Location Based Service (LBS)

Location Based Service could be next big thing for mobile application.

There are 2 ways to localize your phone:

1. GPS - Requires special hardware (ext/int) and uses more power.
2. Network detection (celluar id) - Less accurate and depends on mobile operators .

Lets add another 2 ways:

1. Ask the user! Yes, let user decide manually where he/she is. Then update to server eg. SMS or Internet
2. Make use of IP Addresses to estimate the region.

Google's mobile Gmap has recently added a new feature which can pinpoint/estimate/triangulate your location. It uses both methods - GPS and cell id. There are some on going discussion about the how it works here.

Some Technicalities:

• J2ME have System.Properties("phone.cid") or ("CellId") which will query for the cell id. But it works for some Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones only.
• In Python S60, MCC, MNC, LocAreaCode and CellId can be retrieved easily. Symbian C++ would be able to retrieve them too. MIT J2me notes.
  

More resources:

• Cell Spotting
• Mobilife
• Track Down Anyone (Lifehacker)
• Track with IP Address
• TrailExplorer (Google Code)
• GSMLoc - cell database
• Placelab - database of Wifi AP, but for Seattle only
• Another - cell id
• Yahoo! ZoneTag API - I simply love Yahoo APIs