RIM’s New Locate Service for GPS Apps is Going to be HUGE!
RIM mentioned this new Locate Service during the keynote and it really interests me. RIM plans on using it to allow any developer to quickly tap into your location based on cell towers and GPS. The idea is that instead of having 3 different applications that want your location constantly polling for it you have one API in OS 5.0 that developers can use to tap into your location. All while keeping power usage down.
The coolest part is that RIM is using crowd sourced data to map cell towers and provide locations. For example, the presenter showed a map with RIM employees around the DevCon hotel and another of RIM employees in Hawaii. They let Loopt get up next and explain how they have implemented this feature into Loopt but that was not the most interesting part.
The Locate Service is going to be a huge game changer. For example, apps that really could not justify polling your location all the time will now have instant access to it and be able to share that information. Google Latitude will finally be usable and less of a battery drain… A quick Google search can access your location. Even better is the fact that developers don’t have to develop or pay for their own Cell Tower triangulation solution. I am just hoping developers are dreaming BIG on this one.
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