TechLuver.com

SAN JOSE, Calif — Dec 17, `07 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — As a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, SiRF today announced it will rapidly implement key end-to-end location-awareness features needed to enable mobile devices powered by the Android platform to provide an optimal location awareness experience for consumers.

SiRF has joined with Google and more than 30 other companies worldwide to develop and deploy Android, the Alliance’s open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. SiRF’s commitment to Android is the latest in the company’s efforts to bring the power of location to the mainstream market by making location an intrinsic part of the mobile experience.

SiRF is actively working on the Android platform to include some of the more innovative features of Secure User Plane Location (SUPL), a standards-based protocol that allows a mobile handset client to communicate with a SUPL Location Platform (SLP), including transport layer security (TLS) for location privacy and multiple session capabilities to provide the most compelling user experience.

SiRF is also implementing support for Android-based assisted GPS (A-GPS) handsets, including mobile station based (MSB) and mobile station assisted (MSA) positioning methods to facilitate the Android platform passing Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) and 3GPP conformance testing for third-party certification.

Dec 07, ‘07 — UNICEF, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and Google today announced the launch of ” Our Stories “, a joint initiative to preserve and share the histories and identities of cultures around the world by making personal stories available online in many languages.

Using laptops, mobile phones and other recording devices, children will record, in their native languages, the stories of elders, family members and friends. These stories will be shared globally through the Our Stories website, where they can be found on a Google Map.

By making these stories accessible around the world, the Our Stories project hopes to contribute to a better understanding of our shared humanity across countries and cultures, across religious traditions, across languages, and across generations.

Low-cost XO laptops by One Laptop per Child will serve as a foundation to help build this digital archive of personal stories by providing children in developing countries with easy-to-use technology to record their stories and interviews.

The Our Stories website will initially include stories collected by Brazil’s Museum of the Person and stories recorded for UNICEF by young people in Ghana, Pakistan, Tanzania and Uganda.

Our Stories has taken inspiration from the StoryCorps project in the United States founded by MacArthur Fellow Dave Isay. “StoryCorps is proud to lend its experience in recording the conversations of nearly 30,000 Americans to this global undertaking,” said Isay. “These efforts teach us that the lives of everyone – whether they are in New York or Nairobi – matter, and that they will not be forgotten.”

More stories from more countries will be added to the site every month in an effort to preserve an oral history of humanity in the 21st Century.

Leading figures have already lent their voices to the project: Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Queen of Jordan and UNICEF Eminent Advocate for Children, and Ishmael Beah, UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War and best-selling author of A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, have all recorded messages welcoming users to the site and encouraging them to share their stories.

Listen to a story today at OurStories.org.

Dec 05, ‘07 — Today, Google announced the release of a new iPhone application that integrates its multiple services into a single interface, making it easy for iPhone users to find, use and switch between Google search, Gmail, Calendar, Reader, and more.

To use the application, iPhone users simply point their web browser to Google.com.

To accomplish this, Google is taking advantage of browser technologies (like AJAX) that made Gmail and Google Maps possible on the desktop. In supporting these advances in web technology, the iPhone’s Safari browser not only delivers an excellent mobile Internet experience; it enabled our product and engineering teams to create an optimal Google experience on a mobile device.

Google’s overall goal is to provide users with access to information, wherever they are. This commitment is device-independent, and we are working to develop new mobile technologies that are faster, easier to use, and available on more devices.

A recent example is My Location, a Google Maps for mobile feature that shows users their location directly on the map with or without GPS. To see the full range of mobile products and services available from Google, visit mobile.google.com.

More at Google, Google Mobile.

Amsterdam — December 05, ‘07 — Today, TomTom, the world’s largest navigation solutions provider, announced it is teaming up with Google Maps so users can search for and send business addresses directly from the Google Maps’ website to TomTom devices. This results in a richer and more personalised navigation experience.

“The ability to search, find and send information from the web to a TomTom is something we have been investing in for some time now. We are pleased to work together with Google Maps on this personalization functionality,” says Eric Pité, Vice President Product Management at TomTom.

How does it work?

Google Maps local search pages have expanded their ‘Send to’ feature with the option ‘Send to GPS’. With just one mouse click TomTom users can instantly benefit from this service without needing to download complicated zip files.

Google Maps allows TomTom users to search for business addresses and transfer them from the Google Maps website to their TomTom device by clicking on the ‘Send to GPS’ button.

The selected information is transferred to the TomTom device when the device is connected to the Internet via TomTom HOME, the free software application TomTom offers its customers. Drivers can then navigate to their new destination, as well as view the location on the map of the TomTom device or save it as a ‘favorite’ on the device for later use.

The tie-up would for instance allow TomTom users to plan a city trip by searching for accommodation, restaurants or museums using Google Maps on their computer and then transfer the places they want to visit to their TomTom device.

TomTom’s devices do include so-called “points of interest” — such as restaurants, petrol stations and parking garages — but if a user has not regularly bought map upgrades, such data can become out of date.

     Google Maps with My Location (Beta)

See your location on the map, with or without GPS. Save time and tedious keystrokes finding where you are, what’s around you, and how to get there. Watch the video on the right to see how it works.

Press “0″ and look for the blue dot: or 

San Francisco, CA — Nov 28, ‘07 — Google is testing technology that will find the location of people using its mobile mapping service, even if the phone making the connection isn’t equipped with a GPS receiver.

The search giant said on Wednesday it is introducing a novel mapping system that uses cell phone towers to let mobile phone users locate nearby services without typing in addresses.

Google Maps for Mobile with My Location automatically informs mobile phone users where they are on a map. Users simply type the number “0″ on their phone to move the map to their approximate location.

Google is offering the service for free, direct to U.S. consumers, and is expected to eventually introduce local advertising that takes advantage of the location-aware service. The company has created the service independent of carriers.

Unlike GPS, Google’s tracking feature works while handsets are indoors. “My Location” also drains less power from a phone’s battery than a GPS receiver does.

The tracking system isn’t set up to collect a user’s phone number or any other personal information that would reveal a person’s identity, said Steve Lee, product manager for Google’s mobile maps. As a safeguard, the feature can be turned off at any time by simply clicking on a link in the help menu.

On the downside, Google’s service isn’t as precise as GPS. In most instances, Google hopes to get within one-quarter to three miles of a user’s location - close enough to provide helpful “neighborhood-level” information, Lee said.

By knowing more about a mobile phone’s location, Google conceivably could make more money displaying ads from nearby businesses hoping to lure in more customers. The Mountain View-based company currently doesn’t plan to show ads on mobile maps but may in the future, Lee said.

Already the owner of the most lucrative advertising network on the Internet, Google eventually hopes to do a better job of mining profits from the mobile Web.

To help realize that goal, Google plans to introduce a new mobile software package called Android next year in an attempt to make its online services more accessible to people while they’re away from computers at home or the office.

Get Google Maps with My Location (Beta)

San Francisco, CA — Nov 07, ‘07 — Lost drivers soon will be able to use “Applause” for help at the pump. As part of a partnership to be announced Wednesday, Google will dispense driving directions at thousands of Gilbarco gas pumps across the US beginning early next month.

The pumps, made by Gilbarco Veeder-Root, include an Internet connection and will display Google’s mapping service in color on a small screen. The service is dubbed “Applause Media System“. Motorists will be able to scroll through several categories to find local landmarks, hotels, restaurants and hospitals selected by the gas station’s owner.

After the driver selects a destination, the pump will print out directions. Eventually, Gilbarco Veeder-Root hopes to enable motorists to type in a specific address and get directions. “We think the service will create more customer loyalty for retailers,” said Gilbarco Veeder-Root spokeswoman Lucy Sackett.

Greensboro, N.C.-based Gilbarco Veeder-Root will initially offer the service in about 3,500 gas pumps and expand based on retailer demand.

Unlike most of Google’s services, this one won’t include ads bringing the company income. But participating retailers will be able to make extra money from other merchants that offer coupons on the service. Making maps available at gas pumps appealed to Google because the Mountain View-based company wants to make its services available whenever and wherever people need them, said Karen Roter Davis, a principal business development manager for Google.

Calling up a map at a gas pump should be particularly popular among motorists who are too stubborn or embarrassed to pull over and ask someone for help, Roter Davis said. “This will be sort of a Googley, more stealthy way of getting directions.” More at Gilbarco.