Boaters enter their starting and ending points. The marine navigation tool calculates trip time, distance and fuel consumption, and downloads the needed charts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The site also offers weather, tide and marina information.

Realtor Martin Eldridge, for instance, got $1 million for a location-based application that combines GPS-like data with information services. If you walk by a painting rapidly in a museum, for example, you might just get the name of the painter sent to your cell phone. If you pause, it might forward you the date it was painted and other details.

He came up with the idea while driving down Highway 1 in California.


Taking bids by phone. Many bidders call in their bids by phone to maintain secrecy. Phone buyers, however, will also have observers in the room.
(Credit: Ocean Tomo)
"I wanted to know what I was driving by," he said, elated and sipping champagne. He wrote Google, Garmin, Microsoft (all of whom have extensive patent portfolios that the rigorously defend) and several other companies about licensing. None responded. The auction gave him a way to make some money off of it.

TomTom's share price has halved since November, and after Tuesday its market capitalization is slightly less than the price it is paying for Tele Atlas.

TomTom's Chief Financial Officer Marina Wyatt said she was "comfortable" that TomTom will be able to meet creditor's demands in financing the Tele Atlas buy.

This week our editors revisit two themes that continue to pop up as geospatial technology, ideas, visualization and data move into the mainstream IT world and popular culture. First we look at two announcements regarding the integration of Business Intelligence or BI, with online mapping. Then, we'll pick apart the latest data capture privacy lawsuit - where a couple is suing Google over StreetView images of their house.