ThisIsLeon.co.uk

For a while now i’ve been toying with the idea of creating an iPhone App. Due to my knowledge of web technologies such as XHTML and Javascript, I wanted to see how I could create an iPhone application using these techniques. With wanting to learn some of the new features HTML 5 would offer, I decided to create an app that tied into the GeoLocation API now available to the iPhone, via the 3.0 update.

Without planning anything out, I dived right into the HTML5 Geo Location spec and  successfully outputted the location as a Lat and Long value. This was pretty cool, but a lat and long on their own were pretty pointless (see what I did there).

I’d previously done some work using the Google Maps API and Flash (now no longer working due to an outdated version of the GMaps API), and thought i’d try my hand at plotting your current location on a Google Map.

This worked and I decided that rather than just showing your location, i’d tie this in with the Google Local Search API and allow you to search for things near your location.

Now before anyone starts moaning and saying that this functionality is already available, I wanted to create a Web App for a number of reasons:

• To see how close I could get to the look and feel of a native app.
• To learn some shiny new HTML5.
• I needed a little sideline project.
• It could become a base for some sort of snazzy location based events app.

So onto the actual app – I called it Showee and if you navigate to http://www.showee.me on your iPhone you’ll be able to see it in all it’s glory, (if you try it in a regular browser, you probably won’t see anything yet as I haven’t created a non iPhone version).

First thing to do is tap the (+) and choose ‘Add to home screen’, this way you’ll be able to appreciate how close this looks and feels like a native app (there is a status bar that gives you feedback about what the application is doing).

On load you will be asked to share you location. If you accept the application will determine your location and place a blue dot at your location. If the accuracy is greater than 20m it will keep checking your location for an improvement. Once your location has been determined to within 20m the app will stop searching.

At the moment that is pretty much it, but I plan to add more features in the future.