Safari Browser 3.0 for iPhone is GPS-aware

One of the relatively unsung features of the upcoming iPhone 3.0 firmware is that the new version of Safari for iPhone will use geolocation. This means that the browser can request location information from the iPhone's GPS receiver, and can also provide that location information to websites that you're visiting.

ComputerWorld's Seth Weintraub reports that the beta versions of the firmware are working well with sample web-aware websites. This capability is not only planned for the iPhone's implementation of Safari, but many upcoming browsers for Mac as well.

Geolocation capabilities make it simple for developers to create web apps that no longer need to ask you for an address or zip code. Google, for instance, is planning on making their Latitude application a 3.0-only web app rather than a standalone application on the iPhone. Latitude will leverage the geolocation features of Safari by knowing exactly where you are at a particular point in time and sending that info to the Latitude servers, then returning the whereabouts of your friends while informing them where you are.

For those of you who don't want your 3.0-enabled iPhone to let the world know exactly where you are, remember that you can always turn off Location Services in the General Settings or just answer "Don't Allow" when asked if Safari or a particular website would like to use your current location.

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Source: http://blogs.computerworld.com/iphones_safari_browser_to_inc…

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One of the relatively unsung features of the upcoming iPhone 3.0 firmware is that the new version of Safari for iPhone will use...

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crs_web

I found great useful site for iPhone. I recommend you guys to bookmark this site on iPhone Safari.

GPS Map search site [USEFUL!] 'Find Yammmmy! GPS'
http://crsdsgn.com/gps/

July 08 2009 at 3:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to crs_web's comment

Larry

Sorry,.. I don't find anything interesting with yammmmy gps,... Just have a series of links like "http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Humberger"

can replace it with anything (q=garage)

August 09 2009 at 5:13 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

elliot

The way it is shut off kind of works. Probably would be better if you could go into Safari preferences and shut it off without the popup.

June 02 2009 at 2:27 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Nathaniel Palmer

Oh great. Just what the world needs, more web apps.

And what in the world is "web 3.0"?

June 01 2009 at 3:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Flanagan

Looks like you spelled "haaaaa" wrong. Typical of this crappy blog. Why do I even bother coming here anymore?

/s

June 01 2009 at 3:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

3 replies to Flanagan's comment

Oliver Bouchard

Now that more and more functionality is accessible from the browser it just would be nice if webapps would behave a little bit more like first class applications and for example not constantly reload after they are re-opened in the browser.

June 01 2009 at 2:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

brian

CAN'T WAIT for this since I want to write some basic but location-dependent web services and haven't had the time to learn OBJ-C. And yes, this is part of HTML5, not specific (in theory) to the iPhone, so hopefully it'll work on the Pre, Android, and whatever else comes along. More info here:

http://browsersphere.com/tag/w3c/

June 01 2009 at 2:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Josh

"sample web-aware websites"

??

June 01 2009 at 1:56 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ryan

This is actually from the HTML5 spec, not really iPhone/Safari specific. I'll bet Safari 4 does it soon (now?) also.

http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source.html

June 01 2009 at 12:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Ryan's comment

Lee

I built a couple simply client-side web apps this weekend after seeing Google I/O (and hearing location support was in iPhone 3.0), and after it worked, I started trying it in other browsers.

Safari 4 doesn't yet support it. The apps did nothing until I installed Google Gears (which I have my apps fallback to).

The latest beta versions of Firefox, however, do include the support built-in.

June 01 2009 at 1:10 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jamus

One side of me likes the idea of the auto-location features, but the Dale Gribble side of me is scrambling for tin foil...

June 01 2009 at 12:07 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

emil

That's gotta be one of the lamest article images I've seen on TUAW in a while. :-P

June 01 2009 at 11:36 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to emil's comment

Macroy

shhh! not in front of the website! it KNOWS things.

June 01 2009 at 11:42 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply