Paranoid about your location being known and curious how to turn off any iPhone tracking that might be going on? Location Services can be a really nice feature to have when you want to geotag a photo, checkin to a game, use turn-by-turn navigation, or find a nearby restaurant. Privacy, however, is a really important issue and sometimes it is better to switch this service off just in case. This can be done very easily, you can turn off all Location Services completely or choose which applications can access them.  It is very simple to do and we show you how, after the break!

Here’s how to change Location Services options.

Turn off all Location Services

1. Tap on your Settings icon on the home screen
2. Tap on Location Services
3. To turn all Location Services off, toggle the slider at the top into the off position and that’s it done.

Turn Off Location Services on a per app basis

1. Click on your Settings icon on the home screen
2. Click on Location Services
3. Scroll down and you will see a list of all your apps that use Location Services
4. Using the toggle switch to the right of each app, select if you want it on or off and that’s it done.

Some of the apps will have the Location Services symbol displayed next to them; it looks like an arrow head pointing North East. This tells you which apps have requested location information in the last 24 hours.

It  really is that simple! If you have any other good Location Services tips, let us know in the comments!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Gowalla version 3 in now available in the App Store. This is the most significant update Gowalla has released for iPhone. So what are some of the new features?

For starters there is a completely new interface. At fist, I found it a little confusing, but I can navigate OK now. Beyond the interface overhaul, the most exciting new feature has to be notes. You can leave notes for your friends at a location. So, the next time they check in at your favorite restaurant, they will be notified that a note was left for them.

The notes feature is cool, but I would have liked to have seen it taken a step further and have public notes. As it is, you can add a Highlight, one of Gowalla’s newer features that was previously available on the Web.

Another new feature is the ability to link to FourSquare and Facebook for cross-posting. You can even see these checkins in the Gowalla app; sort of like a hub for location based checkins.

As many of you know, I am fan of Gowalla. I reviewed Gowalla for iPhone back in May, and I like what they have done in the new update, but there are a couple of things they have removed that leaves me scratching my head with wonder…

• Removal of your item collection- you can add to it, but cannot view it any more… very strange
• When you rotate Gowalla on iPhone, you no longer get the vicinity map

[Free- iTunes Link]

Did Apple reject Google Latitude from the App Store because they’re getting ready to launch a similar service of their own… that also uses a front-facing camera? Maybe, maybe not, but Patently Apple found this latest application, and 9to5mac seems to think it’s a possibility:

In Apple’s implementation, it looks like the location data can be carried in an SMS or Instant Message (interesting news in its own right), which can then be opened in the Maps application to show the other person’s location relative to the iPhone user’s. Also, note what appears to be another instance of a front-facing camera on the iPhone image below. We’re calling it now: iPhone 4G (and tablet + maybe iPod touch) get front faing cameras. Who is with us?

We are. At least it makes sense in the iTablet/iSlate, and it’s always near the top of new iPhone hardware feature requests (though would it be WiFi only to prevent AT&T towers from melting?)

Of course, our wishing has never, not ever, made Apple make it so…

Loopt [Free - iTunes link], which matches social networks with location-based services into one smoldering hot Web 2.0 sammich, has struck a deal with AT&T that will let them update their iPhone users’ location information even when the Loopt app proper isn’t running.

Yes, you read that correctly — the Loopt iPhone app isn’t being granted any extra special background multi-tasking sanction by Apple for the iPhone, this is strictly a server-to-server, Loopt-to-AT&T deal, and it will come at a price. BusinessInsider scores the scoop:

Loopt will first offer the new always-on service in a trial for 5,000 users. You can sign up at Loopt’s site using your iPhone’s MobileSafari browser. After the 14-day trial, the always-on feature will cost $3.99 per month, added to your AT&T bill.

BusinessInsider also renews that old rumor about how Apple is seriously considering limited multi-tasking in a future software update. And, yes, they’ll have to have something interesting to tempt users with in iPhone 4.0/4G next summer, so why not run with that? We’d like it!

But back to Loopt, anyone dying to give AT&T an extra $4 a month for precise stalking tracking of their friends and family?

[Via Daring Fireball]

Like an old episode of Star Trek, Apple patents provide us with a look at many possible futures for the iPhone, some of which — but not all of which — may one day be ours. Cases in point, AppleInsider rounds up the latest batch from Cupertino:

• Location-based home screen means a user would be presented with a dynamically generated Home Screen based on factors such as location (get off the plane, automagically be presented with local weather, maps, contacts, etc.)

• Speech-to-text would take what you say into the iPhone and transcribe it into editable text (similar to what many 3rd party apps offer now).

• Image transportation, where picture are automagically scaled and sent for display on a TV or similar external monitor.

• Event-based contact lists, hosted server-side, that would allow access for event participants.

• In-call file transfer would let users share a file with someone they’re already talking to on the phone.

Yeah, iPhone 4.0 is coming when again?

The iPhone Dev-Team take a break from the Jailbreak to throw some light on the issue of 3rd party iPhone apps tracking users’ location. Joey Hess and our friends over at PreCentral.net kicked up a bit of a ruckus last week detailing how the Palm Pre reports users’ location data back to Palm HQ. Well, says the Dev-Team:

Although we have yet to find an application by Apple that tracks your location, there are certainly a number of “free” applications in the official AppStore that are designed to do just that. Case in point: there’s this rather cute/gimicky app that lets you determine the tip for your waiter or waitress by tilting your phone as you pass it around the restaurant table. But if you dig a little deeper (like bushing did) you’ll find it uses a library by Pinch Media that is specifically designed to track your geographical location through time, then upload that data to Pinch Media. (Oh and it also show you an ad, as an extra bonus).

They point out that the iPhone will ask before any app is allowed to use location data, but also that it will keep asking to the extent that users might just agree to prevent being constantly annoyed with popups.

The Dev-Team goes so far as to describe these types of apps using the dreaded “s” word. That’s right — SPYWARE. However, in a web increasingly dominated by companies seeking to aggregate (hopefully anonymized?!) user data as a way to monetize (providing free or cheap apps in exchange for the shared data and tolerance for advertising), how broadly can that term now be applied? Many, especially tech-savvy, users are happy to let Google’s Gmail scan their email and serve ads in exchange for the service (and don’t even get us started on Chrome parsing all URLs a user enters through Google, or their purchase of DoubleClick…)

Should we be concerned more about small, 3rd party companies? About Apple, Palm, and Google-type companies? Or is it just the way of the world now?

How about this — Perhaps Apple could give us app-specific Location settings, much as we now have app-specific Notification settings? That way, there’d be a list of apps that use location, and we could individually turn off those with which we don’t want to share our location. How about it, Apple?

TiPb loves answering your questions, but we also love sharing our answers with the community in hopes that more people will benefit, and even better answers will present themselves (hey, that’s why we have them forums!). Today’s question comes from Stupendoussteve on Twitter:

ever heard of iPhone finding you at a previous address, states away, where you’ve never even taken the phone (post restore)?

We have! And TiPb answers after the break!

The iPhone uses Location Services to determine where it is. Location Services uses three (3) distinct technologies, and different iPhones (and iPod touches) support different levels.

The most precise, supported only by the iPhone 3G, is aGPS. aGPS uses cell tower-based GPS crunching to give you a fairly tight indication of your current position.

Next is cell tower triangulation, supported by iPhone 3G and the original iPhone 2G. Google mapped all cell towers in the US (and other countries), recorded their GPS locations, and then tries to determine where you are if it doesn’t have — or can’t get to — an aGPS signal proper.

The last — and the one causing your problem — is WiFi router mapping. Skyhook got into a bunch of vans, drove around the US (and other countries), detected WiFi routers in homes and businesses, and recorded their unique IDs along with their GPS locations.

For iPod touches, and for iPhones that aren’t getting good aGPS locks, Location Services uses WiFi mapping to find out where you are. The problem you’re encountering is likely that Skyhook recorded the location of your WiFi router when you lived in another state, and now when your iPhone is finding it, it still thinks you’re at that old address, across town, or across the country.

Skyhook may eventually drive around and re-map your WiFi router, or you can go to SkyhookWireless.com and manually re-locate your WiFi in their system — though in our experience it can take a long time for them to update either way.