Google Latitude coming soon to iPhone

Cleve Nettles
|
February 04, 2009
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Another day, another Google product for iPhone.  This is another interesting one too.  Google Latitude pulls your GPS data and allows you to share it with friends in a convenient map form.  Potential for abuse?  Possibly big.  Potential to ruin teenagers lives, even bigger.  No more of the ol' staying at the friends house while the friend is staying at yours but really you are both hangin' out at the lake.  Sucks to be you kids!

Yes you can manually set your location or turn it off (see below)- but don't think you won't be able to tell the difference between movement and manual settings.


Comments (10)

Tom (not verified) | February 04, 2009 - 7:54am

This is what loopt etc wanted. This basically could get integrated into the OS, into the SDK for the iPhone, and then become a deeper level tool, to add into apps, to add into functions - search your contacts, or even use Spotlight to find friends who might want a beer, who're near, or meet up for some food. You could easily make a radar like widget for this.

This stops the fragmentation of separate apps, meaning users don't know which app to choose (and also the problem of no background apps, meaning you have ot choose the social networking LBS app and be in it to get the benefits).

Watch this space, the security will come - iLife shows just a peak at the potential.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | February 04, 2009 - 8:42am

Looks like you can manually set your location so it might be an app that kids WANT to use so they can set it and sneak off to hang out at the lake. There's nothing the iPhone can't do. What an invention!

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | February 04, 2009 - 9:04am

Ya, kids are crafty, and call forwarding always exists and will improve, so you don't need to be where your phone is...

Cory Schulz | February 04, 2009 - 12:04pm

 Kids could trade phones and confuse their parents. Or leave their phone at a friends house, or turn the phone off all together. 

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | February 04, 2009 - 9:30am

Those images are from the other versions of google maps/lattitude/whatever it is this week, with iphone headers on them.

The iphone will probably eventually get the updated maps with some form of that functionality (although the lack of support for background apps means that it won't be nearly as useful as on other platforms) but a bad photoshop job doesn't count as evidence.

admin | February 04, 2009 - 9:53am

Actually, those are from Google's site.  Yes, it will suk more without running in the background but those images are real - they are waiting for the approval process to complete

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | February 04, 2009 - 10:48am

Damn, I don't WANT it running all the time. I only want my location to be specified when I want it to.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | February 04, 2009 - 9:24pm

this isn't about your quaint example with the teenagers. the real "danger" will come when your boss figures out you have an iphone, and demands to track you during working hours. don't like it? tough. get another job. oh wait, you can't. there's a depression.

thanks, apple!

imagine engine | February 05, 2009 - 6:43am

Unless Apple allows the app to run in the background it's going to be useless. If it is allowed to run in the background it would be beneficial not just to parents but also for employers and friends wanting to have the ability to see where each other are. It will most likely have the option to turn the feature off though it would benefit parents and employers to have a password lock for the settings.

Koda (not verified) | February 06, 2009 - 4:17am

this is what orwell's big brother wanted...