Today Skyhook launched our first SDK for iPhone, called Local Faves.  Local Faves is designed to help developers add location tagging, and community and gaming functionality to any iPhone app.  The SDK brings the context of location to digital context-based apps, like music, wine, food, reference, books and more.  The features of the SDK create engaging communities within apps, driving user loyalty and more opportunities for monetization.  For example, in a Local Faves-enabled wine app, users could check-in to a restaurant via the wine they are drinking, giving the app developer the opportunity to broadcast user location.  Other features include fully customizable content tagging, allowing users to indicate that they loved, hated, favorite, saw, or read a piece of content within the app; and enabled sharing of this content and exactly where it was experienced via Facebook and Twitter.

In addition, developers can set up map views of Local Faves-tagged content, allowing users to, for instance, see where around the world their favorite song is playing, or view all songs playing locally. Then, a ranking feature provides stats on any piece of content to show who loves it, where, and location-based trends over time.

The initial launch includes partners like Audubon Field Guides, Drync and Appmakr.

Local Faves will be made available to developers in mid-April. To sign up to be notified when Local Faves is released, visit http://www.skyhookwireless.com/localfaves/register