Kinoma Play, one of our favorite Windows Mobile multimedia players has been updated and now sports location-based features and has tied it into its built-in Twitter app. (Pretty cool for spying on your tweeting neighbors.)
In addition, tweets containing YouTube or Flickr images now open within Kinoma Play instead of launching a browser.
There are a few more bugfixes and updates in this build, too. Find 'em all on the Kinoma blog, and get the update directly in the Kinoma Play app.
You know this was inevitable. Google, king of stage, screen, search, mail and maps, has launched Google Latitude, which is part of Google Maps. Here's what you'll get:
Share locations: Location sharing starts only when both you and a friend agree. Invite friends via email or easily add them from your Gmail contacts.
Control privacy: You can share, set, or hide your location - or turn off Google Latitude - from the privacy menu. You can also hide your location or share only a city-level location with certain friends. (Update: Still worried about your privacy? Google's got a video covering that.)
Share status: Create a status message and upload your photo within Latitude. It also syncs directly with Google Talk. Check your friends' status messages to see what your friends are up to.
Contact your friends: Quickly contact your friends with an SMS, IM, or phone call. You can also get directions to lead you to your friends.
Yes, it's yet another location-based friend finder. But this one has something like none of the others – Google and its quintuple-zillion users, and the weight of the world's largest Internet search company. Unlike other other services of this kind, Google doesn't have to go out and find the users. They're already there. And that means that Google Latitude may well become the one location-based friend finder app to rule them all.
Go get Latitude here, or head to google.com/latitude on your mobile browser. Latitude also works on your desktop and can be accessed with your iGoogle page.
Note that Google Latitude will work with Windows Mobile 5.0 and up, but not all carriers support the location-based service, as we also found out with a recent upgrade to Microsoft's Live Search.
Latitude also works with Android phones (though U.S. users have to wait for an update), most BlackBerries and most Symbian S60 devices. Support for the iPhone and iPod Touch is coming soon.
Getcher gallery of Latitude up and running on Windows Mobile after the break.
That seems to be the case, check out the details that crossed the wires yesterday:
Starting on Tuesday, when Sprint Nextel customers use the search bar in their phone browsers, the results will automatically incorporate the users' location. Some customers will also be able to use voice commands to conduct searches. The capabilities are an extension of a relationship that Microsoft and Sprint formed late last year that initially involved including Microsoft's Live Search in the browser on Sprint phones.
I ignored this story initially because the handsets mentioned were bland feature phones. Then DrDoom pointed out that there's no reason LBS can't work on devices like the Mogul very very soon. Seems like a no-brainer that it should be built into Live Search.
I hate gpsOne not because it's inaccurate, but because it's so often locked down just because the carriers haven't figured out a good way to use it to bilk us out of more money. So this news is actually good news. As DrDoom said: "Because even if its only using the towers, SOMETHING is better than NOTHING for LBS." You damn skippy.
Update: Malatesta smacks me down in the comments -- and rightly so. It's not gpsOne/aGPS, it's just tower triangulation. Although that would still be SOMETHING, as stated above, it's not ANYTHING yet for Windows Mobile. In point of fact, Malatesta doubts it ever will be. Grumble grumble.
Loki is new to me and it looks pretty neat. It grabs your location based on some magic involving WiFi (and presumably your IP address), then allows you to do local searches based on that. They've had a Windows toolbar for awhile now, and they've just added a Mac and (more importantly for us) a Windows Mobile client. If you've read between the lines, though, you're realizing it will only work if you have WiFi on your WM device, so Treo and Blackjack owners (among many other) need not apply. More people who need not apply: folks who live outside their limited coverage area.
Now you can get the same Loki WiFi location goodiness on your Windows Mobile device. Loki Mobile allows you to locate yourself and search locally on any WiFi-enabled Windows Mobile device.
