Thursday, March 20. 2008

Live Video + GPS = Seero

The offering was announced at the New Tech Meetup last night. Seero per Rafe Needleman, "lets you broadcast live from a Webcam or record shows for later playback. But it also records location and syncs it to video. That opens up some new capabilities for video producers and for advertisers." It's not really aimed at consumers, but productions shops for things like sports. The business model is not yet available, but clearly this is another set of content for the local advertiser to explore.

- Webware

Insiders: TomTom/TA likely a go; Nokia/NAVTEQ will be scrutinized

Forbes offers the details in a Thompson Financial report:

A legal source told Thompson the deal is a go and will likely clear before the May 5 deadline.

Analysts tell Thompson TomTom is still committed to the acquisition and is open to adjustments to make it happen.

Possible remedies to EU concerns, say an anonymous source, are likely to be proposed this week. One is setting up a third mapping company, perhaps from a Tele Atlas independent distributor to compete against TA and NAVTEQ.

The commission said that Nokia has not offered "remedies" about concerns over its acquisition of NAVTEQ. That means that the EU must either approve the deal "as is" or further investigate. Legal sources say an inquiry is expected.

Quote of the Week

"I have tabled a motion asking that Derry City Council write to Google asking that they upgrade the coverage available in the North West of the island [Ireland]. Images are available in far greater detail for other parts of Ireland and the United Kingdom and I hope the council will support my call for Google to take steps to upgrade the images available in the North West as soon as they can."

- SDLP councillor, Martin Reilly, of Derry

(sorry lost original source, but it's mentioned in this BBC article, and it's noted in council agenda [doc])

Update: Found the original post at the Derry Journal.