How many times have you or someone you know lost a pet? I’ve been looking for something I can use to keep track of my dog, Moto, when we take him out of the house — you know, in case he starts to chase a squirrel and gets off leash. The Pet Tracker is the best thing I’ve found so far. It’s a reasonably small puck (with wings) that securely attaches to your dog’s leash, and it features a cellular connection to provide data on your pet’s whereabouts. It will also provide information about the device itself. The Pet Tracker charges on an included charging base in under a few hours, and in normal usage with Moto in the house most of the time, and the Pet Tracker reasonably close to the charging base, I’ve seen it last upwards of one week.

The concept isn’t new, but it’s done in a way that completely takes the frustration out of using something to track your pets. After you set up and register your Pet Tracker through their website, you’re able to define geo-fences that will alert you whenever the device is outside of that zone (from 75 to around 1,000 yards). This includes push notifications on your iPhone through the company’s iPhone app, text messages, and emails that even include a snapshot of a map with your pet’s location. You can also get alerts when the battery on the unit is low to remind you to charge it, too.

While the features of the Pet Tracker are impressive, they aren’t always completely accurate, and don’t offer 100% perfect real-time information about your pet all of the time. Additionally, the web site interface could be simplified and could be a bit faster to load and navigate.

Even so, having something that combines an always-on connection with GPS into a small and compact package is refreshing when other options are bulky and incredibly expensive. That’s not to say that the Pet Tracker is totally inexpensive — it’s $99.95 for the package with one month of monitoring service, and $7.95 a month after that. Compared to other alternatives though, this is easily the best all-in-one solution by far. Make sure to check out all of the photos in the gallery.

Telenav on Tuesday announced the company’s “Scout for Apps” HTML5 voice-guided GPS navigation service. The service is being offered to developers who are looking for a free, turn-by-turn, voice-guided GPS navigation solution that can be built directly into their apps or websites, and the first mobile apps to incorporate Telenav’s service are scheduled to roll out soon. Avantar’s popular Yellow Pages app, which serves more than 90 million listings each month, will be among the first to incorporate the Scout for Apps service. “Currently, when users click on an address in our Yellow Pages app, we provide a standard map experience to help users get to their desired destinations,” said Adrian Ochoa, CEO of Avantar. “Once we launch with Scout for Apps, our customers will receive full-blown turn-by-turn, voice-guided directions, and they will never have to leave our app to get those directions and guidance. We love being able to offer this type of service on our platform.” Read on for more.

Telenav has also updated its browser-based Scout.me navigation service to allow users to send HTML5 voice-guided navigation instructions directly to their smartphones through either a text message or email. Users can also share their locations with Facebook friends and Twitter followers, allowing others to navigate to the same location.

“Because Scout for Apps is browser-based, we will be able to rapidly and consistently update the service moving forward,” said Sal Dhanani, co-founder and vice president of products for Telenav. “Further, these updates will roll out immediately to consumers, so developers know that their customers will continue to receive our most updated technology. We will continue to work with developers to add or update features and enhance usability based on feedback.”

Dhanani continued, “Launching Scout for Apps allows us to offer our services to more people and is a huge milestone for us as we continue to work toward our vision of bringing daily personalized navigation to people wherever they go and whenever they need it.”

I was able to test the company’s new “send to phone navigation” feature and while I found it useful, there were a few hiccups. The service is able to suggest interesting and rather unique places to visit, however at times I found it quite sluggish, with cluttered and sometimes outdated results. Once I selected a location, however, the GPS worked as intended. Telenav’s press release follows below.

Scout™ for Apps, Telenav’s HTML5 Voice-Guided GPS Navigation Service, Now Open to All Developers
First available for consumers on Scout.me and shareable via text, email, Facebook and Twitter;
Launching soon on several mobile apps including Yellow Pages, AroundMe, Life360 and WedVite

Sunnyvale, Calif. — March 27, 2012 — Telenav, Inc. (NASDAQ: TNAV), the leader in personalized navigation, today opened its free Scout for Apps service to all mobile web and app developers. Scout for Apps gives developers an easy way to offer consumers free, turn-by-turn, voice-guided GPS navigation, directly from their app or website.

Scout for Apps is the first HTML5, browser-based, voice-guided turn-by-turn GPS navigation service for mobile phones. Developers can integrate the service by simply adding one line of code, making it ideal for social, travel and shopping apps, or any other app or website that includes points of interest, places or addresses.

The first mobile apps incorporating Scout for Apps are scheduled to roll out soon, including an update to Avantar’s popular Yellow Pages app serving more than 90 million listings every month.

“Currently, when users click on an address in our Yellow Pages app, we provide a standard map experience to help users get to their desired destinations,” said Adrian Ochoa, CEO of Avantar. “Once we launch with Scout for Apps, our customers will receive full-blown turn-by-turn, voice-guided directions, and they will never have to leave our app to get those directions and guidance. We love being able to offer this type of service on our platform.”

Additionally, Telenav has integrated its browser-based navigation service on the Scout website (www.scout.me), which helps people discover and explore new places and events before they hit the road. Once a user has found an event or place on Scout.me, they can select “Navigate” and choose “Phone” or “Email” in order to send the link to themselves or to someone else via a text message or email. In addition, they can post it to their Facebook wall or share the link via Twitter. Users with compatible phones can then click on the link to launch voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions from Scout for Apps.

“Because Scout for Apps is browser-based, we will be able to rapidly and consistently update the service moving forward,” said Sal Dhanani, co-founder and vice president of products for Telenav. “Further, these updates will roll out immediately to consumers, so developers know that their customers will continue to receive our most updated technology. We will continue to work with developers to add or update features and enhance usability based on feedback.”

Other developers who are already working to implement Scout for Apps and plan on soon launching the HTML5 navigation service as part of their apps include:

AroundMe provides its users the ability to search for nearby restaurants, hotels, movie theaters and other businesses based on category and distance from their current location. AroundMe will integrate Scout for Apps to give users navigation to any location they select.

Life360 Family Locator uses GPS and other location technology that allows more than 14 million people to locate their family members using their phones, providing a convenient safety tool that delivers peace of mind. Life360 Family Locator will include Scout for Apps so that, for example, parents can navigate with turn-by-turn directions to pick up their kids at their current locations.

WedVite is a mobile invitation app that allows brides and grooms the ability to share their wedding day information with guests. The app includes details such as directions to the venue, the guest list and gift registry information. WedVite will soon include Scout for Apps to provide guests with the ability to get directions to the wedding and reception.

“Kids aren’t always great about keeping track of what time it is and where they should be. Maybe soccer practice runs over and then they head to the nearby store for a treat afterwards without notifying their parents. Knowing where your kids are at any moment provides peace of mind in these situations,” said Chris Hulls, CEO of Life360. “Scout for Apps means there’s one less thing for our customers to have to worry about when it’s time to pick their kids up – no more following a dot on a map, reading written directions, or cutting and pasting an address into a GPS device. Scout for Apps was so simple to add to our app and it offers so much value to our customers. If you have a location component to your app, I don’t know why you wouldn’t use it.”

Scout for Apps is currently optimized for the iOS platform. Telenav plans to optimize Scout for Apps on Android later this year.

“Launching Scout for Apps allows us to offer our services to more people and is a huge milestone for us as we continue to work toward our vision of bringing daily personalized navigation to people wherever they go and whenever they need it,” added Dhanani.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that mobile applications that integrate advertisements pose privacy and a security risks. The team conducted a study that examined 100,000 apps from the Google Play market and noticed that more than half contained “ad libraries,” while 297 of the apps included “aggressive ad libraries” that could download and run code from remote servers. Researchers also found that more than 48,000 of the apps that were examined could track location via GPS, while others could access call logs, phone numbers and a list of all the apps a user has stored on his or her phone.  Read on for more.

“Running code downloaded from the Internet is problematic because the code could be anything,” said Dr. Xuxian Jiang, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the work. “For example, it could potentially launch a ‘root exploit’ attack to take control of your phone – as demonstrated in a recently discovered piece of Android malware called RootSmart.”

In-app ad libraries, which retrieve advertisements from remote servers and display ads on a user’s smartphone, are provided to developers by Google or other third-parties. The ad libraries receive the same permissions, however, that the user granted to the app itself when it was first installed – regardless of whether the user is aware he or she was granting these same permissions to the ad library.

“To limit exposure to these risks, we need to isolate ad libraries from apps and make sure they don’t have the same permissions,” Jiang said. “The current model of directly embedding ad libraries in mobile apps does make it convenient for app developers, but also fundamentally introduces privacy and security risks. The best solution would be for Google, Apple and other mobile platform providers to take the lead in providing effective ad-isolation mechanisms.”

Study: Including Ads in Mobile Apps Poses Privacy, Security Risks

Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that including ads in mobile applications (apps) poses privacy and security risks. In a recent study of 100,000 apps in the official Google Play market, researchers noticed that more than half contained so-called ad libraries. And 297 of the apps included aggressive ad libraries that were enabled to download and run code from remote servers – which raises significant privacy and security concerns.

“Running code downloaded from the Internet is problematic because the code could be anything,” says Dr. Xuxian Jiang, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the work. “For example, it could potentially launch a ‘root exploit’ attack to take control of your phone – as demonstrated in a recently discovered piece of Android malware called RootSmart.”

In Google Play (formerly known as the Android Market) and other markets, many developers offer free apps. To generate revenue, these app developers incorporate “in-app ad libraries,” which are provided by Google, Apple or other third-parties. These ad libraries retrieve advertisements from remote servers and run the ads on a user’s smartphone periodically. Every time an ad runs, the app developer receives a payment.

This poses potential problems because the ad libraries receive the same permissions that the user granted to the app itself when it was installed – regardless of whether the user was aware he or she was granting permissions to the ad library.

Jiang’s team looked at a sample of 100,000 apps available on Google Play between March and May 2011 and examined the 100 representative ad libraries used by those apps. One significant find was that 297 of the apps (1 out of every 337 apps) used ad libraries “that made use of an unsafe mechanism to fetch and run code from the Internet – a behavior that is not necessary for their mission, yet has troubling privacy and security implications,” Jiang says. But that is only the most extreme example.

Jiang’s team found that 48,139 of the apps (1 in 2.1) had ad libraries that track a user’s location via GPS, presumably to allow an ad library to better target ads to the user. However, 4,190 apps (1 in 23.4) used ad libraries that also allowed advertisers themselves to access a user’s location via GPS. Other information accessed by some ad libraries included call logs, user phone numbers and lists of all the apps a user has stored on his or her phone.

These ad libraries pose security risks because they offer a way for third parties – including hackers – to bypass existing Android security efforts. Specifically, the app itself may be harmless, so it won’t trigger any security concerns. But the app’s ad library may download harmful or invasive code after installation.

“To limit exposure to these risks, we need to isolate ad libraries from apps and make sure they don’t have the same permissions,” Jiang says. “The current model of directly embedding ad libraries in mobile apps does make it convenient for app developers, but also fundamentally introduces privacy and security risks. The best solution would be for Google, Apple and other mobile platform providers to take the lead in providing effective ad-isolation mechanisms.”

The paper, “Unsafe Exposure Analysis of Mobile In-App Advertisements,” was co-authored by Jiang; NC State Ph.D. students Michael Grace and Wu Zhou; and Dr. Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi of the Technical University Darmstadt. The paper will be presented April 17 at the 5th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks in Tucson. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

Philip Falcone’s startup LightSquared planned to deploy a nationwide 4G LTE network in the United States. The firm’s service was found to cause interference with spectrum used by various GPS navigation and tracking solutions, however, forcing the Federal Communications Commission to block the network’s launch. Dish Network is looking to build a similar network and is currently awaiting government approval. Executives and analysts have said that Dish will probably avoid the interference concerns that killed LightSquared’s network, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The satellite company’s frequencies, which are above 2GHz, are far away from those used by GPS devices and Lightsquared’s 1600Mhz band, and are less likely to interfere. “It’s not as close to GPS, so it’s unlikely to interfere,” said Matthew Desch, chief executive officer of Iridium Communications, which operates more than 60 satellites. “But the approval is going to take some time. The FCC is going to make sure they don’t have another LightSquared problem on their hands.” Bryan Kraft, an analyst at Evercore Partners, believes that Dish will gain FCC approval in 6 to 12 months.

Read

In an effort to bypass censorship as well as heat from authorities and copyright owners, The Pirate Bay on Sunday unveiled new plans to “experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air.” The GPS controlled drones will hover over international waters and host parts of the website. “Everyone knows WHAT TPB is. Now they’re going to have to think about WHERE TPB is,” The Pirate Bay team told TorrentFreak. “We’re already the most resilient and the most down to earth. That’s why we need to lift off, being this connected to the ground doesn’t feel appropriate to us anymore.” The Pirate Bay has been the subject of a number of raids and investigations stemming from numerous claims of copyright infringement. In order to stay afloat, the service seemingly must find new and innovative ways to reach the masses. ”We’re just starting so we haven’t figured everything out yet. But we can’t limit ourselves to hosting things just on land anymore,” the team stated on its blog. “These Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS) are just the first attempt. With modern radio transmitters we can get over 100Mbps per node up to 50km away. For the proxy system we’re building, that’s more than enough.”

[Via TorrentFreak]

Read

LightSquared announced on Tuesday that the company plans to cut its workforce by 45% in an effort to cut costs. ”This and other cost savings measures will allow LightSquared to continue to navigate the regulatory process as it works with the appropriate government agencies to find solutions to the GPS interference issue and bring its $14 billion privately funded wireless broadband network to more than 260 million Americans,” the company said in a statement to Reuters. Last week, the FCC announced that it would block the company’s planned 4G LTE network due to issues concerning GPS interference. LightSquared currently employs 330 people and according to Reuters, the company is not currently considering bankruptcy.

Read

LightSquared and former FCC chief engineer Edmond Thomas on Wednesday said the GPS test devices that were used by the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee (PNT EXCOM) to test its new network were rigged by “manufacturers of GPS receivers and government end users to produce bogus results.” The company said that devices from GPS manufacturers, which have claimed LightSquared’s network interferes with GPS communications, were “cherry picked” in secret and that independent authorities were not allowed to partake or oversee the tests or test results. In addition, LightSquared said the tests focused on obsolete technology that is only used in “niche market devices” and that are “least able to withstand potential interference” from wireless networks. Read on for more.

After a list of the test devices was released to LightSquared, the company found that the only mass market device that reportedly failed the government’s tests actually “performed flawlessly during Technical Working Group” testing. The government also reportedly tested LightSquared’s network at a power level that is 32-times greater than the level at which it will actually operate.

LightSquared is relying on FCC approval to solidify a contract with Sprint to help build out the carrier’s 4G LTE network. Sprint most recently gave LightSquared an additional 30 days to gain FCC approval, but the government has said none of LightSquared’s proposed fixes will help it gain approval.

“Transparency is the only way taxpayers can be assured that the testing process is not manipulated to benefit one particular set of self interests,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday. “LightSquared is confident that a fair process will allow the company to move forward with its plan to deliver wireless broadband to hundreds of millions of consumers.” LightSquared’s full press release follows below.

Former FCC Chief Engineer and LightSquared Question Validity of Test Results Rigged by GPS Industry Insiders

After learning that some devices tested have been out of production for over a decade, the parties call on NTIA to objectively audit testing and apply proposed mitigation standards

RESTON, Va., January 18, 2012 – LightSquared said today that the process used to test GPS devices by Air Force Space Command on behalf of the Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Executive Committee (PNT EXCOM) was rigged by manufacturers of GPS receivers and government end users to produce bogus results, and revealed details of the testing to document its accusations.

PNT EXCOM advises and coordinates among U.S. government agencies on GPS matters and is comprised of representatives from those agencies with GPS expertise. LightSquared has called on the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to objectively re-evaluate this initial round of testing and also to evaluate mitigation proposals the company has proposed. Additionally, the company has called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the NTIA to conduct the second round of tests on high-precision devices at an independent laboratory to ensure objectivity and transparency.

In a call with reporters, Jeff Carlisle, LightSquared’s Executive Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Public Policy; and Geoff Stearn, LightSquared’s Vice President for Spectrum Development; outlined how GPS industry insiders and government end users manipulated the latest round of tests to generate biased results. Also on the call was Edmond Thomas, former chief engineer at the FCC who explained how fair and accurate testing should be conducted.

1. Testing was shrouded in secrecy, no transparency. The GPS manufacturers cherry-picked the devices in secret without any independent oversight authority in place or input from LightSquared. The GPS manufacturers and the government end users put non-disclosure agreements in place for the PNT EXCOM’s tests, preventing any input by an independent authority or from LightSquared before the tests began. This secrecy made it impossible for independent experts to properly oversee or challenge the process and results, thereby leaving taxpayers who paid for the testing no option but to take the PNT EXCOM’s word for it.

2. The testing protocol deliberately focused on obsolete and niche market devices that were least able to withstand potential interference. When LightSquared finally obtained a list of the devices tested, after all testing in this first phase of tests had been completed, it was able to determine that the testing included many discontinued or niche market devices with poor filters or no filters. The units tested represent less than one percent of the contemporary universe of GPS devices. In fact, the only mass market device alleged to “fail” during this round of testing performed flawlessly during the Technical Working Group testing, which used best practice protocols agreed to by all parties, thus raising doubts about the integrity of PNT EXCOM’s process.

3. The testing standard does not reflect reality. To guarantee favorable results, the PNT EXCOM selected an extremely conservative definition of failure – one dB of interference. Independent experts agree that a one dB threshold can only be detected in laboratory settings and has no impact on GPS positional accuracy or user experience. In fact, GPS devices are designed with the ability to withstand eight dB or more of loss of sensitivity due to man-caused and natural interference. By setting the definition of interference at one dB, the testing was rigged to ensure that most receivers would fail. It should be noted that PNT EXCOM and others have justified the one dB threshold by citing an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard. However, that standard explicitly states that it does not apply to general purpose GPS receivers.

GPS and government end users should have opened the process for transparent review, chosen a representative sample of devices that reflect the scope of general purpose GPS receivers in the marketplace today, applied best practice standards to the testing protocol, and – most importantly, the tests should have been conducted by an independent laboratory rather than by the GPS manufacturers themselves, since they had a large incentive to ensure that the tested receivers would not pass the testing.

LightSquared recommends that reporters consider asking PNT EXCOM the following questions to ensure accountability:

Why did the government choose to ignore LightSquared’s proposed power levels?

Why did the government choose a power level 32 times greater than the level at which LightSquared will operate?

Why did the test protocol select the 1dB degradation to noise as the interference standard, since it does not apply to general purpose GPS receivers and GPS units are typically designed with an 8dB level of tolerance?

Who determined what acceptable interference is for the current round of testing?

What is that standard?

Why was the testing conducted using outdated/discontinued devices rather than a representative sample of what is currently in the market?

Isn’t it a violation of conflict of interest laws for representatives of GPS manufacturers to sit on the PNT advisory board and play a central role in its consideration of LightSquared when those companies are actively lobbying on the same issue?

Is it fair that taxpayers funded a testing regime they cannot review?

LightSquared has agreed to meet every technical guideline requested by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), FCC and NTIA and will continue to work in collaboration with the federal government to resolve the GPS interference issues. The secretive behavior of the PNT EXCOM indicates a co-opted process. The inappropriate influence of the private sector on their decision-making has been brought to the attention of NASA’s Inspector General in a separate conflict of interest complaint filed by LightSquared.

LightSquared is asking for fair and transparent oversight of the testing process by the FCC and NTIA, much like the agencies provided in the first round of testing that was openly agreed to by all parties. Transparency is the only way taxpayers can be assured that the testing process is not manipulated to benefit one particular set of self interests. LightSquared is confident that a fair process will allow the company to move forward with its plan to deliver wireless broadband to hundreds of millions of consumers.

In a memo released on Friday, the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee said the nine federal agencies that make up the body have concluded unanimously that none of LightSquared’s proposals would overcome the network’s interference with GPS technologies. The announcement comes as a crushing blow for the startup, which is looking to build an LTE network with the company’s 1600MHz frequency. Preliminary testing last year showed that LightSquared’s planned network interfered with GPS. After a handful of rebuttals, changes, and more testing, the government has decided to pull the plug and request no further testing. The Federal Aviation Administration also concluded the network would interfere with aircraft safety systems.”Based upon this testing and analysis, there appear to be no practical solutions or mitigations that would permit the LightSquared broadband service, as proposed, to operate in the next few months or years without significantly interfering with GPS. As a result, no additional testing is warranted at this time,” the memo said. LightSquared slammed the decision, claiming the agency has a biased agenda that is in favor of the GPS industry. Late last year, LightSquared reiterated that the GPS industry is at fault and it demanded approval from the FCC to begin deploying its network.

Read

LightSquared has asked NASA’s inspector general to investigate whether or not an advisor to federal agencies has conflicts of interest that make it unfair for him to determine whether or not LightSquared’s 4G LTE network interferes with GPS networks. The advisor was named as Bradford Parkinson, who works both as a vice chairman of Trimble Navigation, an industry board that advises federal agencies on GPS technology, and also as a Stanford University professor, The Wall Street Journal said Friday. “His involvement on both has been known by everyone involved since concerns of GPS interference by LightSquared were raised,” a GPS coalition spokesperson Dale Leibach told The Wall Street Journal. Read on for more.

In December, federal officials from the Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense said that LightSquared’s 4G LTE network still interferes with GPS signals, but LightSquared has argued that a new antenna developed in partnership with PC-TEL resolves most of the FCC’s concerns. The company currently has a contract to provide Sprint with part of its new 4G LTE network, but LightSquared must gain FCC approval to validate the terms. LightSquared was originally given until the end of 2011 to gain approval but Sprint, on January 3rd, said it will give the company another 30 days to get a blessing from the FCC. Unfortunately, The Wall Street Journal explained that LightSquared must now gain approval from the Department of Defense before it can convince the FCC its technology is harmless to GPS networks.

Read

LightSquared on Tuesday issued a letter to the Federal Communications Commission ostensibly demanding approval to build out its 4G LTE network. LightSquared executive vice president of regulatory affairs and public policy Jeff Carlisle argued that the GPS industry has had almost 10 years to address issues that cause GPS satellite signals to partially transmit on spectrum that LightSquared has licensed. The letter was written in response to an announcement earlier this week from federal officials, stating that they were still concerned about interference LightSquared’s network causes with GPS equipment after conducting a new investigation into the matter. “LightSquared has had FCC authorization to build its network for over eight years and that authorization was endorsed by the GPS industry, and fully reviewed and allowed to proceed by several other government agencies,” Carlisle wrote in the letter. “Commercial GPS device-makers have had nearly a decade to design and sell devices that do not infringe on LightSquared’s licensed spectrum. They have no right to complain in the eleventh-hour about incompatibility when they had ample opportunity to avoid this problem.” A link to LightSquared’s full letter follows below.

Read [PDF]

LightSquared’s intentions to build a brand new 4G LTE network has gained nationwide attention, but over the past few months the attention has been turned to the network’s tendency to interfere with GPS devices. On Thursday, federal officials said they were still concerned about GPS interference despite a number of measures LightSquared has taken to address those issues. The company announced in late October that it worked with PCTEL to develop a new antenna that “[resolves] concerns over high precision GPS receivers.” Unfortunately, the Department of Defense and the Department of Transportation still see an interference problem with the network. Read on for more.

“LightSquared signals caused harmful interference to the majority of… general purpose GPS receivers,” Anthony Russo, the director of the National Coordination Office for spaced-based positioning, navigation and timing, said in a statement. LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja believes that LightSquared isn’t at fault, however. “The interference issues are not caused by LightSquared’s spectrum, but by GPS devices looking into spectrum that is licensed to LightSquared,” Ahuja explained to The Wall Street Journal, noting that LightSquared “ profoundly [disagrees] with the conclusions drawn with respect to general navigation devices.” Ahuja said his company will work with the FAA to address a single remaining issue that is related to terrain avoidance systems.

Read

TeleNav just announced that the company will soon introduce a brand new voice-guided GPS navigation service for use in mobile apps and web sites. The innovative navigation solution will be HTML5-based and it will include spoken turn-by-turn directions. By using one line of code, TeleNav will provide free navigation to any mobile app or mobile web site, supplanting the need in many cases for something static like Google Maps. TeleNav let us know that this service will be free even for non-TeleNav subscribers, which is amazing if you think about it. The service will be launching “early next year,” though developers can start testing the service starting today. TeleNav’s full press release is included after the break.

TeleNav Announces World’s First HTML5 Browser-Based, Voice-Guided, Turn-by-Turn GPS Navigation Service

Free for both developers and consumers; Access available now for select developers

Sunnyvale, California — Dec. 15, 2011 – TeleNav, Inc. (NASDAQ: TNAV), one of the largest global wireless location-based services providers, today announced that it has created the first HTML5 browser-based, voice-guided, turn-by-turn GPS navigation service for mobile devices. By simply adding one line of code, developers of mobile websites or of apps with local content will have a free and easy way to integrate full GPS turn-by-turn directions into their services, creating a more seamless user experience and increasing user engagement and time spent within their applications.

Similar to TeleNav’s award-winning GPS navigation application, the HTML5 navigation service will include full-color moving maps, audio directions, and automatic rerouting if the driver misses a turn. TeleNav’s HTML5 navigation service will be free for both developers and consumers and will support all major mobile platforms. 

“This is an enormous amount of added value for any mobile, location-based website or app focused on travel, shopping, local search, deals and more,” said Sal Dhanani, co-founder and vice president of products for TeleNav. “With one line of code, you can give your customers one-click access to premium, voice-guided turn-by-turn directions to any location, including hotels, restaurants, merchants or deal locations. Customers never need to leave your app.”

TeleNav would like to partner with select developers to test the service. Interested mobile website publishers and app developers can apply for early access by visiting TeleNav’s website at www.telenav.com/developer/HTML5.

TeleNav expects to publicly launch its HTML5 service in early 2012. Consumers will not need to be current TeleNav customers but will need to have an HTML5-compatible feature phone or smartphone.

Google has announced a new privacy option that allows users to opt out of having their wireless routers included in the Google Location Server. That’s right, you have to opt out, not in. Here’s how Google Location Server works: when you’re walking around town trying to figure out your location using your smartphone and Google Maps, your phone can either use GPS or a faster, more battery efficient method that determines your location based on local wireless networks. Google maintains a database of local wireless access points but, if you don’t want to be included in it, you can simply change your router SSID (the network name that you broadcast) to include “_nomap” at the end of the access point name. Once you’ve done that, Google will not include your wireless access point in its Google Location Server database. “As we explored different approaches for opting-out access points from the Google Location Server, we found that a method based on wireless network names provides the right balance of simplicity as well as protection against abuse,” Google’s global privacy counsel Peter Felischer said in a blog post. “Specifically, this approach helps protect against others opting out your access point without your permission.”

Read

LightSquared announced on Thursday that, in cooperating with PCTEL, it has developed a new antenna that will help “resolve concerns over high precision GPS receivers.” LightSquared’s 4G LTE network, which will be deployed in the 1600MHz frequency spectrum with Sprint, has been found to interfere with the frequencies used by GPS and personal navigation systems. The new antenna helps alleviate those concerns, despite speculation that a fix could require billions of dollars and take upwards of a decade. “PCTEL has developed GPS antenna solutions that have solved a variety of interference issues that others said were unsolvable,” LightSquared executive vice president Martin Harriman said. “Their wideband antenna provides an efficient and elegant solution for thousands of high precision device users.” The new solution will soon undergo testing with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration as well as with the Federal Communications Commission. Read on for the full press release.

LightSquared and PCTEL Protect High Precision GPS Applications

LightSquared and PCTEL Collaboration Solves High Precision GPS Interference

RESTON, Va., Oct. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — LightSquared, a wholesale carrier building a nationwide wireless broadband network that will create consumer choice and drive industry innovation, has collaborated with PCTEL (NASDAQ: PCTI), a global leader in the design and development of innovative antenna solutions, to resolve concerns over high precision GPS receivers.

PCTEL has developed an antenna that will allow existing high precision users to retrofit their GPS devices to make them compatible with LightSquared’s network. This antenna provides high precision GPS users with another in a series of solutions to make their equipment LightSquared-compatible.

“PCTEL has developed GPS antenna solutions that have solved a variety of interference issues that others said were unsolvable. Their wideband antenna provides an efficient and elegant solution for thousands of high precision device users,” said Martin Harriman, executive vice president of ecosystem development and satellite business at LightSquared.

PCTEL’s antenna solutions address applications including public safety, agriculture, construction and aviation. The new antenna will be independently tested with a range of receivers at the world-renowned Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ.

“Over the last year, we have worked closely with LightSquared to develop a narrowband solution to interference issues. Our current work with LightSquared will enable wideband high precision users to have a state-of-the-art solution for their unique positioning needs. We look forward to developing other multiband and wideband high rejection GPS antenna products with LightSquared to bring high precision technology to new levels,” said Jeff Miller, PCTEL’s senior vice president of sales and marketing.

Despite claims by some GPS device manufacturers that an interference solution would take ten years and billions of dollars to develop, the private marketplace has continued to develop inexpensive solutions using existing technology in just a matter of weeks. PCTEL is the third company to collaborate with LightSquared on a solution to high-precision GPS interference issues. Earlier this month, GPS device maker Javad GNSS announced the design of antennas that can be retrofitted onto existing devices and the development of new receivers that are compatible with LightSquared’s network. Additionally, Partron America has created a filtering component that costs only $6.

These solutions will undergo extensive National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) testing in the coming weeks.  Preliminary testing results leave LightSquared confident that the debate over its network and interference from GPS signals will be resolved.

LightSquared’s mission is to build a world-class 4G-LTE network that will bring lower prices, better service and more competition to 260 million Americans by 2015. It is through these alliances with engineering experts that new GPS interference solutions have been developed, keeping the company’s deployment plan on track so that all Americans can realize the benefits of a new nationwide wireless broadband network.

Microsoft has updated its Windows Phone platform to address what is now presumed to have been a bug that caused phones to gather location data before a user opted in to such services. Windows Phone developer Rafael Rivera last week revealed that Microsoft’s mobile platform was exhibiting behavior that directly contradicted earlier claims the company made to the United States government. Microsoft’s new “Mango” update, however, appears to have remedied the matter. Read on for more.

“Microsoft only collects information to help determine a phone’s approximate location if (a) the user has allowed an application to access and use location data, and (b) that application actually requests the location data,” Microsoft said recently in a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives. Meanwhile, Rivera discovered that Windows Phone devices began collecting and transmitting “pin-point accurate positioning information” before users were even given the option to opt into such a service.

This behavior now appears to have been a bug. Rivera analyzed the latest version of Windows Phone currently being pushed out to smartphones around the world, and he found that the new OS no longer collects location data until users opt in.

“I have confirmed that Windows Phone ‘Mango’ no longer sends location data prior to being granted permission to do so,” Rivera wrote in a blog post earlier this week. “The behavior I’m now seeing is perfectly aligned with Microsoft’s letter to the U.S. House of Representatives.”

Pending lawsuits against Microsoft surrounding the collection of location data will no doubt continue, but it appears as though Windows Phone’s collection of positioning data is now completely transparent and in line with descriptions provided in the terms of use.