Tuesday, November 24. 2009

Update: TomTom: If you can't beat 'em, cut the price

Today TomTom added another incentive to get folks buying PNDs: turn in an old one for a discount on a full price new on at TomTom.com. While the "trade in" prices are considered generous by Consumer Reports (some up to 50% of current sale prices for new versions of older units) it's a bit tricky since the full price new products may be two or three times the current doorbuster holiday prices. So, do your homework! (Oh, and the TomTom iphone App is no eligiable for a rebate.)

- Consumer Reports

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Update: California "Cool Car" Regs May Mean no GPS, Radio, Cell phone Signals in the Vehicles

The California Air Resources Board released a report (pdf) this month revealing what it learned in very limited tests of GPS devices and cell phones used in cars that had the coating on the front windshield. The results:

(1) Cell phones used in cities, with good signals were not impacted.
(2) GPS devices were, but performance was better when a "deletion window" (aka an area of glass without the coating) was included.

So, the report concludes:

In total, these results indicate that there are no effects of reflective glazing, and thus the Cool Cars regulation, on GPS monitoring ankle bracelets or cell phone usage in an urban environment.

- Earth2Tech

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Walmart Offering Store Specific Indoor Maps of Black Friday Specials

Here's an example from a Massachusetts store.

It's really a "treasure hunt" as the plasma tv offering is in the "food" dept of the store and a laptop is in home and garden. But, I suppose that spreads out the chaos...

I expect an iPhone app for these maps any minute now!

- Roanoke Times Blog

Update 6: AT&T Sues Verizon over "Map for That" Map Ads

Now, Apple joins the fray with two ads touting iPhone features not available in the Motorola Droid, which runs on Verizon.

The catch phrase: "Can your phone and your network do that?"

- Gizmodo

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Quote of the Week

"The benefits of GIS technology, if any, may not be easy to see."

From an editorial in the Democrat Herald on the newly printed Oregon official map. The writer cites smaller fonts and missing POIs in comparing the map to a previous, apparently non-fully-GIS created map.

Podcast: Implications for Twitter's Geolocation API

Last week Twitter released its geolocation API, an interface for developers to tack on, and gain access to the point locations from which tweets are sent, so long as users turn it "on." What are the possibilities for a giant, near-real time set of 140 character comments from around the world? Our editors contemplate challenges, opportunities and possible uses.

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