Android Challenge-winning app integrates hybrid positioning from Skyhook
BOSTON, MA - MARCH 24, 2009 - Skyhook Wireless, provider of the patented hybrid location system (XPS), and two forty four a.m., developers of the Android Developer Challenge Grand Prize-winning application Locale, today announced the integration of XPS into Locale. The standard Android OS location platform is notoriously unreliable. Increasingly, Android developers turning are Skyhook to improve their location-aware applications.
Locale is an advanced settings manager for people who need their phone to keep up with their increasingly busy lives. Your ringer could switch to vibrate at work and while at home your calls could be forwarded to your landline. With Locale, all this happens automatically.
"Getting an accurate location fix using the Android location APIs requires a lot of battery power and only works outdoors. As soon as the phone steps indoors, location accuracy could be off by a mile," said Carter Jernigan, founder of two forty four a.m. "So we integrated with Skyhook for hybrid positioning that's more accurate, faster and requires less power. Our users have certainly noticed the dramatic improvement."
Locale has reached nearly 100,000 users worldwide, and can be downloaded via the Android Market on any Android device today. Skyhook Wireless offers a publicly available SDK for Android developers, available for download here. Skyhook Wireless and two forty four a.m. are based in Boston and Cambridge respectively, the worldwide hotbed of mobile technology.
"Location often determines how we want our phones to behave, and Locale cleverly automates location-sensitive settings." said Kate Imbach, director of marketing at Skyhook Wireless. "The standard location platform on Android does not offer high-quality location and does not support the use case for innovative apps like Locale. This necessitates hybrid positioning from Skyhook Wireless for most Android developers."
