Some of you are already lucky enough to have the RC33 update. For the rest of us, it’s coming sometime in the next week or two. One of the cool new features we can look forward to is the integration of Google Latitude, the new location-based service Google rolled out this week. Latitude works in 27 countries on Blackberries, Windows Mobile, and Nokia S60, and an iPhone app is promised soon. There is also an iGoogle gadget available.
The premise of this service is that you can share your location with your Gmail contacts, and keep up-to-date on their locations. Then from within the app, you can call, email and IM. The privacy controls are very nice, you can edit them on a contact by contact basis, or you can simply manual enter another location.
On Android the service will work with the GPS to constantly update your location, a cool feature for some, and something to worry others. But as with all other Google products, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to use it. Although with the big G knowing your location, we can bet it won’t be long till they’re serving up mobile ads based on that data. Near a Taco Bell? Are you sure you don’t want some tacos?
Check the video for an overview on how the service works.
