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Loopt: iPhone app keeps track of friends

By | August 26, 2008, 1:33pm PDT

Summary: I’ve been playing with a free iPhone application called Loopt (Web site, App Store). It allows you to stay connected to your friends, colleagues and relatives who are also members of the service. Loopt uses the GPS chip in the iPhone 3G and Wi-Fi triangulation in the iPhone 2G to pinpoint your exact location. When you [...]

Loopt: iPhone app keeps track of friendsI’ve been playing with a free iPhone application called Loopt (Web site, App Store). It allows you to stay connected to your friends, colleagues and relatives who are also members of the service. Loopt uses the GPS chip in the iPhone 3G and Wi-Fi triangulation in the iPhone 2G to pinpoint your exact location.

When you invite friends to join Loopt they get access to your location and can ping you when they’re in the area. If this scares you remember that a) it’s by invitation only, and b) you can turn off the location feature at any time.

If you travel to a different city or even one of your old haunts you can fire up Loopt to see if any of your friends are in the area. You can also use Loopt to find local places and events recommended by friends and services such as Yelp.

It also works across multiple carriers and devices so you can also share location with friends even if they don’t have an iPhone. I’m currently using Loopt to track my trip on the Amtrak AutoTrain and it’s pretty cool. Think of it as a location-based version of Twitter.

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Topics

Apple iPhone, Friend, Loopt, 3G, GPS, Wireless LANs, Cellular Phones, Web Site Development, Wireless, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Internet, Jason D. O\'Grady

Jason O'Grady is a journalist and author specializing in mobile technology. He has published six books on Apple and mobile gadgets and his PowerPage blog has been publishing for over 15 years.

Disclosure

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady is the creator and editor of O'Grady's PowerPage, which has been publishing mobile technology news since 1995. He maintains an advertising relationship with the following legacy advertisers on the PowerPage:

  • Amazon Associates
  • Google Adsense
  • Tekserve

    • Advertising on the PowerPage is brokered by a third-party agency (BackBeat Media) and he recuses himself from these negotiations.

Biography

Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.

He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.

After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.

O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).

When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.

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RE: Loopt: iPhone app keeps track of friends
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 11th Oct
I very much the same to this web page. I will free mulberry bags of doubt be peeping into it routinely.
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Only in USA?
gxf 27th Aug 2008
Hello,

For some reason, Loopt is not available in France.
When visiting Loopt website, I saw that they seem to be
linked to the carriers in each country. Do you know a reason
why Loopt cannot be distributed worldwide?

Thanks
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Loopt: iPhone app keeps track of friends
GoneFromZDnet Updated - 27th Aug 2008
Since you cannot post a talkback with any helpful tips or opinions on ZDNet anymore without being attacked by all of the Apple Haters, my posts will now deal with the content of the article.

This article is worthless dreck which has the word 'iPhone' in it to get hits. This info could have been taken word for word from about 35 other articles that I have read a looooong time ago. As much info could could have been learned by looking at the App Store.

Thank you.

My opinion, and I am entitled to it!
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RE: Loopt: iPhone app keeps track of friends
johngalatte 25th Jan 2010
Friendio has real time tracking, it's similar to Loopt but different in it's own way. First, it's not an APP so any phone can use it, not just iPhone. Have you seen that one? It's at http://friend.io -- By the way, what is .io anyway? I never saw that extension until I searched google for iPhone Phone Friends, and this Friendio shows up as number one.
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RE: Loopt: iPhone app keeps track of friends
jackson1984-24316069205748857739440257893812 11th Oct
I very much the same to this web page. I will free mulberry bags of doubt be peeping into it routinely.

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