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Skyhook, Centrix Collaborate on New Mac Software

Boston-based Skyhook Wireless and Winnipeg, Manitoba-based Centrix.ca announced today that Skyhook’s Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS), which allows wireless devices to determine their geographic location based on the identities of nearby Wi-Fi networks, has been incorporated into the latest version of Centrix’s popular NetworkLocation software. The program automatically adjusts user settings on a Macintosh computer—for instance, which programs to open upon startup, which desktop pictures to show, which screen-saver settings to activate, and which printers to connect to—based on the user’s location. The new “3.0″ version of NetworkLocation will use WPS in addition to other cues, such as the network addresses of Wi-Fi networks or wired local area networks to which a computer is connected, to determine a machine’s location.

Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com, call him at (617) 252-7323, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wroush.

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