Skyhook is a very well-known name in the location services industry. It has now rolled out version 4.6 of its mobile SDK. The new version comes with a whole lot of new features. Among these, one feature that seems very interesting and exciting is that of ‘in-flight location.’
The name of this feature itself explains what it can accomplish. The feature allows app developers to discern the location of a user, even when he is taking a flight and is in the air. Skyhook revealed the feature this morning through a press release. However, the company hasn’t divulged a lot of details about it. For instance, how it works or how the feature finds out the user’s in-flight location.
Nonetheless, it is not that hard to accomplish. All the service has to do is track the Wi-Fi network of an aircraft. The next step is to map this network to the current location of the plane along its flight path. And it’s not hard to find all this data since its freely available on popular apps such as FlightTrack.
Skyhook is not used by either of the two popular mobile platforms – iOS and Android. However, a lot of third-party Android developers tend to make use of the service since it can provide very accurate information regarding the user’s location. In fact, with this new ‘in-flight location’ feature, we can be sure that many more developers would like to hitch up to the Skyhook bandwagon.
Source: Skyhook
Courtesy: The Verge
