Location data provider Skyhook has an update to its mobile SDK for Android that will provide persistant background location tracking with no or negligible impact on battery life. That could be a big help for location-based apps that have suffered because of battery constraints.
On Tuesday, iPass introduced a new Wi-Fi roaming service that is one of many data points in Wi-Fi’s slow transition from home networking tech for geeks to must-have for every mobile device to perhaps another source of carrier revenue. Will carriers charge for Wi-Fi?
The next generation of navigation chips for mobile phones may take advantage of Russia’s answer to GPS. Qualcomm, Broadcom and ST-Ericsson are reporteadly building GPS chips with support for Russia’s Glasnoss satellite system, which could improve location tracking inside devices, especially in urban areas.
Skyhook’s deal to provide the location information for Priceline’s Hotel Negotiator Android app illustrates the recent work Skyhook has done to get around an impasse with Google that has limited the reach of its location technology on mobile apps.
New mobile services and devices are affecting the way users interact with each other and how business gets done. Today at Mobilize 2010, executives from Rebtel, iPass, Skyhook and Motricity shared their views for how new mobile Internet capabilities are changing the world.
Skyhook took a beating in the press recently after it lost Apple as a customer going forward, but the startup isn’t afraid to use the courts to assert its position as Apple and Google fight to own the same location data Skyhook built its business on.
Rosum, a company using broadcast TV signals to offer location information, today said its technology will be used in a new chip aimed at providing location information for femtocells, people and inventory tracking and local ads via mobile TV. I think it’s an idea that’s doomed.
A patent filed by Qualcomm suggests that location could be tied to a module that you could use with whatever device you want. That means location on your phone, iPod or netbook whenever you bother to insert the module. But apps makers are skeptical.
Location information is becoming a lot like salt — some folks think adding it makes every app better. Data released today from Skyhook, a company that uses Wi-Fi signals to provide location information, notes that location data is popping up in ever more mobile applications, from the expected, like travel and navigation apps, to the bizarre, like medical and music apps. The report notes that paid apps using location-based services outnumber the free ones in the well-established Apple (s aapl) App Store and are likely to gradually outnumber the free apps in other popular app stores as they mature. Read More about Location Data Adds Spice to a Variety of Apps
Opera Software today said it has a deal with location data provider Skyhook Wireless to bring geolocation to its browser. Users can choose to share their location with any web site and get information about related products and services in their vicinity. Web site developers use a newly launched API to build location awareness into their sites. Opera’s singing a familiar tune with this deal as Mozilla has a similar pact with Skyhook and Yahoo (s YHOO) is doing the same thing with its Fire Eagle efforts.
