Boston’s Skyhook Wireless and two forty four a.m., the startup behind the Locale location-awareness application for the Google Android mobile operating system, announced today that Locale now includes Skyhook’s XPS hybrid location-finding software. Carter Jernigan of two forty four a.m. says Locale originally tapped into the native GPS and Wi-Fi-based location finding capabilities of Android phones such as the T-Mobile G1, but Google’s database of the locations of Wi-Fi networks was not nearly as extensive as Skyhook’s—hence the switch. “Often times I’ll walk into a building and Google’s service might give me a location within a 1-mile range, but Skyhook will be within 100 feet or less,” says Jernigan. Locale, originally developed by Jernigan and fellow MIT students as part of a class project for MIT professor Hal Abelson, was the winner of the $275,000 top prize in Google’s Android Developer Challenge in September, 2008. It’s available free at the Android Market, the mobile-accessible database of Android apps.
Author: Wade Roush
Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco.
Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.)
I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia.
I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats.
My personal site: waderoush.com
My social media coordinates:
Twitter: @wroush
Facebook: facebook.com/wade.roush
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/waderoush
Google+ : google.com/+WadeRoush
YouTube: youtube.com/wroush1967
Flickr: flickr.com/photos/wroush/
Pinterest: pinterest.com/waderoush/
View all posts by Wade Roush