Boston (MA) - Finding your way on the iPhone is a breeze now that Apple's deployed their enhanced Maps application, complete with directions and other bells and whistles. But it also left us wondering why they didn't enhance it with a news discovery feature so we could easily find the latest buzz surrounding us? Enter Radar, a new iPhone application that taps Outside.in's premium location-based news content to deliver relevant news and real time discussions based on your current city, neighborhood or within up to 1,000 feet of your current location. It is the Maps' missing killer feature that greatly raises the standard for location-based applications you can find today at the App Store.

When the iPhone 3G came out, the addition of GPS hardware slipped under the radar in favor of other features that made headlines. These included support for faster 3G cellular networks and official third-party applications through the App Store. Although even first-generation iPhones had location-based features that enabled applications like the built-in Maps to pinpoint a user's location through the combined cellular tower triangulation and Wi-Fi data, iPhone 3G brought a much needed accuracy that only a dedicated GPS circuitry allows.

It shouldn't come as any surprise that many developers enhanced their applications with location-based features. In addition, dozens have exploited geopositioning as their main feature, especially in various location-based social applications. But few of them have managed to pair accurate positioning with premium content tailored to the user's current location - the way Outside.in's new Radar application recently posted into the App Store does.

Radar taps Outside.in's rich location-based news content to deliver all the news and real time discussions within up to 1,000 feet of the iPhone's location. Outside.in's technology tracks web news, blogs and discussions and dynamically maps it to real-life locations. The company's GeoToolkit gives content creators tools to deploy localized content across Outside.in's network.

"Radar for iPhone lets you walk the streets of your city and see the real time news and discussion right around you," said Outside.in's CEO Mark Josephson. "Radar on the iPhone is the first application to truly deliver on a personalized local news experience."

The application displays news and social content including news stories, blog posts, discussion threads and Twitter tweets. Icons at the bottom allow you to switch between stories relevant to an entire city, just the surrounding neighborhood or within 1,000 feet of your current location. To jump to a map that shows buzz surrounding you, simply shake the handset.

Radar gets user's current position via iPhone's location-based features obtained via combined GPS, cellular towers triangulation and Wi-Fi data, which allows even first-generation iPhone owners to enjoy content tailored to their rough location. A handy profiles feature allow you to set up profiles for your home and work, making the switch between the two very easy. The only major drawback is the fact that the content offered for now is limited to just the U.S.

Another helpful feature in Radar is how separate pages are dedicated to each place in your neighborhood. This eases the discovery of a nearby restaurant, for example, or that blog post about an on-going heated debate in your community, or even to track nearby crimes. Of course, it isn't perfect and at times you will resort to a Google search to find very specific information. But if you need to quickly find your way around your surroundings, get in touch with the latest relevant news and find stuff like businesses around you, Radar will do the job.

We often find ourselves wondering why Apple did not enhance the built-in Maps application with premium local content in addition to the stuff it obtains from Google and Yahoo, opting instead for third parties to provide it via applications like Radar. Until someone in Cupertino decides to build Radar's functionality into Maps, this application will save users lots of time finding the content which matters most to you. We have found the $2.99 a small price to pay for the aforementioned luxuries.