Partnership the first to bring accurate Wi-Fi positioning to photo market

Boston, MA, February 29, 2008 — locr, the geo-tagging focused photo-sharing community, and Skyhook Wireless, provider of the Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS), today announced a partnership to bring Wi-Fi positioning to locr's geo-tagging community. This ground-breaking partnership will bring location awareness for photos to millions of Wi-Fi handsets and also improve the accuracy and availability of location information for a significant number of existing locr users. locr and Skyhook Wireless will be demonstrating this technology next week at CeBIT 2008, hall 15, booth D34.

"Geo-tagging, or marking photos with precise location information, is poised to move into the mainstream,” said IMS Research Analyst Matia Grossi. "Today, camera and cell phone makers are exploring ways to support geo-tagging in their devices.”

One innovative way to bring location capabilities to devices is GPS.  However, GPS can sometimes have issues with coverage indoors and with accuracy in urban environments and around tall buildings. Combining Skyhook Wireless' Wi-Fi Positioning System along with GPS addresses many of these problems by optimizing location accuracy, coverage, and time to fix in the environments where GPS is weakest. In addition, the WPS provides geo-tagging capabilities for devices that support Wi-Fi but do not have other location technology.

locr is positioned to benefit from the surge in interest for tagging photos with location information. locr provides everything necessary to geo-tag digital photos: free software for PC and mobile, free webspace, community and organization features and now, the first solution for GPS and Wi-Fi photo geo-tagging. Today the locr community is able to visit historic places, meet new people, and explore both the neighborhood and the world by browsing for and reviewing photos on a map. In addition, these users are finding that using precise location information in photos is a very effective tool for classifying and managing increasingly large on- and off-line libraries of photos.

"Integrating WPS into the locr solution will significantly expand the number of handsets that support geo-tagging,” said Mike Shean, vice president of business development for Skyhook Wireless. "For existing locr users that have Wi-Fi enabled devices, the upgraded locr application will increase the accuracy and availability of geo-tagging in all of the places where people take pictures.”

"locr is happy to announce this partnership with Skyhook Wireless in order to enable the geo-tagging of photos with Wi-Fi in addition to GPS,” said Malte Schloen, CEO of locr GmbH. "Geo-tagging is revolutionizing the culture of photography and Skyhook is the perfect addition to augment existing location technology and to bring location awareness to existing and future Wi-Fi enabled cameras and cell phones.”

About locr
locr is a photo-sharing community with focus on geo-tagging. The locr software (for mobile phones, digital cameras, GPS dataloggers and PC) automatically tags photos with GPS data, shows their position on digital maps and generates for each photo descriptions of the locality. The locr online community enables users to upload photos, archive them in albums and swap them interactively with friends and acquaintances. For more details, see www.locr.com.

About Skyhook Wireless
Founded in 2003, Skyhook Wireless has pioneered the development of the first-ever metro-area positioning system that leverages Wi-Fi rather than satellites or cell towers to deliver precise location data supporting the growing market for location-based services. The Skyhook Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) requires no new hardware, works indoors and outdoors, provides an instant location and is more accurate than current technologies in congested downtown areas. WPS serves over 70% of the US & Canadian populations and is expanding internationally. Skyhook Wireless is headquartered in Boston, MA, and is privately held. Investors include RRE Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Intel Capital and CommonAngels. For more information visit www.skyhookwireless.com, send email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 617-314-9802.