Driving app Waze builds its own Siri for hands-free voice control

In an effort to cut driving distractions even further, the crowdsourced driving app Waze today has added the ability for fully hands-free voice control to report traffic situations — bringing Siri-like functionality to the free app before Apple has released its own Siri API.

Waze’s solution is actually more advanced than Siri in one key way: you don’t need to awkwardly hold down any buttons to activate voice commands. Instead, Waze’s voice controls are activated … Continue Reading

Supreme Court unanimously rules warrants required for GPS tracking

It looks like the law has caught up with technological change. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that a search warrant is required if law enforcement agencies want to track a vehicle through the global positioning system (GPS).

The decision means that computer age advances won’t trump the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure. The case is the first in recent times to deal with the improved technological ability to eavesdrop on people.… Continue Reading

CSR shows how your phone can navigate inside large buildings

CSR, the leading maker of navigation chips, showed how you can use its upcoming platform to find your way inside large buildings such as the giant Las Vegas Convention Center. Now a combination of several new technologies makes it possible to navigate with map-based directions inside large buildings, giving you even fewer reasons to get lost or be late for an appointment.

At the Consumer Electronics Show last week, CSR showed a demo of its … Continue Reading

LightSquared’s LTE network disrupts 75% of GPS devices in tests

Mobile broadband startup LightSquared’s GPS interference troubles aren’t over yet. The company’s LTE network has been found to disrupt 75 percent of GPS devices in a government test, Bloomberg reports.

The test, conducted by the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Systems Engineering Forum, found that 69 of 92 selected GPS devices “experienced harmful interference” within 100 meters of a LightSquared base station.

“LightSquared signals caused harmful interference to majority of GPS receivers tested,” … Continue Reading

Waze’s crowdsourced driving data heads to local news, now 9M users strong

Thanks to its popular crowdsourced navigation app, Waze is sitting on a pile of valuable traffic data. Today the company announced an intriguing use for that data goldmine: powering your local TV station’s traffic reports.

Waze is launching a program to let any broadcast network take advantage of its citizen traffic data, which gives networks access to instant updates about traffic conditions. The company has partnered with 12 launch stations, which have been featuring Waze’s … Continue Reading

Google Maps 6.0 for Android makes interior layouts 3D (and can find toilets, too)

Google Maps for Android has just launched a new update  that tackles some of the toughest navigation challenges around: the interior world.

With Maps version 6.0, which arrived on Android devices today, users can now find the nearest bathrooms, ATMs and the locations of individual departments inside some of the largest retail stores, such as Ikea, Home Depot, and Macy’s locations nationwide.

The maps update will also provide detailed location information for 18 major airports … Continue Reading

Waze raises $30M for its crowdsourced driving app, hits 7M users

There’s no stopping Waze, the crowdsourced app that offers free GPS navigation. The company announced today that it has raised another $30 million in growth funding, led by Horizon Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Waze also confirmed that it has topped over 7 million users, thanks to its aggressive global expansion.

The news comes on the heels of Waze’s recently launched 3.0 version, which boasts a revamped design, search integration, and more. The … Continue Reading

LightSquared blames GPS industry for interference problems

Mobile broadband startup LightSquared is blaming the GPS industry for the interference problems between GPS enabled-services and its LTE high-speed wireless network, the company stated Thursday in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission.

Regulators are still reviewing LightSquared’s network to determine the extent of those interference problems and won’t allow the company to deploy without approval. The company is understandably anxious to get the network up, since its core business model depends on providing … Continue Reading

Oh snap, FCC may kill LightSquared to save GPS services

The Federal Communications Commission and other regulators are prepared to stop wireless broadband startup LightSquared from operating if its network poses any risk to GPS services, the government agencies stated Tuesday during their monthly meeting, reports Reuters.

LightSquared’s business model relies on supplying outside companies with wholesale access to its high-speed wireless network, which operates on a portion of the wireless spectrum that causes interference to GPS. That interference prevents the estimated 500 million GPS-enabled … Continue Reading

LightSquared pays Sprint $9B to build its new 4G LTE network

Wireless carrier Sprint announced today it has struck a 15-year agreement with upcoming 4G wireless provider LightSquared, which could allow Sprint to move on from WiMax 4G to more-promsing 4G LTE technology.

The news is good for Sprint, which reported an $847 million second quarter loss. The LightSquared deal would give Sprint $9 billion in cash and credits over 11 years to build a 4G LTE network that LightSquared can sell wholesale and Sprint can … Continue Reading

With Bagtrakka, you’ll never lose your luggage again

Shudder at the thought of checking in your luggage at the airport? Bagtrakka may be the solution for you.

Developed by UK-based startup Global Location Systems, Bagtrakka is a small device that can track your luggage in case it gets lost or stolen.

GLS chief technology officer Alex Paterson announced the device at our MobileBeat 2011 conference today as part of our startup competition. Bagtrakka uses GSM (cellular) and GPS technology to triangulate your bag’s … Continue Reading

Nevermind the GPS interference, LightSquared has a solution

Wholesale mobile broadband provider LightSquared issued a new plan today outlining a solution for the GPS interference problems caused by the company’s 4G LTE wireless network.

LightSquared says the solution will “protect the public’s stake in GPS” and won’t delay launching the company’s wireless network in the first half of 2012, which could be an overly positive estimate judging from the assessment of problems associated with correcting the interference problems.

“This is a solution which … Continue Reading

Uh oh, LightSquared’s network is screwing with GPS

New government tests conducted by two separate agencies have concluded that LightSquared‘s mobile broadband network interferes with the signal on all GPS devices.

The news doesn’t bode well for the Virginia-based wireless startup company, which needs the Federal Communication Commission’s approval to launch its LTE mobile broadband network. LightSquared’s business model relies on selling wholesale access to its network to outside companies.

Devices that use GPS technology like mobile phones, General Motors’ OnStar emergency response … Continue Reading

Here are Stanford's StartX nine demo day darlings

Nine companies showed their stuff at SSE Labs‘ demo day in Palo Alto, Calif., today. SSE Labs is a startup accelerator that is actually now named StartX. The accelerator provides student entrepreneurs with housing, office space, cash stipends, workshops and mentorship — much like storied incubator Y Combinator, except the advisors don’t take an equity stake in any of the companies.

This was StartX’s second demo day. Students and companies spend months preparing to present … Continue Reading

Waze revs up crowdsourced driving app with $25M

Waze, makers of an innovative crowdsourced app that offers free driving directions, is on a roll. The company just announced that it has scored $25 million in a second round of funding.

Waze says the funding will be used to “expand corporate and marketing initiatives,” build up its core infrastructure, and increase its staff as the company moves its headquarters from Tel Aviv to Palo Alto. In an interview, the company told VentureBeat that its … Continue Reading

New Facebook patent could threaten Foursquare and Gowalla

While Facebook Places wasn’t the first on the location-based services scene, it may have just became the top dog. According to Eric Sherman at CBS’s BNET site, the company has been granted a very broad patent, filed in 2007, called “Systems and methods for automatically locating Web-based social network members.”

If the patent sounds a lot like targeting social network users using their smartphones and allowing them to check in to addresses, then you’ve pretty … Continue Reading

Nike iPhone app keeps track of where, how fast you run

There was a time when going out for a run meant putting on some sneakers and leaving for a jog around the park. But if you need any indication of how far we’ve come, take a look at Nike’s latest Nike+ GPS app for the iPhone, released today on Apple’s App Store.

Using the iPhone’s GPS and accelerometer, the app lets you track not only your pace, distance, and calories when you go out for … Continue Reading

Controversy erupts over Apple software patent "copying" existing app's home screen

Today’s Apple controversy: Apparently, a recent mobile app patent filed by Apple is blatantly copying the home screen of an existing application — the local search app Where To — reports GigaOm.

The problem with that analysis? After reading Apple’s patent, which details methods for accessing travel services on portable devices, it’s clear that Apple isn’t intending to steal the app’s functionality — it’s merely using it as an example.

Pictured in Apple’s patent app … Continue Reading

Waze tells Twitter, Facebook friends where you're driving

Waze, the company that’s specialized in providing crowdsourced driving directions, is venturing deeper into the social sphere by integrating Twitter and Facebook into the service.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup, which also has offices in Israel, is building what it calls a geo-community: Users are creating content for the service by leaving the app running, feeding traffic and map information into Waze for other users to access. Now, Waze wants to beef up social navigation … Continue Reading

Smartphones taking over the navigation market (study)

More speed bumps lie ahead for in-car navigation devices. As maps are becoming a standard feature in smartphones, handheld devices are truly taking over the navigation market for cars, according to a recent report by market research firm iSuppli.

The report indicates that smartphones have already become the most important platform for maps and navigation, and the number of smartphone-based navigation systems will increase tenfold this year, not to mention hitting numbers nearly forty times … Continue Reading