iPhone and context aware applications

A great letter to Apple about opening IOS for context-aware applications:

"Developers don't have real access to the radios. That means that developers can't build systems like Tawkon can: that see radiation or energy levels used by the device, but it also doesn't let developers build real indoor navigation apps. You do realize that if you had access to the radios you could tell exactly where in a room you were standing, right? (Wifi is like light, it sprays across a room, and if you can triangulate its strength you'll know where in your house you are standing)."

Really, for network-proximity applications like our SpotEx it would be good.

Tablet & App Summit 2012

We continue to share links for monitoring the interesting events in Twitter. Now it is 5th Tablet & App Summit 2012, Frankfurt 2012



/via Geo Messages

P.S. and the same in Twi-gazeta:   5th Tablet & App Summit 2012

Geo Trace - visualize traceroute

Our Geo Trace mashup has been updated. This web tool lets you visualize the results for traceroute command.

traceroute is a well known network diagnostic tool for displaying the route (path) and measuring transit delays of packets across an Internet Protocol (IP) network.

Simply perform traceroute from your own computer, copy results into web mashup window and click Show button. You will see the intermediate nodes right on Google Maps.

Technically is is a practical example for our GeoIP component as well as for Ajax taglibs from Coldtags suite

Place Card - Like button for real objects

Our mashup Place card has been updated again. Lets you place Facebook Like button on the physical object.

Mashup creates QR-code for mobile page (and the page itself, of course) with Facebook's Like button. As soon as QR-code (e.g. placed on the product's wrap) is scanned and an appropriate URL is opened in the mobile browser we can show Like counts. And of course, mobile user will see who from his/her friends likes that too. As a result – we have a simple recommendation system on the basic elements from Facebook.

You can define your own URL for redirection as soon as mobile user hits Like button.

And it is possible also to check out stats for created pages (we are using FBstat here)

For the similar projects see also:

mobile discussions for real objects
customized reactions for Like buttons

NFC basic

Beaming Data to Devices with NFC from CommonsWare

Fraud detection

An interesting read - Machine Learning in Mobile advertising Fraud Detection

About expert system for Wi-Fi access points

Our paper from LBS-2011.

Dmitry Namiot and Manfred Sneps-Sneppe. About expert system for Wi-Fi access points. Published in "Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Location-Based Services", edited by Georg Gartner and Felix Ortag, LBS 2011, 21–23 November 2011, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria, 2011, pp. 126-136

W3G Conference

We continue to share links for monitoring the interesting events in Twitter. Now it is W3G, London 2012



/via Geo Messages

P.S. and the same in Twi-gazeta:   W3G

Customized Like buttons

Sure, you’ve seen advertising campaigns asked you to Like some resource (e.g. Facebook Page) in exchange for some benefits.

Now you can do it yourself. Mashup Like Me lets you define your own reactions for Like buttons. More precisely, this mashup creates mobile web page that shows your own content to the visitors liked some predefined resource.

The usage model is obvious: ask visitors to like your resource and show something interesting after that (e.g. coupon, discount info) or let him download some file (report) or simply redirect user to any web resource by your choose.

Mashup lets you customize all the aspects for such usage: what should be on the original site, what resource (URL) should be liked as well as define your "after like" actions.

Mashup creates mobile web page (could be opened in any HTML5 mobile web browser). You can use link to that page in your own mobile sites (portals) or present it directly to your mobile visitors (e.g., via QR-code).

Like button on the generated pages shows also the list of friends liked the selected resource. So, this system works automatically as a simple recommendation system too.

P.S. from the similar projects:

how to customize check-ins
how to customize data sharing in Facebook
Like for real objects

Directory of mashups

Our mashups directory has been updated. A huge collection of applications: Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps, LBS, QR-codes, mobile HTML5 etc.

The latest release includes for example our new web mashup Like maker.

Aggressive wi-fi names

From BBC News article: "Some wireless internet users have been setting their network names to send snide messages to their neighbours. Why?

Predominantly, it's about noise. And sex. Well, noisy sex. That, and "stealing" broadband.

Wireless internet users are typically asked to assign names to their networks when installing new routers. These names can be seen by anybody within range who searches for networks.

Many stick to mundane options like "Home" or "Wireless01". The more adventurous may even use their surname or address.

But this is an era of bite-sized self-expression. It's possible to see names like "Drop it like it's hotspot", "Terror network", and "Virus Detected Shutting Down". Or witticisms like "Pretty fly for a Wi-Fi" and "Wi Believe I Can Fi".

It looks like a yet another perfect use case for our SpotEx. It lets distribute user-defined hyper-local data depends on the visible Wi-Fi networks.

Dublin Web Summit

We continue to share links for monitoring the interesting events in Twitter. Now it is Web Summit, Dublin 2012



/via Geo Messages

P.S. and the same in Twi-gazeta:   Web Summit

Places and custom check-ins for Facebook

You are welcome to check out a new version of our mashup Places from Facebook.

Mashup lets you search for places, show them on the map, copy locations to mobile, see friends activity, check-in anywhere as well as prepare mobile web pages for customized check-ins. By default mashup shows places for the local area. But it could be used for any geographical area.

You can directly pass the following parameters to the basic URL:

lat - latitude
lng - longitude
q - query for search
lang - language code for the map (E.g.: lang=en or lang=de etc.

For example, Facebook in London

For customized check-in place owner (or advertising/marketing agency, for example) can define all the aspects of check-in - data to be posted on user's wall, data to be returned as a confirmation, Google Analytics code for stats monitoring etc. This version provides own analytics for check-ins too. And of course you can still use Facebook’s dashboard for places pages - mashup creates standard check-ins for Facebook.

In other words – any small business can create public (or private) "Foursquare-like" system for own visitors. Using all the power of Facebook’s user base.

Also this version supports the newest API from Facebook - geocoded postings. Now you can write reviews for Places.

P.S. And here you can see a mobile version for this mashup.

P.P.S. See also QRpon – customized check-ins for Facebook

P.P.P.S. and here you can see Places from Google for the same area.

Share location info via Twitter

Our mobile web-mashup (HTML5) Geo Twit has been updated too. It lets you publish a link to your current location in Twitter timeline right from the phone (iPhone, Android, Samsung etc). In other words, without the changing your account settings (enabling location) you can simply publish once a link to your location. It is some form of mobile check-in for Twitter. Mobile site:

http://servletsuite.com/geotwit

You can use also the following short URL http://bit.ly/dCnvBj, or load it via the following QR-code:



You can use this mashup in your own mobile portals too (just place a link to Geo Twit). It accepts the following optional parameters:

t - text for your message (status)
u - Twitter user for sending message to

For example: Geo Twit

Our mashup Twitter location has been updated again. It lets you publish geo-related information to Twitter. It is not about geo tagging in Twitter. Actually users do not need to geo-enable their accounts. Twitter location is just a way for publish messages (statuses) with some geo-related data. Click on the map and mashup will prepare for you a link to appropriate Google Map.
The goal is very clean – simplify Twitter publishing for messages (statuses) where location info (place) is important.
Mashup does not request any authorization, the actual publishing will be performed via the standard Twitter client.

You can pass the following optional parameters to the basic URL:

lat - an initial latitude (where to show the map)
lng - an initial longitude
zml - an initial zoom level
t - a message that will be added to any published status

For example, suppose we are creating some information system that collects information for discounts. We can choose a hash tag #discount and use the following URL for publishing locations with discounts:

http://twitloc.linkstore.ru?t=%23discount

(%23 – is just encoded #).

Etc.

A reference to the map will be published in the mobile-friendly format. We are using Mobile map here.


P.S. check out also Geo Messages for Facebook

/via Geo Messages

Geo Mail

Our mashup Geo Mail has been updated. It is a mobile web application (HTML5) that lets you add a digital signature (link) with your location info to email messages on your mobile platform. It works on any mobile platform with HTML5 support: iPhone, Android, Samsung etc.

You can load and bookmark mobile URL with the following short link: http://bit.ly/a52Ta1 or with the QR-code below:


You can use this mashup in your web applications via adding links for Geo Mail to your web pages too. The basic URL accepts the following optional parameters:

to - email (list of emails) for sending
сс - СС header
bcc - BCC header
subject - subject for your letter. By default it is: I am here
body - an initial text for sending
lat - a latitude for sharing
lng - a longitude for sharing

For example: Mail to developers

P.S. btw, there is a useful trick with mobile email. You can send email message not only to some person, but to service too. For example, Facebook lets you update status info by email (see https://m.facebook.com/upload.php regarding service email for your account). The same is true for Blogger, etc. If you send status mail via Geo Mail mashup than you can share your location info with your Facebook social graph. It is yet another implementation for Places.

/via Geo Messages service

City Guide - all the places

You are welcome to check out an updated version of our mobile web mashup - FrontPlace. Lets you see nearby places and get info about them from Facebook, Google, Bing and Yandex (russian search engine) as well as the nearby photos. Check it out from your HTML5 browser: iPhone, Android, Samsung Bada or Opera 10.1+

http://linkstore.ru/frontplace

(it is a mobile site).

You can copy link right to your phone with QR-code above. Or use the following short URL http://bit.ly/xbf3uc.

Technically this implementation uses location data from Facebook. You can run this mashup for any geographical area. Just use the following parameters for the basic URL:

lat - latitude for your area
lng - longitude for your area
q - query string

For example: Pizza in London

P.S. check out also Mobile geo chat for quick communications

P.P.S. and here you can get a desktop version of Places for Facebook mashup.

API Mashup Contest

4th round of API Mashup Contest kicks off. API Mashup Contest, the biggest API playground in the world, is here again! Register your API mashup before NOVEMBER, 30, 2012. Your mashup will be assessed by experienced Jury members. The contest is open to developers from any part of the globe. See more details here.

QR codes for maps

Our mashup QR maps has been updated. It lets you create QR-codes for loading mobile maps. Any map here is either static picture (you can use it for any mobile phone) or dynamic web mashup (it could be used for Android, iPhone or any another HTML5 browser – we are using our tools from инструменты от Geo Messages)

Mashup let you create QR-code for direct map loading and HTML fragment for placing that QR-code on site (blog, etc.) So, it is a tool that helps you create and distribute mobile maps. Type (size) for map could be configured.

By default, mashup will ask about location for the map (area that should be used for creating QR-codes). You can directly describe geo area you are interested in. The basic URL can proceed the following optional parameters:

lat - latitude
lng - longitude
zml - a zoom for the map (by default it is 14)

For example: Mobile Maps for San Francisco

WebIt Congress

We continue to share links for monitoring the interesting events in Twitter. Now it is Webit Congress, Istanbul 2012



/via Geo Messages

P.S. and the same in Twi-gazeta:   WebIt Congress

Context-aware data discovery

Our presentation for ICIN-2012. It is devoted to SpotEx and related products

Discussions in Twitter

You are welcome to check out an updated version for our Twicus - discussions in Twitter mashup.

Discussion here is a flow of messages (statuses) with some hash tag. Mashup lets users add a special status for the own timeline during the first visit. It is like check-in. This check-in record contains hash tag for the discussion. So, user can switch to search right with one click right from your new post. Additionally, user's timeline will keep check-in record (read - description to hashtag), so it is easy to return back to that discussion. For subsequent visits mashup simply redirects user to Twitter search page for the given hash tag.

You can set your own parameters for the discussion. Basic URL proceeds the following parameters:

tag - tag for discussion
title - explanation for your discussion
checkin - check-in message to be published in user's timeline
via - Optional. Twitter's account to follow for the check-in message

For example: http://twicus.linkstore.ru?tag=mytag

Such way you can add links to your site/blog: 'Discuss in Twitter'

How it could be used? For example, second screen application for social TV.

Video Sharing

A collection of Video sharing (streaming video) apps for mobile.

We are collecting references for our Mobile web pairing project.

Mobile & retail

An interesting presentation from Deloitte:

Screen Sharing

Mersive - lets you share smartphones screens. We do that much simpler via мobile web pairing.

Geo Discussions

Our mashup Geo Talk has been updated. It lets you create forums (discussions) linked to the particular place on the map. Cloud forums on the map.

Just mark a place, type a question (suggestion, information etc.) – in other words create an initiation for the discussion and get unique link for the map with embedded forum. After that you can share this link with your partners/colleges, print in your blog / twitter etc. – it depends on your own decision only – who you want to see among readers. And after that you can just follow to the discussion.

No registration required. Technically it is Google Maps + cloud forums from Disqus.

You can discuss some geo points, POI’s (points of interests – shops, bars etc.) or, for example, create a private forum devoted so some meeting in the selected place.

Any discussion could be copied right to your mobile phone as HTML5 mobile web application via QR-codes.

Just for example – forum for Golden Apple bar in Moscow

Initially mashup ( http://geotalk.linkstore.ru ) is trying to detect your location (as per W3C spec). If you know that forums should be created in some particular area just set additional parameters for the above-mentioned URL:

lat - a latitude
lng – a longitude
zml – an initial zoom level

E.g. create forums in London

P.S. check out also similar mashups: City forums and Mobile forum