Tuesday, August 4. 2009

Podcast: In the News - State Stimulus Sites and User Generated Corrections

This week two news items peaked our interest: Good Jobs First, a Washington research center, released a report giving mediocre grades to state websites that aim to be transparent about the distribution of federal stimulus dollars. One of the criteria considered? Maps. Second, is there a trend in local news related to sat nav? Is there a move away from "two techs capturing data" stories to how users can get involved with collection and update?

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Monday, June 15. 2009

TomTom Addresses Debt with Stock Sale

The four founders will buy shares and some others will be sold via a private placement. That should drop the company debt to €700 million. The company stock price has dropped 66% in the last 12 months, with many concerns related to the debt. With the recent announcement of a nav app for the iPhone, the stock price is up. There's been speculation Apple may invest in TomTom. Forbes' discussions with analysts and insiders suggests that's unlikely.

- Financial Times

ForexYard offers an analysis of the map acquisitions in recent years. Key quoyr regarding TomTom/Tele Atlas: "'In the future this will feature in textbooks as a perfect example of how stupid management sometimes can be,' said Corne van Zeijl from SNS Asset Management, who now owns TomTom shares but did not at the time of the acquisition."

Tele Atlas Turkey Data Doesn't Match Turkish Requirements

GPS Business News reports that Tele Atlas this week informed its customers via e-mail that authorities in Turkey have held its data of that country, as it does not meet state requirements defined by the Turkish military mapping agency. Tele Atlas uses the UN country designations, which do not match those of Turkey at this time.

While this is a complex matter, I applaud Tele Atlas for its transparency.

Monday, April 27. 2009

Update: Role of Tele Atlas Lebanon Facility Changes; 120 Layoffs Expected

Update 4/27/09: I got an official statement from Tele Atlas which puts the numbers in context.

Continue reading "Update: Role of Tele Atlas Lebanon Facility Changes; 120 Layoffs Expected"

Wednesday, March 18. 2009

iPhone Turn by Turn Apps Allowed: But Don't Use Google Data

There were lots of great things in Tuesday's announcement from Google about the new OS, version 3.0 for the iPhone. Per David Pogue the new release due this summer for all platforms (free or small fee) covers all the "chronic" problems.

Those developers interested in putting maps in their apps are in luck. They can now embed maps in applications and access many of the features found in the Google Maps iPhone application.

That's great but one big frustration for users and developers has been the limitation on "turn by turn" directions; until this release they were not allowed. Now, they are, BUT you have to use "your own" data, not Google's. David Pogue puts it this way in a blog post:

Turn-by-turn directions. Programmers can now create GPS programs with turn-by-turn directions—as long as they don’t use Google’s wonderful map information. Thanks to some dumb legal restrictions, they have to supply their own map data.

Since I'm in the industry, I know about "legal restrictions" and the challenges they present. I'm looking forward to how the data providers (fee, free and open) respond to these "dumb legal restrictions." This is a marketing opportunity; let's see which companies turn it to advantage.

Tuesday, March 10. 2009

Podcast: Exploring Three Geo-related Lawsuits

This week we look at several lawsuits within the geospatial community that have made news in the past few weeks, and while we are not legal experts or lawyers, explore what they may "really" be about. Microsoft is suing TomTom; the Borings of Pennsylvania are going after Google once again and Pictometry and GEOSPAN continue to duke it out about patents.

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