...the latest news appears to be the Trimble Yuma, a rugged tablet from SDG Systems that now runs Ubuntu Linux.
Targeting military and industrial applications requiring data collection, inspection, and reporting from the field, the Linux-powered Yuma can be used with geospatial software including GRASS GIS and Quantum GIS as well as other standard or custom Linux-based applications. The device is available starting at $3695 on SDG's website.
- PC World
The Trimble Juno series provides a complete, integrated package of positioning, imaging and communications for flexibility. Two versions are available. The Juno 3B has an integrated GPS, a 5 MP autofocus camera and Windows Mobile software. The Juno 3D includes all of the features of the Juno 3B plus 3G wireless technology, which allows users to transfer data faster and stay connected to the office with an integrated mobile phone.
- press release
TomTom has made a landmark move into the insurance market by providing the technology behind a new insurance product, which bases premiums on driving behaviour.
TomTom has teamed up with insurance broker Motaquote for the launch of Fair Pay Insurance – a product that rewards 'good' drivers with lower premiums.
- press release
by Adena Schutzberg on 02/09 at 03:00 AM |
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Lee Mitchell owner of G.A.I.A. Professionals spoke about starting a new GIS business on the Jan 31 American Sentinel University Webinar. I learned during a detailed discussion of her work history that she worked in some capacity for American Sentinel University in curriculum development. That was not disclosed in the webinar marketing material and might have been made more clear in the presentation itself.
The webinar was very generic and covered the issues all business must deal with: office space, hardware, software, staff, insurance (errors and omissions insurance in particular, which she was not aware she needed, it costs $4000/year), lawyers, accountants, funding, etc. She spoke of getting clients via existing networks, social media, and government contracting. She did not mention blogging or writing for industry or professional journals or speaking at conferences, which have served me quite well in building my client base. She did suggest going to conferences.
I was most disappointed in the discussion of open source GIS software. That was highlighted in the title of the press release announcing the event “Learn How Open Source Software Benefits a Successful GIS Business.” The press release listed a half-dozen free and open source GIS packages, but these and other business related packages were simply mentioned in passing. These can save a new business money, Mitchell noted.
I was also disappointed, as a small business owner of 11 years, to learn that “sometimes you are working on a project for three months before you get paid anything.” That is not how my advisors suggested I structure my contracts and thankfully, I never had that happen.
by Adena Schutzberg on 01/31 at 01:12 PM |
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The Geospatial Desktop might sound like a generic book about deskotp GIS. It's not. It's about open source desktop GIS. The subtitle "Open Source GIS and Mapping" provides the important distinguisher.
Furthermore it's a revision of the book originally titled Desktop GIS. I confess I'm not familiar with the first edition and changes in the second one seem to focus on updates in the software discussed, rather than any key new principles. The book is by Gary Sherman, founder of the Quantum GIS project.
Per the publisher, the original sold out quickly (published 11/2008) and has been out of print for some time. The reviews of the original were quite good on Amazon. I find it interesting (1) that this book is still popular even as desktop GIS is, I think, diminishing in use in favor of apps on other platforms and (2) that print texts continue to be in demand.
by Adena Schutzberg on 01/31 at 05:17 AM |
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You may have read about Depiction's Depiction Prep (APB coverage, press release). Safety Maps is another offering in the same space: a solution for coordinating in case of a disaster. But it's different. Why?
1) It has some serious geo/carto power behind it in its people:
Safety Maps is an initiative of Do projects, a flexible "platform for collaborative making" with a shifting roster of collaborators. For Safety Maps, Do consisted of Nurri Kim, Bloom’s Tom Carden, and Stamen’s Michal Migurski, with Urbanscale’s Adam Greenfield.
2) It has open source goodness.
Safety Maps is built on top of a variety of open tools and data, most notably OpenStreetMap, Python, PHP, and MySQL. From one perspective, these are resilient solutions. "The properties of open technologies that make them cheap and accessible also make them flexible and adaptable," says Migurski. From another perspective, reliant as the whole system is on working servers and stable network connections, this arrangement is fragile. This is why the final output is paper.
Depiction's solution also uses OSM.
3) It's free.
- Co.Design
by Adena Schutzberg on 01/25 at 05:40 AM |
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Google is open-sourcing Google Sky Map, an app created by employees at Google's Pittsburgh office who wanted to put the sensors in Android phones to the test. While the app has seen more than 20 million Android phone users since 2009, the app will now be used in student projects at Carnegie Mellon University.
A number of other apps and API are to be shut down entirely.
- eWeek
Hertz Global Holdings Inc. has acquired from Thales Navigation the remaining 35 percent of Navigation Solutions, the operational arm behind its in-car global positioning systems, known as NeverLost.
- AP
The highlight of the [latest ChaCha] upgrade is the exciting all-new Real-Time Map feature, which allows users to see questions recently asked by others using the application. For the first time ever, ChaChees will visually see on a real-time map what questions are being asked where.
Why "visually see"? Why not just "see"?
- press release
Rentenna.com -- the free, groundbreaking rental tool that condenses everything a renter would want to know about a rental building into a single score -- releases its interactive "Rentenna Score Map" to the public today.
You can score and map anything now. The question is: which provide viable business models?
Local restaurant search tool "Ness" added maps in its new release.
by Adena Schutzberg on 01/23 at 03:00 AM |
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