Windows Mobile 7 To Offer Free GPS Navigation

One more nail lurking over the coffin for GPS navigation companies like TomTom. Rumors are doing the rounds that Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft’s soon to be launched mobile OS might come equipped with a free GPS navigation software that will make the likes of TomTom and Garmin redundant.

Windows Mobile blog, MSMobile makes this claim on their blog stating further that the OS will also bring Zune, Xbox, Bing integration, Games, music, new kernel and new UI.

You might recall that Android already offers free turn-by-turn navigation on their platform and Nokia too has introduced the same with Ovi maps. With Microsoft too jumping ship, it might not be too late before Apple offers a similar software too. For the record, Cupertino acquired maps development company PlaceBase last year and there are speculations over introduction of GPS soon.

Do you think TomTom and the likes have a niche to cater to in this new world order? Let us know what you think.

[MSMobiles via TechTree]

Apple To Let Push-Button Based Location Sharing Feature On iPhone?

There are patents aplenty on letting users know if any of their friends are in their vicinity based on GPS information. While that is certainly cool, it is not particularly useful. Here is a nifty new feature that one might get to see in future versions of the iPhone.

In a fresh patent filed recently at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Apple has described a technology that will help users send their location details to their friends at the push of a button. Alternatively, users may also request for location information from their friends.

This can be pretty useful if one of your friends is lost or feels the GPS is not particularly helpful. With a lot of location related patents being filed by Apple of late, it is to be seen how the company plans to integrate all these services into one comprehensive location tool. It will be interesting if we get to see some of this in iPhone OS 4.0.

[via Patently Apple]

Bank Of America Brings Proximity-Based Authentication

Next time you forget your login credentials for your BoA account and ask for the password to be sent to your mobile phone, chances are that the system will track the location of your device as well.

In a new patent filed by the company, the inventors claim one way of minimizing risks in false authentication is by ensuring that a mobile device the password is sent to is at more or less the same location as the computer terminal used to access the online account. The inventors say this location based service could help add an alternative way to authenticate the user over the existing methods.

The inventors say the location of the mobile phone can be tracked by one of several ways such as GPS, Wireless IP geolocation, cellphone tower signal triangulation,etc.

Do you see this technology helping authentication or do you think this is a needless additional layer?

TeleNav Building GPS-Based Blogging System

Telenav, the Sunnyvale based maker of GPS Navigator might probably be looking at location-based blogging as the next logical step in their product diversification. In a patent filed earlier this month, the inventors from the company have described a technology that will help users create and read location-based blog entries.

What exactly is location-based blogging? Telenav inventors explain that in the current scenario, users can geotag any of the multimedia that they wish to share. While this is interesting to the readers, it is not particularly useful if a reader is looking at particular location based information. For instance, a user might want to take a look at all pictures taken from the top of the Empire State Building. Telenav sees location-based blogging as being able to categorize geotagged multimedia and offer valuable content to the readers. The inventors write

“a need remains for a mobile location based blogging system to efficiently create, populate and manage location-based blogs and to make the process of creating new User Generated Content for those location-blogs. In view of the ever-increasing added features desired by consumers in their mobile client devices, it is more and more critical that answers be found to these problems.”

The inventors explain the process with the help of an illustration

“FIG. 6A displays a street map on the multimedia display interface 210 of the client 102 of the general purpose mobile location-blogging system 100. In another example, FIG. 6B illustrates a set of general purpose location-blogs in a list format on the multimedia display interface 210 of the client 102.”

“n FIG. 6C and 6D, therein are illustrated the multimedia display interface 210 of a location-blog entry. For example, in an operation with update location-blog command, the client 102 can accept a location-blog command user input and a multimedia user input that can include a video recording, audio recording, image, text, multimedia data, or any combination thereof. The location-blog command and the multimedia data are sent to the server 104 of FIG. 2 in the server request 202 of FIG. 2. The server 104 can create a new location-blog entry that is associated with the new multimedia data. “

GPS-based blogging appears to be an interesting invention which can be quite popular. What is your view on this? Let us know in the comments.

Apple Developing Own GPS Based Parking Information Service?

Apple is working on a technology that will couple real-time parking availability information with other parameters to offer users an intelligent parking availability information.

In a patent titled “PARKING & LOCATION MANAGEMENT PROCESSES & ALERTS ” filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, the company talks of a technology that will consolidate information from a variety of sources  - like the current location of the different buses in your route, the location of the nearest available taxi, streets where a sweeping schedule is on, parking lot availability, Parking cost at different areas, etc. to deliver information to the user that will help them decide where to park their cars.

This is an  ”intelligent” technology where the system will deliver the information based on user preferences (like how much they are willing to walk from the parking lot), current weather information (so that a parking space that is more expensive, but closer to office may chosen during bad weather days). The inventors write

“a general profile may indicate a user would be willing to walk 0.5 miles to save $5.00 in parking. However, an inclement weather profile for the user may prioritize avoidance of walking, even if parking was more expensive. A higher security profile may indicate less walking. A profile itself can be selected based on defined user parameters, as well as information retrieved from databases, such as weather-related information from Destination interface, which may access destination weather information stored in destination database.”

It is interesting that a lot of companies are working on GPS-based  Parking Information technology. You might remember the patent filed by Yahoo recently where the company had talked of a similar technology.

What do you make of such a system? Exciting? Let us know in the comments.