GPS

Foursquare finally launches iPad app

The Foursquare app is at last available on the iPad! The freshly released update takes full advantage of the iPad's bigger canvas and increased screen resolution, so you'll now see more content and scroll less when browsing Foursquare content on your Apple tablet.

It’s focused on helping you plan smarter with a personalized list of all the great places for a chosen city. Plus, it's a lot easier now to save anything to your itinerary with a tap.

The team's added another new section dedicated to all the top picks in your area. Tapping Foursquare’s vast database of crowdsourced locations and check-ins, it suggests places that are newly popular, up-and-coming and local mainstays.

The app was updated back in September with full support for iOS 8 and Interactive Notifications with the ability to save, like and follow right from the notification.

And yes, it looks great on the bigger iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus screens.

Swarm now lets you check in from your Lock screen with iOS 8 Notification Center widget

Swarm, a dedicated check-in app by Foursquare, has received a tremendously useful update Friday which makes it dead simple to check in to your favorite locations right from your Lock screen without even opening the app, thanks to a brand new Notification Center widget available on iOS 8 devices.

The Swarm widget in the 1.3 update also gives you an at-a-glance view of a few of your friends who are especially close, helping you get a sense of who’s around.

Video walkthroughs offer detailed look at CarPlay on Pioneer’s $700 AVH-4000NEX receiver

Though we've seen our fair share of CarPlay demos in months past, we still can't get enough of learning about the intricacies of Apple's in-car iPhone entertainment system. You may have head that Pioneer recently released a firmware update bringing CarPlay functionality to five of its 2014 NEX in-dash multimedia receivers, so people don't have to buy a brand new car just to enjoy CarPlay.

As noted by TUAW, Josh Carr of technology repair firm Fix Denver put Pioneer's new software through its paces and created several videos showing off different aspects of CarPlay, including Phone functionality, Apple Maps and various other built-in apps including Spotify, which recently updated its iPhone and iPad app with CarPlay support .

Interested? Jump past the break for more.

Waze gains car-parking features and more

Waze, the popular GPS-based maps and traffic app that Google purchased for undisclosed sum in June of 2013, has received an update Monday bringing out half a dozen new features and improvements, including enhancements related to remembering where you parked your car.

A free update, Waze 3.9 lets you add driving related information if a place has a parking lot or drive-thru. The app also saves your parking location so it's now a lot easier to find your vehicle in the parking lot.

Claimed iPad Air 2 GPS antenna, mic and Wi-Fi module leak in photos

Joining today's batch of leaks ahead of Apple's big reveal in Fall are some components apparently belonging to a second-generation iPad Air model.

An alleged iPad Air 2 GPS module, a Wi-Fi component and a microphone were shown off on a series of claimed photographs highlighted by a French website Thursday.

We've already seen photos that purportedly picture a number of the various internal components of the iPad Air 2 and today's leak reinforces the notion that Apple is getting ready to refresh the iPad lineup soon.

Among other hardware improvements, flagship iPad models could bring a thinner design, a faster A8 chip with 2GB of RAM, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, anti-reflective screen coating and more...

Apple hiring software engineers to help ‘overhaul’ Maps backend

According to a pair of new job listings, Apple is looking for folks to help with a major rewrite of its Maps app programming interface. The listings, which were posted yesterday, call for software engineers to aid the company in a major overhaul of its Maps API.

The job descriptions call for cross-functional leaders to join the Apple Maps API team, which is responsible for the "doorway" to all systems powering the Maps service. The company says it has "big plans" for the API, and is overhauling things front-to-back...

Waze updated with new UI, enhanced sharing features and more

Fans and users of the popular Waze GPS app will be happy to hear that the mapping client received a significant update today. The release brings about several changes, including various redesigned UI elements and a handful of useful new features.

The new UI covers the ETA screen, which now lets users easily share their drive with friends and family, and also adds a new icon in the ETA tab that shows the number of users tracking your trip. We have a full breakdown of the new features below...

Garmin launches Víago app with turn-by-turn navigation, lane assist, offline maps and more

GPS navigation giant Garmin has released a new consumer navigation app in the App Store which seeks to offer a reasonable tradeoff between basic features and more advanced stuff found in significantly more expensive navigation software for the iPhone.

Featuring the latest maps from the Nokia's Here service (formerly Navteq) licensed worldwide and costing 99 cents ($1.99 after July 13), Viago allows you to search addresses and points of interests anywhere in the world, with turn-by-turn navigation available within your region.

Advanced features such as landmark-based directions and active lane guidance that simplifies junction navigation are paid upgrades just a tap away.

Jump past the fold for the full reveal...

Apple patent ditches GPS for Wi-Fi to better determine location indoors

Apple has been granted a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday that will help its Maps app better track your location indoors.

The patent describes a technology that temporarily ditches the GPS sensor, and uses Wi-Fi access points, location databases, and other sensors to determine your location where the GPS sensor may not be as accurate, Apple Insider first reported.

How to get turn by turn directions on Pebble watch

I was very reluctant to get a Pebble but I have to admit that finally purchasing one a couple months or so ago is probably the best decision I've made in a while. If you listen to Let's Talk iOS or Let's Talk Jailbreak, then you probably already know that I am now a complete Pebble convert. Well, that is at least until Apple comes up with its own wearable, because as it is, the Pebble is extremely limited with what you can do.

Getting directions on your Pebble for example is something that I was anticipating before buying the smartwatch, but as it turned out, the alternatives that are available in the App Store are so bad, that I couldn't believe someone hadn't figured out how to get turn by turn directions on the Pebble the right way. Then I had a breakthrough...

Waze gains Calendar support and event navigation

An update to Waze's free mapping, traffic and navigation app for the iPhone and iPad is about to land on the App Store later today, bringing integration with your iOS Calendar, the company wrote Thursday in a blog post.

More importantly, this Waze refresh allows you to navigate to Calendar events with just one tap, making it easy to access location-based events stored in the iOS Calendar, right within the app.

Waze for iPhone is available free of charge in the App Store. This particular update is expected to launch in the App Store later today...

SocialRadar is a new take on location-based people discovery

Social media is now a social norm. College students procrastinating homework by connecting with others on Facebook started a massive revolution. First, social media was limited through Facebook to only students with college email addresses. Quickly, Facebook became an open platform for everyone to enjoy.

Twitter took fire and is still gaining in popularity with all age groups. However, unlike Facebook, Twitter users are less scared about their grandmother stalking them down. Of course, there is Foursquare, letting users check in to places around the globe. The first platform to truly push geolocation as a primary factor, Foursquare rustled a few feathers, but like all social media, has become quite mainstream, with users less frequently scared to post their whereabouts.

There are many other less mainstream social media platforms and new ones arise everyday. However, not many new services are instantly successful. SocialRadar, launching today, could be the new major social media platform, destine to hang in the ranks of Facebook and Twitter, or at least complement them nicely...