Friday, February 06, 2009
Google Latitude - the first 48 hours
I've always loved toys, and over the years I've developed quite an affinity for figuring out how things work. The unveiling of Google Latitude is the ultimate for me...an amazing gizmo to play with, take apart and marvel at.
GPS is better than cell towers. If you're offered a choice between being tracked by Global Positioning System, the Wi-Fi access points or the cell tower triangulation schema that Google uses to pinpoint your place in the world at any given moment, opt for GPS. A co-worker who used the cell tower method was accurate to within 200 feet of where she actually was. When using GPS, my geoposition was dead-on accurate to within 20 feet...at most. That's crazy!
Google Latitude is a battery killer. Because you're constantly sending data back and forth to determine your geolocation in real-time and also because the screen can be backlit for long periods of time as you track yourself and others in your social network, your phone WILL heat up because of all the data communication passing back and forth and redrawing of the screen graphics. Depending on your data plan with your wireless provider, this could also get pretty expensive. So while a neat app to play with, realize this will eat away at your battery's life.
OK, enough blabber. Get with the program! If you know me, add me and let's have some fun.
To say Google Latitude is cool is a gross understatement. This is tremendously awesome. I've tested the app exhaustively with users from GTA TeleGuam's and DOCOMO Pacific's networks, over a wide range of phones. I'm also lucky I've got several friends who know way more about computers than I ever will that have helped me figure this stuff out.
When I caught word Wednesday night (Guam time) that Google had released a real-time geolocation service for mobile/desktop, my jaw hit the floor. I've Twittered about it incessantly over the past couple of days as I've hacked away at it, trying to get it to work after it didn't immediately take. So here are some notes from the field when you get the geolocation bug.
Understand the Google Latitude operating environment. The one criticism I've got about Latitude is how surprisingly weak the initial documentation is about it. There's one YouTube clip, a couple of Google Blog posts and that's it for now. As such, a lot of people don't get it immediately. Here's the skinny: your phone is the base unit that allows your geolocation to be dynamically updated. As you move around, your phone reports these changes. You could do this with a laptop with a persistent Internet connection of some sort, but that would be cumbersome and annoying...not to mention the fact that at some point your computer would die. You can track your own progress and that of your GMail contacts over your phone after downloading/installing Google Maps 3.0.0, or on your desktop by way of an iGoogle portal web widget. That's it in a nutshell.
Don't just 'accept'. If you get an invite from a GMail user, merely accepting won't get it done...you've got a bit of work still to do. I've invited several of my social network friends to join in the fun, most of whom just merely accepted without properly setting up their profile. So I see them listed as having confirmed, but they're not reporting their geolocation.
Real-time works on your mobile, not your desktop. Many people I've introduced the app to who use it over the Web don't see me moving about as I do it get frustrated. On phones, you can see yourself moving in real-time (insanely cool!), but that's a feature that works on phones only. The desktop component refreshes itself every couple of minutes and redraws each user's updated geolocation with their avatar. It's not real-time and isn't intended to be.
Don't fear Google Gears. When you setup the desktop component to Google Latitude (enabling the widget within your personalized iGoogle portal), you'll be prompted to download a small plugin, Google Gears, and to allow Google Latitude access to your computer. This lets the service run certain operations in the background to update your position. Don't worry...it's harmless and sounds worse than it is.
Go outside and play. I'll admit I've never worked with GPS devices before, so getting over that learning curve helped greatly in understanding how Latitude works. After about a day of frustration in not getting my geolocation to be shown - I sometimes jump back and forth between Guam, South Dakota, Macedonia, Honduras and Vietnam - a buddy at DOCOMO suggested I re-synch my GPS settings with satellites. I told him I did, to which he replied, "No - stand OUTSIDE and synch it." I'll be damned, it worked. As such, I've also noticed dramatically more consistent GPS coverage and responsiveness by the app when I'm not within a building. So this might be an incentive to take a stroll and watch yourself move on your mobile.
When I caught word Wednesday night (Guam time) that Google had released a real-time geolocation service for mobile/desktop, my jaw hit the floor. I've Twittered about it incessantly over the past couple of days as I've hacked away at it, trying to get it to work after it didn't immediately take. So here are some notes from the field when you get the geolocation bug.
Understand the Google Latitude operating environment. The one criticism I've got about Latitude is how surprisingly weak the initial documentation is about it. There's one YouTube clip, a couple of Google Blog posts and that's it for now. As such, a lot of people don't get it immediately. Here's the skinny: your phone is the base unit that allows your geolocation to be dynamically updated. As you move around, your phone reports these changes. You could do this with a laptop with a persistent Internet connection of some sort, but that would be cumbersome and annoying...not to mention the fact that at some point your computer would die. You can track your own progress and that of your GMail contacts over your phone after downloading/installing Google Maps 3.0.0, or on your desktop by way of an iGoogle portal web widget. That's it in a nutshell.
Don't just 'accept'. If you get an invite from a GMail user, merely accepting won't get it done...you've got a bit of work still to do. I've invited several of my social network friends to join in the fun, most of whom just merely accepted without properly setting up their profile. So I see them listed as having confirmed, but they're not reporting their geolocation.
Real-time works on your mobile, not your desktop. Many people I've introduced the app to who use it over the Web don't see me moving about as I do it get frustrated. On phones, you can see yourself moving in real-time (insanely cool!), but that's a feature that works on phones only. The desktop component refreshes itself every couple of minutes and redraws each user's updated geolocation with their avatar. It's not real-time and isn't intended to be.
Don't fear Google Gears. When you setup the desktop component to Google Latitude (enabling the widget within your personalized iGoogle portal), you'll be prompted to download a small plugin, Google Gears, and to allow Google Latitude access to your computer. This lets the service run certain operations in the background to update your position. Don't worry...it's harmless and sounds worse than it is.
Go outside and play. I'll admit I've never worked with GPS devices before, so getting over that learning curve helped greatly in understanding how Latitude works. After about a day of frustration in not getting my geolocation to be shown - I sometimes jump back and forth between Guam, South Dakota, Macedonia, Honduras and Vietnam - a buddy at DOCOMO suggested I re-synch my GPS settings with satellites. I told him I did, to which he replied, "No - stand OUTSIDE and synch it." I'll be damned, it worked. As such, I've also noticed dramatically more consistent GPS coverage and responsiveness by the app when I'm not within a building. So this might be an incentive to take a stroll and watch yourself move on your mobile.
Spotty coverage may require a bit of elbow grease on your part. Cool as it is, the one thing you won't be able to get around is poor radio and/or GPS coverage and/or telecommunications infrastructure if you live in a non-metro area (see CNET's coverage). So riding on the coattails of my last point, if when you head inside you're noticing that Latitude constantly jumps your position around the planet or dramatically skews your true position, you may need to toggle between manually setting your location when you're at work or at home, and then letting it auto-detect and track you when you're on the move. That's what I'm forced to do - I'm currently seen by 5 satellites here in Guam (is that good?).
GPS is better than cell towers. If you're offered a choice between being tracked by Global Positioning System, the Wi-Fi access points or the cell tower triangulation schema that Google uses to pinpoint your place in the world at any given moment, opt for GPS. A co-worker who used the cell tower method was accurate to within 200 feet of where she actually was. When using GPS, my geoposition was dead-on accurate to within 20 feet...at most. That's crazy!
Google Latitude is a battery killer. Because you're constantly sending data back and forth to determine your geolocation in real-time and also because the screen can be backlit for long periods of time as you track yourself and others in your social network, your phone WILL heat up because of all the data communication passing back and forth and redrawing of the screen graphics. Depending on your data plan with your wireless provider, this could also get pretty expensive. So while a neat app to play with, realize this will eat away at your battery's life.
OK, enough blabber. Get with the program! If you know me, add me and let's have some fun.
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