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Navizon posts

Filed under: Software, iPhone

Navizon Lite offers free GPS positioning to 1/2 mile

I have posted before about Navizon, the iPhone pseudo-GPS system. It uses cell phone towers to provide a rough estimate of your location without using actual satellite GPS positioning information. It costs $25 to buy and people have reported mixed results. Since all the cell phone tower information is provided by volunteers, some positioning is more accurate, especially in areas with a high population density where people have better filled in data.

If you don't mind being off by a half mile or more, Navizon has released a low-rent freebie version that they say is accurate to about 1000 meters. (Navizon claims 10-30m accuracy for the paid version.) This makes the tool pretty much worthless for anyone, say, on the Amazing Race (they took two clues, why weren't they penalized?) but not so bad if it works for people driving along highways.

Download a copy from Installer.app.

Filed under: iPhone

Navizon offers iPhone refunds

Peer-to-peer wireless positioning firm Navizon is offering refunds to customers who signed up for its $24.95 iPhone service. Now that Apple has put the kibosh on third party development, the company's software no longer works on the iPhone. According to the NY Times, the company did well despite the loss of iPhone sales. Its short-lived iPhone prominence led to over seventy thousand downloads for other phone models.

The Navizon "Shareloc's blog" has updated and clarified their position, stating that iPhone development will continue. To conclude otherwise, they write, is "plain false and quite frankly, a bit laughable". Refunds are offered only to those iPhone users who have upgraded to 1.1.1.

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!

Tip of the Day

To get an instant map to any address, just go to your Address Book and right click on the address field of any one of your contacts and select "Map Of." The address will then be revealed in Google Maps on Safari. You can do the same if a data detector determines there is an address in an e-mail in Mail.


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