Google has announced the launch of its new Latitude web application for iPhone and iPod touch, after seemingly having its native application rejected by Apple. On the Official Google Mobile Blog, Mat Balez, Product Manager for the Google Mobile Team, writes, “We worked closely with Apple to bring Latitude to the iPhone in a way Apple thought would be best for iPhone users.
After we developed a Latitude application for the iPhone, Apple requested we release Latitude as a web application in order to avoid confusion with Maps on the iPhone, which uses Google to serve maps tiles.” The reality of the rejection flies in the face of past Apple-Google dealings on the iPhone; Google was widely-known to have been granted access to unpublished APIs when building its Google Mobile App, so it remains unclear why Apple would choose to reject this particular effort, especially after Google had spent the time and effort to build it. Latitude allows users to share their location with friends and see their friends’ locations on a map, use basic search and directions functionality, and, like in the native Maps application, tap a blue dot to be taken to their approximate current location.
To access Google Latitude for iPhone and iPod touch, simply visit google.com/latitude from the mobile Safari browser.
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