Introduction

Applications that utilize maps and location-based technology are second only to games and entertainment in sheer numbers of users and downloads on the iTunes store. This popularity with consumers is no surprise, considering the multitude of uses we have found for them so far. From apps that help us navigate by car and on foot, to being able to find a coffee shop or a restaurant close by, the uses of this technology are truly only just being explored.

The Titanium Maps module exposes the building blocks of this technology for us through a tight integration of Apple Maps on iOS and Google Maps on Android, alongside GPS services on both platforms. Built-in geolocation, reverse geolocation, and point-to-point routing are all accessible through the Titanium Maps native module. With these tools at your disposal, you can build anything from a store location finder and location tracking to augmented reality applications.

Throughout the course of this chapter, we will introduce all of these core mapping concepts and use them to put together an exercise tracker app that will identify our location at certain points and provide us with feedback on how far we have traveled.

You should be familiar with the basics of Titanium, including creating UI objects and using Appcelerator Studio. Additionally, it would be useful to have a basic understanding of how latitude and longitude positioning works, which is the standardized method of calculating the position of a person or an object anywhere on earth.