Shareloc's blog - Navizon's community weblog

How to locate a lost/stolen phone

We often get requests from Navizon users to help them recover a lost/stolen phone.

Navizon has several features that could be used to locate a mobile phone. All or any of these methods could be used to locate a mobile phone:

Locate-by-sms/Mobfindr (iPhone only, will be introduced on other platforms in the future)
As you start navizon, hit cancel in the top right corner and scroll down to enable locate-by-sms define a keyword for locate-by-sms. If you send a text message starting with the keyword to your mobile phone, you will get back a link to the map with the current position of the phone. This is probably the easiest way to locate a phone, and it will also give you the most up-to-date position. And best of all: It does not impact battery life, since it only tries to locate the phone whenever an sms with the correct keyword is received.

Buddies/Map (all platforms, see note)
You can see where your phone is by logging on to www.navizon.com.

Click Buddies/groups and then click "Map". If you want a public URL that always shows the position of your phone, click "Publish location to public url". You will then be able to locate your phone by browsing to the URL given in the "Hyperlink" box.

The trail (premium feature, see note)
The trail makes it possible to see where the phone has been over a period of time.

You enable the trail by logging in to www.navizon.com, then click "My trail" and make sure the trail feature is on.

Note: For the Buddies/map/trail features to work you must have a working internet connection on your phone. You should also configure navizon to send your location back to the server, so that your position/trail can be updated at regular intervals.
On iPhone you do this by selecting to be visible (click cancel when you start Navizon, and make sure "appear visible" is switched on)
On Windows mobile, go to the map page, select menu->buddies, and make sure "send location" is on.
On Symbian, make sure "Appear visible" is selected (menu->buddies)

In order to get the most accurate position available, it is recommended to upgrade your account to a premium account. The premium account uses wifi positioning and cell tower triangulation which is a lot more accurate than the cell ID positioning used in the lite/free version.

Remember that you have to enable the feature(s) you want before you loose your phone. Navizon staff can not provide any more details than these tools can give you.

 

Never lose your phone (or your kids) with Navizon Mobfindr

We just released a new version of Navizon. The most remarkable addition to this new version is a new service called Mobfindr that will let you find the location of a phone just by sending an SMS to it.
So how is this different from the Buddy Finder? Well, there is a major difference: instead of constantly sending your location, this process is running in the background and get invoked only when it receives an SMS with the passphrase you entered for this feature. This means that it will have no impact on the battery life or performance of your phone. You can just set it... and forget it! If you ever lose your phone, you will be happy to find out where it is located by sending an SMS to it.
You can also use this feature to find the location of your buddies or your family members, as long as they gave you their passphrase to access their location.

To set it up, just install the latest version of Navizon and enter the passphrase that will need to be sent in order to access the location. Turn the service on... and that's it.
If you plan on giving this passphrase to other people, make sure it is different from your Navizon password. Otherwise, if it's just for you, it can be just anything.
You can test it to see if it is working by sending an SMS to yourself (it can be from the same phone) with the pasphrase. It should receive a reply by SMS with your location.

Mobfindr is included in the latest version of Navizon for the iPhone and will be released as a separate application for Blackberry and Windows Mobile very shortly. A version for S60 phones is currently in the works.
The free version will return your location based on the cell tower triangulation (approximately 1500 meters accuracy) and if you have the premium version of Navizon you will be able to get the location of your device with a better accuracy thanks to WiFi triangulation.

Enjoy this new service!

Update: MobFindr is now available for Blackberry. Just go to www.navizon.com from your device to download the latest version.

Watch our coverage grow

No, this is not the new map of red states and blue states but Navizon's global coverage map. Cellular coverage is in Blue and Wifi coverage is in Red.

You need to have Google Earth on your computer to view it.

If you don't have Google Earth, you can click on the pictures above to make them bigger.

Navizon for iPhone - now with the "Slider"

A new version of Navizon has been released today. One of the most interesting features of this new version is the Navigation panel, or "Slider".

The Slider can stay on top of the Maps and  will give you full control of the application while your position is being displayed:
- click on the "Moving mode" and your location will be updated every 10 seconds. That way, you don't have to keep pressing on the "LocateMe" button like a maniac.
- click on the "Buddies" icons and your buddies will be displayed instantly

This new version will also let you run Navizon in the background while you are doing other things with your iPhone.  This means that you can now display the location of your loved ones in real-time with the Buddy Finder and use our exciting new feature called the Navizon Alerts, which will let you receive an email each time you or one of your buddies enters a  geographic area.

If you are reading from an iPhone, you can view the video here.

This new version works on all firmware versions and can be installed by adding our repository to Installer. In order to do that, launch the Installer, go in Sources then "Edit" -> "Add" and enter http://repo.navizon.com

Have fun!!

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Navizon alerts now available

We just launched a new feature called the "Navizon Alerts". With this feature, you can create a circle anywhere on the map defining a geographic region (like shown on the picture). Then each time you (or any of your buddies) enters or gets out of this area and email can be sent to the address of your choice with a custom message.

So for example I can
- have an email sent to me each time my daughter gets to school safely.
- I can have an email automatically sent to my wife when I am leaving the office (no more overcooked dinners hehe...)
- I can receive a notification as soon as my parents arrive at the airport so that I don't have to wait endless hours at the arrivals
etc, etc, etc....

To create an alert, just log on to the member section and click on Alerts -> Create alert. You can view all your alerts in the same section.
Obviously, in order to work you will need to configure Navizon on your phone so that you "appear visible" (or "send your location" depending on the version you're running).

This is going to be total fun! Enjoy!!

New rewards calculation

Some news on the rewards front. First we rounded the amount of each reward to $20. No big deal you might say...
But more importantly, we upped the points for the Wifi and Cell towers that you are the first one to map: 3 points per Wifi access point and 15 points for each cell tower. Yes you heard me right: 3 points and 15 points!!
However, you will earn a little less points for Wifi and Cellular towers that have already mapped by other people (2 points per cell site and 1 per WiFi access point) . 

So what does this mean to you:
- if you are mapping a place that has been "unexplored" by other Navizonians, you are going to get much more points than before (50% more to be precise).
- if however you are mapping a place that has been mapped over and over, you are still going to earn points, but a little less. Keep in mind though that there are new Wifi and Cellular towers that are installed every day. So even if you leave in a placed that has been heavily mapped already, you might still be picking up brand new towers in addition to the points for wifi/cell towers already mapped that you will be getting.

So let your Christopher Colombus spirit express itself and enjoy being the first one to explore new territories with Navizon!

New version for Blackberry and Symbian phones

We released a new version of Navizon for Blackberry and Symbian phones. Among other things, we resolved some connectivity issues on the Blackberry and we included new maps (picture 1) from 8motions.

On some Blackberries you will also be able to use the maps that are built-in in your Blackberry (picture 2).

All in all, it should make the application faster and the navigation more user friendly. Your comments and suggestions are welcomed in the forum .

Some other exciting features are coming up, so stay tuned for more...

Navizon Lite now available, and it's free!!

We just launched a new version of Navizon called Navizon Lite. This version will let you get your position using the closest cell towers around you with an accuracy of approximately 1500 meters (1 mile), something similar to what Google Maps offers with its "My location" feature. Navizon Lite is available for the iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian/Nokia and Blackberry devices.

For those of you who need a more accurate positioning system, Navizon (full version) might be for you. It includes the power of Wifi positioning combined with Cellular positioning, offering you an accuracy of approximately 10 to 30 meters in an urban setting.

Navizon Lite includes a 15 day free trial of the full version. Once your trial period expires, it will automatically switch to the Lite version unless you decide to upgrade to the full version for a one-time fee of $24.99.

Here's a little side-by-side comparison between Navizon Lite and the full version of Navizon:

	Navizon lite	Navizon
Cellular GPS
WiFi GPS
Accuracy (without GPS)	1000 m	10-30m
Buddy finder
Directions
Rewards (if GPS available)
Trail

Google and Privacy? No worries, right?

So I took a look at Google Maps' latest feature called "My Location". Works OK on some device. I wouldn't say it's as good as Navizon, but it's not too bad for a start.

What intrigued me however is the privacy aspect of this whole thing and the way the collect the cell towers information. According to Steve Lee, Google Maps Mobile's project manager who spoke to CNet: "We're creating a database of cell tower locations and that database is built from people using Google Maps for Mobile," Lee said.
OK, fine. So I guess it has been logging the cell towers' positions when I was using Google Maps on my Nokia N95 which has a built-in GPS. I wish I could have known that Google Maps was collecting information on my whereabouts, but fine...

What gets more interesting is when you look at the FAQ dealing with the privacy aspect of this application:
"This location information is also only in our system when a user has opted-in to the My Location (beta) service".

Wait a minute!! I did not opt-in to anything when they were collecting the cell towers on my N95. Not only Google didn't tell the user that it was collecting data in the background, but I looked closely in the previous versions and there was no way to turn this thing off and prevent Google Maps from sending your location to Google's servers.

So according to Google's privacy policy, this thing works on an opt-in basis but according to Steve Lee, it has been collecting data thanks to the users... whether they wanted it or not.
Hmm... I say spyware.

I'm sure that Google took the time to add in the terms that they "might be collecting information" which would make it legal.  Legal... but definitely not ethical.

Update: Google Maps finds Malc right in his house... and he lives in the countryside nowhere near a cell tower. Yet another evidence that Google Maps is logging the users' GPS position in the background.  Apparently you can now prevent it from doing sending the radio info along with your location but that was not the case in previous versions...

Update2: Did I say "Legal but not ethical"? Well, it turns out that even the legal part is in question now according to this person who posted a comment on this New York Times article (check posts number 54, 56 and 58).

Your diary on Google Earth

We just added a new feature that allows you to keep track of your locations and display it on a map. It looks cool on Google Maps but it's even cooler on Google Earth.

For those of you a who travel around the world, that can be a nice way to make a diary of your trip: you could for example add bookmarks on all the places you visited.
Just an idea...

Navizon Buddy Finder now on the iPhone

A new version of Navizon (with a Buddy Finder) is now available for the iPhone.

With this version you can add your friends to your Buddy list with a click of a button . Then click on "Buddies" to see where they are on a map.

To add one of your friends, just click on the button "Add Buddy", enter your email address and your friend's email and that's it!

Your friend will receive an notification with a link to click on and you will be able to see each other's location.

You can also join public groups that have been created by other users or create your own group that you can make public or private: just click on the "Manage my account" button to manage your Buddy list and the groups you belong to.

With the Buddy Finder you only share your whereabouts with the people you want. And on top of it you can decide when you want to send your location with other and when to remain private. So in case you are worried about privacy, we have good news for you: you are in full control.

This new version also includes enhanced positioning algorithms that makes it work in many more places.

This new version can be downloaded via Installer.App. It is working both with firmware 1.0.2 and 1.1.1.

Oh and I almost forgot: this new version comes with a free trial.

Get it at http://www.navizon.com

Navizon for PC and MAC

Many people have been asking us: "I have a phone that cannot connect to a GPS but I do have a GPS device. How can I contribute".

Well, there is good news for you: the version of Navizon for PC and MAC is now fully operational.

Some of you might say this is not new and they would be right since the desktop version was launched a couple of months ago.
But what is new is that you can now use it to map wifi access points and cell towers (if you have a Nokia or Sony Ericsson phone paired with your computer) if you have a GPS device.