Quote from: neXusOne app on the iphone you hold it up to any building or object etc and it will tell  you all the height etc and distance from it. Same with mountain ranges etc.

they have laser rangefinders?

I guess it coulld be possible, if it uses the GPS to find out your location, and using camera info eg focal length and what it is focusing on?

Quote from: Edd

Quote from: neXusOne app on the iphone you hold it up to any building or object etc and it will tell  you all the height etc and distance from it. Same with mountain ranges etc.

they have laser rangefinders?

Depends on the app but you have compass, gps and a video camera.
You can determine the distance, height, location and all that to calculate it all. If it is a known mountain then they can even tell you.
The principles of these things are not that new but the math and code implementation combining stuff is whats cool about this stuff.
Just as the Lond/New York Tube ones can tell you how far you are from the entrance and their orientation of the arrows etc.