Do you want to know who's using your iPhone, stealing it, or just opening it up and snoop around on it? Well, iGotYa is your choice! iGotYa is a new tweak available in Cydia for $4.99, provided first by a few days of trial.
iGotYa enables you to protect your iPhone with an unlock password. If the unlock code entered is wrong 3 times in a row, then iGotYa will take a picture and get the location of your iPhone silently and send it to your email address...
Have you ever wondered why Google allowed the iPhone and other iOS devices to use their maps? It turns out that allowing the iPhone to run their location based service is about to become extremely profitable.
CNN has a piece of what Google blogged regarding the advertising it plans on facilitating in the map application:
Running is a lot of work. That's why the previous version of the Nike+ iPod was a bit of a hassle since you had to have special equipment just to participate in the experience. Apparently Nike agreed.
Now in the App Store is an app called Nike+ GPS which is a stand alone version of the aforementioned application. The $2 selection which you can download here utilizes the iPhone's accelerometer and GPS capabilities (must be running iOS 3.1 or higher), which ditches the need for any additional adapters that it once required...
What is it lately with stupid criminals and the iPhone? This week alone iDB reported that a man left his device at the scene of robbery and another instance of a woman texting about her crimes from her beloved phone.
Today's entry comes from my home state of Wisconsin. Madison police report that 19 year old Jamal Jackson heisted two iPhones from the local West Town Mall in the capital city. Both phones were armed with Apple's MobileMe feature of Find My iPhone which led Jackson to be tracked to a nearby PDQ convenience store where he apparently stopped his van to gas up...
Thank Buddha it's Friday! With the weekend approaching it's also that special day of the week where yours truly vents about a recent story that rubbed me the wrong way. This weeks session is dedicated to a story we reported on regarding Apple's new patent that would enable them to remotely wipe your iPhone. You may be rolling your eyes but hear me out because I think a lot of you will be even more irritated by the spin I apply here...
Late Wednesday evening, Facebook added a location check-in feature to their hugely popular iPhone app. "Places" is the official title, and the social media kingpin is expected to be the eventual champion of such (GPS) location based utilities.
Similar applications allow you to publicly announce your whereabouts, with Gowalla and Foursquare among the most popular. At least they were.
The Washington Post is among the seemingly endless sources that report once a user "Checks In", their location is broadcasted on both their personal and public feed. Security adjustments can be made within your profile to change just how known your want your movements to be.
This seems certain to be a dagger to Foursquare and company, but Facebook's approach doesn't have the add-ons that other apps have. In Foursquare, you're awarded various badges and even mayorships based on the frequency and uniqueness of your visits.
Places seems to simply announce your position to your friends, and shows your profile picture on a GPS map. Facebook allows you to 'tag' those you're with (like with their photos) so others can follow where they are as well, though they need to authorize you to do such beforehand.
On the surface it all seems like an inevitability merely coming to fruition. My opinion is that this addition to the application spells trouble, and not the type related to the new-found competition of existing services. From my experience, many people are "friends" with individuals they barely know or have just met. For instance someone meets you at a party, and after talking for 10 minutes asks "Are you on Facebook"? And just like you're mutually privy to each others profiles.
So will this kill Foursquare type apps? Or will the competition from the 500 million potential participants on Facebook just make them step their game up? Will you be participating or do you plan to keep your Places to yourself? We at iDB would love your opinion in the comment box on this important addition to the world's largest social network.
After making its debuts in New Zealand, Australia, and Europe, the TomTom iPhone app is finally available for download in the App Store.
TomTom for iPhone doesn't come for cheap though... Priced at $99, this fully featured turn-by-turn GPS system is more expensive than some dedicated GPS units. At least TomTom doesn't require you to get a $10/month subscription fee like AT&T NAvigator.
There is still no word about the TomTom Car Adapter Kit but I suppose it will be available soon.
I haven't tried the TomTom app myself yet and I'm still wondering if it's really worth it compared to the $35 competitor CoPilot Live. I guess I will wait for a while and read more reviews to figure out what seems to be the best GPS out there.
Download Links:
TomTom US & Canada - $99.99 TomTom Western Europe - $139.99 TomTom Australia - $79.99 TomTom New Zealand - $94.99If you've already tried the TomTom for iPhone application, please leave a comment below and tell us what you think.
About a month ago, AT&T released its GPS iPhone app called AT&T Navigator. The app is free to download in the App Store but you will be charged $10/month to use it, which will automatically be added to your bill.
If you're not sure about the app and would like to give it a try, iPhone Download Blog reader Jenster sent us a great tip. You can call AT&T at 611 and talk to a representative. Tell them you would like to try AT&T Navigator and ask them if they would mind giving you a free trial.
They will gladly set you up with a free 30-day trial. But be careful because if you don't call them and cancel within 30 days, your trial period will be over and AT&T will start charging you $10/month.
For those of you who are still not sure about this AT&T Navigator, remember that a TomTom app should make it to the App Store soon. If your iPhone is jailbroken, you have the option of using the free xGPS application that basically does the same thing.
Are you gonna give it a try?
There's a bunch of new GPS application being released in the App Store these days. Even AT&T took a shot at it by releasing AT& T Navigator. The app is free to download but $9.99 will be added to your bill every month to use it. Pretty pricey if you want my opinion...
AT&T Navigator was developed in partnership will TeleNav and includes some of the following features:
voice-guided navigation automatic rerouting real-time traffic updates and more...At $9.99/month, you might as well buy a cheap TomTom. Thanks but no thanks, AT&T. I'll wait for the TomTom app that was presented at the WWDC a few weeks ago.
xGPS kinda pioneered the turn by turn navigation for the iPhone but you have to admit it was a little buggy.
TomTom's co-founder demonstrated TomTom’s navigation software in combination with a specially designed car kit on the iPhone earlier today at the WWDC, and it looks good!
There is no cost information or release date announced yet but according to TomTom's website, we should learn more about it in the next couple weeks:
The TomTom navigation application for iPhone will be available via the Apple iTunes App Store, following the release of Apple’s OS 3.0 operating system. Details regarding pricing and availability for both the application and the TomTom car kit for iPhone will be made available in advance of the products’ launch later this summer.
As Engadget puts it:
We can't imagine this being cheap. You think TomTom wants a $19 app undercutting its $300 navigation systems? Doubtful.
Apparently, you'll be able to get a special car kit with it.
I wrote about xGPS a few days ago basically saying that the app needed some work. It seems that I was heard as xGPS got its 1.2 update earlier today.
What's new in xGPS 1.2?
Wireless transfer of your map files Google Terrain Maps GPS information English voice instructions Night mode Access to GPS traces on your computerThe most exciting feature here is of course the voice instructions. Some unreported bugs were fixed too. Before, using the "current location" as starting point simply didn't work. You had to type in the full address, which could be cumbersome. Now, you can use the "current location" feature without any problem. It seems that you can also type partial addresses, instead of the full address (ie. 1657 Neptune Avenue Encinitas; instead of 1657 Neptune Avenue, Encinitas CA 92024). That's great improvement.
I was so excited about this update that I had to try it. First things first, I downloaded the map of my area (San Diego) to avoid having to rely on data tranfer too much. Then I hopped in the Audi and entered the address of where I wanted to go. I turned off the radio to hear the voice instructions and started my trip.
After driving a few hundred feet, the voice "talked" to me to tell me I had to turn right on Del Mar Street in 290 meters. Even though I had specifically set the app to give me the information in feet, it kept giving me meters (which is fine too since I mostly use the metric system). That's a little bug that will probably be taken care of in the next update.
xGPS also gives you the ability to display your current speed on the screen. I found this feature very accurate, and although useless while driving, I am sure some people could make good use of it.
The volume on my iPhone was at its max and I could clearly hear the instructions but I decided to plug my iPhone in my tape deck. I usually use my tape deck to listen to my iPhone's music in the car (the sound quality is far better than a FM transmitter). Once the iPhone connected to my car stereo, it felt like I had a co-driver sitting next to me to give me directions.
That was the pros... Now let's have a look at the cons...
First, the voice navigation is very good but still needs some work. The voice sounds like a robot speaking to you, and there is no flaw between each word. It works well as is but there is lots of room for improvement.
Another issue I have is when my iPhone is plugged to my car stereo using the tape deck. When I am not playing music, it's fine. But if I play music on the iPhone while requesting voice instructions, the music covers up the sound of the instructions. A great feature would be to pause the music everytime the voice speaks. This feature is already available when your iPhone is playing music, connected to your car stereo and when you receive a text message. The music will pause, you get your new text message notification, then the music starts again.
If you don't have a car charger, xGPS will kill your battery in no time. Remember it is constantly checking your GPS coordinates, which I believe is the most data intensive feature on the iPhone 3G. For my little experiment, I didn't charge my iPhone in the car but when I got home after trying xGPS, my iPhone was really hot! I would not recommend using xGPS on long distances as it might just overheat your iPhone.
All in all, this is probably the most exciting application I've seen this year. xGPS clearly needs some work but the current version will do the trick for now. Besides, you can't ask too much from a FREE application. Yes, xGPS is free, so try it while it lasts!
I have been out of the countryfor 2 weeks and wasn't really able to try out the beta version of xGPS, the soon-to-be-released voice turn by turn navigation system for jailbroken iPhones. So after catching up on some well needed sleep time, I finally got around xGPS and my first impressions are not that great.
xGPS is in beta version, which probably explains why I wasn't able to get it to work. I downloaded the app, tweaked the GPS options to have it recognize my iPhone 3G and finally typed driving directions. I asked the navigation system to start from the current location and to give me directions to the arrival point of Encinitas, CA. I got an error that said: "no driving direction can be computed using your query".
I thought it was because I had typed the city and state only. So I typed in a full address. Same error! I looked online for this issue and I realized that I am not the only one having this "no driving direction can be computed using your query" problem. I read somewhere that you have to give the full address including the country but again, this didn't work for me.
After 15 minutes of playing around and not finding an answer, I decided that xGPS is useless as is for me for the time being so I uninstalled it. If you encountered the "no driving direction can be computed using your query" error and know how to fix it, please let me know in the comments.
However, looking at the video demo, I am really excited at the full release of this app, scheduled for March 7th. No doubt that xGPS will be the first turn-by-turn navigation system for the iPhone. My conspiracy theorist mind tells me however that Apple is most likely already working on such a feature and that it will be available on the new iPhone later this year. I might be wrong though...