location
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Twitter taps Yelp for detailed location tagging in the UK
The next time you decide to add a location to one of your tweets, expect to see a lot more businesses and popular places in your list. That's because Twitter has teamed up with business listing and review site Yelp to supply location services for UK and Japanese users inside its app. It's very similar to the deal the social networking giant struck with Foursquare in the US last year, giving brands and (more importantly) followers a little more context around what it is you're doing.
You can predict city gentrification through check-ins and tweets
Do you dread the thought of gentrification jacking up real estate prices (and stifling culture) in your neighborhood? In the future, you might only need to keep tabs on social networks to know when your part of town is changing -- British researchers have learned that Foursquare check-ins and Twitter posts can help predict gentrification. If many people start visiting unfamiliar locations in materially-deprived neighborhoods (say, trendy new restaurants) with their friends, that's usually a good sign that these areas will be gentrified before long. Accordingly, places that are dominated by locals and regulars tend to resist that shift, no matter the income levels.
Google neural network tells you where photos were taken
It's easy to identify where a photo was taken if there's an obvious landmark, but what about landscapes and street scenes where there are no dead giveaways? Google believes artificial intelligence could help. It just took the wraps off of PlaNet, a neural network that relies on image recognition technology to locate photos. The code looks for telltale visual cues such as building styles, languages and plant life, and matches those against a database of 126 million geotagged photos organized into 26,000 grids. It could tell that you took a photo in Brazil based on the lush vegetation and Portuguese signs, for instance. It can even guess the locations of indoor photos by using other, more recognizable images from the album as a starting point.
Exploring Barcelona's greatest museum with Project Tango
Lenovo and Google are hard at work on the first consumer-friendly Project Tango smartphone, but actually building the thing isn't the only hurdle that needs clearing. The bigger problem is an existential one: How do these huge companies convince people that spatial-sensing smartphones are worth buying over another shiny flagship? The key is building fun, useful experiences that are possible only with the fine-grained location data Tango devices can capture, and I got to play with a couple on a field trip to Barcelona's gorgeous Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.
The magical 'Harry Potter' location clock exists in DIY form
There's a fine line between magic and science, and Redditor tbornottb3 has created a beautiful example of this idea with the "Harry Potter-inspired Family Clock." It's a digital version of the Weasley family's fictional magical location device, which displays when individual family members are at home, work, school, hospital, prison or in mortal peril, among other options. The replica shows "home," "work," "holiday," "mortal peril," "forest" and "on the way."
Mitsubishi uses sound and WiFi to locate you indoors
There have been many attempts at locating you indoors when GPS fails, but they usually come with catches. WiFi alone isn't very accurate, for example, while a ton of beacons isn't always practical. Mitsubishi may have a good answer to those problems, however: using two techniques at once. It just developed an approach that determines your location based on the time it takes for sound to reach positioning-capable WiFi access points. It's accurate to within 3.3 feet, and it works with as few as three hotspots -- which, of course, can get you online at the same time as they get you from A to B.
Cortana helps you keep deadlines by scanning your email
Remember telling Ted in accounting that you'd get the Tuttle figures over by Wednesday morning? No? Well, Cortona does -- it can now read your emails and remind you of any written commitments. Microsoft revealed that the new tweak, and others, are now available in a new Windows Insider release. If you email your spouse promising to get cinema tickets, for instance, then Cortana will pop up to tell you so the next time you open up your PC. The feature works much the same as Microsoft's flight and package tracking, and data is kept locally unless you ask for a reminder. You can also opt out.
Foursquare's new CEO to shift company focus beyond consumers
Foursquare gambled big two years ago when it split its app in two. Unfortunately, that hasn't worked out so well. Despite reinstating universal mayorships and leaderboards into Swarm (it's spin-off check-in app), the company has yet to regain much of the glory of its early days. Now it appears the company might be changing directions to seek profits elsewhere. Today, Foursquare announced that Jeff Glueck (its COO for the past year and a half) would be its new CEO, while founder Dennis Crowley would step into an executive chairman role. And with this news comes another one: it looks like Foursquare is about to shift much of its focus away from consumers and toward the enterprise.
Altec Lansing wants to end the frustration of lost earbuds
What if your earbuds had a feature that helped you locate the accessories when you forgot where you put them? Well, you'll soon be in luck as Altec Lansing will do just that with its Freedom True Wireless in-ear headphones. The earbuds nix the cord entirely, using two separate units to handle the Bluetooth audio in each ear.
Google rewards restaurant reviewers with 1TB storage
Did you know that Google has its own, homegrown rival to services like Yelp and TripAdvisor? You do now. The search engine is hoping to improve the quality of its offering by handing perks to its unpaid contributors that keep everything updated. Before, they'd simply be provided recognition for their efforts, but now the firm will hand out some pretty tasty bonuses to those who make the most effort. Every review that you write will earn you a point, as will uploading photos, adding new locations to the database, fixing old errors and answering people's questions.
Pinterest's location pins offer easy access to directions and tips
Pinterest is quite handy for stowing away project ideas, recipes and more for future reference. Today, the internet repository is making those stored pins even more informative. Location info is now automatically added to pinned links, so you'll have easy access to tips from other users, contact details, directions and more. You'll notice that pins have a thumbnail preview showing the location on a map, and if you tap the image, you'll get recommendations from other users. Pinterest will also show you other pins that reference that spot, too. From there, calling for reservations or getting directions via Google Maps or Apple Maps are just a click away as well. You can browse nearby spots on the map too, in case you're wondering what other folks have found in the area. The new location pins are rolling out today, so you should be seeing them in your feed and on your boards soon enough.
Tencent's kids smartwatch is both cute and connected
While there are already a handful of connected wearables for kids in the market, here's one with a more complete set of features. Courtesy of Chinese tech giant Tencent, this QQ Watch comes with a 1.12-inch 128 x 128 OLED screen, IP65 ruggedness, an SOS call button and its very own 2G radio. More importantly, though, the tracking functionality uses GPS, WiFi and cellular triangulation simultaneously for higher accuracy. There's even a 0.3-megapixel camera on board, and since the watch can be hooked up to WeChat, lost kids can send photos to their parents as an extra clue for locating them. Battery life? It's good for up to five days, apparently, after which you can charge up the watch with its magnetic connector. There's no word on the pricing just yet, but a company rep said it'll be "very affordable," and it'll launch in China in October, followed by global rollout before end of the year.
Facebook axed internship for student who exposed location flaw
If you're about to start an internship at one of the world's biggest social networks, it might not be in your interest to publicly embarrass it shortly before you begin. It's a lesson that Harvard student Aran Khanna learned the hard way after creating an app that took advantage of a privacy flaw within Facebook Messenger. Khanna had found that, whenever you chat to your friends, the system automatically shares your location. As such, he built a browser plugin, called the "Marauder's Map," that showed you where your buddies were as they were talking to you.
Tell Android to send your texts through apps like WhatsApp or WeChat
Sure, the Google search box in Android lets you dictate regular text messages, but what if your conversations live in a non-standard chat app? You can relax as of today. Google now supports using your voice to send messages in English through a handful of third-party services, including WhatsApp, Viber, NextPlus, Telegram and WeChat. All you have to do is name the service when you're issuing the command -- "send a WhatsApp message to Bob" will make sure that your friend gets your missive where he's expecting it. More apps and languages are in the cards, so don't despair if your favorite mode of communication isn't compatible right away.
Google's Eddystone serves up location-based info via Bluetooth beacons
Using low-energy Bluetooth beacons to serve up location-based info to customers isn't a new development. We've seen more than a few implementations of Apple's iBeacon tech. Google has a new project that employs a similar setup, and it's called Eddystone. How does it differ from Apple's Bluetooth initiative? The effort is a "new and open format" that "anyone" can implement. In addition to working alongside a mobile app to beam info to your phone or tablet when you're in a specified location, Eddystone can also broadcast a URL when an app isn't an option. Rather than missing out, a company can choose to send a web link instead. And it works with both Android and iOS devices, too. There are also two location options, meaning developers can choose one of two APIs that will either find and ping a nearby beacon (like in a museum) or send info when you visit a specific location (e.g., latitude/longitude).
Google Maps for iOS can share places on Facebook
There might be a time when you quickly need to share your location on Facebook to make sure at least one person knows where you are. If that ever happens, you can just fire up Google Maps on an iPhone or an iPad, drop a pin and share your info from within the app, now that it's been updated with the feature. The latest version's also useful if you're friends with someone who always seems to get lost, since it comes with the ability to share via FB's Messenger app, as well. Plus, it brings a better Transit view to the platform with more route choices and real-time arrival info, just like the one already available on Android. Finally, you get a brand new image gallery when you update. That will make it easy to look at user-uploaded photos on Maps, which you can use to cross-reference places you've never visited in the past.
Google voice search knows where you are and responds appropriately
One of the biggest problems with voice search is that, for consistent results, you have to use specific words and phrasing. The process often feels unnatural, and you spend most of your time trying to second-guess the sort of sentence Google will interpret properly. Well, Google is making it a little easier now with location aware queries. It means that your Android or iOS device will take your current position into consideration and pair your questions to nearby points of interest. So If you ask "how big is this lake" or "what's the name of this park," Google should know what you're referring to and provide the relevant information. The feature was shown off at the Search Marketing Expo in Paris and appears to be live right now for some iOS and Android users. If nothing else, it should keep you amused until Google releases Android M and its ambitious Now on Tap service.
Facebook Messenger only shares your location when you tell it to
Sharing your location with the person you're chatting with in Facebook Messenger isn't a new feature, but the way its done has changed... thankfully. The app no longer shares your location by default, nixing the stalkerish function that updated folks on your friends list with your movements. Instead, Messenger only sends that info when you tell it to. By tapping on a map pin, those details can be sent as a separate message in a chat window. The app places a small map in your convo as its own note, pointing to either your current spot or a rendezvous point for future reference.
Mapping project catalogs Instagram sunrises from around the world
Have you noticed the wealth of sunrise and sunset photos on Instagram? Michelle Chandra certainly has, and her project offers a look at the sun's activity around the world in real time. "All Our Suns" gathers snapshots upload with either the #sunrise or #sunset hashtag, using the posts to populate a set of data-driven maps. Two of the crowdsourced cartography pieces catalog every image that's uploaded during the course of a 24-hour period -- one for sunrises and one for sunsets based on a user's location. What's more, you can click on a location marker to view the photo. A third map notes times when two people are posting at the same time, with one updating the beginning and the other observing the end of a day. The whole thing is a study on how our lives literally revolve around the sun and how social networks illustrate time as a never-ending loop.
DARPA is working on something way better than GPS
When your location marker on Google Maps is pinging all over the place, it's usually due to temperamental GPS signal. DARPA thinks this isn't cutting it anymore, and is developing a "radically" new tech that will offer real-time position tracking -- something that'll work despite blind spots or jamming efforts. DARPA expects this will offer a huge boon to the US Military over, well, everyone else. Beyond war, the new location tech will be good for some much more, and will be far more flexible than GPS. Just like how we now use that once-military network for navigation and location services, new tech is very likely drip down to muggles like us too.