Introduction

Location awareness offers many benefits to an app, so many in fact that even desktop apps now attempt to get the user's location. Location uses ranges from turn-by-turn directions, "find the nearest" applications, alerts based on location, and there are now even location-based games that get you out exploring with your device.

The Google APIs offer many rich features for creating location-aware applications and mapping features. Our first recipe How to get the last location will look at obtaining the last known location as stored on the device. If your app is not location intensive, this may provide an ideal way to get the user's location without a large resource overhead. If you need constant updates, then turn to the How to receive location updates recipe. Though constant location updates requires more resources, users are likely to understand when you're giving them turn-by-turn directions. If you are requesting location updates for a proximity location...