Apple and Google to Blog the World

Zrop writes "AppleInsider is reporting that Apple has been working on OS-level integration of an geographical mapping technology as an integral part of Leopard, its next-generation OS. The technology is rumoured to employ GPS functionality. Will GPS chips make Apple iPod phones and MacBooks location aware? Users would be able to post information at a location, hanging in the air, ready to be browsed by people passing by. Imagine getting highly relevant messages, without even pressing a button, simply because you are in the vicinity and your preferences match the content of the post."

Geolocation with WiFi

[drewzhrodague]

You can do geolocation with WiFi, if you have a large enough database. We have one [wifimaps.com], and there are others. Here [placelab.org] is a good example of this kind of action. There aren't many applications that deal with location, but as you can imagine, there is a point to location-based blogging, and apparently a need for it. I wasn't successful in building a killer location-based app, but I like to see the other valiant attempts by others.

Hay, I'm looking for a gig too, Apple and Google.

stephansmap.org geared towards this

[sugarmotor]

The site stephansmap.org is geared towards this. It actually goes beyond: it has time integration.

I developed it. So far needs some more users. So I'm redesigning it.

Stephan

Right...

[gordgekko]

>> Users would be able to post information at a location, hanging in the air, ready to be browsed by people passing by. Imagine getting highly relevant messages, without even pressing a button, simply because you are in the vicinity and your preferences match the content of the post."

Right. This didn't even work when users were able to post information at a web site using invisible notes back in the 1990s. Remember that "revolution"? Users of a web site could discuss its contents with each other using software that interfaced with their web browser. End result? No one posted anything except the occasional juvenile comment.

Now I'm expected to believe that people are going to be walking around with a cellphone and eagerly texting messages and posts that others will be able to read when they enter the area.

Good luck with that.

Re:"integration" or "bundling"?

[mccoma]

I never thought the browser or media player were the bad thing, might as well argue the included TCP/IP stack. Life moves on and essential grows. It was the inability to remove those items and having to pay for Windows even if I wasn't going to use it that got me.

Re:"integration" or "bundling"?

[Overly Critical Guy]

Unlike Microsoft, you can uninstall the web browser and media player in OS X.

Any other trolls I can quickly shoot down while I'm here? Or are you busy struggling with Vista's security flaws over at your employer, Microsoft?

Re:WHO CARES what Apple intends to use it for...

[vought]

Another lack of the difference between Apple and Microsoft.

If true (and I stress "if true", since it's 1. from appleinsider and 2. a breathless rumors appearing days before MacWorld), this shows some real imagination. A product from Microsoft with the same features would be Microsoft from end-to-end, locking out potential partners or subsuming them well before the product became useful.

I hope that this feature will be implemented in the typically benign-if-a-little-restrictive style of most of Apple's consumer-focussed products.