SpyMeSat
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SpyMeSat iOS app now lets you buy hi-resolution satellite images
It's almost like having your own spy satellite. Last year I took a look at the SpyMeSat app, a US$1.99 app that lets you see when you are in range of an imaging satellite. At the time of my review, you could set alerts to let you know when a satellite was near your location, but this new version takes the process a step further, letting you order up recent satellite images of most locations on earth. "Now SpyMeSat users can download recent satellite imagery as easily as they can download a song or an app," said Alex Herz, president of Orbit Logic. "This is the same high resolution commercial satellite imagery used by government intelligence agencies, but at a small fraction of the price. SpyMeSat brings satellite imagery to a personal, accessible scale by removing cost and process barriers through technology." Prices start at $14.99 for a 1km square image. After your online purchase through the app, the high resolution file can be downloaded. The company thinks with that low pricing, governments and small companies will now have sharp imagery in reach. The images are drawn from the WorldView-1, WorldView-2, and GeoEye-1 satellites. You can see some sample images of Sydney Harbor and Bilbao, Spain. At a glance the imagery may not appear to be more detailed than Google Map images, but these images are much newer. Almost all are less than a year old, with some being less than a month old. Many of the Google images I've looked at are much older and out of date. SpyMeSat requires iOS 6 or later and is optimized for the iPhone 5.
SpyMeSat lets you know which satellites are looking at you
SpyMeSat is a clever US$1.99 iOS app from Orbit Logic Incorporated that lets you know when you are in range of an imaging satellite that might be snapping a picture of your location. You can see details on what imaging satellite is overhead, plus a map that updates a satellite's location in real time and a picture of what it looks like. You can configure alerts to let you know when the satellite is nearby. The details of what a particular satellite can see are quite interesting, with some of the satellites having resolution of about one meter. That makes for a pretty detailed view, though I suspect classified satellites can do even better. Using the app is easy enough, but when I launched it, my position defaulted to the East Coast, when in fact I am in Arizona. I had to go to the settings and let the GPS on my iPhone tell the app where I was. It would be better if the app automatically picked my location on first startup, and it looks like that feature will be in an upcoming version of the app. I'd also like to see the ability to save a few different locations, and also see the field of view of the satellite on the map. Still, SpyMeSat is an intriguing application. I think it would also be useful for trying to sight some of these satellites at night, since the orbital pass position is so precise. SpyMeSat requires iOS 6, and it's optimized for the iPhone 5 series. It is not universal, so it's best suited for the iPhone.
