iPhone 3.0: Safari Geo-Location Not Just for Google’s Latitude
Last week we posted on Google’s Latitude service coming to the iPhone by way of Safari. Of course, as Computerworld (via MacRumors) points out, for the location-tracking buddy service to work in the browser, the browser must support geo-location, and not just for Google.
According to BrowserSphere developers were told back in March that Safari would support the Geolocation JavaScript classes, which “work with the onboard location services to retrieve the current location of the device.”
So we guess IP addresses won’t be the only way for annoying web ads to try and localize us any more?
June 1st, 2009 at 10:39 am
Writers pro tip: It’s never “try and.” Use “try to” instead.
I really wish Safari would ask permission for location information for each site. At this point it’s not clear whether this will be the case. If it’s just a one-time permission for any and all websites to access my location, I’ll be choosing “Don’t Allow.”
June 1st, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Just release the damn thing already Apple. I swear you guys have the longest Beta’s ever. Well not longer than Google but still damn.
June 1st, 2009 at 12:44 pm
@truth I feel your pain but in some ways apple are good. Google takes ages winmo rarely gets updates and even rarer that carriers release them quickly if at all (unless you install 3rd party cooked Roms)
Agree with muero about the location request prompt
June 1st, 2009 at 1:13 pm
This would have been a great article for me about a week ago. I have an app that uses WebKit that was just rejected because it did not work with these APIs properly in 3.0. The problem is I can’t find any documentation, or even an example website where I can go to reproduce the problem and catch the error. If anybody knows the full URL for the website in the screenshot, please post it.
June 1st, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Personally, I’m not all that enthused about my browser knowing my exact location.
If I want to search for something near me, adding a city name to the search string is easy enough.
I can’t imagine willingly allowing anyone I know to stalk me, and I’m certain I don’t want unknown web sites to do so either.
So the question for those enthusiastic about this feature, I have One Question: What would you see this offering you in exchange for surrendering your privacy?
June 1st, 2009 at 2:47 pm
This computerworld article linked by MacRumors suggests domain-by-domain restrictions, though of course the screen shots could be faked.
But even if they are by domain and have a same-origin restriction like XHR (e.g. so that when you are visiting TIPB, theiphoneblog.com could ask for your location, but not smartphoneexperts.com, google-analytics.com, or theblackhelicoptersarecomingtogetme.com), I cannot yet imagine any feature out there compelling enough to make me click “OK” on this.
June 1st, 2009 at 3:43 pm
The paranoia in me has me nervous about this. I’m with Muero and icebike on this topic. I do not see myself tapping “Allow.”
June 1st, 2009 at 4:28 pm
http://zyb.com, the social phonebook does already work with the W3C geolocation, and therefore their service works with the new Safari version!
http://pimpmy.zyb.com/post/2008/11/26/ZYB-and-W3C-Geolocation.aspx
June 1st, 2009 at 6:46 pm
@develeper, on your computer, just drag and drop the image into the URL bar and it will take you to it’s excact URL that the picture was taken from. This works in firefox for windows.
June 6th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Fantastic site, just seen this post on twittter going to add this blog to my site now.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:29 pm
With OS 3.0 Safari geolocation, you can even mimic the native iPhone Maps app: http://plebeosaur.us/you-are-here-with-safari-on-iphone/