Kiwi ingenuity

I keep saying location based services are the next big thing and a Kiwi company is proving me right:

US mobile search pioneer GeoVector is turning heads with a New Zealand-developed application that allows people to discover businesses and landmarks and call up information on them simply by pointing their smartphone in any direction.

The application, World Surfer, works on the iPhone 3GS and smartphones running Google’s Android operating system.

Both have built-in GPS chips and compasses, so that they can work out where they are and in which direction they are pointing.

The software calls up information from web sources such as Google Maps, Microsoft search engine Bing and Wikipedia, and in New Zealand, details of restaurants, accommodation and landmarks stored in the database of local electronic mapping company GeoSmart.

I’d use an application like that all the time, when not at home.