I really enjoy using my iPhone. It fits to my requirements pretty well, even with all the things it can’t do. Well, can’t do officially I should say. The biggest drawback, beside being locked to one mobile carrier, is probably that you cannot install additional software (officially). But hey, it is the first phone Apple did, can’t we all wait? They already announced to provide SDK (Software Development Kit) in February 2008. Well, actually, I can’t 
But I am anyway looking forward to what Apple will provide – hopefully they won’t cripple it.
Let me introduce you to the reason I am not able to wait:
Locations is a native iPhone application to watch webcam images whenever you want and wherever you are.
But hey, this is my reason!? Well, it is not the only one, but the first to tell about. As I already said, I do enjoy my iPhone a lot. One of the things I do quite frequently is using the weather app. But there is always something missing. Ok, I can see the forecast with temperature values and an icon illustrating if it is raining, snowing or whatever. But this isn’t enough for me, I want to see how the weather is. Well, there was no app present helping me there, so I decided to start coding it myself. And here it is.
This is the first time I coded Mac software, my usual environments in business are pretty different (PHP, ASP, Javascript, Java, etc.). And the last time I was coding C or C++ was in my study time. And frankly, I didn’t like C o C++ a lot. But hey, Objective-C is differnt and surpisingly it is really fun to use! Thanks to the brilliant IDE XCode and the wonderful documentation of all the Mac APIs, it was much easier to get into developing for the Mac environment than I thought in the beginning.
The only drawback on coding for the iPhone so far is …. right, missing documentation. But the community already did lots of great apps and published them as open source. A perfect playground to learn. And there are some nice people around giving hints and helping a lot. Thanks guys!
Well, enough talking, why don’t you take a look and give me some feedback. Enjoy.
But hey …
(I always wanted to say that once). Locations is Open Source. Check out the source at the Locations Google Code Project page.
75 Comments
Locations is pretty good. Here are some bugs with it though:
- spelling correction occurs on the URL but not the name. I believe that should be swapped cos entering an entire URL is hard enough on an iphone without having to dismiss all the suggestions
- you can’t edit the name once you’ve saved it
and a request:
- is there any way to get the URL in a new entry without typing it all in? tapping a photo on a page in Safari? mailing the URL to an address? anything?
Hi DNA, thanks for the feedback.
- Spelling is obviously a bug, I will correct it in the next version
- Name and URL can be edited! Tap on the discolsure / arrow in the list view
- I am already thinking about good ways to achieve that. One is the functionality to include a search feature, but I need a database with content for that. Maybe your suggestion is also possible, I’ll look into it.
If you want, you can added bugs, feature requests etc. to the locations google project.
Andy
Good job Andrea but I am having problems adding webcams?
I think this is a cool program BUT….can u tell me if theres a specific type of webcam image i need? It does’nt accept any one of the URL’s i’ve tried using…please help…just give me a reference website i can go to. Thanks.
Superb application – thanks! Being able to view the currently selected webcam *live* in a future version (instead of stills) would be truly amazing!
I am having problems finding URLs of suitable webcams of various countries/cities to add, and anything you can do to ease this for the end-user would be really good.
As an example, I’m going to Eilat, Israel in a month or so and it would be lovely to be able to check a webcam view of the hot weather over there from my desk in the currently very wet and windy UK!
Keep up the great work on this app!
Thank you for the great app! Do you have any websites you pull your web cams from for you program? I can’t seem to get any others to work. May be you could link other cams in your next update.
Thank you again for the great app, I can’t wait to show others.
-Jtecho
I’m agree with others: the real problem of this good application is the missing of a webcam url list
Fun app… if Apple ever releases a “copy/paste” function, then adding image URLs will be simple.
An Auto-refresh with a much more subtle loading notification would also be a nice addition. The loading notification should be more discrete so you can see the image while its loading the next one.
What could be really cool is having the webcam image become the background, and update at selectable intervals. I am sure thats not so simple though.
Nicely done for your first app… congrats.
@imanos: What kind of problems? Please be more specific.
@Ray: well, it should accept any URL pointing to a PNG, JPG or GIF file (all iPhone supported image formats should work). Live streams do not work!
@dmtelf: there are several ways: first, doing automatic refreshs after adjustable time, second support motion-jpeg (no idea if that is supported by the apple frameworks). so first one is definately something coming sooner or later
Regarding finding webcams, currently you have to search the images yourself, try Google or Yahoo search with “webcam directory” and then go ahead. I know this is the biggest issue with the current version, but hey, it is version 0.1.0 and I wanted to give it out already
I am looking for ways to include a search function like the weather app has and/or a ways to use pictures from Safari (but no idea yet, if that could work).
@Jtecho: Use the search hint mentioned above for now.
@Brodie Olson: That is on top of my wishlist for version 0.2.0. Just need a good idea or webcam directory website which gives me access to its database. Or build up my own
@Russ: Auto-Refresh options will come. For loading notification I am planning to add a progress bar. Do you have something else in mind? Setting an image as a wallpaper is also on the list
If you mean auto-update of the wallpaper image, sounds cool, but that would require a daemon doing the updates. Will put it on the list, But minor priority
@all: Thanks a lot for your feedback. This won’t be the last version of “Locations”
Just installed locations, and it seems to have caused some serious problems—can’t get past the gray Apple bootup screen. Running Firmware 1.1.1, and haven’t had any previous problems.
Awsome application bro I love it being in NZ I don’t get to see much of the world up close and live!!! Can you please email me a list of some cool URLs from around the world like times square, Egypt and if theres one in NZ can I get that please?? Thanks bro keep up the good work!!
@Chris: well, I very much doubt that Locations is causing this issue, simply since it doesn’t even touch any of the system related areas at all. You seem to have an issue with Springboard.app not loading up. Please use the forums of hackintosh.org or modmyifone.com to get some help and you should tell in detail what you did and what happened before the iPhone rebootet and if you rebootet it or it did itself and what is happening when it reboots, if you can ping it, ssh into it etc. Otherwise it is just a wild guess what your situation might be. On these forums you definately get more help than here in the comments.
@Ryan: Simple use Google or Yahoo search with e.g. “webcam egypt” or “webcam times square”. Get the URL of a pic and add it to Locations. Sometimes these websites use flash, then it is more tricky to get the image URL.
Great app!! Works awesome, just added webcam from Dublin, Ireland and it takes me right to the corner I was standing on 2 yrs ago!! Kind of ironic actually!! Thanks and keep up the great work. – DC
Great apppication. I have added several webcam locations, works just fine. But how do you delete a location? I would like to delete one because the jpg file is a bit too big…
Problem (delete a location) solved. I mananged to delete a location by editing the “locations.plist” file in the locations directory on my ipod touch.
or you can use the “EDIT” button at the top of the list
Hi Andreas,
Truly an inspired app. One way i have been using it is to get live traffic feeds from the cameras at trafficland.com. If you right click on the image and click properties it will show the url i use to put into your application. However, after 5 minutes or so the url becomes dead and when I refresh image it remains the same. When I right click on the image from my comp, the url’s “pubtoken” has changed to a different set of characters, the first part of the url stays the same.
Is there way that your application could automatically receive the changed pubtoken? Because when I re-enter the new charaters it works perfectly.
I hope that made sense. Thanks again for a great app!
Andreas—
Thanks for the reply. I’ve posted on hackint0sh with no reply yet, so I thought I’d ask your advice again. I installed locations using Installer.app, and after leaving Installer, springboard got stuck. Either I (or the Iphone itself; not sure which) rebooted, and since then, I haven’t been able to get Springboard to load.
I haven’t had any previous problems, but do have a fair amount of software on the phone, so I wonder if locations is interacting with Customize or Summerboard or something.
The good news is that I can sync with the phone, and I can browse the file system using iPhoneBrowser. So would deleting locations.app be likely to help at this point, do you think?
Thanks
Thank you very much ! I like this app~~~~~~~
Problem is fixed; solution follows:
1. Attach iPhone to PC by USB.
2. Use iPhoneBrowser to browse the file system
3. Go to Library
4. Delete the locations.app directory.
5. Disconnect the iPhone
6. Reboot the iPhone (I had to do this twice)
Not sure what caused it, exactly, but it seems like some sort of conflict with locations is possible
I love this Apps very much!! We have a TV program showing similar venue screenshot in Hong Kong, but it is not real time. Now I can somehow see what the world in this moment. Thank you!
It would be great if you can implement the weather together with Locations.
I have an URL for Madrid.
http://www.traficomadrid.com/Camaras/images/real/Camara00029.jpg
Andreas… I am digging this app more and more. I am using http://www.earthcam.com to find cams by location… pretty simple site.
As far as a loading or refreshing notification… I just would prefer something that wouldn’t cover the image. Maybe just use a small loading icon not in the middle of the image.
My wish for an auto-updating background image is probably a pipe dream. no need to make it high on the list at all.
Keep the good work going. Can’t wait to see what else you make.
@Chris: This is really weired, since I don’t do anything out of the Locations.app scope! I don’t read anything anywhere or write others data. Also, when the Springboard.app is loading up, I don’t see what content inside of Locations.app does make it break, since it definately does not start my app! Maybe it is the program icon, but why should it fail in yours and work in others. Could you test this please? Install again and delete one file inside of Locations.app after the other, until the Springboard comes up? Would be really interesting.
@Mickey: I thought about weather in the beginning too and looked at how the weather.app is fetching data. I found out how it works, but the data is fetches is prohibited not to be used by any other app. All the “free” solutions out there have limited data and max. of 3 days forecast and mostly do not come in a nice XML feed or do not support search for cities. So I don’t see the benefit of adding it yet
@Russ: Good ideas, if you want add them to my google project issues. Regarding earthcam.com: this site uses flash, how do you get the image? Lots of people are asking me this in emails.
@nshammer: Just tried it myself. The problem is to get valid values, these are probably generated when accessing the html page. So the algorithm is very specific to that side and the implementation into Locations would be very specific to that site. So I am not sure yet.
Andreas,
Thanks for checking that out. I have been working on a solution and will let you know what I find out.
but can you imagine how useful this would be if it worked permanently!?
thanks.
@nshammer: Well, it would be useful for that specific site.
Hallo Andreas,
ich habe mal versucht einige Links der Webcams in meinen iPod Touch einzutragen , aber leider möchte Dein System sie nicht ???
http://www.earthcam.com/
Hast Du mal einen Tipp wie ich das etwas Aufstocken kann , New York & Paris wird dann langsam langweilig
Herzlichen Dank !!!!
Herzliche Grüße aus Norddeutschland / Oldenburg
Rainer
hi andreas, great app! hope it will evolve nicely! I love the programm earthbrowser (http://www.earthbrowser.com/). you can also edit the webcams in this programm. also you can get urls from the existing webcams in the programm easily by clicking on the black camera icon in the open cam picture window. just try it ,)
maybe a webpage with working urls would be an nice addition! or even better a way to share urls within the programm! all the best and keep up the good work!!! kai.
Any idea when the sources are available on code.google.com?
@Mutsch: the sources are available, I was playing around with the administration interface of the google project.
Hi Andreas
just discovered your App while browsing – it’s brilliant for an out-of-the-blue one
I’ve already noticed that streams don’t work as well as Java but the extracted Jpeg also not?!? Here are the links for trying by yourself:
WebSite with image
http://www.wdr.de/themen/global/webcams/domcam.jhtml?rubrikenstyle=specials
If you click the image you’ll receive this link
http://www.wdr.de/themen/global/webcams/domcam.jhtml?rubrikenstyle=specials
Right click in Firefox and “View Image” creates this link which works in the Cam-Widgets…
http://www.wdr.de/themen/global/webcams/domcam/domcam_live.jpg
Any ideas why the last link does not work in your App?
Cheers
Dag / Cologne
Hi Andreas,
Firstly a big kudos for your effort and time spent in developing this awesome application!
A question however.. I saw that in your screenshot (http://www.andreaslinde.com/images/projects/locations/locations010_01.png) you have Broadway and Times Square webcam added. Assuming these are taken from EarthCam, could you kindly share how you got the images since the site uses flash files – making it harder to extract?? Thanks!
Cheers
Dude, Locations rocks!!!
thanks and keep up the amazing work!!
I just have 1 request… Motion Jpeg? Lot of Axis webcams use this system of mjpg and i would love to see all of those cams supported
Ralph
I played this app these days, I loved it very much.
sometime it will crash, I hope it can be more stable in the future.
here is my wishes:
1. add slide show and zoom in function
2.Auto refresh
3.Make a “online list” on this app ,so everybody can upload your webcam link to the list ,also can add a link to the app from the list. is it possbile?
keep up the Good work!!
and one more request:
4.add “save the picture” function !!
Thanks a lot~~~~
@Ralph: That would be great indeed, but it is a tough one. I put it on my list and see what I can do.
@Glooby: Never had a crash here using 20 webcam images. Once it happens again, could you please mail me when it happend and maybe send me your /var/root/Library/Locations/locations.plist file.
Slideshow, Auto-Refresh and Save picture are already on the list, “online list” is one of my options to make searching new webcams better.
I’d like to add several url’s at once.
Can i simply add them to a plist file?
would I edit locations.plist? I only ask since I’ve already deleted the defaults and added a new one…but I still see the old ones in the file mentioned above. thanks.
@Rainer Kaufholz: Tja, earthcam benutzt Flash, da ist wenig zu holen. Ist aufwand die Links rauszufinden bis hin zu nicht möglich
@Kai: Sorry, which black camera icon? I am searching for good and easy ways to add new images, stay tuned (will take a few days though).
@DagBO: The last image URL works just fine here.
@Jar: I’ll post all the URLs I currently have in the hakintosh.org forum thread mentioned below. Regarding earthcam urls: I just found them in the slothcam dashboard widget.
@Happy: Do not edit the locations.plist in the application directory, that one is just used for initialization. Go to /var/root/Library/Locations/locations.plist
@All: there is a thread on hakintosh.org forum collection URLs, why don’t you stop by there
http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23428
hi andreas,
if you install the programm earthbrowser you have to activate the webcam view (webcams einblenden) in the little floating palette. then choose a webcam icon on the globe. a new window with the webcam picture will open (if there is only one webcam, if there are more than one, a little floating palette will open to choose which one you want to see). in the top of this webcam window is another little black webcam icon. click in this one. hope this helps
grüsse – kai.
@Kai: Danke/Thanks
@All: I found another way “in”. The flash viewers need to have an url for the images they show. So the question is find out the url. If you are using Safari 3 it turned out to be quite easy: Right-Mouse-Click/Control-Click somewhere on the page where the flash context menu does not come up, choose “Element-Informationen” (german, english should be similar). Now the URL eather is listed unter “images” or more likely under “other”. Look for elements that are repeated very often and end with .gif/.jpg/.png. Put the image name with a leading “/” behind the url mentioned below, and there you have it
(Will update the FAQ now…)
@Andreas
I found my mistake – after typing the URL I hit the SAVE button and it never worked for me (URL is not pointing to a valid image). Today (after reading your answer) I tried the URL again and hit 1st RETURN and then SAVE – what shall I say – it works, THX
Dag
Hey, excellent work with this app so far; it looks very promising. Reading through the posts, I was also thinking that with the auto-refresh, it would be nice if there was an option in the settings that would control the time interval between each refresh and also if all the cams are to be refreshed on the interval or only the active cam.
The display could also have an option for a normal style aka cams are in the landscape position, or an accelerometer style where, based on rotation, the cam would appear in the full landscape style or a smaller vertical style with either buttons for in-cam options like screen caps or thumbnails, perhaps 4 or so, of other cams in the list. And also, being able to pull in cams saved as bookmarks in safari would also make copying in difficult URLs much easier.
Good luck! I’m looking forward to your next update!
HI , ANDREA COULD YOU PLEASE SEND ME THE ADDRESS FOR MORE SITES ?
THANKS…
@Melvin: there are ways to find more URLs described in the comments above, also in the FAQ and oon the hackintosh forum thread posted above. Please go through them.
Somebody have a example of earthcam URL´s to add in the Locations software? For example: times square.
@Allesandro: why don’t you check out the hackintosh forum link mentioned above? That example is in there.
http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=23428
Andreas…
Earthcam uses flash for any cam they host… but they point to others… some java, some movies, others just jpg. I only use the ones which are jpg.
Russ: I know, and I found a way to detect the image urls of these flash webcam viewers. See my comment above from January 21st, 2008 9:19 pm
Dear Andreas,
Where could I dowload version 0.1.0 of Locations?? Because i’ve installed the new one (0.2.0) and it didn’t work anymore. Everytime I try to launch it, it brings me back to home (iphone springboard).
I’ve changed permissions also, but it doesn’t work anyway.
First release worled perfectly on my iphone!
I have un unlocked jailbroken iphone with firmeare 1.0.2
Thanx a lot!
Marcos.
hallo andreas
ist es möglich die version 0.1.0 noch zu bekommen?habe firmware 1.0.2 und hatte noch keinen grund upzudaten.
vielen dank
matthias
I concur with the comments above from Marcos. I too am using 1.02 system and I no longer can use Locations. Version 0.10 worked great but now it won’t start up using version 0.20. Hope it is an easy fix.
Hier die alte Version für 1.02
http://code.google.com/p/locations/downloads/list
Jochen, thank you fur the Version fur 1.02.
vielen vielen dank jochen,jetzt funktioniert es wieder
)
Just tried installing Locations 0.2.1… doesn’t work on 1.0.2 phone.
@vege: well, I have no idea what the problem could be. Sorry.
I concur. Locations 0.2.1 does not work with firmware 1.02. I do hope you can find the problem.
great app! i use it for our highway cams
i have one “wish”: is there any option that you “resize” image to fit to window if image is in strange sizes. or just some checkbox “resize” while adding it? contact me if you want some examples of our cams. matija
@mat.tija: the app resizes the pics automatically to fit the screen size if the image is bigger than the screen size. I don’t see a reason to resize smaller pics, since only the quality will be decreasing.
sorry, this one is quite strange, when i look it via locations. i see whats going on inthere, but yes, image is much stretched that i expected to be
Well, it looks perfectly streched with keeping the correct aspect ratio for me using Locations 0.2.1. If you are still using Locations 0.1.0, well, maybe you should upgrade?
i’m using 0.2.1
up to date, all the time. i see black area above and below image. a lot of black 
ps. found typo at location editing/adding, “passwort”
Well, the mistyping will be fixed, thanks.
Regarding the image: the original image is 704 pixel in wide and 288 pixel high. The iPhone has a resolution of 480 pixel width and 320 pixel height. Now comes the downsizing keeping the aspect ratio (!!!). If you do a little math I guess you will see why there is a black border on top and bottom. (Hint: 288 * (480/720) = the new height of the sized image = 192 pixel) Now making it fullscreen would mean to nearly double the pixel in height which will make the image look very very stretched and thin. Which would mean the pictures does not have to original aspect ratio. Hence I will not add such a feature, since I don’t think it is a feature at all because people will say the image looks weired not having the correct proportions.
hi andreas, could you please contact me at included email address?
i have some questions.
Andreas, thanks for the awesome app! I have a security system set up in my store and was pained by the fact that I’d have to enter my username and password every time I looked at it from my phone, not to mention that the UI of the camera server was less than ideal for an iPhone…now I no longer have to waste time logging into the SecuritySpy system, I just open Locations!
My only request (which you’ve already acknowledged) is an auto-refresh or support for motion-jpeg. Once those come in I might never stop looking at my phone!
@antiautomation: for the first request, stay tuned… for the second feature request, won’t be that soon if I can add it at all!
Glad you enjoy it
Great software! Here are some more cameras if you want to add them to your search inside the application: http://www.video-monitoring.com/monitor_shoreline.htm. They are cameras from the Florida beach area–very nice quality cameras.
@Mark: thanks for the hint, added them.
Great app Andreas!
But the latest version is not working on my iPod Touch.
Starting the program, black screen, after 20 sec back to the icons
iPod Touch ver 1.1.3
@mikael
I had the same problem. rebooting the ipod and trying a couple of times again was successful! it took a really long time to boot for the first (successful) time! now most of the times it still doesn’t boot
@Mikael, @Kai: I sent both of you an email.
@Everybody: If you find issues, please log into your device with SSH and run the app from there:
su – mobile
cd /Applications/Locations.app
./Locations
The first line is for 1.1.3 firmware users only!
Please send me the output and also the settings file: /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/de.andreaslinde.locations.plist (Replace mobile with root for firmware < 1.1.3).
Lets move comments to the 0.3.0 version to my blog entry about it: http://www.andreaslinde.com/archives/2008/02/17/another-update-is-in-the-air/
Thank you
Hello. I´m having a hard time trying to ave some camera locations. Everytime I press the home buttom It erases all the cameras I had already saved… Any suggestions. Thanks! Great App BTW!
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