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andypanda
I hate code!
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Posts: 24
Reg: Dec 31, 2010
California
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03/21/11 10:40 AM (14 years ago)

GPS Sensitive App

I know this is difficult to understand but I will give it a try. I want to develop a project so when a user moves geographical location, they can transparently receive a location specific audio report, i.e. weather report, restaurant review, etc. So the smart phone GPS will detect location point to proper corresponding URL for that restaurant review or weather report as an example. A static service is straight forward, but I am asking about one that is dynamic from a geographical standpoint. I realize this might not be the proper forum for such question. If this cannot be answered here, perhaps you can point me to where I can research it or get the answer.
 
David @ buzztouch
buzztouch Evangelist
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Reg: Jan 01, 2010
Monterey, CA
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03/21/11 11:01 AM (14 years ago)
Hi again.. nice to see your post: So, geo-aware apps are very very popular. There are lots of v1.5 apps coming out (iOS only) that do display dynamic content based on the users location. Example: Restaurants around me, parks, schools, etc. I can imagine your app displaying a list of audio-reports to listen to. There are two main challenges to this: First, it's very rare that an app does anything 'automatic' and usually requires some user action. What I mean is that asking the app to display things around me, by tapping or selecting, it totally different than the app being aware of a users location, then auto-magically dispalying something when they are withing a certain radius of something important. In other words, user action is required so the app isn't always running in the background (draining the batter) and 'sniffing out' the users location to then do something, like an alert. This is technically possible but Apple and Google and others are strongly against it. So.. user action is required. The next challenge... The backend support for these types of apps is not tough to setup if you have an understanding of databases, text files, web-storage. But, if you dont' already have this type of skill, it' very tough to get up to speed without major study. Again, there are lots of v1.5 apps like this but they were built by folks that already had backend databases with lists and lists of places, things, objects with latitude / longitude data. Phone asks for the data, backend produces it. Conclusion: With v1.5 for iOS you can do this easily if you have a backend of data and a basic understanding of URL's and how to query for the right data. If you don't, you'll either need lots of help, or be willing to go through some pains while you figure it all out.
 

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