Thursday, November 5. 2009

Google and TomTom Execs Address Google Navigation for Android

I dug this up in The Boston Globe writer Hiawatha Bray's overview of the Droid (which he says is cool, but no iPhone killer) and its free navigation app:

During a visit to Cambridge yesterday, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt was unapologetic. “Google is a disruptor,’’ Schmidt said. “We would argue that this disruption has a very strong consumer benefit. . . . As long as we’re on the side of making consumers empowered, we’ll be fine.’’

TomTom spokeswoman Kaitlin Ambrogio told me her company will be fine as well. “We believe there are opportunities for all of us,’’ Ambrogio said. Indeed, TomTom might launch a hugely successful Web search company, make billions of dollars, and start giving away their maps. Pretty far-fetched, I admit. But it’s been done.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google, TomTom at 09:36 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Tuesday, November 3. 2009

Podcast: With Geodata, Developers, not Consumers Rule

If consumers think of geodata as a commodity, what does that say for its future? What are the key data relationships? And what, if anything, will differentiate one offering from another? Our editors ponder these questions in light of evidence that consumers know and care little about who makes, manages and updates basemaps.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google, Open Source, Directions on the News Podcast, Satellite Navigation, Navigation, Social Networking, Tele Atlas, NAVTEQ, TomTom at 06:00 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Tuesday, September 8. 2009

TomTom Shares OpenLR Standard: What is it?

The press release says:

OpenLR has been designed for traffic information systems and dynamic route
guidance, and is available as an open-source technology a
http://www.tomtom.com/page/openLR. It can easily be adapted to the requirements
of system integrators, and the technical community can contribute with their
ideas to improve it.

Location data can range from static road sign information to highly dynamic
traffic and weather situation information as well as safety-critical information
- anything that needs to be accurately linked to a specific piece of or position
on the road network. The OpenLR technology allows location content providers to
reference any location on any navigable map, completely royalty-free.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Open Source, Standards, Real-Time/Dynamic Data, Satellite Navigation, TomTom at 06:17 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |