Wednesday, June 11. 2008

GeoMedia Wiki

Even as Andres at BlinkGeo notes how few GIS technology providers offer blogs (ESRI = many, Autodesk = 1) Jeff Hobbs our blogging ambassador to Intergraph announces the GeoMedia Wiki. While it's not a blog and not hosted by Intergraph, the company has contributed funds and staff contributions of some kind.

For now content is limited, but the plan is to collect content on 3rd party add-ons, tutorials, examples and the like. I'll be keeping an eye on this Wiki since my students use GeoMedia (among other packages) in my Comparative GIS course.

Details on Tele Atlas' MultiNav...a data product targeted at developers of LBS apps

Today, Tele Atlas (TA) is releasing a new version of MultiNav, the street network database from the company that is optimized for navigation products and solutions. So, to be clear, though it is not technically a subset of MultiNet, the complete Tele Atlas road network database, MulitNav contains only certain features most applicable for navigation applications. I spoke with Purvi Rajani, Global Product Director for MultiNav, Ms. Rajani said, “The product is analogous to moving from DOS to Windows for us; it’s a massive move forward for Tele Atlas.” She offered several key points to consider in this new release:

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iPhone has GPS....Yaawwnn...Next

I've steadfastly delayed comment on the addition of a GPS chipset (Broadcom chip according to Seeking Alpha) to the iPhone because I said a year ago they blew it when the iPhone 1.0 launched without it. So, now we have the iPhone 2.0 with GPS. Sounds like Apple is working from the Microsoft playbook: Launch a less than full featured product at a high price; wait for customer complaints, drop the price and re-launch a second version with better features. I guess Steve Jobs is now a student of Bill Gates. This is news?

So in a year's time what do we know? While Apple still holds only about 5% of the overall smartphone market according to InformationWeek it has picked up share on a quarterly basis since its launch according to CNNMoney. It won't replace your Blackberry which already had GPS capabilities. Why switch? Are you looking for the "coolness" factor or is it that you really like AT&T's cell coverage and speed (that's supposed to be a joke).

Maybe I'm just not a "Mac guy." I can't get excited about this particular news because the market has moved well beyond just GPS as a feature. We are now talking about what we can do with it and more LBS services have already been announced and launched by other phone providers that makes the iPhone news anticlimactic. This is not to say that the iPhone is not disruptive technology. I think it is. But the addition of GPS would have been in keeping with Apple's "coolness factor" to facilitate social networking and other location aware services at its 1.0 launch...not a year later.

What's next? An iPhone icon showing you where the closest Apple store is located? I guess you'll need GPS for that!

Garmin Down, TomTom May be Up on iPhone

From The Street:

GPS-based navigation devices maker Garmin(GRMN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) fell $2.85, or 5.8%, to $46.74 after Apple showed off location-based services including navigation on the iPhone. Apple's move could hurt demand for Garmin's devices, believe some analysts. Meanwhile, Garmin rival TomTom already has a version of its navigation software running on the iPhone, according to a report by Reuters.

Sony Ericsson's Location-based Music Search Patent

From the patent LOCATION DEPENDENT MUSIC SEARCH:

A portable device may perform a location dependent music search. During the search, the portable device determines location information that identifies a location of the portable device, makes a request that includes the location information to a database, obtains a list of music sources associated with the location information from the database as a result of a search performed based on the request, selects a music source from the list, and outputs an audio signal associated with the selected music source.

- via IntoMobile

Gas Price Data Accuracy

I suppose it's just another twist on telling the same story in a new way, but a Roanoke, VA TV station wanted to check if websites aimed at finding low priced gas were accurate. They gave the sites they checked for the local area (not clear which site/s) an 85% correct rating. Not too bad since some sites depend on user generated data and prices are changing very fast.

Now, the interesting news: 90% of those responding to a survey (N=500) have yet to use such sites. That doesn't surprise me. I believe for most people gassing up is a no-brainer. We go to the same station near work or home (29% said they did; I suspect true value is higher). If we are prudent, it was the cheapest before the latest spike, and remains so. I know my favorite station continues to be 5 cents cheaper. I like to think those who regularly travel by car in areas with which they are not familiar would use such tools more.