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Apple Files A Patent For Location-Aware Travel Advances For The iPhone

August 28, 2009 at 8:34 AM | by | Comments (0)

Imagine that you've just flown from New York City to San Francisco and as the flight attendant announces "Welcome to San Francisco," you turn on your iPhone to see the same sentiment reflected on the screen, complete with SF weather, current time, and an icon for your SF contacts.

While you can arguably display all this with several more taps on your iPhone, Apple is looking to de-clutter and speed up access to location information for their very mobile user base. In fact, Apple filed a patent application back in February, the contents of which have just been revealed to contain the schematics and concept behind "location-area applications."

Using the built-in GPS, your iPhone would locate you and switch your display to the correct city and all of the apps you've chosen to appear there. For instance, in addition to local weather and cool little icons like the Golden Gate Bridge for SF, you could add the Routesy app for info on public transporation in SF and any guidebook apps. Likewise, when you arrive back in New York, it would switch to the NY mode with perhaps your CityTransit app.

Don't get your panties in a bunch quite yet however, as this is still just in patent application form as far as we know. According to Apple Insider, they're also working on other exciting apps like speech-to-text, which will make our life a whole hell of a lot easier if it understands us speaking HTML code. Fingers crossed!

[Thanks to CGW for the tip]

Related Stories:
· Apple Proposes Location-Based iPhone Home Screens [Apple Insider]
· Five Must-See Apple Stores In The World [Jaunted]
· iPhone Travel App Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: leo.prie.to]

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