Apple's Snow Leopard to include location, multi-touch tools

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system will include tools borrowed from the iPhone that let developers determine the geographical location of Macs, as well as extend additional support for multi-touch to their apps, AppleInsider has learned.



People familiar with the latest pre-release distributions of the next-gen OS say the software now includes the CoreLocation framework previously available via the iPhone SDK, which will allow Mac applications to identify the current latitude and longitude of the Macs on which they're running.



Since Macs don't include GPS technology like the iPhone 3G, CoreLocation will utilize a Mac's existing networking hardware to triangulate the system's location in a manner similar to the way the original iPhone was able to use the technology to emulate a true global positioning signal.



Meanwhile, those same people say that developers writing applications for Snow Leopard will also gain access to a new set of Cocoa-based programing interfaces for leveraging the multi-touch features of the latest MacBooks and MacBook Pros within their applications.



AppleInsider first revealed plans for the new multi-touch framework in a an article from last June titled "Five undisclosed features of Apple's Mac OS X Snow Leopard."



The report noted that the framework would "consist of code libraries and functions that ordinary developers can use to enhance their applications with the same multi-touch capabilities currently available in Apple-born apps like Safari and iPhoto, and do so with ease."



Word of the new location tools in Snow Leopard comes on the heels of an announcement by Google that it will soon deliver its own software that will let iPhones and Macs broadcast their location information over the Internet.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 44
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    But not quite the same tools as Apple will use for the cocoa touch UI on Mac touch. That SDK will come later.
  • Reply 2 of 44
    amac4meamac4me Posts: 282member
    Interesting to see this feature in Mac OS X. Location would be better utilized in portables.
  • Reply 3 of 44
    I'm not too sure I like the idea of an app knowing where I'm physically located. What's to stop developers from sending that information back to them?
  • Reply 4 of 44
    virgil-tb2virgil-tb2 Posts: 1,416member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Apple's Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system will include tools borrowed from the iPhone that let developers determine the geographical location of Macs ...



    This is cool stuff, but I hope they allow us to simply set our location manually as well.



    I have always found this to be a big of a bug or error on the iPhone. If you are inside a building (and most desktop Macs will be even if they get or are attached to GPS hardware), the iPhone can't determine your exact location. This screws up all the GPS related software to a degree when you are sitting in your own living room.



    I can't for the life of me think why there is not a facility to look up your exact co-ordinates and set them as "home" for your computer or at least your Airport. I hate having all that advanced tech in the iPhone only to have every application believe that I actually live in a garage three houses down the street from where I am.
  • Reply 5 of 44
    lorrelorre Posts: 396member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacGizmo View Post


    I'm not too sure I like the idea of an app knowing where I'm physically located. What's to stop developers from sending that information back to them?



    Ditto.



    This sounds eerily Big Brother-ish...
  • Reply 6 of 44
    mjtomlinmjtomlin Posts: 2,673member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacGizmo View Post


    I'm not too sure I like the idea of an app knowing where I'm physically located. What's to stop developers from sending that information back to them?



    I'm sure, just as with the iPhone, the application will have to get user confirmation before being allowed access to that information.
  • Reply 7 of 44
    dgnr8dgnr8 Posts: 196member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacGizmo View Post


    I'm not too sure I like the idea of an app knowing where I'm physically located. What's to stop developers from sending that information back to them?



    I am guessing there thought process is for use in laptop's.



    With the adoption rate of laptops it would make since to put it in now and fine tune the architecture.



    This in no way surprises me, I have held the believe that the smart phones were the jump point to what will come on our PC's.



    I do think however we are getting to a point where privacy is losing ground at an exponentially rate to tech.



    I know the argument that if your not doing anything wrong then what is the problem.



    The problem, at least how I see it, is once you begin to track and store data of a population, you allow said population to have rights remove for the good of group.
  • Reply 8 of 44
    I think this is a great idea. It will make searching for things nearby much easier, and there's a whole lot you could do with the technology. Clearly, it's more useful on a laptop, but even having this information on a desktop would be nice.



    I'm sure there's going to be some setting to let you turn it off if you are paranoid.
  • Reply 9 of 44
    gfeiergfeier Posts: 127member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by infobhan View Post


    I think this is a great idea. It will make searching for things nearby much easier, and there's a whole lot you could do with the technology. Clearly, it's more useful on a laptop, but even having this information on a desktop would be nice.



    I'm sure there's going to be some setting to let you turn it off if you are paranoid.



    That's not paranoia in this day and age, just a reasonable precaution. I already know where my Mac Pro is.
  • Reply 10 of 44
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by infobhan View Post


    I think this is a great idea. It will make searching for things nearby much easier, and there's a whole lot you could do with the technology. Clearly, it's more useful on a laptop, but even having this information on a desktop would be nice.



    I'm sure there's going to be some setting to let you turn it off if you are paranoid.



    I'm hoping someone will post a broadly practical use for this feature. On the iPhone it makes perfect sense on many levels. We have Lo Jack for tracking thefts if needed. This seems seems on the surface to be an extraneous and intrusive feature/capability. This would push me to Linux I think.



    "I know the argument that if your not doing anything wrong then what is the problem."

    Yes it is, and that is the most foolish capitulations to the potential of tyranny and loss of freedom one can make.
  • Reply 11 of 44
    kasperkasper Posts: 941member, administrator
    I'm sure they'll be a global preference in the System Preference Pane to shut off location services system-wide like there is on the iPhone.
  • Reply 12 of 44
    hattighattig Posts: 860member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kasper View Post


    I'm sure they'll be a global preference in the System Preference Pane to shut off location services system-wide like there is on the iPhone.



    I hope you can upload the details upon getting a network connection to a service.



    If your Mac gets nicked, just wait for that service to update and let the police know the vicinity of the target so they know where to start looking, and more important can just see which known thieves live in that area.
  • Reply 13 of 44
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kasper View Post


    I'm sure they'll be a global preference in the System Preference Pane to shut off location services system-wide like there is on the iPhone.



    Forgive me Kaspar, but do you trust that?



    At the risk of appearing paranoid, which I'm not generally, if the capability is there it tends to be exploited. Occam's razor of governments/capitalists lets call it.



    I can now be tracked by GPS in my camera, cell phone, and car as it is and have my picture taken at unprecedented rates each day. The data mining and analysis of the society has grown too prevalent.



    Again, to all, what are the broad practical applications of this for us? I'm sure there must be some.
  • Reply 14 of 44
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Chimera View Post


    I'm hoping someone will post a broadly practical use for this feature. On the iPhone it makes perfect sense on many levels. We have Lo Jack for tracking thefts if needed. This seems seems on the surface to be an extraneous and intrusive feature/capability. This would push me to Linux I think.



    "I know the argument that if your not doing anything wrong then what is the problem."

    Yes it is, and that is the most foolish capitulations to the potential of tyranny and loss of freedom one can make.



    Or you could just turn the Location Services off, just like you can on the iPhone.



    How is it that Location Services is viable on the iPhone for anti-theft uses, but not in your Mac. Are you not concerned about your Mac being pinched?



    It's exactly the same argument in both directions, exactly the same technology, and it's exactly as ignorable in both cases if you so wish.



    If this seriously makes anyone run to Linux then Linux will become a hot bed of silly mindedness.
  • Reply 15 of 44
    walshbjwalshbj Posts: 864member
    I probably WOULD use it for the novelty sometimes, like if my family was on vacation or a ten hour drive. I know my father-in-law would love to track our progress across interstates and airports.



    In general I'd have a pretty short list of people I'd ever open this up to.
  • Reply 16 of 44
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Crowley View Post


    Or you could just turn the Location Services off, just like you can on the iPhone.



    How is it that Location Services is viable on the iPhone for anti-theft uses, but not in your Mac. Are you not concerned about your Mac being pinched?



    It's exactly the same argument in both directions, exactly the same technology, and it's exactly as ignorable in both cases if you so wish.



    If this seriously makes anyone run to Linux then Linux will become a hot bed of silly mindedness.



    I said 'pushed' to Linux, not run to it. I would hold on to OSX like a mother bear to its cub, i.e. ferociously.



    Maybe no matter. Won't it be embedded in all our HW eventually?



    Just trying to appreciate some reasonable broad scope application of this feature besides someone able to make money advertising/marketing.
  • Reply 17 of 44
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Chimera View Post


    Forgive me Kaspar, but do you trust that?



    At the risk of appearing paranoid, which I'm not generally, if the capability is there it tends to be exploited. Occam's razor of governments/capitalists lets call it.



    I can now be tracked by GPS in my camera, cell phone, and car as it is and have my picture taken at unprecedented rates each day. The data mining and analysis of the society has grown too prevalent.



    Again, to all, what are the broad practical applications of this for us? I'm sure there must be some.



    Guys you can already be tracked RIGHT NOW. The geolocalisation of IP adresses has a very fine degree of granurality....
  • Reply 18 of 44
    daseindasein Posts: 139member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mjtomlin View Post


    I'm sure, just as with the iPhone, the application will have to get user confirmation before being allowed access to that information.



    Just this side of paranoia...have you ever wondered if that's just a way of pacifying you into thinking you're controlling things when in fact someone somewhere knows whatever it is they want to? Not necessarily Apple or the gov.... programmer are required to stay inside the 'sandbox' when writing code, but....
  • Reply 19 of 44
    It's nice that notebook users get all the goodness of multi-touch, but it sucks for desktop users, since Apple's desktops don't come with trackpads.



    Is there any way Apple will be implementing this for desktops? Will there be a new keyboard or mouse that allows this? The Mighty Mouse hasn't been updated forever, and it's plain white is jarring against the grey keyboard, iMac and Cinema Cisplay.
  • Reply 20 of 44
    I think you guys are missing what this signifies. I think this adds credibility to the claim that Apple is trying to have 3G built in to new MacBooks.



    Also, for the privacy concerns...

    Without 3G its pretty hard to figure out your location any more accurately that you can find out based on your IP address.



    There's a reason you see ads for singles in "your city", its based on your IP. Big Brother ALREADY knows where your general location without Core Location. And unless CL has 3G or GPS to use it won't figure our a more accurate location than based on your IP and possibly known WiFi networks.
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