Thursday, January 22. 2009

Did High Res Imagery, PhotoSynth Capture the Inauguration?

Renay San Miguel of TechNewsWorld says "sort of":

Here's the problem with both the GeoEye satellite photos and Photosynth: They certainly were had-to-be-there experiences, as long as "there" was your computer. On a compatible PC or Mac, the CNN.com Photosynth app kills; on TV, "The Moment" was more of a "meh" moment, despite King once again showing his mastery of a touchscreen on steroids (this one provided by Perceptive Pixel.) Yeah, it's kind of cool to finger-flick from a photo of Obama on the dais to John Cusack in the crowd to Oprah Winfrey elsewhere in the crowd, but audiences raised on "CSI" software fantasies weren't likely to be overwhelmed by 2-D turned into 3-D turned back into 2-D on your TV, even if your TV is HD. (Don't OD on this, OK?) Same thing with the GeoEye photos; impressive as they are, the crowds still looked like smudges on those in-studio touchscreens.

These offerings and live streaming, Twittering and more created a firehouse of coverage. I love the fact that there were "so many ways" to be part of this event - from watching live footage (on TV, Internet, mobile...), listening to radio, via various user generated images and text...

The firehose doesn't work so well for me; I watched a few moments on TV, but turned to my favorite medium for news, radio for the rest. The enduring image for me is one I didn't even see, it was described to me. It filtered out the chaos of the crowds, the need for security, the layers of technology: the NPR commentator described Obama's daughters skipping up the dias.

Virtual Earth Navigation Application for Windows 7 (beta) Available

Windows 7 continues to get good reviews in its beta form. I even heard calls for it to be released now on a podcast yesterday.

For those in geospatial come the Virtual Earth Navigation Application which takes advantage of the Windows 7 Location Platform to determine location and show it on the map.

To play with it you'll need: Beta of Windows 7 (v 7000), .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, the Virtual Earth 3D Control, and a Windows 7-compatible Location Provider (GPS).

The program manager, Daniel Kornev, of Microsoft Russia, adds a bit more in this article.

TomTom Announces Job Cuts

TomTom announced cuts of 7% or 115 staff members. The news comes after a resetting of expectations earlier this week. Tele Atlas will have no additional cuts now; 125 position cuts were announced late last year.

- EETimes

ComEd Maps Outages, Pilots Online Customer Reporting

According to a press release Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) (a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation one of the nation's largest electric utilities serving Northern Illinois) has for the first time put an outage map on its website. When I visited some two dozen blue symbols dotted the Virtual Earth map of Illinois. Each represented 0-50 customers without power. The data is updated every 30 minutes.

The announcement was within a press release seeking 10,000 customers to sign up for a free outage alert program which will pilot use of text and other methods to let customers know of outages. Once tested the program will be rolled out across the user base. "By enrolling as an online user, customers can also use the Web site to report power outages, manage their ComEd accounts, and view and pay their bills."

CITGO Goes Local with Ad Campaign

The campaign launches in March and is focuses on locals and local giving.

Called "The Neighborhood," the new campaign puts the spotlight on real CITGO marketers and retailers who are providing local jobs, fueling the local economy, doing good and giving back to their communities. The campaign takes viewers from Key West and Corpus Christi to Salisbury and Charlotte on a virtual road trip through several one-of-a-kind American towns, highlighting the distinctive quirks and charms that make them special.

In 2009, CITGO will tap into the power of social computing by connecting and collaborating with consumers on a topic relevant to everyone -- helping those in need. Through a new Web site going live in May, consumers will be invited to post descriptions and needs for their favorite charitable activities, explaining how they benefit the community and whom it helps. Visitors to the site vote on the cause of their choice, and winners will be awarded free gas and an expanded Web site profile on what they are doing for their community. The online promotion will run for three months starting just prior to Memorial Day.

- Convenience Store News

NAVTEQ/Traffic.com Advertise Direct to Consumer

It's the first I've seen NAVTEQ's name outside the old "NAVTEQ onboard." Nicely done banner - I saw it in Hotmail. (Yep, I still use it!) What next? NAVTEQ at the Super Bowl?