jeepx: GPS Discoveries

Old News: AR is the Next Big Thing

2009-12-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

AR Dev Camp, Dec 5th in Mountain View, CA and NYC.

Sprint users GPS data up for grabs, EFF coverage. Meanwhile AugmentedPlanet asks if anybody cares about their privacy.

Twitter GeoLocation API enabled. As seen in Twitter 360 (photo), iPhone App for geolocatting tweets [via].

Geotagging life: NoteLife, iPhone App, $4.99

SimpleGeo getting a lot of attention.

The Future of Geostreams panel [at the Washington Post].

AR, MS and the Mayan Calendar, Future

2009-11-06T17:34:00.000-08:00

Want to try your hand on some AR coding? Check the Open Source Augmented Reality library for iPhone development at Github.

NPR shows how to track tax dollars with AR.

ArsTechnica wanders about the actual possibility of an open smartphone.

Crave published shipment data of mobile phones from In-Stat.

Fortune gave Steve Jobs a 10-year commemorative plate.

Leaks Dept.: PC World got a hold of the "Courier" specs, the Microsoft Tablet. The software show the ideas that MS Research has been working on for a while now, guess they got a "go-to-market" deadline from Ballmer. The feature list might distract Apple for a while, but lets see which vision will become reality. And when.

Talking future check what Parc Place (yes, they are around) is up to in this article from the NYTimes showing what your phone might look like in a couple of years. Like getting help from Siri the virtual assistant.

Or SixthSense and the mix of digital data over analog surfaces with research from the M.I.T.

Mayan Calendar

Microsoft will stop supporting MSN Direct by 01/01/2012, the service that broadcasts FM radio signals with data for DirectBand enabled GPS devices. (via ArsTechnica).

Wired questions Blackberry's future.

Deep Space Dept: Quasars help Earth-based GPS satellites keep track of their position (Via MSNBC).

LBS Apps P.R. Dept: Loopt comes up with Pulse, its new strategy for LBS. A "local search engine", coupons & push service. Via TechCrunch (which has its own branded Loopt app).

Other LBS apps that have similar look & feel are Pocket Life and Centrl (photo).

The Scope, The Drone, The Wedding Gift

2009-10-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

Hidden among the Urban Spoon iPhone app tabs is “The Scope”. On a 3GS it will use its compass to show what is around you. An incredible freebie sample of what Augmented Reality is about.

Meanwhile the Droid is coming with free GPS under Verizon according to Boy Genius. If that is the case, it will be a first. Via eWeek.

Also, will directions be made available for free now that Google is about to dump TeleAtlas and its license agreement? Via Forbes.

VentureBeat rounds up location-based apps present state and what may be coming ahead.

Finally, a geeky husband takes his bride on a GPS quest, via LA Times.

Apple Maps, GPS for iPod Touch & Garmin Phone

2009-10-03T20:46:00.000-07:00

Busy newsweek...

GPS resolution improved to 2 meters within Europe with EGNOS.

Sounds like Apple might be on the way of dumping Google Maps from the iPhone by purchasing Placebase back in July. Placebase put together the Pushpin API. Also at Wired.

Something else from a while ago about the details of the next generation of Apple & Nike+ system with GPS sensors.

Unused GPS info can reveal snow depth data, via Wired.

And finally arriving via AT&T the Garmin smartphone, via BusinessWeek.

Not yet available but already making the news a GPS Add-on case for the iPod Touch.

Location Apps Growing Up

2009-09-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

Paying with your phone finally arriving to U.S. through Starbucks. Stores that take the card can be found in San Jose, Cupertino and Sunnyvale, with one each, plus five in Mountain View, CA and eight in Seattle. Download the free "Mobile Card" app from the AppStore to get the actual addresses.

Judge won't take: "GPS made me do it."
"You [...] can use your senses too." Via CNet.

Meanwhile, scientists find out that migrating monarch butterflies carry a "GPS" on their antennas.

Confirmed: In Massachusetts warrants will let a GPS tracking device be included (not exactly as an optional) in someone's car.

GPS-based speed traps warning apps becoming mainstream.

Cool "location tagging" parody on YouTube (via Wired).

Palm drops Windows Mobile and Pre is Palm's risky business.

Verizon not quite opening it up in the 700 Mhz range.
Does anybody care?

Two new great location-based apps for the iPhone: GeoVector World Surfer and GaiaGps. Paid apps, yes.

Timely PhotoStream

2009-09-03T23:50:00.000-07:00

Edlimagno's at Flickr.

GPS Drawing, Nokia Ad, Pre evolving

2009-08-21T23:08:00.001-07:00

NYTimes on GPS Drawing.

Chumby licensing its software to other appliances while EETimes shows what is under its hood.

Twitter developing location-based API.

Nokia releasing a new Linux-based Internet tablet, the N900.

Latest Wired includes a Location Ad for the N97 by Nokia (photo) and an article by Steven Levy showing how the Pre evolves what was brought in with the iPhone.

Omni Magazine, Jan '79

2009-07-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

Augmented Reality in the NYT

2009-07-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome back, Steve

2009-06-07T22:20:00.000-07:00

And thanks for all the fish.

Photo by Barnyardbbs

Hype - noise => 3 newsworthy items

2009-02-25T20:21:00.000-08:00

From what has been severely overhyped, there are three newsworthy breakthroughs:

. Pre not out here yet, but already jumping in the scale of newness.

. Today VMWare U.K. showed two mobile OS's running concurrently and performing, apparently fast enough.

. AppStore@BlackBerry

Spring around the corner.

[Image from ZenBound for the iPhone.]

Wired: "Inside the GPS Revolution"

2009-01-18T22:51:00.000-08:00

uPhone: Explore the Open Mobile Space

2008-07-15T00:06:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I question what really deserves attention nowadays.

1. No, the iPhone is not in my "to get list", not even close.

2. I may consider hacking an iTouch with a mic and Wi-fi based VOIP plus free SMS.

3. Or to look at an OpenMoko and its Linux-based environment. Or some of the new LiMo phones.

4. But the short term is just too much hype. What about listening to what Doc Searls has to say at his EOF column in the LinuxJournal:

"Why chase the iPhone, when we can free the world with open mobile things"

Following on that, check the Bug Labs blocks: (after the Ethernet and Wireless blocks are shipped) it will include pretty much all you need to hack your own [U, mine?] phone. LinuxJournal also has a nice introduction to the currently available components. Hackable to the extreme.

And check out Chumby for that matter, which could easily make my list.

5. Oh, and there is Android. Open Sourced? [Update: Yes, it is now.]

6. Or even an Open J2ME.

7. And don't forget Open Symbian, according to Nokia. [Have you looked at the Greenphone Open Source codebase?] And Motorola's OpenEZX, its Open Source effort.

So, it is an open space out there, you don't need to get yourself locked up.

iPhone Geotagging, 3D Maps, Geohashing

2008-05-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

Biggest GPS drawing in the whole wide world (thanks to DHL). Via AdLand.

iPhone OS 2.0 should include geotagging capabilities in its Photos and Maps apps. From AppleInsider. Photo by Steve Garfield.

Check xkcd on GeoHashing (or more seriously, Wikipedia).

CA Senate voting to legalize GPS on windshields. Via Engadget.

3D Maps on a LBS Game? Check Planet 9 Studio's RayGun and its GeoFeeder server, via VentureBeat.

Marketing breaks another frontier in UK. Now mobile phones are being tracked so consumers habits can be "studied". On the TimesOnline.

Where, Android LBS, Geo API’s

2008-05-18T23:44:00.000-07:00

Location-based apps shine among the 50 Android apps picked as finalists (slide show pdf). Photo by Zack Klein.

Meanwhile, Verizon picks Limo and MobileCrunch show the differences between Limo and Android.

Talking Google, now Real Estate info on Google Maps.

Yahoo launches Internet Location Platform. Via APB, with Google's Ed Parsons take on Yahoo WOEID (Where On Earth ID).

Where 2.0

John McKerrell blogged the conference and also a bit of WhereCamp 2008.

His coverage from Where 2.0 includes a talk from Dan Catt about geotagged photos.

Dan's blog: GeoBloggers also explains Yahoo's WOEID, and his work with geotagging at Flickr including a slideshow of the Where presentation.

Where was also covered at APB and Radar.

Among the news Ublip, a tracking platform and Veriplace, a Location API with privacy concerns.

Dash API

Dash Opens its API, Via Programmable Web, Webware

Webware also put together a lazy list of Geo Sites.

Blackberry users with Garmin Mobile for life.

Butterfly GPS DIY project. Via Make

Boeing loses GPS contract for Lockheed Martin.

PC Mag covers Geotagging Gadgets.

Apple Patents Speculations by ArsTechnica, PhonesReview and IntoMobile.

Geotagging at Ovi's upload site from Nokia which launches the first compass phone.

Geotagging: New camera not required with Eye-Fi Explore

2008-05-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

If your digital camera has a SD slot, you may be able to use it for geotagging with the Wi-Fi SDIO Cards from Eye-Fi.

For a hundred bucks you can add wireless capabilities to your current digital camera.

The magic behind the Eye-Fi SD cards is provided by the Atheros AR6001GL.

The AR6001GL combines a 2.4Ghz radio transceiver, the frequency range used for 802.11b/g wireless access points with upgradeable firmware.

The card carries 2Gbytes of Flash memory for your photos.

Insert one of the cards into your digital camera SD slot. By turning the camera on, the card will receive about 3.4 volts to start the bootstrap sequence.

By having software running on this SD card Eye-Fi makes it act in fact as an SDIO (Secure Digital Input Ouput) card, a bit smarter than plain storage.

"Activation/Setup": Shake Well Before First Use

But before inserting it into the camera, you first need to activate the card and set known Wi-Fi locations with a list of the available SSID's. (Support to static WEP 40/104/128, WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK).

The cards should connect automatically to hotspots from the WayPort network (First year service included with Explore, $19 a year afterwards).

The low-end card allows upload to a running PC/Mac connected to the same access point (Eye-Fi Home, see below). After that you can upload photos to websites like Flickr and other photo storage services (Eye-Fi Share).

Geotagging

If you are talking to an access point, even better if you happen to have access to a database with matching location of SSID's & MAC addresses of Wi-Fi hotspots, like the one Eye-Fi licensed from Skyhook Wireless.

Obviously we are talking about pictures taken somewhere close by and/or around a wi-fi spot. Yosemite or that deserted beach won't quite make it.

Three Eye-Fi SD cards are being offered currently:

Home (~$80): uploads to computer,

Share (~$100): same plus uploads to web service,

Explore (~$130): same plus geotagging firmware marking your EXIF tags of your pictures with the corresponding Access Point latitute/longitude (and maybe altitude?).

DPreview tried the Eye-Fi Share SD card last November.

The Geotagging version (Explore) is the one announced this week.

Geograffiti, Seero, deCarta

2008-05-11T22:07:00.000-07:00

Artist gives its whereabouts away. Via Mercury News.

Geograffiti: Leave voice mail at some place, using the MyVoxApi. It extends the bulletin-board idea from HereCast. Via Mashable, MobileCrunch.

Also from Mashable, Seero Widget for GPS-enabled video streaming.

deCarta getting another round of cash.

MediaScrape: News on the Map.

Ohararp SMD GPS Video Tutorial on Instructables.

LinuxJournal published a tip from Peter Verthez about running Garmin's MapSource under Wine on Linux.

One more piece in the Dash puzzle: Where 2 Get, route planning provider.

Dash, jPhone, nuviPhone

2008-05-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

Garmin offering nuviPhone to AT&T. Via Engadget.

Dash video from Web 2.0.

Sun working on a Open Source Phone, the jPhone. From an interview to Engadget.

Theoretical memristors developed at HP Labs. Via Wired

Geotagging

Microsoft released a free tool for geotagging.

It requires .Net Framework 3.0, validation and runs on XP and Vista systems.

Initial download of 2.8Mbytes follows extra 31Mbytes for the .Net runtimes.

You can tag photos with "track route files from the most popular formats (NMEA, GPX, and KML)".

MS also published a tutorial on Geotagging with its Expression Media 2, a "professional asset management tool to visually catalog and organize all your digital assets for effortless retrieval and presentation."

A similar package from Microsoft that uses .Net Framework 1.1 is available here.

Lightpole, Open GPS Tracker, TellMe

2008-04-27T22:15:00.000-07:00

Got a Helio Mysto? Try checking for movies at Fandango's with MS TellMe. Works with GPS-equipped Blackberries too. (Via PC Mag and Washington Post)

iPhone users can try Geopedia. New drop of the SDK posted during the week.

Ogleearth listed a series of sites that publish/map GPS tracks among them GPSies.

Curious about what's inside a Garmin nuvi 750? Check EETimes "Under The Hood".

Make pointing to an Open GPS Tracker:
http://www.opengpstracker.org/.

[BTW, Maker Faire is this weekend.]

Parallel Kingdom, GPS-based RPG game coming up for iPhone and Android phones.

Among the startup's announced during Web 2.0 check the Location Based Social Network BrightKit and the concept behind Elkin (via Wired).

Lightpole shining its light along the week: VentureBeat, CNET

Nokia has a free beta geotagging software available for download: Location Tagger.

[Update] Second Galileo satellite launched.

Nokia Touch, iPhone GPS

2008-04-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

Symbian announced support for touch UI coding for its S60 platform. What about multi-touch?

Symbian also announced support for SQLite and Location Based services through its API's.

NYTimes articles on Google Earth. Via GoogleLatLong.

Flickr now with geotagged videos.

Microsoft announces Clearflow service at maps.live.com for smart traffic information.

Simba: GPS for iPhone and OS 2.0 will include app for "live location tracking".

Cocoa Touch: Beta 3 Drop

2008-04-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

New SDK drop today, includes a tutorial that shows how to develop your first app using Interface Builder.

If you want to check a good tutorial on Object Modeling that explains IB on a MVC context (with Core Data behind the Model Framework) check these links: Core Data Programming Guide and Cocoa Design Patterns.

CTIA week: Dash, Local Search & Rumor

2008-03-31T20:12:00.000-07:00

Waiting for news from CTIA this week to see how many useful PR's would come up but seems like Dash is the real deal (Amazon only, $400 plus monthly service fee).

Dash has enough features to change the PND landscape.

First you have Linux in the form of OpenMoko, plus a GSM phone from Jasper Wireless (a M2M operator) included, so the data is fresh.

From this PR it seems that deCarta and Inrix are behind the traffic data for it.

Then you have an API for application development. RSS Feeds, Twitter, whatever you care for is a possibility or already implemented.

Cool stuff. Review by Walter Mossberg at the WSJ.

And

Garmin even announced a way to send location data from Google and Mapquest to their devices. Not the same, but something to say this week...

WSJ also talked about LBS Privacy (via APB) and Loopt closed a deal with Verizon.

Facebook gets more cash and VentureBeat wonders if LBS in China will be coming next.

Radar talks about location-based writing projects.

Desktop-based Local Search

If you are trying to find out what's is open, you got two choices with What's Open and GeoSpot which uses an Ajax-based interface to fill-in the what, where & when input fields and position the map based on the selected search result option. What about support for mobile?

Remember PowerBuilder? If you still playing with it here is an article about how to write code for its PocketPower version using GPS coordinates from a Bluetooth device (TomTom, Garmin).

TI gives Sirf some competition, Assisted-GPS chip combined with Bluetooth and FM (via GPSWorld).

Forbes also painting dark clouds for the GPS Biz.

And to close under the rumor mill category: next iPhone will have A-GPS from Global Locate.

Travelogue: iPhone SDK & Cocoa Touch

2008-03-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

I have to say that Steve Jobs had its vision (with its meaning as large as a full moon) the day he entered Xerox Parc's Place sometime back in the 80's (79 in fact).

You know beauty when you see it.

He got a hold of that creative hippie energy floating in the air and like a grown-up Harry Potter made beauty and truth come together in pure reality. He is a visionary that as Wired published recently can push people enough to turn those visions, truth.

Jobs is capable to translate what everyone is hardly wishing (and therefore imagining) into a single piece of touchable reality. (Photo by Roman Lily).

Parc Place

What amazes me is the beauty of seeing Cocoa, OOP, MVC, Event Handling, Model/View bindings through the Observer/Observed pattern (KVC, KVO) all in a single & same place, platform.

Until now you had one or other aspect implemented in a different platform without giving you the whole picture. Ever.

A Mac running NextStep is what Jobs saw at Xerox.

He built on it and you can see that by looking at the way Cocoa Frameworks are put together.

The language is clean, clear. Get used to the NS and go ahead delving into the code.

Java brought a lot of that class, beauty to fruition. But the Mac puts the experience in a unique context.

It is all in one single, same box.

Flawless Not

BTW, not saying that the Mac is flawless.

Everyone & everything has its flaws, don't want to sound "too rosy".

It is just that beauty (com'on, it IS a piece of beauty - an expensive one) does help put you in a positive, constructive, creative mood.

Even the logo, it seems... But I'm only reminding you of the obvious, pure common sense.

Interface Builder

Apple released a new version of the SDK today. It includes a new version of Interface Builder, a drag & drop user interface design tool that will certainly make development simpler and faster. (Those Barbarians getting their way...).

Check the Release Notes, full complete support for UIKit views and controls didn't make for this rev.

But you can as a basic starting point, create Views, drag and drop controls and run the simulator. This sample is a good starting point.

From here

Did you check the introductory videos? Look at least the "iPhone OS Programming Guide" and the "Cocoa Fundamentals Guide".

Finally, get used to the Smalltalk-ish implementation of the C syntax. To say the least, it is cute.

Geotagging with Nikon SLRs, Geotate

2008-03-25T21:07:00.000-07:00

Hans Strang, Geotate's CEO gave a pretty interesting interview on LetsGoDigital, about SnapSpot, a geotagging firmware product (NXP spun-off Geotate to concentrate on its core chipset design business).

The trick behind Geotate's approach in its low-power consumption is that it only stores GPS data from a particular location without processing it, letting that happen by the time the customer uploads its pictures to a PC.

According to the interview, in order to do that the camera has to turn itself off (and not cause radio signal interference) for about 200ms while Geotate's software grabs the corresponding GPS data.

Nikon SLRs

If you want to spend some money before cameras with Geotate's software reach the market in the next semester, look for Nikon models with the MC-35 connector like the:

D1H (~US$1,5K),
D1x (~$2,5K),
D2Hs (~$3,4K, but not the D2H which lacks GPS support),
D200 (~$1,5K),
D300 (~$1,7K),
D2x, D2Xs, and
D3 (~$5,5K).

Now get a GPS receiver that connects through the MC-35 to the camera's body. If you want to try making your own check:

EpicBlog's version for the D200.
There is a similar DIY project at DPreview.
And a third and fourth project ideas here and here.
Finally, this setup uses a GlobalSat BR-355.

But if you don't want to try your hand in none of the projects above, you can get a GPS receiver that connects to the MC-35 plug directly with the:

GeoPic II from U.K.-based Custom Idea;
DP-GPS N1 from Solmeta, or
N2 diGPS from Dawn Technology in Hong Kong (review).

Plus

HoudahGeo announced, a geotagging software for MacOSX.

And a new site for geotagged panoramicas with Panoye (via AppScout).

Fat Tuesday: Sirf, MetaCarta, Nokia, Microsoft & IBM

2008-03-25T20:57:00.000-07:00

Om thinks that the GPS party is over with Sirf announcing layoff's, not so fast I would say agreeing with a comment that points out that the Mobile TV business is at fault.

Do you care for it? Kids do, prob. But I agree that watch a movie while waiting for or in the subway is pretty handy.

Fat News Tuesday

Search for GeoNews with MetaCarta. Via Apb.
Local Search on Nokia's with Buzzd, via Mobile Crunch.
Microsoft Tellme developing for the iPhone. Via Fortune.
Microsoft Webcast on SQL Server 2008 Spatial Features.
IBM announcing Lotus Expeditor, a tool for development of mobile mashups. Via CNet.

Across the Blue

If you want to have a taste of phones available in U.K., check issue #70 of PDA Essentials (and its GPS Advisor supplement).

The accompanying CD includes GPS software for the PPC (and Symbian, Palm) from most of the packages covered here plus free GPS Utilities from Efficasoft.