Update: MotionX GPS App for iPhone - NAVTEQ Data and Low Cost

Updated 10/1: Title and text updated per comment from FullPower to note the app does not use OpenStreetMap (below).

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I’m trying hard not to get too wrapped up in all the iPhone nav apps, but I am interested in the reaction of the planet as each one appears. When the TomTom app came out for the iPhone the folks on Buzz Out Loud (BOL, the C|net podcast of indeterminate length) criticized the price and attributed it to the cost of the data (provided by Tele Atlas, which it owns). Now, InformationWeek previews MotionX-GPS for iPhone in part because of its low price $2.99 and $25 annual subscription.

The app uses deCarta tech and NAVTEQ data (from FAQ), so that’s not what dropped the price. Another of the company’s products does use OpenStreetMap.

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I had to dig a bit on the website, but it seems the app uses OpenStreetMap. (I’m a bit confused since GPS Business News says it uses NAVTEQ.) Also noteworthy: the company behind it is FullPower and headed by former Borland CEO Philippe Kahn. Gosh I loved Borland! My first real job, at a consulting firm, used Quattro. One of my colleagues, a programmer, won a big award for automating the processing of data from our Gas Chromatograph all in Quattro.

$10 Million NGA Contract for NAVTEQ

NAVTEQ Corp., Chicago, won a $10,893,729 federal contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s St. Louis Contracting Center, Arnold, Mo., for Global Transportation, Public Venues and Miscellaneous Points of Interest Geospatial Data Layers Dataset (geospatial vector data layers).

- Targeted News

UK Dept Offers Samples of Data Display

The Department of Communities and Local Government launched Dataviz, which carries the tagline “Improving data visualisation for the public sector.” It provides examples and case studies of representations of data from government but little in the way of what I’d call guidance.

- The Guardian

Cap and Trade Bill Includes DOI GIS

“Section 371. National Wildlife Habitat and Corridors Information Program. Establishes a program in the DOI to support States and tribes in the development of a geographical information system (GIS) of databases of fish and wildlife habitats and corridors. Facilitates the use of database tools in wildlife management programs.”

- KRMG Radio