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Google is retiring its Latitude location-sharing service on August 9th

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Re: Google is retiring its Latitude location-sharing service on August 9th

#41

Post by digitalengineer »

apa-sl wrote: post #39
digitalengineer wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a thought but your icon... I was expecting a icon or visual along the lines of StarTrek. Would be cool. EDIT: Quick sketch for icon concept: http://i.imgur.com/kJyDm5G.jpg Edit #2: the reaction below is not about the sketch, just the possibility of StarTrek like visuals.

We looked at this concept but results were not so good. But there is some visual effect after teleportation is completed. We will work on more that in further releases. For now we have to address some issuess and Android :-) P.S. My friend just tested all sharing options on his iPhone5 - worked fine. It must have been some random crash in your case. Nevertheless it will be visible in our statistics.

Don't freak out when you see the results. I tested it about 6 times ;-) Will reboot tonight and try again. (I'm on wifi if that matters). Sharing with other service was okay.

Re: Google is retiring its Latitude location-sharing service on August 9th

#42

Post by brazzy »

hahainternet wrote: post #33
brazzy wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Complete nonsense. Google aren't competing with Facebook directly at all! Like hell they aren't. > What they are doing is making Google+ the backend for any person to person interaction across their services. I.e. a competition to Facebook. > If people can't be bothered to open an app and tap on the screen a few times then really nobody should be aiming at that market. Wanting a system where you just mash a button…

> I.e. a competition to Facebook. Since when has Facebook been the backend for interaction across Facebook's services? That's nonsense. The closest Google+ gets to Facebook is that they both allow you to share content between friends. Google wants it to be the backend to the various features like Maps, Search, Mail. Facebook on the other hand wants to be the frontend, the site that you go to. If I can't convince you…

> Google wants it to be the backend to the various features like Maps, Search, Mail. Facebook on the other hand wants to be the frontend, the site that you go to.

When Google cancels the separate service and folds it into G+, as with Latitude, as with Reader, then it becomes the frontend as well. I fail to see a substantial difference.

> Google have made it very clear what they're doing and why they're doing it. Perhaps view some of the session videos from IO.

Perhaps start entertaining the notion that what people say they do (and especially why) isn't necessarily what they do (and especially why).

Re: Google is retiring its Latitude location-sharing service on August 9th

#43

Post by laumars »

martingordon wrote: post #28
laumars wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My friends and I use Glympse. (Android and iOS) edit: I've just noticed that Glympse has been recommended a few times in this thread already. I predict downloads for Glympse will sky-rocket over the coming days / weeks.

How does Glympse make money?

Good question. I don't know.

Re: Google is retiring its Latitude location-sharing service on August 9th

#44

Post by gcb0 »

I try to be conscious and not buy the new gadget/car year. I'm still holding up a nexus one. Working around all the hardware bugs... But i probably will not be able to install the huge g+ crap app just for latitude because this phone has like few hundred megabytes for apps..

Re: Google is retiring its Latitude location-sharing service on August 9th

#45

Post by digitalengineer »

apa-sl wrote: post #39
digitalengineer wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a thought but your icon... I was expecting a icon or visual along the lines of StarTrek. Would be cool. EDIT: Quick sketch for icon concept: http://i.imgur.com/kJyDm5G.jpg Edit #2: the reaction below is not about the sketch, just the possibility of StarTrek like visuals.

We looked at this concept but results were not so good. But there is some visual effect after teleportation is completed. We will work on more that in further releases. For now we have to address some issuess and Android :-) P.S. My friend just tested all sharing options on his iPhone5 - worked fine. It must have been some random crash in your case. Nevertheless it will be visible in our statistics.

I added a sketch to my top comment.

Re: Google is retiring its Latitude location-sharing service on August 9th

#46

Post by Pxtl »

gioele wrote: post #18
freehunter wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Competition in the market is a great thing and I welcome more competitors, but you're exactly right. The entire mobile market is completely fragmented. Whether you use iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, or any of the other competitors, you've likely experienced an app you'd love to install but it doesn't exist for your platform. Linux users are used to struggling with a developer to try to get a port when progr…

> Whether you use iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, or any of the other competitors, you've likely experienced an app you'd love to install but it doesn't exist for your platform. Linux users are used to struggling with a developer to try to get a port when programs were made for Windows only. Try being a Linux user on a PowerPC box. I hope developers, most of which have become mobile developers by now, have n…

Other way around, more likely. Everybody's abandoning open protocols - Google has functionally dropped RSS and their instant messaging protocol, for example. The modern approach is to avoid the protocol and offer a massive cloud-based service, first-party apps, and maybe an API for a little while when you're in the growth state (kill the API when your apps have every feature you want them to have).

Re: Google is retiring its Latitude location-sharing service on August 9th

#47

Post by gcb0 »

hahainternet wrote: post #29
ewolf wrote: post #27

I hope this will give rise to some replacement services; Latitude was actually pretty useful. I'm still wondering why they didn't implement "asking" for locations via push? That would save a lot of battery compared to updating in intervals and would be a lot more accurate.

Latitude is just being merged into G+. I can't see any features that are being killed.

Moving to g+ is the same as killing.

Its the same with sites that only have a Facebook login. Goodbye.

Re: Google is retiring its Latitude location-sharing service on August 9th

#48

Post by gcb0 »

greendot wrote: post #26

I always wanted this to actually function correctly. It worked great on my Android phone but syncing locations with my wife on her iPhone was problematic at best. It never worked. G+ between the two is also "iffy". One side of me admires Google for all that they do for "free" but I sometimes wish they would put the phone users in the customer role and maybe these products would evolve. Am I the only one that would li…

Free? I paid 600 for my phone directly from Google and my wife paid 700 from hers. Doesn't seem much free now.

Re: Google is retiring its Latitude location-sharing service on August 9th

#49

Post by Natmas »

Maybe this opensource app will be of some use for someone:

http://www.gpsautoresponder.com/

It takes a different approach to sharing location: Anyone with the possession of the generated link can get the device's location and the device owner is notified about it.

The android app and the web service are both open-source so you can improve it and even host this on your own server and have the ultimate privacy.

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