | | 34 | A fire has started in your dryer, and you call 911. In addition to hearing your frantic description, the 911 operator also automatically logs your location and receives live video from you of the smoke emanating from your dryer.
That vision of a multimedia 911 could become commonplace following the implementation of a new plan by the Federal Communications Commission for the development of Next Generation 9-1-1, or NG911. The plan, outlined Wednesday at a conference in Philadelphia by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, features five steps toward the implementation of an IP-based communication of emergency-related voice, text, data, phones and video.
'As Long as Necessary'
During the transition, old-fashioned 911 will continue to be supported "as long as necessary," the agency said. The FCC added that NG911's benefits include increased public access, such as expanded accessibility for people with disabilities, and providing more communications options in emergencies.
In addition, the agency said, operators at 911 answering posts will be able to "access emergencies more quickly and respond more effectively" if they have access to the additional media and data. From a system perspective, the IP-based architecture offers more flexibility and resiliency than the legacy circuit-switched 911 infrastructure.
The first of the five steps to implement this new generation is to develop location-accuracy mechanisms for NG911. In July, the FCC started development of a framework for automatic location information in a NG911 environment.
In September, as the second step, the FCC will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, or NPRM, to speed up the adoption of NG911. It will answer practical and technical questions about the implementation, such as ensuring adequate bandwidth. The third major step is to work with stakeholders to resolve standards issues.
'Efficient and Easy'
Since no single government entity has authority over NG911, the fourth step is for the FCC to work with other... newsfactor.com » | | 35 | SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Groupon Inc disclosed some details of its plan to offer location-based offers through mobile phones when the largest daily deal company responded on Thursday to Congressional questions about its privacy policies.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 36 | Facebook is making changes again, but not everyone is giving the move a "like." As part of the new privacy and sharing features Facebook is rolling out, the social-media giant is nixing Places.
Until Thursday, you could only "check in" using the Places feature on your smartphone. Now you can add location to anything you do on Facebook.
"Lots of people use Facebook to talk about where they are, have been, or want to go. Now you can add location from anywhere, regardless of what device you are using, or whether it is a status update, photo or wall post," said Chris Cox, vice president of product at Facebook. "Of course, you can always choose not to add location at all."
A Boon for Foursquare
Although some Facebook users may like this change, it comes with a catch. Facebook has officially phased out the mobile-only Places feature. Settings associated with Places are also being phased out or removed. Facebook didn't offer any explanation for axing the feature, whose Facebook fan page has more than 250,000 fans.
"The yanking of the ability to check in, and then have that check-in display in one's Facebook feed, will no doubt disappoint those users who enjoy this type of engagement," said Jake Wengroff, global director of social-media strategy and research at Frost & Sullivan. "As such, Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt and other LBS (location-based service) providers will seize this opportunity."
In a way, Wengroff said, Facebook is conceding defeat in the social check-in segment.
"Of course, Facebook is not doing away with location altogether, and will instead include 'location layering' to other content shared through the network," Wengroff added. "Location will still be a key metric as Facebook continues to refine its display advertising, deals and commerce offerings for advertisers."
Foursquare Ready
Foursquare seems poised to jump on the opportunity. Although it may have... newsfactor.com » | | 37 | Befitting an airline headquartered near Silicon Valley, Virgin America turned to the smartphone to promote the opening of its new hub at San Francisco International's Terminal 2 in April.
Known for its social-media initiatives, the airline encouraged customers to announce their presence at the terminal by digitally "checking in" using Facebook and Foursquare, a mobile application.
People atop its "leader board" were given status icons -- "Ground Crew" to "Navigator" to "Captain" -- and would be eligible for awards, such as store coupons and flight discounts.
Virgin America is one of a handful of travel companies that are early adopters of location-based mobile technology that monitors people's whereabouts and delivers their spending and travel habits.
The travel industry is hardly alone in salivating at the new sales opportunities made possible by a large segment of people who are willing to broadcast their whereabouts. But with their expertise in capturing the business of people on the move, hotels, airports and airlines view the location-based technology -- or hyper-proximity marketing, or geo-tagging -- as the next important marketing frontier, particularly in targeting young, hip customers.
That it taps into a long-held assumption that people are more open to new ideas and suggestions when they're on the road adds to the appeal.
"Mobile technology can significantly affect the bottom line," says Dan Gellert of Gateguru, an airport guide map that's using the technology to deliver airport deals to travelers. "The accuracy of information and communicating with travelers in real time can drive a significant amount of users in the direction that (vendors) want."
In short, the travel industry wants to know where you are -- preferably, at all times -- because you may be buying things where you are at this very moment.
Privacy Concerns
Tracking people comes loaded with a host of privacy concerns. More than 60% of respondents in a... newsfactor.com » | | 38 | You're on the last leg of your business trip, wondering how to find your gate in a strange airport. Google might be able to help you.
The technology giant has released a beta version of Google Maps Floor Plans, which allows users to create floor plans of the interior of a building, such as a retail store or an airport terminal. After finding the building on the map, someone with floor plans or blueprints can upload them, line up the interiors with satellite images, and share with others who are using Google Maps 6.0 for Android 2.2 and above.
No release date was given for the same functionality on other platforms that offer Google applications.
The Blue Dot
The interior map automatically appears when a user zooms into a building that has a floor plan uploaded. When the user has a blue dot to indicate his or her location, the floor plan will automatically display the correct floor in a multi-store building.
The blue dot-indicated My Location, which was launched in 2007, uses cell tower identification to provide approximate location for those smartphones without GPS. My Location can supplement GPS, or work indoors on occasions when GPS does not.
To get the ball rolling, Google has partnered with a variety of retailers, airports, and transit stations to begin populating Google Maps with interiors. Airports include the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, and Narita International Airport in Japan.
Retailers include the Mall of America in Minneapolis, IKEA, some Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores, and Daimaru, Takashimaya and Miksukoshi in Japan. In all, there are about three dozen participating locations so far in the U.S., and approximately another three dozen in Japan.
Mashups Coming?
In a posting on the Official Google Blog, Vice President Brian McClendon noted earlier this week that this new functionality... newsfactor.com » | | 39 | Facebook recently announced plans to nix its Foursquare-like Places feature, but the social-media giant apparently has no plans to exit the popular geo-tagging space. Facebook reportedly has snapped up a location-based service to better equip its location-based tool chest.
CNN Money was the first to report that Facebook has acquired Texas-based Gowalla for an undisclosed amount. Facebook has publicly declined to comment, but CNN reports that the tech will fold into Facebook's Timeline feature.
Gowalla launched in 2009 as a direct competitor to Foursquare, the leading service in the mobile app space that lets you check in to various locations, find things to do in your area, and even tap into coupons and discounts. Gowalla promises users can "discover our world's most loved places while sharing the places that mean the world to you."
"The ink on the deal is not dry, so our holding pattern is that we do not comment on rumors and speculation. I have another e-mail penned that was ready to send you today, assuming you would get this news before the story was officially released," Gowalla CEO Josh Williams wrote in an e-mail to investors that was published in The Wall Street Journal's All Things D. "But now it is all over Twitter, so you have likely heard. A longer email will be sent soon. Until then, I am so very grateful for what you have done to make Gowalla a success."
Snapping Up Talent?
When Facebook announced it was nixing the mobile-only Places feature, which allowed users to check in to places they visit using the Facebook smartphone app, the social-media company also indicated users could add a location on anything they do on Facebook.
Facebook didn't offer any explanation for axing the feature, whose own Facebook fan page has more than 250,000 fans. Some analysts saw the decision... newsfactor.com » | | 40 | So, you've finally created an online resume using the many intelligent resume creation tools we've reviewed such as JobSpice and killerstartups.com » | | 41 | A bill to speed the nation's switch from radar to an air traffic control system based on GPS technology, and to open U.S. skies to unmanned drone flights within four years, received final congressional approval Monday.
The bill passed the Senate 75-20, despite labor opposition to a deal cut between the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House on rules governing union organizing elections at airlines and railroads. The House had passed the bill last week, and it now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.
The bill authorizes $63.4 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration over four years, including about $11 billion toward the air traffic system and its modernization. It accelerates the modernization program by setting a deadline of June 2015 for the FAA to develop new arrival procedures at the nation's 35 busiest airports so planes can land using the more-precise GPS navigation.
Instead of time-consuming, fuel-burning, stair-step descents, planes will be able to glide in more steeply with their engines idling. Planes will also be able to land and take off closer together and more frequently, even in poor weather, because pilots will know the precise location of other aircraft and obstacles on the ground. Fewer planes will be diverted.
Eventually, FAA officials want the airline industry and other aircraft operators to install onboard satellite technology that updates the location of planes every second instead of radar's every six to 12 seconds. That would enable pilots to tell not only the location of their plane, but other planes equipped with the new technology as well -- something they can't do now.
The system is central to the FAA's plans for accommodating a forecast 50 percent growth in air traffic over the next decade. Most other nations already have adopted satellite-based technology for guiding planes, or are heading in that direction, but... newsfactor.com » | | 42 | Forecasting elections based on the Twittersphere is a tweet in progress. Social-analytics firm Attensity predicted former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney would take Massachusetts, Virginia, Idaho, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Dakota in Republican contests on Super Tuesday, according to a Twitter analysis Attensity conducted for USA TODAY.
Attensity also projected that among the other candidates vying with Romney for the Republican presidential nomination, Newt Gingrich would win Georgia, Rick Santorum would take Vermont and Ron Paul would triumph in Alaska.
"We got it half right," says Rebecca MacDonald, Attensity's vice president of marketing. "The fact that people are talking about candidates on Twitter doesn't necessarily correlate to those people going out and voting."
In fact, voters came out to hand victories to Santorum -- not Romney -- in Tennessee, Oklahoma and North Dakota. Romney won Alaska and Vermont. Gingrich took Georgia, as expected by Attensity's forecast.
The results underscore that the science of applying predictive analytics to Twitter is still in its infancy, analysts say.
Twitter executives declined to comment.
Part of the problem lies in a lack of location-based data about Twitter users' tweets. Such information is "scarce" on Twitter, says Michael Wu, principal scientist of analytics for Lithium, a social-analytics firm. That's because Twitter users would have to turn on the "location" feature in their mobile devices.
A vast pool of location-based tweets would enable analytics experts to better connect tweets to where they come from across the nation. In the case of Super Tuesday, that would mean more localized information on tweets about candidates.
"We had a pretty good sampling (more than 800,000 tweets), but the geo-location data was a small percentage of that," says MacDonald.
Another challenge is sorting out multiple tweets by the same person or robo-tweets that are automatically generated by some users on the service, like spam messages.
Plus, such predictive analytics is... newsfactor.com » | | 43 | After a series of emails and phone calls, Paul Davison is located in a busy hallway at the Austin Convention Center.
Davison is founder and CEO of the location-based social network startup Highlight, one of the most talked-about apps at the South By Southwest Interactive Conference. SXSW has helped launch Twitter and Foursquare, and at this year's gathering, no topic is more buzzed about than location-based social network apps, like Glancee, Ban.jo, Sonar, Intro, Kismet and others.
Walk into many panel discussions at SXSW, and you'll hear someone saying such services, known as social discovery apps, are the future. Davison, an earnest and exuberant 32-year-old California native, thinks so. He sees wasteful social randomness everywhere -- in finding friends, future spouses and co-workers.
"The way that we find these people and learn about these people is, and always has been, horribly random and inefficient," exclaims Davison, marveling at centuries of missed opportunities. "We don't realize how bad it is because it's always been that way, and we just accept it."
There are variations to these location-based social networks, but the basic premise is to link a profile and connections of a social network like Facebook, with the locations logged in mobile phones.
Davison describes reality as a boring, "bizarre version of Facebook where every profile is just a single photo" and provides no information about its users. The information we put online about ourselves, Davison would like to attach to our physical selves.
But do we really want to know more about each other?
Location has been a part of networks, like Foursquare, that is centered on a user checking in at a place such as a bar or a restaurant. Most of these new apps, which all launched recently and are in a nascent stage of usage, track ambient locations with permission and don't require constant... newsfactor.com » | | 44 | The percentage of U.S. adults using smartphones to get location-based information has nearly doubled in less than a year, to 41 percent. That skyrocketing use of location-based data, which reflects the growing potential for location-based marketing and other such commercial services, is one of the findings in a new survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Smartphone ownership also continues to increase, from 35 percent of American adults in 2011 to 46 percent in 2012, which has helped to drive the increase in location information usage. The survey was conducted in January and February of this year, through telephone interviews with 2,253 adults ages 18 and older. About 40 percent of the interviews were conducted over cell phones, with the rest over landlines.
Foursquare, Gowalla
General location-based services can range from GPS-enabled map services to listings and reviews of nearby restaurants. Seventy-four percent of smartphone owners will obtain directions or recommendations based on where they are, an increase of about 50 percent over 2011.
Geosocial services map one's designated friends when they are nearby, and allow for communication and updating of people's positions.
The use of geosocial services such as Foursquare or Gowalla continues to grow, from 12 percent of smartphone owners in 2011 to 18 percent this year, with nearly all of those also getting location-based directions. This represents about 10 percent of all U.S. adults.
Gowalla was purchased late last year by Facebook, and was soon thereafter shut down. Facebook has also ended its Facebook Places location-sharing service, and now provides a location layer on top of most of its offerings.
The study found that, while there are still significant demographic differences for this kind of smartphone usage, they are less diverse than in May 2011, when the Pew survey was last taken.
Differences Among Groups
Unsurprisingly, younger people are more likely... newsfactor.com » |
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