New GPS-Free Geolocation Service for BlackBerry Developers

RIM has introduced a new service for BlackBerry developers that allows you to query for a location without being dependent on GPS. This service is free for developers, as it lets you get a location fix in seconds using nearby cell tower information.

"Users can be indoors with no GPS coverage, but your app will still be able to guide them to restaurants or points of interest (POI) around them. Although the accuracy of the fixes obtained from the Geolocation service may not always be as high as with GPS, it has use cases for apps that require highly accurate GPS fixes as well as apps that do not. Apps that require high accuracy can use this service to quickly show the user an approximate location while it waits for a more accurate location fix using GPS. This can offer a huge user experience improvement. For applications that do not require high accuracy, this service can be leveraged as a simple yet effective mechanism to provide location information."

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