Android and Me » locale

Skyhook Wireless: Hybrid Location Pinpoints for the G1shop

Christopher Earle — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:00:02 +0000

If you’ve ever tried to use Global Positioning System (GPS) in a deep urban environment, like a heavily built up downtown area, you’ve likely experienced one of the weaknesses of the GPS system. GPS requires line of sight to the satellites. If you turn on the G1s GPS system walking among a forest of skyscrapers, the buildings block the satellite signals that the GPS system relies on. Skyhook Wireless uses a unique system of hybrid location detection to pinpoint your location much more accurately when good GPS signals are not available.

The Three Sources

One of the main data sources that Skyhook Wireless uses is, of course, the GPS system. When signals are available, the GPS system provides positioning accuracy of between 10 and 15 meters. Other than the line of sight requirement for GPS systems, GPS can also be slow to start due to satellite acquisition times.

The second common positioning component of Skyhook Wireless is cell tower triangulation. It is less accurate, with accuracy ranging from 200 to 1000 meters. Its advantage is speed. It takes a few seconds for most devices to calculate location based on cellular tower triangulation.

The third, and by far most unique, component of the Skyhook Wireless system is their Wi-Fi positioning system. Skyhook maintains a database of global Wi-Fi locations. When a Skyhook Wireless enabled app tries to determine location in deep urban environments and can’t acquire adequate GPS signals, it scans for nearby Wi-Fi networks. By triangulating Wi-Fi networks based on a larger location triangulated from cell towers, a much more accurate location can be determined.

By combining all three of these data sources, Skyhook enabled apps are able to calculate far more accurate position estimates in a wider variety of conditions than simple GPS or cell tower triangulation.

Skyhook Enabled G1 Apps

There are two apps currently available in the Android Market that use Skyhook’s technology. The first is a handy app called Locale. The second is ShopSavvy.

Locale

Getting a location fix in Locale.

Locale allows you to change aspects of your G1 based on location. Do you often turn off your phone during meetings at a particular location? Locale can pinpoint your location and turn off the features that are most invasive during the meeting. Were you expecting a call from a particular person during the meeting, but wanting to send all other calls to voicemail? Locale can accomplish that by a prioritized list of rules. Placing the address book entry for the expected caller above the block all callers rule will allow that call, and only that call, to come through.

Do you want particular people to know where you are? Through the use of plug-ins, your location can be automatically sent to specified numbers via SMS or Twitter.

ShopSavvy

Product detail page in ShopSavvy

ShopSavvy is one of those applications retailers love to hate, especially retailers whose prices are higher than the rest of the market. Using ShopSavvy, you can scan a barcode. The app will then show you a list of internet retailers and local retailers with the product. It will display the best price available locally and via the internet. The product can then be added to a wish list, or a price alert can be set to notify you when it drops below a pre-defined price. ShopSavvy allows for product scans to be automatically publicized via Twitter and shows available product reviews.

ShopSavvy uses Skyhook Wireless technology to see if there is a shop nearby that carries the product that you’ve scanned. At this point, there aren’t a lot of retailers signed up for the system, but more and more are coming on board.

Conclusion

Skyhook Wireless has a good solution to the inherent weaknesses of all three positioning technologies. By using a hybrid system of all three and frequently updated Wi-Fi and cell tower databases, it provides one of the best and most accurate systems for positioning in situations where GPS is partially or completely ineffective.

Skyhook Wireless offers three location components.

Android’s 5 Most Forgettable Applications

Matthew Stevens — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:00:21 +0000

There are applications you can’t live without and others that are not worth your precious, limited space. Then there are those applications you can’t live without but don’t remember them until they’re gone. I’m talking about those applications that once installed, fade off into the background yet are anything but useless.

Rings Extended

Rings Extended

Without Rings Extended we wouldn’t be able to use all the awesome sounds that are available for everything from ring-tones to alerts. Once installed, Rings Extended may be one of the least used yet must-have applications for any Android user. Rings Extended is only used when selecting non-system audio files for system functions but how boring Android would be without this application. Blending so well into the background, Rings Extended doesn’t even appear in the Applications Menu.

Locale

One of my most favorite applications, yet one I often forget, is there taking care of business. Locale does its job without fanfare or interaction. It does its thing without bothering me and if not for the occasional update from the developer, I might forget I have it installed. To call Locale a profile manager is almost a disservice to this application because Locale more closely resembles a condition manager. You can monitor conditions such a battery level, location, dates or appointments. Once conditions are set Locale goes to work doing a thankless job of controlling Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, changing ring-tones and wallpapers, sending SMS and Tweets, and controlling volumes to help avoid embarrassing calls at the wrong moment yet ensuring the important calls get noticed.

G-Backup Full

G-backup

Some applications backup just messages. Others do systems files, but G-backup Full backups all messages, call logs and pictures straight to your Gmail. Thanks to G-backup all your communications are logged right along with your email. Backing up pictures to Gmail saves you the trouble of copying them over to your PC later. This further enables life in the clouds. Unless set to manual, G-backup needs no user intervention to work. You might even forget it’s running on your device until searching Gmail for those important messages.

MyBackup Pro

G-backup makes your communications and pictures readily available, but what about the rest of your files and settings? That’s where MyBackup Pro comes to the rescue. MyBackup can backup all your device settings to the memory card. But what happens if the memory card becomes corrupt or worse your device is lost or stolen? MyBackup can also store up to 30 backups online for easy restoration. MyBackup can backup all your applications to the memory card enabling quick reinstallation of all your applications. This way you don’t forget to install any of Android’s Most Forgettable Applications. Also like G-Backup Pro, MyBackup Pro doesn’t need user intervention if setup on a schedule. Thanks to scheduling my device is backed up more regularly than even my laptop.

No Signal

No Signal

This is one of the newest editions to the most forgettable applications for Android. No Signal alerts users whenever the connection to the mobile network is lost. It doesn’t alert for loss of a data link – just the GSM signal for voice, which includes SMS. No longer will you be caught off guard by those dead spots. I use SIM lock on my device, which means if my device reboots I need to enter a PIN before it will load completely. SIM lock is a useful extra security measure but can be inconvenient if a random reboot happens when the device is in my pocket or otherwise out of sight. No Signal runs as a service and alerts me in this instance once background services load. Being without a signal isn’t a common occurrence for me, making No Signal a forgettable application until I hear the unique alert I’ve selected and use solely for this purpose.

There are many other applications that run behind the scenes and some I hope you never have to use. This includes remote locking and wiping of a device if it lost or stolen to protect private information and data. Other apps can update your friends on your whereabouts at all times. There are so many possibilities for Android it’s easy for some mundane tasks to be forgotten. That is until, they no longer being done.

You might forget these apps are installed, but they sure come in handy.