geo

Now you can play Foursquare anywhere

Attention, suburbanites: You, too, can be the mayor of your local Home Depot.

That's because New York-based mobile location-sharing service Foursquare has made a subtle but big improvement. It's no longer restricted to a list of a few dozen cities in North America and Europe, which means that people anywhere in the world can use their mobile phones to "check in" through the service. (Foursquare currently has applications for the iPhone, Palm Pre, and Google Android, as well as a BlackBerry app in development and a mobile Web site.) The new feature is considered to currently … Read more

Twitter buys developers of GeoAPI

Twitter is usually the subject of steamy acquisition rumors, but chose perhaps the deadest afternoon of the business year to announce that it has made an acquisition of its own.

Twitter has bought Mixer Labs, the company that created the GeoAPI location service for developers building application atop Twitter. Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter, announced the acquisition on the company's blog, saying "when current location is added to tweets, new and valuable services emerge--everything from breaking news to finding friends or local businesses can be dramatically enhanced."

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it … Read more

Location start-up SimpleGeo maps out funding

Venture firm First Round Capital has led the Series A funding round for start-up SimpleGeo, a buzzed-about new company that has built a product for easy integration of "location" features into Web and mobile apps, according to multiple sources familiar with the deal.

Also contributing to the round, sources say, are Redpoint Ventures, Freestyle Capital, and many of the usual suspects from Silicon Valley's merry band of angel investors: among them are Ron Conway, Digg founder Kevin Rose, ex-Googler Chris Sacca, ubiquitous personality Gary Vaynerchuk, and Delicious founder Joshua Schachter. One detail we weren't able to … Read more

SimpleGeo navigates from stealth to beta

Location awareness is hot, from gamelike social services such as Foursquare and Gowalla to platforms such as Google Latitude. Now one start-up is hoping to make it as easy for any company to integrate into a Web or mobile service as it is for retailers to use PayPal. Meet SimpleGeo, which on Thursday is launching into a private beta.

Boulder, Colo.-based SimpleGeo, co-founded by former Digg engineer Joe Stump and Socialthing founder Matt Galligan (who sold the would-be FriendFeed competitor to AOL), started out as a company called Crash Corp. earlier this year. The goal was to make augmented-reality … Read more

Blackra1n update adds unlock, Mac support

iPhone OS hacker, GeoHot, released an updated version of Blackra1n earlier this week, a jailbreak utility for iPhone OS 3.1.2 and iPhone baseband 05.11.07 that now includes a carrier unlock that lets you use the iPhone on any GSM carrier.

We covered the initial release of Blackra1n that was Windows only, but now a Mac version of Blackra1n is available. Mac users can use Blackra1n to jailbreak or unlock all iPhone and iPod Touch models regardless of its hardware generation.

Using the application is simple. You just connect the iPhone or iPod Touch using the standard … Read more

Blackra1n RC3 unlocks iPhone 3GS

iPhone OS hacker GeoHot released Blackra1n RC3 Tuesday, an updated jailbreak and unlock utility for the Apple iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch.

This version provides true carrier unlocking for iPhone OS 3.1.2 and baseband 05.11.07 by taking advantage of at+xemm crash exploit discovered by ih8sn0w.

The Blackra1n jailbreak process installs a new app--called Sn0w--onto an iPhone. It unlocks your iPhone, making it usable on any GSM carrier network. More information about the jailbreak can be found on GeoHot's blog.

Please note that by jailbreaking an iPhone, you may be violating your terms of service … Read more

iPhone OS 3.1.2 unlock arrives this week

iPhone OS hacker GeoHot has announced the successful creation of an iPhone unlock for the iPhone OS 3.1.2 baseband. The new app called, Blacksn0w, will allow iPhone users to use their phone on non-Apple sanctioned carriers.

You'll have to wait a bit though, since the application will not be released by GeoHot until November 4th, 2009.

GeoHot also posted this YouTube video demonstrating the exploit:

Blackra1n RC2 supports tethered 3GS jailbreak

iPhone OS hacker GeoHot released Blackra1n RC2 today, an updated jailbreak utility for the Apple iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch.

This version provides a tethering jailbreak for the new iPhone 3GS with the updated bootrom from Apple. According to GeoHot's blog, these new features are included:

Fixed 3G issues Tethered jailbreak for 3.1 OOTB ipt 8GB and new 3GS units Fixed Icy issues Both Windows and Mac

He also points out that "if you used RC1 with success," then there is no need to rerun Blackra1n RC2 on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Updated October 26, … Read more

Blackra1n jailbreaks iPhone OS 3.1.2

iPhone OS hacker, GeoHot, released Blackra1n this weekend, a new jailbreak utility for iPhone OS 3.1.2.

The new Windows-only utility follows on the heels of Purplera1n and you can download it now. Windows users can use it to jailbreak iPhone OS 3.1.2 on all iPhone and iPod Touch models regardless of their hardware generation. Using the application is simple. You just plug in your iPhone or iPod Touch using the standard USB sync cable and follow the instructions below.

Difficulty level: Easy

What you need: >PC running Windows XP or Vista >Download Blackra1n using … Read more

Take down the enemy, while getting in some shopping

Ever been out on patrol and had a sudden urge for chapli kabobs with a side of bendai?

That's the sort of mix-and-match experience that could be addressed through a new deal between DARPA and Geosemble Technologies, which makes a product called GeoXray that aims to quickly answer the question "What's around here?" for both government agencies and civilian users. In a nutshell, it works this way: you can peruse dining options or identify enemy assembly areas simply by clicking on aerial images of your area of operations.

GeoXray uses artificial intelligence to assign textual keywords … Read more