LBS Tidbits

It’s frankly sad that there needs to be an iPhone app called TomTom Now. The $2 app allows you to paste a “one field” address in, that’s then parsed and sent to the TomTom app. Why? The TomTom app makes you input each field separately.

- PC World

Sony’s NGP (confirmed today, DVICE among others has coverage) will include GPS functionality, so of course there’s a tool to track yourself and the games going on around you. “An application built into the device called “Near” is an ongoing map allowing you to track where you are and where you have been. Near connects with the PSN to find out what games are popular in your current location, allowing you to buy games on the spot and jump into impromptu Hot Shots Golf tournaments if that’s what everyone’s playing.”

- Pushsquare

“New Company Crowdsources Location-Based Talk Radio”

- Mashable has invites for Broadcastr

RFID in your shoes to trigger deals via Foursquare? How is that better than the phone doing it?

- Wired UK

Podcast: Do We Need Maps in our Location-based Apps?

A reader posed the question that we articulate this way: “Why are data taken for granted in LBS hype? What happens when you remove the map?” Our editors think that is a great question and explore it in the context of navigation apps, weather and traffic apps, social apps and augmented reality.

Subscribe to Podcast RSS

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Read the show notes

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here’s the index.

Podcast: A Hallway Conversation: Can you Locate me Now?

Did you ever wonder how hardware makers insure their devices can locate you effectively via GPS, cell towers and Wi-Fi? How do they answer the question “Can you locate me now?” One way is to use in-lab simulations for testing. Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg spoke with Nigel Wright, Spirent’s Vice President of Marketing for Wireless about how their testing services work and are used.

Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose "save target as")

Read the show notes

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here’s the index.

Subscribe to Podcast RSS

waze goes Local with First Dedicated Website in LA

Los Angeles is the first waze geography in the U.S. to have its own wazewebpage. Waze is a crowdsourced mapping and traffic app with some games that encourage data collection.

The idea seems to revolve around making waze more relevant by making it more local. The site features top contributors for the area, a local waze blog, a local waze traffic map and feed, an ad for a LA City Manager. On the main waze page you’d see similar features, but for an entire country. As Community Geographer DiAnn Eisnor put in an e-mail: “...we have so much live local information and it gets lost on the main site.” She continues by explaining the need for local sites: “Each city has a unique set of traffic, construction challenges and we can serve our users better by speaking to local needs including local twitter account, local site etc.”

- press release (from waze LA blog) via DiAnn Eisnor

My Black Friday Shopping Map

Yesterday, I took a look at the Walmart maps being offered to shoppers for Black Friday by the Massachusetts store cited in our APB post today. Looking like every other Walmart floor plan that the retailer stamps into the landscape around the country, I got to thinking about how I’d want my "shopping map" to look like. If I were to be lured to the 4:00 a.m. low, low prices, obsequious to the will of the mega-retailers on that fateful day after Thanksgiving, this is how I would want to start my hunt for the ultimate door-busting bargains.

First, I’d want my car navigation system (let’s go with a Garmin…I’m partial to their PNDs) equipped with the locations of every retailer and their hours of operation on BF (yes, Black Friday).

Next, I’d map out the route to each store allowing just enough time to scarf-up the best sale items at each.

However, this is predicated by having a map of each floor plan for each retailer loaded onto my Blackberry (sorry, I’m a business guy…don’t do iPhone schtick). Perhaps we could get the good folks at uLocate to work on this for the Where application.

Next, the retailers would have to allow the floor plans to be tagged with the location of the best sale items. This might be similar to what the rather crude Walmart map provides, but please, we are a bit more sophisticated in our geospatial awareness these days, so let’s have better precision, right? I’m thinking that there should be some RFID device for each item and a shopping cart that synch’s via Bluetooth to my Blackberry to navigate around the store. Whenever the cart passes along the isle with the most sought-after gadgets, my Blackberry provides the alert and I’m directed appropriately.

Having snagged the item from the shelf, I’m then provided with a traffic map of the store floor, whisking my buggy to route around the bulging crowds to the nearest cash register with the fewest in line. This is micro-geography at its finest.

My items are scanned as I zoom past the counter, swipe my credit card, and I’m out the door…on to the next BF adventure.

I’m headed to the parking lot where I’m met with a swarm of hungry, sleep-deprived shoppers, goodness knows where I parked my car. But in the perfect geospatial world, I am directly by voice commands by my PND to the location of my space and my car is automatically unlocked as I approach with a cart-load of gifts, recognizing of course that my bio sensor-equipped vehicle knows my proximal location.

Safely inside, I rev the engine and I’m off to the next store, real-time traffic and weather guiding my every move. And because I’ve integrated my PND with geo-located Twitter feeds, I’m getting updates on new bargains in the vicinity. I’m re-routed as necessary…my Christmas shopping list consulted and advised.

In a perfect world…Have a great Thanksgiving.