Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhone
Navizon "virtual GPS" comes to iPhone
Today Navizon "virtual GPS" announced support for the iPhone via an application available through Installer.app. Navizon is an interesting concept for getting location information on mobile devices which lack GPS. It does this through a system that Navizon calls "peer-to-peer wireless positioning." Basically the way it works is that people with GPS devices record the location of wifi access points and cell towers. This information is then collated in a database so that when you use your iPhone to connect, it is able to triangulate your location to within a few hundred feet if you're in an area Navizon has data for ("most major metropolitan areas worldwide").The Navizon for iPhone application is $24.99 and a demo is available (get it through Installer.app or go here)
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kory said 8:36PM on 9-19-2007
Well, I live in NYC and it won't even work in midtown, so I don't know how much more metropolitan I can get! What gives?? Thoughts anyone?
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Ryan Schmidt said 8:42PM on 9-19-2007
I live in NE Ohio and I have yet to get it to work on wifi or edge. I would say, before they try to get money for an app, they need to get it working... working good.
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Kacy said 8:49PM on 9-19-2007
I live in New York City and it worked very well in the Lower East Side and Soho.
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Alex Bratu said 9:01PM on 9-19-2007
I live on Long Island and it placed me in Greensboro, NC!
Only a few states off, looks promising!
LOL
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Ed said 9:36PM on 9-19-2007
Is this the first commercial iPhone application?
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Ryan said 9:52PM on 9-19-2007
Is this the first for-pay iPhone app? Seems kind of risky to release an app on a platform that may disable your app for paying customers with a software update. ?
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Jonathan Allen said 9:52PM on 9-19-2007
Why announce an application that costs $25 when SJ just promised to lock out hackers?
Also, I might just be bitter since it didn't work for me.
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dryan said 10:05PM on 9-19-2007
Is it just my imagination or isn't the iPhone required to have a way to triangulate itself for 911 calls? I've always assumed that at some point the Google Maps app on the iPhone would leverage this system in the same way.
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dryan said 10:09PM on 9-19-2007
Now that I've downloaded the trial app, it's just lame. It found me within about 100 yards (in Chattanooga, TN) but it just marked that spot on the Google Maps app. Seems not all that useful for $25.
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dave said 10:45PM on 9-19-2007
Bump on the E911 comment, what's the story?
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Joseph said 11:02PM on 9-19-2007
it's crap!
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sampa said 11:06PM on 9-19-2007
All semi-current phones have cell tower triangulation capabilities. The Java Midlet API has a function that lets you easily get longitude or latitude via the most accurate available way (GPS if the phone has it, or else triangulation). Triangulation is very inaccurate, which is why it's not that well known. I'm not sure about this whole wifi thing.
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Tom said 11:28PM on 9-19-2007
I actually wrote a pretty detailed article on how one would go about doing this on the iPhone last week...
http://tlrobinson.net/blog/?p=24
I haven't had the time to do this, but an open source version would be nice. geohot says he wanted to work on something similar too.
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getinet said 1:33AM on 9-20-2007
Here in San Francisco, it has found me everywhere I went today. I traveled from SFO, through downtown and then out to sunset. It kept up and found me within a block or two tops.
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mr. Obsession said 3:42AM on 9-20-2007
@Jonathan Allen: No, it's not just bitterness.
Navizon IS working for me, but I'm not interested in paying for something that Steve F'n Jobs says is "his job to stop."
I'll wait for the "Made for iPhone" stamp before pulling the (certainly-confident $25) trigger on this one.
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craig said 9:35AM on 9-20-2007
causes lots of crashes when installed on my phone. and it couldnt locate me anyway lol.
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Steve said 10:22AM on 9-20-2007
Interesting ideas, but many suggested what will happen if Apple start blocking native apps?
The other question : how good is their database of cell tower location, wifi and so on? I can see it working nicely in a city but what about in a less cover area, will it really work like a true GPS ? And based from some of the feedback above, the database they have seems inaccurate for various city... Nice try, but I am not sure that I will be ready to pay $25 for that application right now.
Steve
http://inewsonly.com
The first ZUI news aggregator for iPhone and iPod touch
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Steve said 10:24AM on 9-20-2007
Interesting ideas, but many suggested what will happen if Apple start blocking native apps?
The other question : how good is their database of cell tower location, wifi and so on? I can see it working nicely in a city but what about in a less cover area, will it really work like a true GPS ? And based from some of the feedback above, the database they have seems inaccurate for various city... Nice try, but I am not sure that I will be ready to pay $25 for that application right now.
Steve
http://inewsonly.com
The first ZUI news aggregator for iPhone and iPod touch
Reply
cole said 11:04AM on 9-20-2007
It only placed me about a mile away from my actual destination. instead of placing me in downtown st. louis - it put me north - in the mississippi river!
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Gregory Pierce said 3:42AM on 7-29-2008
It doesn't work. I have been travelling in Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Dallas and it doesn't work in any of these places. You're better off randomly choosing a location in Google maps and getting your position right moreso than this application doing it.
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