Apple finally granted passage of Google Latitude to the iPhone realm. Google Latitude for Android was in use since early 2009. Back then, Google said an Apple application was coming soon. Google said nine million Android smartphone users actively engage with Latitude, but some think that total was reached with some creative arithmetic. Hopefully the app doesn’t cost a lot of money so individuals who want to use it won’t have to take out a paydayloans for it.
Latitude location-sharing application from Google
Whenever you are carrying your smartphone, your friends and family can track you wherever you are with Google Latitude. The free app lets users share their location at any particular moment on Google Maps. Anyone else who has Google Latitude can find you in a moment. They won't have to call to attempt and discover you. Google Latitude is 100 percent opt-in based on Google. Users can turn off Latitude’s background updating to conceal their location when they’re not using their smartphones. Privacy settings allow sharing at a city-only level if the exact address is just a little too intimate. Signing out puts you under the radar.
Changes to Latitude with Apple
Google Latitude was available for Android since February 2009. The multitasking needed to support background updating wasn't something the Apple iOS could support. The Apple App Store rejected an earlier Google Latitude application with the reasoning that it could substitute for your iPhone’s native Maps application. The just-approved Google Latitude for iPhone was re-engineered for iOS 4, which includes multitasking. You cannot use the application unless you have at least the iOS 4 operating system. An iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 is needed too.
Google Latitude may do better than Foursquare
About 9 million people were announced as active users of the Google Latitude app when the announcement of the application coming to the iPhone came from Google. There are not nearly that many for the location sharing app Foursquare. There are twice as many users for Latitude. TechCrunch speculates that Google can claim 9 million active users because Latitude is built into the Maps application running on each Android phone. Many users that Google talks about may not even know Latitude is getting used. The background might just have the app running. Users may not even know their location is being tracked.
Citations
PC World
pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2374245,00.asp
TechCrunch
techcrunch.com/2010/12/14/google-latitude/
Apple Insider
appleinsider.com/articles/10/12/13/22_months_after_announcement_google_latitude_app_comes_to_apples_iphone.html
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