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Tag: "location"

Location Tracking in iPad and iPhone: Apple Representatives Testify Before the Senate

By dag | May 10, 2011 | No comment yet

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Earlier today, Bud Tribble, Vice President of Software Technology at Apple, testified before a Senate panel about concerns raised by the location bug found in GPS-enabled iPhones and iPads.

According to Barron’s, Tribble explained the function of the “crowd-sourced location cache,” the mechanism that stores the whereabouts of iOS devices users. Tribble re-iterated Apple’s official position with regard to the issue, the company doesn’t track its users, end of story.

iOS 4.3.3 Released Within a Couple of Weeks – Location Bug Fixed

By dag | May 2, 2011 | No comment yet

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Last week, Apple issued a press release to address the iOS location issue, a bug that prevents GPS-enabled devices such as first and second generation iPad 3G, as well as iPhone, from purging location data stored to help them calculate their location faster.

According to BGR, the update will be released within the next couple of weeks, and will also address the following items:

The update will no longer back up the location database to iTunes.
The size of the location database will be reduced.
The location database will be deleted entirely when Location Services are turned off.
Battery life improvements.
iPod bug fixes.

Apple Responds to Location Tracking Questions

By Juli | April 27, 2011 | No comment yet

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Apple has just released a statement, detailing how the company is using location data. This is an issue that we’ve covered extensively since researchers revealed last week that the iPhone contained a hidden file storing latitude, longitude, and timestamps.

In the statement, the company says, “Apple is not tracking the location of your iPhone. Apple has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.” Apple claims that the iPhone is not logging location, instead, it’s keeping a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location (up to a hundred miles away). This is to help your iPhone quickly calculate its location when requested, for example, by an app. The iPhone uses a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi and cell tower data generated by tens of millions of iPhones uploading their geo-tagged locations, which Apple says is all anonymous and encrypted.

Location Tracking in iPad and iPhone: Just a Bug According to Apple

By dag | April 27, 2011 | No comment yet

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An article published by the Guardian about the fact that both iPad 3G and iPhone keep track of their user’s whereabouts sparked an outcry amongst iOS users. After the issue went all the way to Washington, with a slew of senators and Congressmen demanding answers from Apple, and after civil lawsuits started to pour in, the Cupertino-based company finally came out of its silence, via a press release published earlier today.

While the location tracking file was discovered some time ago, it didn’t get much coverage until the Guardian published a piece about it last week. For some unknown reason, GPS-enabled iOS devices such as 3G iPad 1/2 and iPhone save the location of their owner on a regular basis, in a file stored on the device, and saved by iTunes each time the device is plugged into a Mac or a PC.

Apple Sued Over iPad and iPhone Location Tracking Issue

By dag | April 25, 2011 | No comment yet

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An article published by the Guardian about the fact that both iPad 3G and iPhone keep track of their user’s whereabouts sparked an outcry amongst iOS users. After the issue went all the way to Washington, with a slew of senators and Congressmen demanding answers from Apple, civil lawsuits are now pouring in.

According to a Bloomberg report, a couple of iPhone customers in Florida are already suing Apple over the location tracking ‘feature’ introduced in iOS 4.

iPad and iPhone Location Tracking: Apparently Just a Bug

By dag | April 21, 2011 | No comment yet

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An article published by the Guardian yesterday about the fact that both iPad 3G and iPhone keep track of their user’s whereabouts sparked an outcry amongst iOS users. The issue even went all the way to Washington, as senator Al Franken and Congressman Ed Markey demanded answers from Apple earlier today.

As it turns out, it would appear that the issue is nothing more than an iOS bug. According to John Gruber over at Daring’s Fireball, the tracking file was never meant to store as much data as it actually does, and a bug is preventing iOS from purging older location information.
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Are your iPad and iPhone Tracking your Whereabouts?

By dag | April 20, 2011 | 1 comment

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According to a new article from the Guardian, security researchers have discovered that iOS devices such as the iPhone and the iPad 3G keep track of your whereabouts. While the ‘feature’ was discovered some time ago, it didn’t get much coverage until the Guardian published a piece about it earlier today.

For some unknown reason, GPS-enabled iOS devices such as 3G iPad 1/2 and iPhone save the location of their owner on a regular basis, in a file stored on the device, and transmitted to iTunes each time the device is plugged into a Mac or a PC.

‘Find My Friends’ Feature Uncovered in iOS 4.3 beta

By Roberto | January 13, 2011 | No comment yet

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Further discoveries in iOS 4.3 have uncovered settings for a feature called “Find My Friends”. This is not the first time Apple has given us indications of possibly rolling out location-based social networking concepts with functionality across iOS devices.

Last year, Apple submitted a patent for a location-based social networking app concept called “iGroups”. Are they going after Google Latitude in iOS 4.3?

‘MotionX GPS Drive’ for iPad, iPhone Integrates Facebook and Wikipedia

By Roberto | October 22, 2010 | No comment yet

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We’ve featured the MotionX GPS Drive HD app before at PadGadget. It’s a turn-by-turn GPS iPad app that uses traditional 2D maps provided by NAVTEQ, and morphs them into pseudo-3D maps, to help you find your way around.

The app is quick, simple, and turns your iPad into a full-fledged GPS navigation system. But, the latest app version has added even better features.

Free WiFi Finder for iPad – Find Free WiFi Hotspots Near You

By dag | September 22, 2010 | No comment yet

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Looking for a free WiFi access point while on the go? Starbucks is not always the best available option, and thanks to Free WiFi Finder, you can instantly find free WiFi hotspots wherever you are in the world.

The app leverages your iPad’s location to give you a list of free access points near you. Free WiFi Finder‘s database currently contains more than 100,000 free locations scattered around the world, and new locations are added on a daily basis. The app even allows you to filter by location type, you can for instance limit your results to coffee shops only.

The list of free access points is not always perfect, as the app relies on its users to build its locations database, but the accuracy is pretty good, more than 90% of the hotspots listed within the app are correctly labeled as free.

Free WiFi Finder is available in the App Store, and is free.

German Government Cracks Down on Apple’s GPS Use

By Bill | June 27, 2010 | 1 comment

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The German Government has gone on the offensive against Apple’s gathering of GPS location information from iPad and iPhone owners. According to a report by German magazine “Der Spiegel“, German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said Apple must “immediately lay out” what personal data is collected, how long it’s stored and what Apple is doing with the data.

Germany has some of the strictest privacy laws of any country in the world. The German Datenschutz (Data Protection) laws are very specific on what user data may be collected or stored and how the user is informed of the data collection practice.

Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said “Users of iPhones and other GPS capable devices must know what personal information is being collected” and that it would be “unthinkable” if Apple truly was tracking personal and identifiable profile or location data.

Google Earth for iPad Hits App Store

By Roberto | June 15, 2010 | 4 comments

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Google Earth has just been released into the iPad App Store. The most recent update (v3.0) marks the first version of Google Earth for a tablet device.

The large display on your iPad was too much for Google to resist. The app comes in with an optimized interface for your iPad’s larger screen. All the images show in full resolution.

Elements such as “in-map” photos will now display as popovers without disrupting your main view. In addition, the app will use the native iPad popover menus to let you access the settings and layers.

With the app you will be able to explore the same global satellite and aerial imagery available in the desktop version of Google Earth, including images for over half of the world’s population and a third of the world’s land mass. Location service will still depend on either having Wi-Fi triangulation, 3G or (for iPhones) true GPS.