|
|
|
||||
 GPS, Maps, and DirectionsComing in 2010: Garmin nuvi ecoRoute ESP Will Provide Car Performance DataWhen I think about automobile GPS devices, I genereally think about a device that talks to satellites to tell me where I am. The... ...download add-in is compatible with the nuvi 205, 705, 1200, and 1300 series GPS and says it provides routes that conserve money and fuel. CNET, however, tells us there is one more interesting wrinkle in the form of the ecoRoute ESP module. This is an additional piece of hardware that connects to the ODB-II diagnostic port available in most current generation cars. This module gets information about vehicle performance from that port and sends this data wirelessly over Bluetooth to a compatible Garmin nuvi GPS... Garmin communicates with your car via ESP It is not available yet. But, I imagine even non-car-geeks are salivating over the prospect of getting this ecoRoute ESP product. I know I am. Would Google Maps Navigator for iPhone Kill Much Needed Standalone GPS Products?Yesterday, I wondered out loud... Is Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 the Long Awaited Android Killer App? So, what would Google Maps Navigator be if... Google says its navigation will come to iPhone, if Apple approves It wouldn't be a game changing killer app for the iPhone, of course. But, it certainly would be a welcome tool. The real impact would be on software and hardware GPS firms like Navigon, Tom Tom, Magellan, and Garmin would become (incorrectly) unnecessary in the eyes of many consumers who don't appreciate the availability of pre-loaded maps when out of range of their 3G (or even EDGE) network. GPS navigation systems that don't depend on network connectivity have great value. I hope the firms behind them don't die on the vine if Google Maps Navigation becomes the defacto standard for both Android and iPhone smartphones. Where Should the Google Street View Trike Go Next? Recommend a Place to Google
I mentioned the Google Street View Trike (as well as car and walker) back in May. If you want to learn a bit more about the Google Trike from the engineer who designed it, head to this Google Blog entry... After that, head over to the Google Trike's site at... ...to chime in and suggest what automobile-inaccessible place the Trike should visit and record next. It has already visited and recorded sights in Legoland California, San Diego State University, Santa Monica Pier and the onterey Bay Bike Trail. We also know that it has visited parts of Italy since it was spotted there earlier this year. Micello Gives You Google Maps for Inside Buildings (Really Large Buildings)
Micello (pronounced "my-sell-o") calls there product Google Maps for inside buildings. It provides information about objects (stores for example) inside of large indoor locations like shopping centers, convention centers, or airport. Micello lets anyone, so they say, build indoor maps. You can see it demoed on an iPhone (actually several are used during their demo) in the embedded video above. It looks like a great idea. I hope it catches on. I sure could have used it myself in a bunch of airports and convention centers over the years. Not Much OpenStreetMap Support in Mobile Space Now, But Keep an Eye On ItI've been looking in on the OpenStreetMap project every now and then but have not actually tried using it or contributing to it. The project is a worldwide map that can be collaboratively edited by by anyone who signs up for a user account. It is an attempt to provide a free alternative to the for-fee maps used by most commercial mapping software. ReadWriteWeb reports that there is a new reason to take more interest in the project... Flickr Now Supports OpenStreetMap Tags The article notes that the iPhone Roadee and Waze apps use OpenStreetMap. And OpenStreetMap's wiki merchandise page notes that there are also mobile apps using OpenStreetMap for Windows Mobile (Pocket PC), Symbian S60, and the now defunct Palm OS. There isn't much out there in the mobile space that uses OpenStreetMap. However, it is worth keeping an eye on. And, if you do finding an interesting mobile mapping app that works with it, don't forget that Flickr will now work with its node ID data. AT&T Offering Garmin nuvifone G60 GPS Phone for $299 Starting Oct. 4The Garmin nuvifone G60 has been available outside of the US for several months now. People in the US waiting for this GPS focused phone won't have to wait much longer, however. It will available starting this Sunday (Oct. 4) - odd day of the week for a launch, but ok... AT&T and Garmin Announce a New Mobile Navigation Era with nuvifone, the Navigation Phone This Linux-based phone (the OS is well-hidden) will set you back $299 with a two-year agreement and after you receive a $100 mail-in rebate (I hate those things). Garmin's maps are stored in the phones 4GB of built-in storage. Access to traffic updates, white pages, weather, movie, local events and fuel price will add a $5.99 charge to your monthly bill. Other phone specs are: - Bluetooth Garmin nuvifone G60 (product page) Picasa Gives Windows Users Apple iPhoto-like Face Recognition & Photo MappingIf you have an iPhone or any of the many other GPS enabled smartphones that adds location data to photos and you also use a Windows based PC, you've probably been a bit envious of the face recognition and map positioning Apple's iPhone '09 gives Mac users. Well, you can stop being envious. Google has a Windows alternative for you and it is free... Picasa Gets Face Recognition, Built-in Google Maps (Technologizer.com) As the article notes, Google's web-based Picasa has had face recognition for a while. But, this is new for the client side. I haven't had a chance to take a look at its face recognition feature since the indexing process takes a while and is not finished yet on my Mac. However, I checked out its place (mapping) feature and it works great. In fact, I had forgotten that the T-Mobile G1 that I owned briefly last year embedded its GPS data in its photos just like the iPhone and Picasa showed me where the G1 phones I saved were taken last year. Very nice! I'm looking forward to installing the Windows version on my netbook to give it whirl there. BTW: Mac users need not feel left out. There is a Mac version too. In fact, that's what I downloaded and tested myself. NAVIGON Traffic Live Add-in for iPhone MobileNavigator $19.95 Introductory PriceNavigon's MobileNavigator North America is an $89.99 turn-by-turn driving navigation app for the iPhone. After getting 671 user reviews (so far), it has an excellent 4.5 (out 5) star rating. This apparently happy bunch of customers is good news for Navigon as they just launched a new feature for their product that involves an additional purchase... NAVIGON Announces Traffic Live Feature for iPhone Navigation App If you want live traffic information along with your GPS driving instructions, you can buy Navigon's Traffic Live for the MobileNavigator for an additional $24.99. This purchase can be made in-app (from the MobileNavigator on your iPhone). It is discounted to $19.99 for the first four weeks it is available. And, it is a one-time purchase. There is no additional monthly recurring cost. Sounds like a good deal if you do a lot of driving. Waze Realtime Traffic Maps: Got a Waze to GoMy podcast conversation last month with INRIX co-founder and CEO Bryan Mistele increased my already considerable interest in traffic information on phones... Podcast 32: INRIX TRAFFIC! Real-time & Predictive Traffic Information Free for Your iPhone I've found INRIX's free TRAFFIC! iPhone app very useful and generally consult it every afternoon before driving home from the office. INRIX's data and predictive power comes from fleets of commercial vehicles. So, even relatively backwater (data-wise) places like my hometown gets pretty good information from TRAFFIC!. A week after my discussion with Bryan, Brady Forrest wrote an interesting piece on another mobile traffic app... Waze: Make Your Own Maps in Realtime Unlike INRIX which starts with good commercial fleets provided data and adds iPhone user data on top of that, Waze seems to depend entirely on mobile phone end-users for its data. The problem is that it requires a critical mass of end users using it before it is able to get sufficient data to be useful. This is probably why the app has a 2.5 star (out of 5) rating in the iTunes App Store... And, 671 of the current 1093 reviews gives it one (442) or two (229) stars. My hometown isn't listed in their list of cities with data. So, I won't be trying it myself anytime soon. Augmented Reality Becoming a Reality: Let Your Smartphone Tell You About What You See
Augmented reality via smartphones have become incredibly accessible to consumers with smartphones over the past year. It started with Tonchidot's presentation at TechCrunch 50 last August (see video blow), moved on through Google's Street View feature for the compass equipped Android-powered T-Mobile G1 (see last video below). Now Acrossair is demoing an iPhone app named Terminator Vision that provides augmented reality directions for several large cities. BBC News wrote a piece about it called... Mobile phones get cyborg vision The idea of peering through your smartphone's screen and overlaying information about the world immediately around you has obvious appeal and useful implications. Neither Terminator Vision nor Tonchidot are available in the U.S. iTunes Store.
PreviouslySiRFstarIV Speeds Up & Improves GPS Accuracy Without Draining Batteries Are Smartphones Killing the Standalone GPS Device Market? Linux's Competition for Mobile Phones are Other 'Nix-es Just Because You Can, Should You: Display your public Latitude location on your Google Profile U.S. Air Force Says GPS Will Not Go Down. Famous Last Words? GPS Accuracy Could Start Eroding in 2010 Because of Satellite Launch Delays Close Encounter of the Google Street View Camera Car Kind Skyhook Wireless Says: Less Than 10% of Location App Developers Porting to Symbian and Palm WebOS Limbo, Brightkite Merge Location-Based Social Networks WHERE Goes Networkwide on Sprint CitySearch Adds Mobile, Hyper-Local Features Times Mobile Debuts Going out Guide MapQuest 4 Mobile Gets My Places Google Latitude: Friend Finder or Spyware? BluePont Launches GPS-Enabled Dating Service GPS-Equipped Cell Phones on the Rise Samsung Adopts GyPSii Lifestyle LightPole Buys into Real Estate WHERE Is that Zipcar? Find It with Your iPhone Google, Tele Atlas Ink Maps Deal Get Buzzd at 1.2 Million Venues Travel Channel GOes Mobile To Start Summer Off Right Loopt Launches on BlackBerry with AT&T, Sprint, Alltel, T-Mobile Mio Intro's Smartphone with GPS Study Secretly Tracked Cellphone Users EU Buses to be Used as Mobile Sensing Platforms Shopping Malls Can Now Track You LightPole, Six Apart: Where the (Mobile) Blogs Are New LBS Apps Leading To More GPS-enabled Phones Nokia Adding Real-Time Traffic to Maps Microsoft To BlackBerry Users: Tellme Your Search Query Sprint Launches Voice-Enabled 411 V-ENABLE Celebrates Free Mobile 411 iPhone Users Can Now Power Search Report: 100 Million Europeans Will Find Mobile LBS By 2012 Google Posts How-To Videos for Mobile Services Trapster Uses Phones To Warn about Speed Traps WIBC-FM Launches Video Traffic Reports for Cell Phones Cell Phone GPS Use To Grow Markedly: Report |
All the Mobile News That Fits...in Your Hand
|
||||||||
Legal Notices, Licensing, Reprints, Permissions, Privacy Policy.
|
