Tuesday, December 2. 2008

News from AU: Enhanced PDF for AutoCAD Subscribers

That's today's big news. Funny since not too many years ago it was DWF all the time and PDF with a line through it in Autodesk ads... Too bad there's nothing specific for geo folks in the enhanced PDF (that I can see.)

- press release

Company Behind Lauded Westport 3D Model Goes Under

Westport (Ireland) got its share of fame (Google Earth blog, for example) after AMT3D developed a detailed 3D model of the city and posted it on Google Earth. Today, The Mayo News reports AMT3D shut down in November a victim of the economy and fears in the building industry. The good news, a local company has bought up the assets and will honor existing contracts.

"Cold and Flu Companion" Mobile Phone App

Yep, it's branded with a drug name (Zicam) but it's the premise that I want to examine. The app (Android now, iPhone later this month) allows users to get info on local (input ZIP Code) code and flu info.

The Zicam® Cold & Flu Companion mobile application provides greater detail than this service by showing users the percentage of sick people in any given zip code, what types of symptoms are most prevalent and which ones to look out for in a specific area. The application also keeps users updated on the latest cold and flu news.

Source of this info? Not stated in PR. But you can get the same info (apparently) via this website. (The risk in my city today is low!)

Useful? Some would say yes. Another benefit? Coupons to buy (that's right) Zicam plus directions to nearby retailers. Is something like that a viable way to "opt in" to LBS-based coupons/pushes? We'll see.

- press release

Microsoft Eagle 1: R&D Implementation of Integrated Data/ Maps for Emergency Response

CIO Australia highlights Eagle 1, along with other "in development" technologies. This one sounds all too familiar to me after witnessing many OGC interoperability demos.

Eagle 1 pulls information from multiple databases and uses geospatial mapping technology to create an interactive map that would show, for example, all the schools, military bases, hospitals in the affected area. Plus it would show how many people are in the hospitals, current evacuation models and casualties or danger zones, even a plume model that could show where a gas leak is heading.

There's nothing to note what enables access to all those databases, but there's a note that "the process of configuring the data extractions will likely involve a team of Microsoft disaster specialists."

Quotes of the Week from Nokia World

From Nokia World, being held in Barcelona this week:

"Your social location, or SoLo will become your here-and-now-identity."
- CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo

"Combining the real world with the virtual world, pointing at a building with a virtual compass and being told everything about that building." (Coming soon)
- Markets EVP Anssi Vanjoki

"There’s a company that says they can index the world [Google]; we are going to go deeper - we are going to coordinate the world, we are going to coordinate everything on a map. Not just a map that is standard like a Google Map, but a map that is dynamic, with vector graphics, driving all the roads of the world, making sure we have coordinates for everything there is, with Navteq."
- Markets EVP Anssi Vanjoki

- MocoNews

VentureBeat Picks Five LBS Companies to Watch in 2009

Some are the same old, same old: BrikeKite, Whrrl, Mexens Technology. One I'd never heard of: LBS gaming company Orbster. One, Sense Networks, has already made investors piles of money by allowing them to predict store revenues by tapping into traffic coming and going.

Also noted: FaceBook and MySpace, which have yet to do anything with location, but which "would devastate the location-based social networking industry. No other social network is even close to achieving the same user base as these two."

- VentureBeat