Jeffrey Donenfeld

Tag: geofencing

  • Enhanced iOS 6 Geofencing with Find my Friends and 3rd Party Apps

    Enhanced iOS 6 Geofencing with Find my Friends and 3rd Party Apps

    With Apple’s announcement of all of the great new features in iOS 6, there’s a newfound potential for even more pervasive Geofencing functionality.

    Previously, I wrote about how to set up geofencing in iOS 5 – and mentioned that it integrates seamlessly into both calendar and tasks. Now, there seems to be a few hints that this functionality will be further extended to 3rd party applications.

    iOS 6’s information sharing and social media capabilities are significantly extended – full Facebook integration, Twitter integration, and new API’s allowing access to user data. With this enhanced sharing, Apple is under increased pressure to protect users data. So, they’ve increased the number of explicit confirmations a user must go through to allow applications access to data. One of these authorizations is access to Reminders – which is basically the front-end for geofencing integration.

    Extended privacy controls in iOS 6

    Today, Apple rumor site Macrumors reported on the enhanced user permissions, and noted that the developer beta of iOS6 has in its release notes:

    In addition to location data, the system now asks the user’s permission before allowing third-party apps to access certain user data, including:

    – Contacts
    – Calendars
    – Reminders
    – Photo Library

    For contact, calendar, and reminder data, your app needs to be prepared to be denied access to these items and to adjust its behavior accordingly. If the user has not yet been prompted to allow access, the returned structure is valid but contains no records. If the user has denied access, the app receives a NULL value or no data. If the user grants permission to the app, the system subsequently notifies the app that it needs to reload or revert the data.

    So, does the fact that Apple is requiring permission to access Reminders data signify that soon 3rd party apps will be able to use the background geofencing service built into Reminders?

    Also of note, MacWorld reports that soon the “Find my Friends” app will be updated with Geofencing alerts – which I bet uses the same system geofencing service as Reminders. From MacWorld:

    According to Apple’s iOS 6 website, the company’s Find My Friends app is set to add a new geofencing notification system with iOS 6. This will let you set up an alert for any of your Find My Friends contacts; when they leave or arrive at a given location, you’ll receive an alert or banner notification.

    Also related, see Apple’s iOS 6 Website

    Find My Friends is a great way to share locations with friends and family.8 Those who share their locations with you appear on a map so you can quickly see where they are and what they’re up to. And with iOS 6, you can get location-based alerts — like when your kids leave school or arrive home. Find My Friends can also notify others about your location, so you can stay connected or keep track of the ones you love.

  • How To Enable Geofenced Notifications in Apple iOS 5

    How To Enable Geofenced Notifications in Apple iOS 5


    Over the past few days after the release of iOS5, I’ve been eagerly trying to set up geofenced notifications. Previously I wrote about the release of geofencing in iOS5, and now I’ve had a bit of time to test geofenced notifications. It seems that the process is not quite as smooth as it could be, but finally I’ve gotten it to work.

    In my testing, it appears that the notifications will only work and sync correctly when using calendar and notifications with iCloud. You can’t use the notifications if you’re syncing your calendars only with Gmail or Exchange (like i usually do) – you must use iCloud for now.

    Here are the steps for getting geofencing notifications on iOS5 it working.

    1. Make sure your iCloud account is setup online, and enable the same iCloud account on your iPhone.
    2. Make sure that the notifications and calendars are syncing with iCloud on your iPhone.

      The iCloud services control panel in iOS5. Be sure calendars and reminders are turned on.

      3. (more…)

  • Apples’s iOS 5 Finally Adds Geofencing

    Apples’s iOS 5 Finally Adds Geofencing


    New post for iOS 6 – Geofencing in iOS 6
    ==
    As I’ve been discussing for literally years, the concept of “Geofencing” – creating virtual fences around geographic points in order to trigger certain events when the barrier is crossed – is getting ready to change the way we’re productive, and the way we run our days. By using geofencing, starter apps on mobile devices have allowed users to do things like automatically checking to FourSquare (as in the iOS app Mayormaker), and be notified when their friends are near. Now, with Apple’s iOS5 mobile device software update, Geofencing functionality is integrated at the core OS level. Calendar events and tasks can now be tagged with a location, and an action assigned when the user is near that particular location.

    I’ve been waiting for this feature for a long time, and I’m interested to see how it could improve my daily productivity, and eliminate backtracking as I go about my day. My iPhone 4 is actually in the process of updating to iOS5 now, so we’ll see how it actually works shortly.

    From Apple:

    Next time you think to yourself, “Don’t forget to…,” just pull out your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and jot it down. Reminders lets you organize your life in to-do lists — complete with due dates and locations. Say you need to remember to pick up milk during your next grocery trip. Since Reminders can be location based, you’ll get an alert as soon as you pull into the supermarket parking lot. Reminders also works with iCal, Outlook, and iCloud, so changes you make update automatically on all your devices and calendars.

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