Description
Interactive GPS people-finder
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As Featured on Good Morning America
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Take your iPhone's GPS Location Services to a new place! Working in the background utilizing 3.0, iLOCi2 shows you exactly where a friend, co-worker or loved one is, fast and easily.
With the push of a button, iLOCi2 populates your iPhone's built-in Google Maps with the locations of people in your private "opt-in" buddy list, as soon as they approve your request. It's an interactive friend-finder, party-starter, child-locator, social networker and much more — a must-have, "Where are you? I'm here!" visual locating app.
Get LOCated, and LOCate others. Download iLOCi2 now (Free Lite version=2 users, Full=16 users, Platinum and Enterprise versions, more users and features coming soon).
Look for LOCiMOBILE products at http://www.locimobile.com
Yappler-Tags: gps, find, connect, people, family, friends, co-workers
What's New In Version 1.3
* Now you can LOCi up to 16 people
* Increased contacts from 8 to 16
Customer Reviews
What's the Purpose?
Although this application works well and is an interesting concept, I don't understand it's purpose. Originally, I thought that it would be good to locate your teenage children, but you can only locate people if they ACCEPT (each time) and it doesn't give you exact locations so you can't make sure they are where they said they would be. I also thought it might be useful in finding a person when you are trying to meet up with them, but that too doesn't work because, again, you cannot get their exact location, only a general area. Also, you have to know the exact email address the person used and, like myself, most of us have more than 1.
Works quite well, and handy to have when needed.
The only reason I didn't give this app 5 stars is because the validation was a frustrating, error prone process. But when I finally got the app validated on my iPhone, I found it to be a fun and enjoyable app to use. I can definitely see where the developers worked hard to produce such an app without compromising privacy concerns, and yet still provide as much pertinent information to the user as possible in as few menus as possible. So you don't have to drill down into too many menus to accomplish what you want with this app.
The process is fairly simple. It doesn't just let you track anyone - because then it would just be a frightening stalker's playtoy. Instead, you must first set up the app using valid email information of people you know. The app sends that person a communication via email that lets them approve or deny their placement in your app contact list. Once there, if they also use the app, their contact item gives you a dynamic status update as to when they have validated their app and can now use iLOCi2 as well. (not a crucial feature, but one that did not go un-noticed - very nice.)
Once a contact has been set up, you can simply bring them up in the app menu and send them a location request. On their phone, they recieve an alert regarding your request. (The app puts alerts and badges to good use here.) They can choose to approve or deny the location request - which is very nice to know. It allows users to retain their location privacy, if they so choose.
Once a request is approved, the app provides you a pin locator placed on a Google Map that you can then zoom in on to pinpoint their location more accurately. Furthermore, if you tap on the locator pin, a small contextual banner also provides a little more detailed information about the specific location (such as address or cross street information if it is available. - also a nice feature that was added without undue menu complexity.) The Google Map that is displayed in presented "in-app" which means that it doesn't offer all the viewing features the iPhone native Maps app includes (such as hybrid or satellite view), but the huge benefit of the "in-app" approach is that iLOCi2 doesn't have to quit in order to open the Maps app (due to the iPhone's limitation of running one app at a time). You are still working within the iLOCi2 app when viewing the map, which means you can simply and quickly return to the iLOCi2 app menu for other searches. It makes the whole process quicker and more intuitive.
It is important to note here that this app is not intended as a dynamic tracker, but as a static locator. If the location of your contact has moved, you will need request a location update from them in the app to get an updated fix on their location.
So this is not necessarily designed as an app for following someone, but rather for confirming the location of a contact, or to help determine a meeting spot. A great example of how this might be used would be if you are on a metropolitan or tourist outing with your family or a traveling group, and everyone has gone in seperate directions for various purposes. This app would be beneficial to help determine how best to meet back up in the quickest and simplest way possible. Or even more simply, if you are supposed to meet someone in an unfamiliar location, and they are uncertain as to how to direct you to their location, this app would make such a task a very simple endeavor.
So, in a nutshell:
validation - buggy
menus - fairly self-explanatory and not overly complex
usability - easy to understand and use
performance - great use of alerts and badges, interface is snappy, location requests are processed very quickly, and location & map info is streamed to my phone as quickly as I had hoped for.
To be honest, I know that the whole App Store pricing structure has really changed or skewed consumer price/value perceptions, but even so, this app is a lot more than I would have expected possible for under $3. Money well-spent, my opinion.
Brilliant
I am a mom of 3 kids. 9 11 &. 12. being a parents is the hardest job I've ever had. The worry aspect is over. I've always said I wish I could put a chip in my kids. With loci2, all I had to do is get my daughters iPhones and the problem is solved. This is FANTASTIC!
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$1.99
- Category: Social Networking
- Updated:Oct 13, 2009
- Current Version:1.3
- 1.3
- 0.3 MB
- Languages:English, French, Spanish
- Seller:GTX Corp
- © 2009
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.
