Author/s : Richard Ferraro, Murat Aktihanoglu
Publisher : Manning Publications
Category :
Other
Review by : Ulf Dittmer
Rating : 7 horseshoes
The book aims to provide a survey of the landscape of mobile applications that deal with location data (GPS data chiefly), covering technical points (like positioning technologies, mapping options and mobile platforms) as well as business and pragmatic issues (like privacy, monetization and distributing mobile applications). Putting so many topics into a shortish book (less than 300 pages) means each subject gets only comparatively short shrift; don't expect to find all the information you might need on any given subject.
The prose is readily comprehensible, though, and where different technologies or options exist, the author points out their comparative strengths and weaknesses, so the reader can make an informed decision about what to research more. Lost of screenshots from existing apps illustrate the various points, and code examples are peppered throughout the book (although they are too short to serve as starting point for actual apps).
The book has only been published in July 2011, but already feels dated in some spots, so fast is the mobile phone scene changing, especially regarding the merits and positioning of the various mobile OSes. Still, the book provides a useful overview for anyone who's interested in what makes location-based mobile apps tick (HTML5's location features are not covered), and what the issues are one might have to think about before creating such apps.
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