Outside.in is launching a new API that allows developers to tap the company’s database of local news and information to build location-aware applications. The basic idea is that your application captures a user’s location – either through manual input or via GPS – and Outside.in returns relevant content from within 1,000 feet of that spot.

There are clearly a lot of applications that could use this type of data; national news sites that want to offer local headlines, mobile apps that show news based on your GPS location, and travel information services are just a few ideas that come to mind. As a demo, Outside.in has launched Near.ly, an application that sends local news to your Twitter account (via direct message) based on the address you provide.

The Outside.in API is an example of how most web businesses should evolve. While it started out as a destination site for local content (an incredibly competitive market), Outside.in has turned itself into a platform, allowing content providers to feed content into the system, and now, with its API, allowing developers to build applications using the aggregate data. And as these inputs and outputs grow, the service becomes more valuable to everyone in the ecosystem, including end users.

More about how the Outside.in API works in the video below:

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Outside.in Gets $1.5 MillionOutside.in Makes StoryMaps FreeOutside.in Gets $3M Funding and New CEOSearchles TV, Picasa Web Albums, Google Finance Video, MyYahoo, Tamago, Skyblog, Criteo, Mandy Moore, Planix, Instacomment, Zoopy, TapatapVideoEgg-TheU, Open Congress, Scholar.com, Digg UK, Match.com, Outside.in, ScrubIT, MySpace Extortion, Wurld Media, TheNewsRoom, NowThen

China has spent a great deal of time being portrayed as an oppressive force when it comes to information traveling into and out of the country. Talk of Internet censorship began to grab some steam in 2007, and the Communist Party hasn’t escaped that label since. Yet it’s critical for outside observers to take a few steps back from the day-to-day news cycle in order to get a more comprehensive view of where it’s been and where it may go in the months and years ahead. Here we give you one such timeline.

If we’ve managed to miss any items from recent past, share your picks in the comments!

Size Matters

As we can all now appreciate, portions of China’s populace have familiarized themselves with the Internet to varying degrees over the last several years. Still, there is a real big limit to their digital freedoms. It’s called the Great Firewall.

So it’s important to understand where the government wants to carry the country to recognize that opening is happening and will continue to happen in the years ahead. It’s important to recognize the financial highlights made in the press over past few years for what they are. Seven-, eight-, and nine-figure funding deals, along with talk of IPOs, has been consistent. This year’s news of gaming venture 9you is just one example. I gather from these events that commerce has become the dominant religion of the red jungle. Which means great things for the country as a whole.

Harsh Treatment

Of course, the road for people in China fortunate enough to experience the Web has been a rough one. Not too long ago it was a weekly practice for bloggers beyond the country’s borders to make note of banned websites and censorship and, in some cases, arrests.

Remember when Yahoo and Microsoft spoke openly of their compliance with the Chinese government’s pursuit of censorship?

Yahoo’s CEO was later forced to endure congressional questioning in the US as a result of its release of user information to Chinese authorities that led to the arrest of Shi Tao, a journalist in the country.

Suffice it to say that Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google eventually came to learn that such behavior wouldn’t be accepted by American regulators as “the way things must go in the world of international business,” and agreed last month to guidelines for managing ventures in places suspect of human rights abuses.

Amplified Concerns

Forward to 2008, when we’ve seen many multinational corporations endure conflicts with China’s network of regulators. At the start of the year, Google saw YouTube blocked for hosting material having to do with protests in Tibet. CNN was later blocked for toeing a “China-no-good” line (our phrasing, not CNN’s) leading up to the Olympics.

As noise on the matter increased, Western press outfits en masse began to question the Chinese government on the topic of Web access during the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Weeks of lingering coverage poured fourth in the springtime and early- to mid-summer.

The Olympic Games Begin to Turn the Tide

But while it made news prior to the games’ commencement, once things really began and progressed through 3 weeks of athletic records broken and, followed by a closing ceremony as spectacular as the one which started the whole thing, few news outlets based outside the Chinese mainland managed to revisit the subject of access. Or if they did, it was not to dwell on the present and the immediate past, but to hypothesize on what China would become in subsequent seasons. The pomp certainly won out over the circumstance in the Chinese capital.

That meant good news for China. Great news, in fact. The entire spectacle was a resounding success. Commentators started to believe that changes for the better would be made as a result of the games. But it was not the only advantage gained by the nation, and more specifically, the people.

The Crisis in Sichuan Province

Before the games had begun, there was the crisis inflicted by the earthquake in Sichuan Province, which wrought massive amounts of damage to infrastructure and claimed tens of thousands of lives, many of them young of age.

The sheer enormity of the event drove the Chinese government to allow for conversation about crisis to flow largely without limits on the Web. That went as much for emergency response as conversation on the how and why for the damage dealt. Local officials were blamed severely for aiding in the propagation of poor construction practices.

Thus, the question for the Chinese people and the world beyond to then consider became one of the possibility of permanent openness. Given the fact that rebuilding will take a great deal of time to fully accomplish, one can hope there is some enduring benefit to be had from the disaster, however unfortunate it was to so many citizens.

Big Change Comes Slowly

Let’s stress China’s desire to adjust at its own pace. Since things quieted down from a height of intense awareness of limits in the middle of the year, other negatives have come to the fore, not including the matter of tainted baby food. Recent reports of hacks performed via China on the White House network, for instance, while not unprecedented, have raised numerous red flags in Washington as well as the cyber division of the US Air Force Space Command (formerly known as AFCYBER), among other departments

Yes, China’s movements in the tech space are rough, sporadic, and in many ways slow-going. But there’s reason to establish an optimistic view of the future. That’s because the way the ruling party has conducted itself as of late has become very, very market oriented. It may be a heavily controlled market, but growth behooves the controller to loosen its grip to allow for continued expansion.

International commerce is what has led China to grow by enormous bounds for the last several seasons, and it is what makes Chinese society and the government’s interaction with the rest of the world considerably more transparent and open to exploration by outsiders. That goes as much for news as entertainment, too. Just look at MySpace and Facebook’s recent dealings with the Chinese market and the competition they’ve encountered there in sites like Xiaonei, Xiaoyou.

Realistically speaking, China won’t emulate the West anytime soon. It may never go so far, in fact. But it will come considerably closer to a progressive cohesiveness as we travel into the next decade. There’s simply too much money on the table not to make that effort.

Imagery provided by iStockPhoto/bkindler

; China BackPacker

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Yahoo China Launches a MySpace CloneIn China, MySpace and MSN Make Unlikely FriendsiPhone Coming to China Mobile?MySpace China Creating an Instant Messenger ServiceMySpace China Next Week - How Much Censorship?Yahoo Goes to China; Takes 10 Percent Stake in Alibaba.comMySpace.cn is Live

Source:Mashable!

There are a lot of iPhone apps. Thousands of them. And a good percentage are location-aware. They function with the help of cellular tower spotting or GPS to give users real-world perspective on what surrounds them.

Some have social features. Others are more informational and utilitarian. And with newcomer Zhiing set to announce its public launch tomorrow, we thought we’d dig in to the coolest and quirkiest iPhone apps for location.

MapQuest

MapQuest - Since Apple’s not one to enjoy competition for its core set of iPhone applications, “Maps” included, this one isn’t downloadable. But if you’ve got a solid wireless data connection on 3G or Wi-Fi, you can go ahead and buck the system for something that shows no Google branding. Booyah.

InstaMapper GPS Tracker

InstaMapper [iTunes] - Want to locate someone other than yourself? InstaMapper GPS Tracker makes it happen. It’s so basic that you can’t go wrong. Just make sure that iPhone you’re tracking online keeps InstaMapper active. Otherwise, say goodbye to the little red (moving) circle.

Trapster

Trapster [iTunes] - Whether you’re cruising your own neighborhood or a few towns over, so-called “speed traps” and traffic cameras that nab you for transgressing posted limits and gunning the gas through intersections, Trapster’s mission is to keep you free of fines and ugly points on your driver’s license. The best thing about it is that all icons are clearly shown, help you keep your eyes on the road.

AroundMe

AroundMe [iTunes] - Fire this up and you’ll be shown a list of almost every essential facet of modern society in plain view. Want coffee? You got it. Need an ATM? A list of banks is provided where applicable. How about refueling the auto? No problem. The same goes for hospitals, hotels, movie theatres, restaurants, and supermarkets.

Nearby

Nearby [iTunes] - This one’s a little more birds-eye view than AroundMe, but it’s really the same idea. This one’s purportedly been very crashy, but Platial, the developer, promises that plenty of fixes have been delivered. For what’s it’s worth, Nearby is well designed and quite pretty to look at. It jives with the iPhone’s own sexiness shtick.

Yelp

Yelp [iTunes] - Perhaps this should be at the top of the business roll. It’s free, it’s connected to Yelp, it locates you with a single touch, you can bookmark stuff you like and refer back to recent destinations. What more could you ask for. (Other than the kitchen sink, people.)

Goodrec

Goodrec [iTunes] - Like Yelp, Goodrec is all about recommendations, but some user reviews note that this one, at least in features, rocks the casbah. If you like looking at dots on a map, this app’s for you.

Target

Target [iTunes] - Some people really like Target. Their type pronounces the retail chain “Tar-jjay.” Maybe a good number of them own iPhones. If so, this item does one thing and one thing well: locate the nearest Target locations. ‘Nuff said.

Coffee Finder

Coffee Finder [iTunes] - Some people really like Starbucks. Even though the company’s been losing some traffic as of late. Still looking for your caffeine fix from the “other green giant”? Here’s the way. And how about this for a treat: the database is stored locally so no Web access is required.

CareerBuilder

CareerBuilder [iTunes] - Need a job to pay for all those meals and things you’ve been buying from places you found near the spot where you currently stand? Here’s something. It integrates with Google Maps so you can easily see whether the gig is walking distance from home or an odious, gas-guzzling commute.

iBart

iBart [iTunes] - Navigating roadways and sidewalks is good and all, but there’s also the underworld that city dwellers depend each and every day. Which is why San Franciscans have been given iBart.

Subway in Korea Lite

Subway in Korea Lite [iTunes] - Need to traverse the underside of South Korea’s capital city, or the metros of Taejeon, Daegue, Busan, and Kwangju? Subway in Korea Lite might help. While you can sport the native language for optimal authenticity, the thing is multilingual. Korean, Japanese and English are all supported.

Taxi!

Taxi! [iTunes] - If you want to avoid mass transit but still want someone else to drive you places, Taxi is your answer. It’s database is quite extensive for US users, with 260 US cities featured. And taxi service ratings are posted so you can steer clear of the crazies cabbies in the nation.

Zhiing

Zhiing [iTunes] - Perhaps you’ve gotten where you needed to go, and you want to invite friends to join you. This is one option, and one which we’ve reviewed. It’s free and there’s no social networking profile to log into. Send text messages with turn-by-turn directions to get your contacts where they need to go. One-word explainer: Awesomeness.

Over Here

Over Here [iTunes] - Over Here is more simply drawn than Zhiing, but is pretty much the same idea. This one works strictly via email, though. Want to let people know where you are without requesting a meetup or anything? This one’s nice. There are plenty of apps, like Loopt, et al., that function much the same way, but may carry too much baggage that you’d prefer to ignore. If so, this freebie is something to have.

MapWith.Us

MapWith.Us [iTunes] - So you’ve done something special and memorable somewhere on the map, and you want to preserve the moment for future reference. GeoMonkey’s MapWith.Us could be just what you’re after. Upload geo-located photos, audio clips, and text for you and your friends and family to look at, listen to and read. A road-tripper’s delight, no doubt.

Graffitio

Graffitio [iTunes] - Maybe you just want to post your thoughts about a certain location for others to read at that very same location at another date and time. Kind of like a visitor logbook at your average B&B (bed and breakfast). Graffitio makes it happen. Very simple and very straightforward, there’s no way to go wrong with this download.

Google Earth

Google Earth [iTunes] - Yeah, we saved this one for last. Because it kicks butt. Granted, anyone trying to use it on EDGE might get themselves a migraine in the process, but the quality of the experience is nothing short of brilliant. It’s got the same wow factor as that of the critically acclaimed X-Plane 9 flight simulator.

Also, let’s not forget that when iPhone 2.2 arrives, the native Map application may well support accelerometer-enhanced street view. That’ll be something to play with once it lands in the public’s hands.

Imagery provided by iStockPhoto/DNY59

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:World’s Simplest iPhone AppApple’s iPhone Directory is Really Real!Apple Making a Directory for iPhone Apps?GyPSii Officially Launches For The iPhoneiPhone. Europe. September.Google Reader + iPhone = AwesomeNokia Buys Plazes

Whenever I see a snow or ski-related Web site, I think back to my days creating the first snow.com. Today I found a new iPhone application that would have been a welcome addition to snow.com back in the mid-90s. Snocator takes full advantage of the GPS functions in the iPhone to make sure you never get lost when skiing or enjoying the slopes.

Assuming you are carrying your iPhone, you can find out how close the nearest lift, trail, etc. is from your current location. The company says they have mapped most of the major ski areas in North America, and snow reports, trail maps, and mountain cams for most of the world. Snocator also includes photos from resorts (see below) along with coming soon features of checking where your friends are and mapping your actual skiing usage. You can also watch live video cams from a variety of resorts.

The application also features local information including where to eat, shop, etc. I like this application because it combines a fun aspect with a real utility. It is a niche product so the Snocator team will need to market it locally at the resorts to maximize the usage. The app is free so I assume revenue will come from either ads or a revshare with the resorts.  Snocator was created by Denver-based Useful Networks.

CN Sponsor: CloudContacts - make your business cards work for you!
Other CenterNetworks Coverage: iminlikewithyou, FriendFeed, Web Jobs

Just a few days ago, mobile social network GyPSii received considerable appraisal from the house of Nokia. The service’s PlaceMe application, which enables users to geotag photo, video, and audio recordings to be shared with friends, was given a Symbian Star Developer Award for its efforts.

The award was chosen for GyPSii by Navteq, a map maker and a Nokia subsidiary since October 2007, and of course it was Nokia which acquired Symbian this summer.

It hasn’t been very long since GyPSii first arrived on the scene. The company went live with its networking service at Barcelona’s GSMA Mobile World Congress in February of this year. So it has more or less grown in tandem with the mobile social networking market at large. Nothing all that outstanding, quite frankly. Standard-issue, you might say.

Yet it has clearly drawn especial interest within the world of Nokia, and by extension, Navteq and Symbian. Does this help GyPSii’s case amid the competition? Perhaps. Perhaps not. To be semi-directly honored for development by the most financially and quantitatively productive mobile conglomerate on the planet seems no small mark on one’s record. And more to the point, it was reported that Nokia acquired remaining Symbian shares to the tune of $410 million this past June, and nine months prior wrote Navteq a check for $8.1 billion. All said, it most definitely sees promise in the mobile location market, and its suave little endorsement of GyPSii only adds fuel to the fire that it has been building for the past year or so.

Of course, there’s no reason to come to an assumption as to Nokia’s or Navteq’s thinking for the award given the GyPSii team. Whether an acquisition in line is really for anyone to assume might be true or disregard entirely. But I imagine there is a logical way to see this bit of news, and that is to say that GyPSii is presumably headed to higher ground.

(Image source: Darlamack.com)

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:GyPSii Officially Launches For The iPhoneNokia Acquires Symbian, Opens It UpLocation-Based Social Network GyPSii To Go Live At Mobile World CongressAndroid? Meh, Says SymbianBabelgum Launches Film FestivalMyLoki: Wi-Fi-Based Mapping Service to Share Your LocationNokia Bringing Silverlight to Symbian Phones

Grooveshark has been one of my preferred places to hear music online since they came out about two years ago. Recently they added Grooveshark Lite to their arsenal, offering an alternative to Pandora and other services like it. Today they unveiled a new way to add customizable music widgets to your blog, Web page, or social networking site.

Playlist.com has offered embeddable playlists for a while now, as have a few others, so I was intrigued to see how Grooveshark’s Widgets added up in comparison. Right away I have to give Grooveshark props for smoother play of each song. Sites like Playlist.com work by scanning the Web for music to play. Grooveshark’s method of finding stored files works much better in playback.

Another feature of the Grooveshark Widget experience is being able to customize the widget appearance. You can make your widget match the theme of the site it will appear on in color and size. You also determine the playlist you want, and can change the songs on it at any time from the Grooveshark Widget dashboard. Grooveshark will then update your widget - no messing around with changing code each time your musical tastes change.

I think that based on the smooth play and the ease of making these, I’ll be replacing the Playlist.com widgets I have scattered about the Web with Grooveshark Widgets in the next few days. It will be interesting to see if these catch on, or if there are already too many embeddable options out there for people to try something new. If you try the new Grooveshark Widgets, come back and let us know in comments how it works on your site.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:1,004 Grooveshark InvitesNearly Free Music Downloads on GroovesharkGrooveshark InvitesGrooveshark Partners with Naxos to Offer Classical MusicGrooveshark Launches Final Pre-Beta Version with UpgradesGrooveshark Private Beta Sneak PeekMusic Streaming Service Grooveshark Lite Takes Aim at Pandora and Last.fm

Source:Mashable!

Brightkite, one of the most popular location-based social networks, has announced an upcoming release of a Brightkite app for the iPhone. This is a much anticipated announcement because the union of Brightkite’s services with the iPhone’s GPS feature appear to be a match made in digital heaven.

The auto geo-location feature will be the heart of the new app along with some new offerings called Place Snapping and Pick a Place. Both options allow you to more easily pinpoint and identify where you are thanks to the built-in GPS service for the iPhone.

The ability to see nearby Brightkite users will also be much appreciated. You can look at a map and see everyone in the area that you specify. It can be anywhere from local vicinity to several miles. Once you locate users you can even initiate communication and possibly arrange to meet somewhere.

There are a bunch of other cool things you’ll be able to do with this new app such as track your friends and their activity feeds and locations, search for people, places and posts. You can also check your messages and post your photos and notes from your iPhone.

There’s a slew of apps for the iPhone, but this one has been heavily requested by Brightkite users, so there will be a large user base waiting to grab this one. It seems to be a perfect pairing, so one wonders what’s taken so long to get this out on the street (literally).

.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Brightkite Gets Funded and New OfficeBrightkite to Offer New Notification Options for Content PublishersWorld’s Simplest iPhone AppiPhone to Launch in Germany on T-Mobile3G iPhone Confirmed for 2008Mundu Optimizes Multi-Client Chat Tool for the iPhoneApple Making a Directory for iPhone Apps?

Wish you could play with T-Mobile’s Android-based G1 device before it ships? T-Mobile has subtly introduced an emulator for droolers to frenzy over and for naysayers to reaffirm their pre-launch discontent.

Yes, unfortunately this emulator is interesting the first second or two you use it, and a right ol’ tease from 0:03 onward. It seems to work from the start. Some buttons get “pressed,” and sometimes things happen. Other times not so much.

People hungry for crazy keyboard action will be none too thrilled. No way to browse the Web. No way to write an email. Or browse the map. The only ability to use the keyboard is to dial a number. Or not dial a number, if you want to see it from the opposite angle. Elsewhere, you can sign in to AIM, open a Gmail inbox, scroll through an email message, visit the Android Market homepage, scroll down the homepage, and manually browse through identical photos in an entirely disengaging way, all the while viewing what the Menu button allows for. That’s it, folks.

You might argue that this contrivance is nothing but a larger-than-life visual replica of the G1, and a complete waste of one’s time because of that. But if walkthroughs and pixilated, washed-out reviews on YouTube aren’t enough, and you want to act as though you’re a child once more and have been given a no-harm, no-lead-paint, almost-non-functional gizmo to gnaw at from the comfort of your cursor and a Google Chrome installation (that’s called “doing the full monty,” is it not?), by all means, go to town at G1 Central. We sure did.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:T-Mobile Signs Yahoo for Mobile Display AdsT-Mobile Sues Starbucks, Says It Jumped The Gun On Free Wi-Fi20+ Examples Of Nintendo DS Homebrew Fun30+ Apps For Jailbroken iPhones and iPod TouchesAn iPhone-Esque App Store Will be a Lot for T-Mobile to HandleWetpaint Launches Enterprise WikisPageonce Launches Virtual Personal Assistant–And it Works

Source:Mashable!

As a individual who enjoys a good hike now and again, and who sees handheld GPS devices providing data for very many applications in the none-too-distant future, a Web service by the name of Trailino is something that appeals a great deal to me.

It’s quite new, so you may have to forgive what users it has for not plying United States terrain as much as that of European (even to the east of the Atlantic things aren’t so busy). But if you’re in a sharing mood, you can upload GPS data and create a trail for others to embark upon. Sound fun? That’s just the start of it.

By default, Trailino displays its Google Map in ‘Terrain’ view. This is ideal, because you can do as much with roadway-based GPS coordinates as you can off the tarmac - and even off the beaten track. Furthermore, you can specify what it is a trail is good for: car, bicycle, foot, snowboard/ski, even boat.

Want to connect to photos on Flickr or Panoramio? You may. And in addition to start location and end location, highlights along the way, and things like elevation and speed, the data presented to fellow Trailinos is available for download in numerous formats. Even QR format is shown. (If you have the appropriate software, you can scan the code with a cameraphone. You’re then guided to a webpage for a direct download.)

Finally, once you’ve done all you can to share where it is you’ve gone with your gadget(s), you can opt to embed a set of data into a webpage of your choice, provided that the dimensions of a post accommodate such information.

The layout for Trailino submissions (example 1, example 2) may feel a bit generic to the touch, yes. It does take some time to get a full grasp of the service, too. But the end product can be thoroughly rewarding. That is unless a line in the proverbial sand purposely leads you nowhere fast. In which case you can give the trail’s designer a piece of your mind in the comment box provided.

MySpace music combines free on-demand streaming music with buyable downloads from Amazon, ringtones and video and other content. Soon the service will offer artist merchandise (tshirts, etc.) and concert tickets.

Users can create public or private playlists and embed music onto their profile pages. A nice touch - 65% of MySpace users add songs to their profile, and MySpace aggregates every song you’ve added to your profile and makes an initial playlist out of it for you. Artist pages, which previously only had a few promotional tracks, now include entire catalogs of their music. Any song can be clicked and added to a playlist.Source:TechCrunch

Do you want a Dash GPS? We are going to give one away to the person who can come up with the best idea for a geo-aware app that would work on the device. (Courtesy of Trulia and Dash).

The Dash is a GPS unit that is connected to the Internet through a cellular data network so it can tell you where is the nearest restaurant, gas station or hospital. You can also download geo-RSS feeds and apps that tell you where is the nearest WiFi network or winery. In May, the startup opened up its API to outside developers. Some apps that have been created for the Dash include Trulia’s real estate search (handy when home hunting in the car), weather updates from WeatherBug, nearby speed traps from Trapster, geo-tagged Wikipedia articles, and you can even Twitter from your Dash (not while driving, please).

It was over a year ago that we first mentioned a design called FoxyTag, launched out of Geneva, Switzerland, that enabled anyone with a Java- or Symbian-based phone to track and log locations of speed cameras around Europe and elsewhere. We’ve now been told that, following the opening of the FoxyTag server, a Symbian-specific development dubbed TrackerTag surfaced not too long ago, which promises a better, more full-featured adaptation of the utility. In addition to FoxyTag, it is able to communicate with Netherlands-based FlitsService and GPSGate.

If you’ve glanced occasionally at my personal Twitter feed, you may have noticed that I sometimes keep an eye on the automotive scene. I watch the UK-based programs Top Gear and Fifth Gear religiously. The homepages of Autoblog, Jalopnik, Winding Road, and several others remain bookmarked and cl