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Navizon: location-finding for your iPhone

September 19, 2007 | 2 Comments

Navizon has released a version of its location-finding app for the iPhone (via Gizmodo).

Navizon has a folksonomic approach to location-finding. A small number of users with true GPS devices run software in the background that builds up a database of locations for WiFi hotspots and cell towers. Every user with a WiFi or cellular device can take advantage of that database to work out roughly where they are, without GPS of their own - and without paying their cell phone company another fee.

They have been around for a long time (I wrote about them here two years ago.) There aren’t enough devices on the market that can run their software, the problem that kills most mobile startups. If they don’t have enough users in your neighborhood with true GPS-enabled devices, you are out of luck.

Still, this is one more example of what third-party developers can do when they have the freedom to write software for a powerful device.

Posted by: Jason
Categories: Applications