location based services
The iconic Motorola RAZR design underwent improvements, bringing upgraded music functionality to the latest ultra-slim device from Verizon Wireless. Contrary to repainted phones like the Pink and Blue RAZRs, the new RAZR V3m builds upon the popular V3c model, correcting many flaws that customers complained about.
Rather than a successor, the V3m is more of an upgrade, keeping similar design elements and functions. Equipped with all the tools consumers loved about the V3c, the V3m has an integrated 1.3-megapixel camera, stereo headset support, Bluetooth wireless technology, speech recognition calling, and ample storage space.
But unlike the V3c, the V3m adds an expansion card slot and Location Based Services (LBS). Giving users more memory for multimedia, the V3m offers the necessary storage required to access Verizon Wireless' new VCAST Music service. Having immediate access to full-music downloads, customers can browse, preview, download and play over one million high-quality digital songs directly on the RAZR V3m. VZ Navigator, the new GPS service from Verizon Wireless, lets travelers receive turn-by-turn directions, view maps, find addresses, and locate restaurants, gas stations, banks and other points-of-interest.
With many of the V3c's problems addressed, while adding features and improvements packaged in an irresistible design, Motorola hopes to once again capture the desire of consumers with the RAZR V3m.
Design
The V3m looks identical to the V3c, with the same refined steel gray finish and 14 mm profile. Having similar measurements, the V3m's rigidity was enhanced by combining aircraft-grade aluminum with a chemically-etched keypad and blue electro-luminescence panel. Created the RAZR V3m to be durable enough to withstand the everyday wear and tear, Motorola maintained its famously slim profile.
A 65K-color external LCD is prominently displayed on the front panel, showing commonly glanced at information such as time, network status, and battery strength. During Camera Mode, the screen can be used as the viewfinder for self-portraits and group shots.
High-quality photos can be shot with the built-in 1.3-megapixel camera located above. Able to snap images up to 1280 x 1024 px in resolution, decent prints can be made letting users leave the digital camera at home.
Convenient shortcut keys align both sides of the V3m. MotoSpeak advanced speech recognition is activated through the dedicated Voice Key on the right, while Volume Keys adjust call alert volume and switch between Vibrate and Silent Modes on the left. A Speakerphone Key also doubles as a Smart Key, predicting subsequent actions to follow (such as selection after highlighting a menu item). On the bottom, a multifunction mini-USB port connects the RAZR V3m to the charger, stereo headset (with an adapter), accessories, or a PC.
The internal screen displays 65K-color at 176 x 220 px in resolution. Menu and Left and Right Keys are located below for shortcut access, while Send, Camera, Clear, and Power / End Keys surround the standard 5-Way Keypad.
Using a nickel-plated copper-alloy touchpad, Motorola minimized the thickness traditional raised keys would have made. While futuristic and wafer-thin, the keypad has a different tactile feel, which may slow down serious text messaging users. By chemically etched numbers and symbols into an electro-luminescent strip a cool blue glow illuminates the keypad in the dark.
Out of the box, the Motorola RAZR V3m comes with a standard 780 mAh Li-Ion Battery, Travel Charger, Battery Door, Welcome CD, Quick Reference Guide, and User Manual
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
location based services
Gates forgoes reality distortion for reality acquisition
During his Q&A at D with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Bill Gates came up with a new term–or at least one I hadn't heard before. He pulled out a Motorola Q (still not shipping officially), which runs the Windows mobile operating system, calling it a multipurpose device (like a PC) and an example of what will be a "reality aquisition device." You'll be able to see an image, for example, and get "augmented reality views of a thing on a portable device," such as going to a baseball game and seeing replays and getting extra information on the screen. I'm not sure if he made that up on the spot or it came from his reading of 100 research papers in his "think week" retreat last week. I doubt whether "reality acquisition" will make to buzzword heaven….
Gates forgoes reality distortion for reality acquisition
During his Q&A at D with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, Bill Gates came up with a new term–or at least one I hadn't heard before. He pulled out a Motorola Q (still not shipping officially), which runs the Windows mobile operating system, calling it a multipurpose device (like a PC) and an example of what will be a "reality aquisition device." You'll be able to see an image, for example, and get "augmented reality views of a thing on a portable device," such as going to a baseball game and seeing replays and getting extra information on the screen. I'm not sure if he made that up on the spot or it came from his reading of 100 research papers in his "think week" retreat last week. I doubt whether "reality acquisition" will make to buzzword heaven….
Second International Joint Workshop on Ubiquitous, Pervasive and Internet Mapping
location based services
(UPIMap2006), Seoul, Korea, October 23 - 25, 2006The ICA Commissions on Ubiquitous Mapping and Maps and the Internet announce a workshop in Seoul at the end of October 2006. The workshop is sponsored by the Commission on Ubiquitous Mapping, the Commission on Maps and the Internet, the University of Seoul, the Center for Spatial Information Science (CSIS) of the University of Tokyo. The ICA commissions were formed in 1999 and 2003 respectively in response to the rapid growth in the use of electronic networks to make and distribute maps and spatial data, and rapid diffusion of new mobile devices. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together international specialists in the field of Mobile Mapping, Location Based Services and Internet Mapping, and to disseminate information to a broader audience on new developments and major areas of research. UPIMap2004 in Tokyo included on site demonstrations of commercial human and car navigation systems and visits to the Tokyo metropolitan traffic control center and the VICS (Vehicles Information Control System) center for car navigation. UPIMap2006 in Korea will present another opportunity to see the latest in mapping technology. Demonstrations in Seoul will highlight new developments in ubiquitous and Internet mapping. A visit will also be included to the digital city simulation center at Seoul University.Important Dates
June 20, 2006 - Abstracts Due (300-600 words)July 10, 2006 - Notification of AcceptanceAugust 31, 2006 - Working Papers due for Paper SessionsOctober 23 - 25, 2006 - Workshop in Seoul
location based services
(UPIMap2006), Seoul, Korea, October 23 - 25, 2006The ICA Commissions on Ubiquitous Mapping and Maps and the Internet announce a workshop in Seoul at the end of October 2006. The workshop is sponsored by the Commission on Ubiquitous Mapping, the Commission on Maps and the Internet, the University of Seoul, the Center for Spatial Information Science (CSIS) of the University of Tokyo. The ICA commissions were formed in 1999 and 2003 respectively in response to the rapid growth in the use of electronic networks to make and distribute maps and spatial data, and rapid diffusion of new mobile devices. The purpose of the workshop is to bring together international specialists in the field of Mobile Mapping, Location Based Services and Internet Mapping, and to disseminate information to a broader audience on new developments and major areas of research. UPIMap2004 in Tokyo included on site demonstrations of commercial human and car navigation systems and visits to the Tokyo metropolitan traffic control center and the VICS (Vehicles Information Control System) center for car navigation. UPIMap2006 in Korea will present another opportunity to see the latest in mapping technology. Demonstrations in Seoul will highlight new developments in ubiquitous and Internet mapping. A visit will also be included to the digital city simulation center at Seoul University.Important Dates
June 20, 2006 - Abstracts Due (300-600 words)July 10, 2006 - Notification of AcceptanceAugust 31, 2006 - Working Papers due for Paper SessionsOctober 23 - 25, 2006 - Workshop in Seoul
Mobile provider Hutchison Telecommunications Ltd says it has signed up over one million third generation '3 mobile' customers.
Chief executive officer Kevin Russell said the achievement represents "scale, credibility and a platform" for changing the way people in Australia use their mobiles.
Hutchison launched Australia's first 3G mobile network in April 2003, ahead of Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.
The company said in February that it would offer around 400,000 of its one million mobile subscribers a free new 3G handset as the company merges its Orange and "3" mobile brands.
3G networks allow users to access extra non-voice services including photos, music, downloads and games.
location based services
Chief executive officer Kevin Russell said the achievement represents "scale, credibility and a platform" for changing the way people in Australia use their mobiles.
Hutchison launched Australia's first 3G mobile network in April 2003, ahead of Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.
The company said in February that it would offer around 400,000 of its one million mobile subscribers a free new 3G handset as the company merges its Orange and "3" mobile brands.
3G networks allow users to access extra non-voice services including photos, music, downloads and games.
Skyhook Wireless Wi-Fi Database Now Includes Coverage In Top 100 U.S. Cities, Totaling More Than 8 Million Access Points
location based services
'
BOSTON-- May 31, 2006-- Skyhook Wi-Fi Positioning System is the World's Largest Wi-Fi Database, Driving the Development of Accurate and Reliable Location-Based Search Applications and Services
Skyhook Wireless, provider of the industry's first Wi-Fi based positioning system, today announced it has rolled-out its Wi-Fi Positioning System(TM) (WPS) in the top 100 largest metropolitan cities on the United States. Its location determination solution leveraging 802.11, or Wi-Fi, rather than satellite or cell-tower-based technologies, includes more than eight million commercially mapped private and public access points, representing 45% of the U.S. population. Today, the company is on track to expand its database to include 75% of the nation's population by the end of the year.
"Skyhook's Wi-Fi positioning system is the world's largest Wi-Fi database of any kind," said Skyhook Wireless' Founder and CEO, Ted Morgan. "We have spent the past three years with the assistance of 150 dedicated data collection agents canvassing U.S. cities scanning for all the Wi-Fi access points in the neighborhoods of the largest metropolitan areas. With this information, software developers and device makers can tap into rapidly proliferating usage of Wi-Fi to bring to market a wide range of location-based services and applications."
Leveraging its WPS to automatically define a user's exact physical location, Skyhook last month announced 'Loki,' a customizable toolbar that not only turns a Wi-Fi enabled laptop into a virtual GPS device, but also integrates that location into the user's Internet search, browsing and communications. With the Skyhook WPS platform automatically and accurately defining the user's physical location, Loki then delivers one-click navigation to location based content and services through its pre-configured 'Channels' and one button interfaces. Internet users in the largest 100 U.S. cities can now enjoy easy and accurate location-based search from their browser toolbar.
Skyhook's WPS platform is also serving as the backbone of location-based services and applications offered by other leading application developers and device manufacturers. For instance, CyberAngel Security Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of laptop recovery solutions, is leveraging the Skyhook WPS platform for its Wi-Fi Tracker system that enables laptop owners, CIO's and government security managers to identify the exact location of stolen equipment. TeleCommunication Systems, a leading provider of precise location and wireless data technology, has integrated the WPS platform with the fully-featured E9-1-1 routing capabilities of its VoIP E9-1-1 Service to bring Wi-Fi positioning to the E9-1-1 market. With the expanded Skyhook roll-out, vendors of location-based services and applications can now appeal to a larger number of users across the U.S.
Until the availability of the Skyhook Wireless system, GPS or cell tower-based systems were the only potential platform for basing location-based services. As evidenced by slow growth in such services, these systems proved to be costly to implement and prone to problems with accuracy and reliability. Using WPS' software only model, any Wi-Fi enabled laptop, PDA or Wi-Fi enabled phone can be made 'location-aware' with greater consistency and reliability than traditional methods.
About Skyhook Wireless
Founded in 2003, Skyhook Wireless has pioneered the development of the first-ever metro-area positioning system that leverages Wi-Fi rather than satellites or cell towers to deliver precise location data supporting the growing market for location-based services. The Skyhook Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) requires no new hardware, works indoors and outdoors, provides an instant location and is more accurate than current technologies in congested downtown areas. WPS is currently available in the top 100 US metro areas and is on target to serve 70% of the US population by the end of 2006. Skyhook Wireless is headquartered in Boston, MA and is privately held. Investors include Bain Capital, Intel Capital and Nokia Innovent. For more information visit www.skyhookwireless.com, send email to
info@skyhookwireless.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or call 617-314-9802.
Next >
location based services
'
BOSTON-- May 31, 2006-- Skyhook Wi-Fi Positioning System is the World's Largest Wi-Fi Database, Driving the Development of Accurate and Reliable Location-Based Search Applications and Services
Skyhook Wireless, provider of the industry's first Wi-Fi based positioning system, today announced it has rolled-out its Wi-Fi Positioning System(TM) (WPS) in the top 100 largest metropolitan cities on the United States. Its location determination solution leveraging 802.11, or Wi-Fi, rather than satellite or cell-tower-based technologies, includes more than eight million commercially mapped private and public access points, representing 45% of the U.S. population. Today, the company is on track to expand its database to include 75% of the nation's population by the end of the year.
"Skyhook's Wi-Fi positioning system is the world's largest Wi-Fi database of any kind," said Skyhook Wireless' Founder and CEO, Ted Morgan. "We have spent the past three years with the assistance of 150 dedicated data collection agents canvassing U.S. cities scanning for all the Wi-Fi access points in the neighborhoods of the largest metropolitan areas. With this information, software developers and device makers can tap into rapidly proliferating usage of Wi-Fi to bring to market a wide range of location-based services and applications."
Leveraging its WPS to automatically define a user's exact physical location, Skyhook last month announced 'Loki,' a customizable toolbar that not only turns a Wi-Fi enabled laptop into a virtual GPS device, but also integrates that location into the user's Internet search, browsing and communications. With the Skyhook WPS platform automatically and accurately defining the user's physical location, Loki then delivers one-click navigation to location based content and services through its pre-configured 'Channels' and one button interfaces. Internet users in the largest 100 U.S. cities can now enjoy easy and accurate location-based search from their browser toolbar.
Skyhook's WPS platform is also serving as the backbone of location-based services and applications offered by other leading application developers and device manufacturers. For instance, CyberAngel Security Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of laptop recovery solutions, is leveraging the Skyhook WPS platform for its Wi-Fi Tracker system that enables laptop owners, CIO's and government security managers to identify the exact location of stolen equipment. TeleCommunication Systems, a leading provider of precise location and wireless data technology, has integrated the WPS platform with the fully-featured E9-1-1 routing capabilities of its VoIP E9-1-1 Service to bring Wi-Fi positioning to the E9-1-1 market. With the expanded Skyhook roll-out, vendors of location-based services and applications can now appeal to a larger number of users across the U.S.
Until the availability of the Skyhook Wireless system, GPS or cell tower-based systems were the only potential platform for basing location-based services. As evidenced by slow growth in such services, these systems proved to be costly to implement and prone to problems with accuracy and reliability. Using WPS' software only model, any Wi-Fi enabled laptop, PDA or Wi-Fi enabled phone can be made 'location-aware' with greater consistency and reliability than traditional methods.
About Skyhook Wireless
Founded in 2003, Skyhook Wireless has pioneered the development of the first-ever metro-area positioning system that leverages Wi-Fi rather than satellites or cell towers to deliver precise location data supporting the growing market for location-based services. The Skyhook Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) requires no new hardware, works indoors and outdoors, provides an instant location and is more accurate than current technologies in congested downtown areas. WPS is currently available in the top 100 US metro areas and is on target to serve 70% of the US population by the end of 2006. Skyhook Wireless is headquartered in Boston, MA and is privately held. Investors include Bain Capital, Intel Capital and Nokia Innovent. For more information visit www.skyhookwireless.com, send email to
info@skyhookwireless.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or call 617-314-9802.
Next >
location based services
Wireless phones that are GPS-enabled can help public safety authorities determine the location of a caller, even if the caller doesn't know where they are or is unable to speak. By Laurie Sullivan TechWeb.com May 26, 2006 07:18 PM
Emergency services from wireless vendors to non-profit groups are increasingly tapping into technology to build alert systems and location-based platforms.
In one example, the Center for Missing and Exploited Children this week launched a program to highlight an emergency service allowing cellular subscribers to sign up online to receive text messages on any cell phone. The organization teamed up with carriers and other groups last year to design the Wireless AMBER Alerts system.
The service, which is slowly gaining traction throughout the nation, offers an instant text message on the subscriber's cellular phone. The free program also works with pagers and PDA, said Bob Hoever, director of special operations for the Center for Missing and Exploited Children on Friday.
"The alert directs the subscriber to immediately call 911 or the police agency investigating the abduction," he said. "When a child is abducted, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack, and the more eyes and ears you have looking for the child, the smaller the haystack."
More than 224,000 emergency 911 calls are made daily from cellular phones, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. The CTIA estimates more than 70 percent of those living in the U.S. have cellular service, accounting for approximately 210 million subscribers.
The goal to create awareness has proved slow going. Although people have registered, Hoever said it's not clear how many subscribers have signed up for the free service. He did say there have been 266 children safely returned to their families since the Amber Alert was introduced in Arlington, Texas, about nine years ago.
Verizon Wireless offered another signal that cellular carriers are providing emergency services. Verizon Wireless on Friday said 911 operators can now locate 95 percent of the customers from their handsets.
Verizon said about one-third of 911 call centers have upgraded their systems and can receive the location information from callers using cellular phones, PDAs, smartphones and other wireless devices.
Wireless phones that are GPS-enabled can help public safety authorities determine the location of a caller, even if the caller doesn't know where they are or is unable to speak. The GPS location technology integrated in the phones makes it possible for the handset to transmit location data automatically to emergency services, helping them to dispatch emergency assistance faster.
The Federal Communications Commission required by the end of 2005 that at least 95 percent of all wireless handsets have the ability to give emergency personnel the location of 911 callers. AT&T Inc.'s Cingular Wireless is using a network-based service to locate callers who dial 911, the company said. Sprint Nextel sought a waiver from the FCC, which has not responded. The company has told the FCC more than 84 percent of its customers had wireless phones capable to identify location.
Wireless phones that are GPS-enabled can help public safety authorities determine the location of a caller, even if the caller doesn't know where they are or is unable to speak. By Laurie Sullivan TechWeb.com May 26, 2006 07:18 PM
Emergency services from wireless vendors to non-profit groups are increasingly tapping into technology to build alert systems and location-based platforms.
In one example, the Center for Missing and Exploited Children this week launched a program to highlight an emergency service allowing cellular subscribers to sign up online to receive text messages on any cell phone. The organization teamed up with carriers and other groups last year to design the Wireless AMBER Alerts system.
The service, which is slowly gaining traction throughout the nation, offers an instant text message on the subscriber's cellular phone. The free program also works with pagers and PDA, said Bob Hoever, director of special operations for the Center for Missing and Exploited Children on Friday.
"The alert directs the subscriber to immediately call 911 or the police agency investigating the abduction," he said. "When a child is abducted, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack, and the more eyes and ears you have looking for the child, the smaller the haystack."
More than 224,000 emergency 911 calls are made daily from cellular phones, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. The CTIA estimates more than 70 percent of those living in the U.S. have cellular service, accounting for approximately 210 million subscribers.
The goal to create awareness has proved slow going. Although people have registered, Hoever said it's not clear how many subscribers have signed up for the free service. He did say there have been 266 children safely returned to their families since the Amber Alert was introduced in Arlington, Texas, about nine years ago.
Verizon Wireless offered another signal that cellular carriers are providing emergency services. Verizon Wireless on Friday said 911 operators can now locate 95 percent of the customers from their handsets.
Verizon said about one-third of 911 call centers have upgraded their systems and can receive the location information from callers using cellular phones, PDAs, smartphones and other wireless devices.
Wireless phones that are GPS-enabled can help public safety authorities determine the location of a caller, even if the caller doesn't know where they are or is unable to speak. The GPS location technology integrated in the phones makes it possible for the handset to transmit location data automatically to emergency services, helping them to dispatch emergency assistance faster.
The Federal Communications Commission required by the end of 2005 that at least 95 percent of all wireless handsets have the ability to give emergency personnel the location of 911 callers. AT&T Inc.'s Cingular Wireless is using a network-based service to locate callers who dial 911, the company said. Sprint Nextel sought a waiver from the FCC, which has not responded. The company has told the FCC more than 84 percent of its customers had wireless phones capable to identify location.
location based services
Increasing numbers of employees use their cell phones as their primary work phone, which is speeding up convergence of mobile and fixed-line telephone systems, according to a study released Tuesday by market research firm IDC.
IDC noted that, in a recent survey it conducted, business telecom managers estimated that 28 percent of their employees are using their cell phones as their primary work phone. This leads to potential problems, such as a lack of enterprise control over telephone use and employees accessing multiple messaging systems. Problems such as those are leading enterprises to extend the capabilities of their PBX systems and desktop phones to cell phones, according to IDC.
"The adoption of mobile PBX extensions provides users with a remote control to their desktop phone," Nora Freedman, research analyst with IDC's Enterprise Networks group, said in a statement. "Features such as single number dialing, corporate directory access, and a common voicemail box for mobile and desktop phones are just some examples of how these solutions empower knowledge workers and increase productivity from their mobile device of choice."
One stumbling block, however, is the maturity of technologies that can seamlessly hand off calls between cellular and wireline networks, according to the study. Freedman noted that cellular operators will start offering such services in the future, even though products that integrate the two telephone technologies are starting to be available in off-the-shelf products now.
Increasing numbers of employees use their cell phones as their primary work phone, which is speeding up convergence of mobile and fixed-line telephone systems, according to a study released Tuesday by market research firm IDC.
IDC noted that, in a recent survey it conducted, business telecom managers estimated that 28 percent of their employees are using their cell phones as their primary work phone. This leads to potential problems, such as a lack of enterprise control over telephone use and employees accessing multiple messaging systems. Problems such as those are leading enterprises to extend the capabilities of their PBX systems and desktop phones to cell phones, according to IDC.
"The adoption of mobile PBX extensions provides users with a remote control to their desktop phone," Nora Freedman, research analyst with IDC's Enterprise Networks group, said in a statement. "Features such as single number dialing, corporate directory access, and a common voicemail box for mobile and desktop phones are just some examples of how these solutions empower knowledge workers and increase productivity from their mobile device of choice."
One stumbling block, however, is the maturity of technologies that can seamlessly hand off calls between cellular and wireline networks, according to the study. Freedman noted that cellular operators will start offering such services in the future, even though products that integrate the two telephone technologies are starting to be available in off-the-shelf products now.
Listen Up, Navigation System. I Know a Shortcut.
location based services
Navigation devices may suggest routes that do not match your tried-and-true paths. But the Pioneer AVIC-Z1, an in-dash entertainment and navigation system, will learn and follow your favorite routes, storing the information on the hard drive that holds its map data.
The AVIC-Z1 can speak street names and highway numbers, and you can command it by voice — not just for navigation but also to operate its radio, DVD and CD players, and an MP3 music library it builds from CD's as you play them. (When the car is in motion, DVD video will appear only in the back seat.)
With accessories, the unit can play Sirius or XM satellite radio, show which roads are jammed, connect to Bluetooth cellphones, operate an iPod and display images from a rearview camera.
The AVIC-Z1, which is available for about $2,250 from online and offline car stereo dealers, has a 7-inch touch screen that sits flush with the dashboard like that of a factory-installed system.
Its detailed maps show streets and landmarks clearly, whether the route you're following is your choice or the AVIC-Z1's.
location based services
Navigation devices may suggest routes that do not match your tried-and-true paths. But the Pioneer AVIC-Z1, an in-dash entertainment and navigation system, will learn and follow your favorite routes, storing the information on the hard drive that holds its map data.
The AVIC-Z1 can speak street names and highway numbers, and you can command it by voice — not just for navigation but also to operate its radio, DVD and CD players, and an MP3 music library it builds from CD's as you play them. (When the car is in motion, DVD video will appear only in the back seat.)
With accessories, the unit can play Sirius or XM satellite radio, show which roads are jammed, connect to Bluetooth cellphones, operate an iPod and display images from a rearview camera.
The AVIC-Z1, which is available for about $2,250 from online and offline car stereo dealers, has a 7-inch touch screen that sits flush with the dashboard like that of a factory-installed system.
Its detailed maps show streets and landmarks clearly, whether the route you're following is your choice or the AVIC-Z1's.
Reuters: Google Earth is not GIS
location based services
Reuters story, that reads a bit like a press release and offhandedly uses the term "buffer" suggests that Google Earth is not a GIS. This is really subtle and I have to give credit to the folks at Penn or the folks at Reuters who teased this out. Note the term "also" in the third paragraph, suggesting, at least to me, that Google Earth is something "other" than GIS. Frankly, I'm impressed at the suggestion that the two work together but are different.
Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is being used to pinpoint the location of commercial poultry flocks, feed mills and processing plants, said Sherrill Davison, professor of avian medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The information will be used to help create buffer zones around an infected flock and contain the H5N1 strain when it makes its U.S. appearance. Since the beginning of the year, experts have also been using Google Earth, which combines satellite imagery, maps and the company's search engine to span the globe.
location based services
Reuters story, that reads a bit like a press release and offhandedly uses the term "buffer" suggests that Google Earth is not a GIS. This is really subtle and I have to give credit to the folks at Penn or the folks at Reuters who teased this out. Note the term "also" in the third paragraph, suggesting, at least to me, that Google Earth is something "other" than GIS. Frankly, I'm impressed at the suggestion that the two work together but are different.
Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is being used to pinpoint the location of commercial poultry flocks, feed mills and processing plants, said Sherrill Davison, professor of avian medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The information will be used to help create buffer zones around an infected flock and contain the H5N1 strain when it makes its U.S. appearance. Since the beginning of the year, experts have also been using Google Earth, which combines satellite imagery, maps and the company's search engine to span the globe.
Mobile GPS: Part 1 – Behind the Rise of Location Services Mobile GPS: Part 1 – Behind the Rise of Location Services
location based services
By Gerry BlackwellSeptember 7, 2005
Page 1 2 NextReal estate, they say, is all about location, location, location. That is quickly becoming true of wireless communications as well.
Technology and market trends and government regulations are all converging to create a new set of capabilities for mobile phone and smartphone users, not to mention a new market for mobile operators and providers of location-based technologies and services.
In this article, the first of a three-part series, we'll look at the movers and shakers driving and technology behind this emerging market.
e911The seeds of the mobile location-based services market were initially sown in the U.S. back in 1996 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began mandating improved e911 service for mobile phone users. If mobile users dial 911, the federal regulators said, the cellular operator must be able to relay accurate information about the caller's location to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) where the call is received.
Although deadlines for operators to meet FCC e911 requirements have been postponed on more than one occasion, most carriers are now close to complying with Phase II e911 regulations. And while regulated location accuracy isn't quite optimal for some commercial applications, it helps set the stage for the long-anticipated blooming of a location-based industry for the mobile market.
GPS In HandGovernment regulation has been the principal driver, but the slow emergence and adoption of consumer devices that use GPS (Global Positioning System) data broadcast by U.S. military satellites is another key enabler.
Before we continue, here's the short course on how "traditional" GPS works:
A GPS receiver gathers pulsed signals from as many of the two dozen or so GPS satellites orbiting the earth as it can lock in. Using triangulation -- by measuring and comparing the travel time of individual signals -- the receiver calculates its position, and it's accurate to within twenty yards or so.
Handhelds with built-in GPS chipsets—designed primarily for turn-by-turn navigation applications—started to appear a couple of years ago.
Garmin Ltd., MiTAC International Corp. and others have Pocket PC and Palm-based products in this category. Garmin iQUE 3600:First GPS-Enabled PDA
Hewlett-Packard's (HP) hw6500 Pocket PC phone series is a quad-band phone with GPS built in (see Preview: iPAQ hw6515 - HP's Smart New Smartphone Entry). It has been released in Japan and Europe, and will soon bow in the U.S. and Canada as well. iPAQ hw6500
RevenuesAccording to Location-Based Services, a report published by ABI Research earlier this summer, revenues from all location-based services (LBS) in North America—including many not available to handset users—will grow from $420 million in 2005 to over $4 billion in 2010. ABI says that by 2010, 15 million handset owners will be paying for location-based services.
In the Asia-Pacific market, where 10 million handset users already subscribe to LBS, the total number of subscribers by 2010 will top 67 million.
Directionless OperatorsThose forecasts represent radical revisions of the first predictions about the growth of location-based services. "So much of what we thought was going to take off five years ago just didn't happen," admits principal wireless analyst Ken Hyers, author of the recent ABI report. "Everything was in place then, except the operators. The operators just didn't make the move."
For operators, providing positioning information for e911 was an unanticipated cost of doing business that they were in no great hurry to incur. However they choose to meet e911 requirements - and there are two distinct ways of doing it - it was going to cost money.
Furthermore, the technology was not immediately available and, when it was, it sometimes didn't work as advertised. except the operators. The operators just didn't make the move."
Continue >>>
location based services
By Gerry BlackwellSeptember 7, 2005
Page 1 2 NextReal estate, they say, is all about location, location, location. That is quickly becoming true of wireless communications as well.
Technology and market trends and government regulations are all converging to create a new set of capabilities for mobile phone and smartphone users, not to mention a new market for mobile operators and providers of location-based technologies and services.
In this article, the first of a three-part series, we'll look at the movers and shakers driving and technology behind this emerging market.
e911The seeds of the mobile location-based services market were initially sown in the U.S. back in 1996 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began mandating improved e911 service for mobile phone users. If mobile users dial 911, the federal regulators said, the cellular operator must be able to relay accurate information about the caller's location to the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) where the call is received.
Although deadlines for operators to meet FCC e911 requirements have been postponed on more than one occasion, most carriers are now close to complying with Phase II e911 regulations. And while regulated location accuracy isn't quite optimal for some commercial applications, it helps set the stage for the long-anticipated blooming of a location-based industry for the mobile market.
GPS In HandGovernment regulation has been the principal driver, but the slow emergence and adoption of consumer devices that use GPS (Global Positioning System) data broadcast by U.S. military satellites is another key enabler.
Before we continue, here's the short course on how "traditional" GPS works:
A GPS receiver gathers pulsed signals from as many of the two dozen or so GPS satellites orbiting the earth as it can lock in. Using triangulation -- by measuring and comparing the travel time of individual signals -- the receiver calculates its position, and it's accurate to within twenty yards or so.
Handhelds with built-in GPS chipsets—designed primarily for turn-by-turn navigation applications—started to appear a couple of years ago.
Garmin Ltd., MiTAC International Corp. and others have Pocket PC and Palm-based products in this category. Garmin iQUE 3600:First GPS-Enabled PDA
Hewlett-Packard's (HP) hw6500 Pocket PC phone series is a quad-band phone with GPS built in (see Preview: iPAQ hw6515 - HP's Smart New Smartphone Entry). It has been released in Japan and Europe, and will soon bow in the U.S. and Canada as well. iPAQ hw6500
RevenuesAccording to Location-Based Services, a report published by ABI Research earlier this summer, revenues from all location-based services (LBS) in North America—including many not available to handset users—will grow from $420 million in 2005 to over $4 billion in 2010. ABI says that by 2010, 15 million handset owners will be paying for location-based services.
In the Asia-Pacific market, where 10 million handset users already subscribe to LBS, the total number of subscribers by 2010 will top 67 million.
Directionless OperatorsThose forecasts represent radical revisions of the first predictions about the growth of location-based services. "So much of what we thought was going to take off five years ago just didn't happen," admits principal wireless analyst Ken Hyers, author of the recent ABI report. "Everything was in place then, except the operators. The operators just didn't make the move."
For operators, providing positioning information for e911 was an unanticipated cost of doing business that they were in no great hurry to incur. However they choose to meet e911 requirements - and there are two distinct ways of doing it - it was going to cost money.
Furthermore, the technology was not immediately available and, when it was, it sometimes didn't work as advertised. except the operators. The operators just didn't make the move."
Continue >>>
TeleNav Turns to Tele Atlas For LBS Content
location based services
By James Alan MillerMay 31, 2006TeleNav, a provider of location-based services (LBS) services to mobile handsets has inked a deal with Tele Atlas, which will now deliver geographic and mapping content for these solutions. The latter will serve as the data Ying to the former's solutions Yang.
Voice-based GPS navigation Mobile Resource Management, asset GPS tracking, and local search to carriers are among TeleNav's fortes in the wireless world. These LBS solutions work over traditional mobile phones, as well as BlackBerry, Symbian, Palm Treo and Windows Mobile PDAs and smartphones.
The company's flagship product is called TeleNav GPS Navigator. It automatically updates maps and business locations, offers speech recognition, dynamicly updates gas prices and more, according to TeleNav.
TeleNav selected Tele Atlas because its global coverage and focus on partner support. TeleNav President & CEO HP Jin said, "TeleNav is committed to providing our customers with the best content and services in the market. We are pleased to expand our content portfolio to feature Tele Atlas maps and point of interest (POI) content for North America and Europe."
Tele Atlas said its geographic content currently works with 150 LBS-based applications on wireless personal navigation devices, PDAs, and smartphones, including city guides, real time traffic, weather and social networking applications.
The company's COO Mike Gerling explained, "Accurate map data is the foundation for the most useful, and used, LBS applications...We look forward to working with TeleNav to bring the convenience and benefits of location services to the masses."
Early last month PDAStreet got a peak into one way Tele Atlas keeps its geographic data up to date: a tricked-out Toyota Sienna. We took a ride in a bright orange Tele Atlas van at CTIA 2006. The vehicle was equipped with four cameras - two facing front and the other two angled to either side - along with global positioning receiver (GPS), a rack of computers, two 250 GB hard disk drives (one for back up) that gets switched out every couple of weeks or so, and a laptop.
The van - one of only nine in the U.S. - captures images every few meters, collecting road information such as lane counts and speed limits and exit signs to help users more easily and safely find locations. They are currently deployed to validate the accuracy of information for millions of miles of road each year.
The vans are just one of many tools the company uses to provide its customers - like TeleNav - with the geographic information they need. In fact, the company says it relies on 50,000 data sources worldwide for its map data.
Click link below for more on our Tele Atlas van ride. Related Links:
Bright Orange Van Maps Las Vegas
Mobile GPS: Part 4 – Grassroots Initiatives Complements Operators
Mobile GPS: Part 3 - The Success of Foreign Adoption
Mobile GPS: Part 2 –Trail Blazers, Applications
Mobile GPS: Part 1 – Behind the Rise of Location Services
location based services
By James Alan MillerMay 31, 2006TeleNav, a provider of location-based services (LBS) services to mobile handsets has inked a deal with Tele Atlas, which will now deliver geographic and mapping content for these solutions. The latter will serve as the data Ying to the former's solutions Yang.
Voice-based GPS navigation Mobile Resource Management, asset GPS tracking, and local search to carriers are among TeleNav's fortes in the wireless world. These LBS solutions work over traditional mobile phones, as well as BlackBerry, Symbian, Palm Treo and Windows Mobile PDAs and smartphones.
The company's flagship product is called TeleNav GPS Navigator. It automatically updates maps and business locations, offers speech recognition, dynamicly updates gas prices and more, according to TeleNav.
TeleNav selected Tele Atlas because its global coverage and focus on partner support. TeleNav President & CEO HP Jin said, "TeleNav is committed to providing our customers with the best content and services in the market. We are pleased to expand our content portfolio to feature Tele Atlas maps and point of interest (POI) content for North America and Europe."
Tele Atlas said its geographic content currently works with 150 LBS-based applications on wireless personal navigation devices, PDAs, and smartphones, including city guides, real time traffic, weather and social networking applications.
The company's COO Mike Gerling explained, "Accurate map data is the foundation for the most useful, and used, LBS applications...We look forward to working with TeleNav to bring the convenience and benefits of location services to the masses."
Early last month PDAStreet got a peak into one way Tele Atlas keeps its geographic data up to date: a tricked-out Toyota Sienna. We took a ride in a bright orange Tele Atlas van at CTIA 2006. The vehicle was equipped with four cameras - two facing front and the other two angled to either side - along with global positioning receiver (GPS), a rack of computers, two 250 GB hard disk drives (one for back up) that gets switched out every couple of weeks or so, and a laptop.
The van - one of only nine in the U.S. - captures images every few meters, collecting road information such as lane counts and speed limits and exit signs to help users more easily and safely find locations. They are currently deployed to validate the accuracy of information for millions of miles of road each year.
The vans are just one of many tools the company uses to provide its customers - like TeleNav - with the geographic information they need. In fact, the company says it relies on 50,000 data sources worldwide for its map data.
Click link below for more on our Tele Atlas van ride. Related Links:
Bright Orange Van Maps Las Vegas
Mobile GPS: Part 4 – Grassroots Initiatives Complements Operators
Mobile GPS: Part 3 - The Success of Foreign Adoption
Mobile GPS: Part 2 –Trail Blazers, Applications
Mobile GPS: Part 1 – Behind the Rise of Location Services
location based services
Classifieds lead migration in search for 'reach'· Tabloids hit hardest but all papers will suffer Dan Milmo, media business editorWednesday May 31, 2006The Guardian
The internet will overtake national newspapers in the battle for advertising spending in the UK by the end of the year, it was predicted yesterday. GroupM, which accounts for about 30% of global media buying, says in a report to be published next month that the internet will account for 13.3% of the £12.2bn UK advertising market this year, overtaking national newspapers with a share of 13.2%. The figure for web advertising could be even bigger, because the report excludes the estimated £1bn a year spent on "affiliate advertising", which largely comprises adverts placed on smaller websites.
The speed at which advertisers have shifted spending to the web has surprised many. Six years ago the web was an upstart medium controlling only 1% of the multibillion-pound British advertising market, despite being lavished with media and investor attention. The related factors of growth in broadband usage and declining newspaper circulation appear to have justified the hype. "Reach is what advertisers want most," says the report. "National newspapers still have lots of it, but less reach means less ad money."
GroupM, the holding company for media-buying agencies owned by WPP, adds that tabloids have been hit the hardest, with ageing readerships and celebrity magazines damaging newsstand sales. It warns that the migration of classified adverts to the internet could be dangerous for all nationals because they are such a profitable niche, accounting for a quarter of nationals' advertising revenue: "Online substitution of classified is therefore particularly threatening given print's massive operational gearing. Jobseekers know they don't need to buy nationals any more."
Google will throw down another challenge to the newspaper industry today by launching its Base service in Britain. Google Base allows users to upload their own content onto the search engine's servers, in effect making the content part of the internet. Because of this, it is perceived as a major threat to print-based classified advertising. Although it has yet to make headway in US classified advertising, the Google Base concept could appeal to advertisers seeking a cheaper alternative to print. Peter Williams, finance director of Daily Mail & General Trust, said yesterday that national newspapers still held advantages over the younger medium: "The one area of media that is not fragmented is national newspapers. There are not too many national newspaper launches, but how many websites launch every day? Also, in national newspapers you can buy critical mass in one place, so we have the advantage of individual size."
Having confirmed the rise of the internet, the GroupM report goes on to predict that advertising on mobile platforms - from phones to lap tops - will experience the next growth spurt: "Mobile advertising is at the start of a growth curve like that of the internet, which initially grew at annual rates of up to 200%." Mobile advertising is starting from a low base and is forecast to double to £60m this year, doubling again to £120m next year.
The study warns that the strong performance of internet advertising is masking the woes of more established platforms. According to media buyers' estimates seen by the Guardian, ITV1 will generate less than £100m in advertising revenues in July - falling 18% to £96m. ITV1 turnover is now heading for a decline of 11% year on year, in a broadcast market that is expected to fall 3% overall.
"Without evergreen internet spending we would be in an ad recession," said the GroupM report. "TV is having its worst year since 2001. This is not a crisis of TV advertiser confidence, but it could be the market imposing a permanent discount on a fragmented medium."
Henry Rowe, managing director of Carat Digital, the online arm of Europe's largest media buyer, predicts 80% of media consumption will be digital in three or four years. Much of this is being driven by digital TV, which is in two-thirds of UK homes, and Britain's 10m broadband connections: "The future for digital media is the future for media overall, which means that phrases like 'new media' will be even more ridiculous than they are now."
Mr Rowe adds that paid-for search advertising, where adverts are triggered by key searchwords, will continue to dominate internet advertising. Carat believes that more than 50% of internet advertising sold over the next few years will be derived from paid-for search.
"We see see search growing for a couple of years but ultimately it will plateau when there is saturation of online consumption and internet penetration," he says. "Once traditional media are fully converted to digital and the internet, non-search advertising will become a bigger part of the total."
Classifieds lead migration in search for 'reach'· Tabloids hit hardest but all papers will suffer Dan Milmo, media business editorWednesday May 31, 2006The Guardian
The internet will overtake national newspapers in the battle for advertising spending in the UK by the end of the year, it was predicted yesterday. GroupM, which accounts for about 30% of global media buying, says in a report to be published next month that the internet will account for 13.3% of the £12.2bn UK advertising market this year, overtaking national newspapers with a share of 13.2%. The figure for web advertising could be even bigger, because the report excludes the estimated £1bn a year spent on "affiliate advertising", which largely comprises adverts placed on smaller websites.
The speed at which advertisers have shifted spending to the web has surprised many. Six years ago the web was an upstart medium controlling only 1% of the multibillion-pound British advertising market, despite being lavished with media and investor attention. The related factors of growth in broadband usage and declining newspaper circulation appear to have justified the hype. "Reach is what advertisers want most," says the report. "National newspapers still have lots of it, but less reach means less ad money."
GroupM, the holding company for media-buying agencies owned by WPP, adds that tabloids have been hit the hardest, with ageing readerships and celebrity magazines damaging newsstand sales. It warns that the migration of classified adverts to the internet could be dangerous for all nationals because they are such a profitable niche, accounting for a quarter of nationals' advertising revenue: "Online substitution of classified is therefore particularly threatening given print's massive operational gearing. Jobseekers know they don't need to buy nationals any more."
Google will throw down another challenge to the newspaper industry today by launching its Base service in Britain. Google Base allows users to upload their own content onto the search engine's servers, in effect making the content part of the internet. Because of this, it is perceived as a major threat to print-based classified advertising. Although it has yet to make headway in US classified advertising, the Google Base concept could appeal to advertisers seeking a cheaper alternative to print. Peter Williams, finance director of Daily Mail & General Trust, said yesterday that national newspapers still held advantages over the younger medium: "The one area of media that is not fragmented is national newspapers. There are not too many national newspaper launches, but how many websites launch every day? Also, in national newspapers you can buy critical mass in one place, so we have the advantage of individual size."
Having confirmed the rise of the internet, the GroupM report goes on to predict that advertising on mobile platforms - from phones to lap tops - will experience the next growth spurt: "Mobile advertising is at the start of a growth curve like that of the internet, which initially grew at annual rates of up to 200%." Mobile advertising is starting from a low base and is forecast to double to £60m this year, doubling again to £120m next year.
The study warns that the strong performance of internet advertising is masking the woes of more established platforms. According to media buyers' estimates seen by the Guardian, ITV1 will generate less than £100m in advertising revenues in July - falling 18% to £96m. ITV1 turnover is now heading for a decline of 11% year on year, in a broadcast market that is expected to fall 3% overall.
"Without evergreen internet spending we would be in an ad recession," said the GroupM report. "TV is having its worst year since 2001. This is not a crisis of TV advertiser confidence, but it could be the market imposing a permanent discount on a fragmented medium."
Henry Rowe, managing director of Carat Digital, the online arm of Europe's largest media buyer, predicts 80% of media consumption will be digital in three or four years. Much of this is being driven by digital TV, which is in two-thirds of UK homes, and Britain's 10m broadband connections: "The future for digital media is the future for media overall, which means that phrases like 'new media' will be even more ridiculous than they are now."
Mr Rowe adds that paid-for search advertising, where adverts are triggered by key searchwords, will continue to dominate internet advertising. Carat believes that more than 50% of internet advertising sold over the next few years will be derived from paid-for search.
"We see see search growing for a couple of years but ultimately it will plateau when there is saturation of online consumption and internet penetration," he says. "Once traditional media are fully converted to digital and the internet, non-search advertising will become a bigger part of the total."
Monday, May 29, 2006
mobi Off The Block; Registrations On
location based services
Somehow, any .mobi post we do seems to stirs emotions, and multiple comments. Anyway, .mobi registrations started today, and though none of the major U.S. wireless carriers invested in the company handling the domain, they all registered their dot-mobi domain names today, such as Cingular.mobi, Sprint.mobi and Verizon.mobi. Major media companies such as CBS, Time Warner and News Corp.’s Fox News Channel have also jumped in with new domain names: cbs.mobi, fox.mobi and timewarner.mobi. Even famous movies and TV shows like Batman, Catwoman, Family Guy and The Matrix now have registered dot-mobi sites.To make wireless surfing smoother, Mobile Top Level Domain has required Web developers to follow a set of rules. One rule requires dot-mobi sites not to “cause pop-ups or other windows to appear.” Another requires developers to “divide (dot-mobi web) pages into usable but limited size portions.”A dot-mobi domain name costs $140 a year for trademark names and $45 a year for generic names.Some of the .mobi names, belonging to operators and some content providers (Weather Channel) are already active: Google.mobi, Weather.mobi, Vodafone.mobi, Ericsson.mobi, T-Mobile.mobi, Tim.mobi, and Nokia.mobi, among others.
© 2002-2006 Dis*Content Media LLC
One Response to “.mobi Off The Block; Registrations On”
al Says: May 23rd, 2006 at 5:25 pm
I downloaded their list of “premium” names; i.e., names that are not going to be a part of the general registration process and will therefore require a different fee and procedure, and it is amazing to me how many words there are. When I downloaded the .pdf and looked at it, it seriously looked like I was reading through a dictionary.
Why has the .mobi registrar decided to seize so many words? Words like “weirdsex” and “vulva,” or “tallwomen,” “ditto,” and “labradoodle.” Who has decided that “corn” is “premium”? It doesn’t seem that a system that has confiscated nearly every word that’s actually a word, wants to remove them from the general registration, and will then issue them at a higher price, or worse terms, is more fair than the way all other TLDs have been issued: first come, first served.
And why hasn’t this come out yet? This really seems antithetical to the whole notion of fairness in TLD registration
location based services
Somehow, any .mobi post we do seems to stirs emotions, and multiple comments. Anyway, .mobi registrations started today, and though none of the major U.S. wireless carriers invested in the company handling the domain, they all registered their dot-mobi domain names today, such as Cingular.mobi, Sprint.mobi and Verizon.mobi. Major media companies such as CBS, Time Warner and News Corp.’s Fox News Channel have also jumped in with new domain names: cbs.mobi, fox.mobi and timewarner.mobi. Even famous movies and TV shows like Batman, Catwoman, Family Guy and The Matrix now have registered dot-mobi sites.To make wireless surfing smoother, Mobile Top Level Domain has required Web developers to follow a set of rules. One rule requires dot-mobi sites not to “cause pop-ups or other windows to appear.” Another requires developers to “divide (dot-mobi web) pages into usable but limited size portions.”A dot-mobi domain name costs $140 a year for trademark names and $45 a year for generic names.Some of the .mobi names, belonging to operators and some content providers (Weather Channel) are already active: Google.mobi, Weather.mobi, Vodafone.mobi, Ericsson.mobi, T-Mobile.mobi, Tim.mobi, and Nokia.mobi, among others.
© 2002-2006 Dis*Content Media LLC
One Response to “.mobi Off The Block; Registrations On”
al Says: May 23rd, 2006 at 5:25 pm
I downloaded their list of “premium” names; i.e., names that are not going to be a part of the general registration process and will therefore require a different fee and procedure, and it is amazing to me how many words there are. When I downloaded the .pdf and looked at it, it seriously looked like I was reading through a dictionary.
Why has the .mobi registrar decided to seize so many words? Words like “weirdsex” and “vulva,” or “tallwomen,” “ditto,” and “labradoodle.” Who has decided that “corn” is “premium”? It doesn’t seem that a system that has confiscated nearly every word that’s actually a word, wants to remove them from the general registration, and will then issue them at a higher price, or worse terms, is more fair than the way all other TLDs have been issued: first come, first served.
And why hasn’t this come out yet? This really seems antithetical to the whole notion of fairness in TLD registration
Real World Wiki Gets Closer
location based services
by Russell Buckley on May 29th, 2006 in Mobile Society, New launches
Last August, I gave a speech at Wikimania (a conference for passionate Wikipedists) in which I envisioned a Real World Wikipedia. The idea I was promoting was that we could annotate our real world environment with a kind of virtual graffiti, which we could access via our mobile phones.
The graffiti could be factual (Wikipedia style), perhaps describing famous residents of a house you were walking past, or commercial - a local restaurant promoting their dish of the day. Clearly, commercial messages would be controversial, but provided they could be pull-based, or at least only served with the user’s prior explicit permission, they would probably be acceptable to most of us.
The factual annotations would have to be populated by a Wikipedia style operation, with volunteers inputting the text and tagging the locations. A commercial operation would simply never be able to deploy enough information to make the idea interesting or useful.
This world is coming closer though. Steve Rubel points us to Wikimapia, which allows us to leave annotations on Google Maps. Bizarrely, when I looked at the UK, one of the only annotations so far is JK Rowling’s grandmother’s house.
So, assuming that this takes off and people start tagging places with information, all we need now is a way of accessing this with our mobiles in a usable and useful way. This isn’t without its challenges as when there aren’t many tags out there, it’ll get very boring if you have to pull the information down as you’ll be forever searching for stuff that isn’t there. On the opposite side of the coin, if there was suddenly quite a lot of information and your phone bleeped every time there was something to discover, it would start to be very annoying indeed.
However, I think that this is the beginning of something very powerful indeed. The real world is colliding with the digital one and it’ll have profound implications for the way we live and work.
-->
3 Responses to “Real World Wiki Gets Closer”
Feed for this Entry Trackback Address
1 Szymon May 29th, 2006 at 8:52 am
Hello,
one of the ways to link physical objects to the virtual reality with mobile is this: http://www.semapedia.org/. To be honest I like the idea of linking “real” wiki to the physical world much more then the idea to rewrite the wiki for the map purposes. If someone now finds a way to connect Google Maps with wikipedia.org that would be something. Then all you need would be a mobile phone with GPS…
2 Ray May 29th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
You might also want to take a look at this research project: http://p2d.ftw.at/! Regards, Ray
3 Ray May 29th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Sorry… disregard the ‘!’ - The URL is of course http://p2d.ftw.at/
location based services
by Russell Buckley on May 29th, 2006 in Mobile Society, New launches
Last August, I gave a speech at Wikimania (a conference for passionate Wikipedists) in which I envisioned a Real World Wikipedia. The idea I was promoting was that we could annotate our real world environment with a kind of virtual graffiti, which we could access via our mobile phones.
The graffiti could be factual (Wikipedia style), perhaps describing famous residents of a house you were walking past, or commercial - a local restaurant promoting their dish of the day. Clearly, commercial messages would be controversial, but provided they could be pull-based, or at least only served with the user’s prior explicit permission, they would probably be acceptable to most of us.
The factual annotations would have to be populated by a Wikipedia style operation, with volunteers inputting the text and tagging the locations. A commercial operation would simply never be able to deploy enough information to make the idea interesting or useful.
This world is coming closer though. Steve Rubel points us to Wikimapia, which allows us to leave annotations on Google Maps. Bizarrely, when I looked at the UK, one of the only annotations so far is JK Rowling’s grandmother’s house.
So, assuming that this takes off and people start tagging places with information, all we need now is a way of accessing this with our mobiles in a usable and useful way. This isn’t without its challenges as when there aren’t many tags out there, it’ll get very boring if you have to pull the information down as you’ll be forever searching for stuff that isn’t there. On the opposite side of the coin, if there was suddenly quite a lot of information and your phone bleeped every time there was something to discover, it would start to be very annoying indeed.
However, I think that this is the beginning of something very powerful indeed. The real world is colliding with the digital one and it’ll have profound implications for the way we live and work.
-->
3 Responses to “Real World Wiki Gets Closer”
Feed for this Entry Trackback Address
1 Szymon May 29th, 2006 at 8:52 am
Hello,
one of the ways to link physical objects to the virtual reality with mobile is this: http://www.semapedia.org/. To be honest I like the idea of linking “real” wiki to the physical world much more then the idea to rewrite the wiki for the map purposes. If someone now finds a way to connect Google Maps with wikipedia.org that would be something. Then all you need would be a mobile phone with GPS…
2 Ray May 29th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
You might also want to take a look at this research project: http://p2d.ftw.at/! Regards, Ray
3 Ray May 29th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Sorry… disregard the ‘!’ - The URL is of course http://p2d.ftw.at/
Emergency services tap mobile technology
location based services
Emergency services from wireless vendors to non-profit groups are increasingly tapping into technology to build alert systems and location-based platforms.In one example, the US Centre for Missing and Exploited Children this week launched a program to highlight an emergency service allowing mobile subscribers to sign up online to receive text messages on any mobile phone. The organisation teamed up with carriers and other groups last year to design the Wireless AMBER Alerts system. The service, which is slowly gaining traction throughout the nation, offers an instant text message on the subscriber's mobile phone. The free program also works with pagers and PDA, said Bob Hoever, director of special operations for the Centre for Missing and Exploited Children on Friday.
"The alert directs the subscriber to immediately call 911 or the police agency investigating the abduction," he said. "When a child is abducted, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack, and the more eyes and ears you have looking for the child, the smaller the haystack."More than 224,000 emergency 911 calls are made daily from mobile phones, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. The CTIA estimates more than 70 percent of those living in the US have a mobile service, accounting for approximately 210 million subscribers.The goal to create awareness has proved slow going. Although people have registered, Hoever said it's not clear how many subscribers have signed up for the free service. He did say there have been 266 children safely returned to their families since the Amber Alert was introduced in Arlington, Texas, about nine years ago. Verizon Wireless offered another signal that mobile carriers are providing emergency services. Verizon Wireless on Friday said 911 operators can now locate 95 percent of the customers from their handsets. Verizon said about one-third of 911 call centers have upgraded their systems and can receive the location information from callers using mobile phones, PDAs, smartphones and other wireless devices. Wireless phones that are GPS-enabled can help public safety authorities determine the location of a caller, even if the caller doesn't know where they are or is unable to speak. The GPS location technology integrated in the phones makes it possible for the handset to transmit location data automatically to emergency services, helping them to dispatch emergency assistance faster. The Federal Communications Commission required by the end of 2005 that at least 95 percent of all wireless handsets have the ability to give emergency personnel the location of 911 callers. AT&T's Cingular Wireless is using a network-based service to locate callers who dial 911, the company said.Sprint Nextel sought a waiver from the FCC, which has not responded. The company has told the FCC more than 84 percent of its customers had wireless phones capable to identify location.
location based services
Emergency services from wireless vendors to non-profit groups are increasingly tapping into technology to build alert systems and location-based platforms.In one example, the US Centre for Missing and Exploited Children this week launched a program to highlight an emergency service allowing mobile subscribers to sign up online to receive text messages on any mobile phone. The organisation teamed up with carriers and other groups last year to design the Wireless AMBER Alerts system. The service, which is slowly gaining traction throughout the nation, offers an instant text message on the subscriber's mobile phone. The free program also works with pagers and PDA, said Bob Hoever, director of special operations for the Centre for Missing and Exploited Children on Friday.
"The alert directs the subscriber to immediately call 911 or the police agency investigating the abduction," he said. "When a child is abducted, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack, and the more eyes and ears you have looking for the child, the smaller the haystack."More than 224,000 emergency 911 calls are made daily from mobile phones, according to the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. The CTIA estimates more than 70 percent of those living in the US have a mobile service, accounting for approximately 210 million subscribers.The goal to create awareness has proved slow going. Although people have registered, Hoever said it's not clear how many subscribers have signed up for the free service. He did say there have been 266 children safely returned to their families since the Amber Alert was introduced in Arlington, Texas, about nine years ago. Verizon Wireless offered another signal that mobile carriers are providing emergency services. Verizon Wireless on Friday said 911 operators can now locate 95 percent of the customers from their handsets. Verizon said about one-third of 911 call centers have upgraded their systems and can receive the location information from callers using mobile phones, PDAs, smartphones and other wireless devices. Wireless phones that are GPS-enabled can help public safety authorities determine the location of a caller, even if the caller doesn't know where they are or is unable to speak. The GPS location technology integrated in the phones makes it possible for the handset to transmit location data automatically to emergency services, helping them to dispatch emergency assistance faster. The Federal Communications Commission required by the end of 2005 that at least 95 percent of all wireless handsets have the ability to give emergency personnel the location of 911 callers. AT&T's Cingular Wireless is using a network-based service to locate callers who dial 911, the company said.Sprint Nextel sought a waiver from the FCC, which has not responded. The company has told the FCC more than 84 percent of its customers had wireless phones capable to identify location.
More online mapping tools than ever for NZ
location based services
Vianet.travel
vianet.travel is a new community of tourism operators, tourism retailers and travellers. vianet.travel is unique in that we work with both sides of the tourism equation with the single-minded goal of making it easier for travellers to find what they are looking for. To achieve this we provide the latest technology to retailers and operators. vianet.travel was imagined, designed and created by Vianet International. ZoomIn.co.nz
You can find a map for any street address in New Zealand. ZoomIn also lets you find all sorts of places. Large and small. Malls and theaters. Churches and skate parks. Burger joints and gourmet restaurants. Simply type what you're trying to find into the search bar and click Find.Vianet is probably the most applicable seeing as it's especially geared towards tourism - I especially like this article on Stuff.co.nz which talks about how it quickly morphed into a more collaborative project with the participation of community groups and smaller businesses.Of course there's the news (see article here) that Google Maps has finally included detailed street information for New Zealand, but it's disappointing to see that they still haven't included any additional layers of information and thus renders it a lot less useful than the local alternatives - e.g. a search for 'pizza' in Auckland still yields zero results...And, as I mentioned earlier, there's AA SmartMap (also more tourism-oriented). It's great to see so many new services, but here's the problem - how many of them can be accessed via a truly mobile device (i.e. not including laptops)? I know at least one of these service providers are working on translating these to the small screen - but even after true mobility of the mapping service is achieved, how are we going to get it into the hands of the tourists? Will their current devices be able to handle this sort of map-based LBS? If not (and the majority of them still carry models such as the Nokia 3310), who's going to rent them the device which allows them to use the service in the first place? Somebody has to do it... otherwise they won't even be able to access the service properly, which sort of defeats the whole purpose! We shall see...
posted by Clara at 8:38 PM
location based services
Vianet.travel
vianet.travel is a new community of tourism operators, tourism retailers and travellers. vianet.travel is unique in that we work with both sides of the tourism equation with the single-minded goal of making it easier for travellers to find what they are looking for. To achieve this we provide the latest technology to retailers and operators. vianet.travel was imagined, designed and created by Vianet International. ZoomIn.co.nz
You can find a map for any street address in New Zealand. ZoomIn also lets you find all sorts of places. Large and small. Malls and theaters. Churches and skate parks. Burger joints and gourmet restaurants. Simply type what you're trying to find into the search bar and click Find.Vianet is probably the most applicable seeing as it's especially geared towards tourism - I especially like this article on Stuff.co.nz which talks about how it quickly morphed into a more collaborative project with the participation of community groups and smaller businesses.Of course there's the news (see article here) that Google Maps has finally included detailed street information for New Zealand, but it's disappointing to see that they still haven't included any additional layers of information and thus renders it a lot less useful than the local alternatives - e.g. a search for 'pizza' in Auckland still yields zero results...And, as I mentioned earlier, there's AA SmartMap (also more tourism-oriented). It's great to see so many new services, but here's the problem - how many of them can be accessed via a truly mobile device (i.e. not including laptops)? I know at least one of these service providers are working on translating these to the small screen - but even after true mobility of the mapping service is achieved, how are we going to get it into the hands of the tourists? Will their current devices be able to handle this sort of map-based LBS? If not (and the majority of them still carry models such as the Nokia 3310), who's going to rent them the device which allows them to use the service in the first place? Somebody has to do it... otherwise they won't even be able to access the service properly, which sort of defeats the whole purpose! We shall see...
posted by Clara at 8:38 PM
location based services
imov Messenger gives you the ability to instantly and securely communicate with family and friends using the Internet. The Jabber platform's extensibility allows imov Messenger to be compatible with multiple messaging systems including AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! and MSN Messengers! Available for the Microsoft PocketPC, HandheldPC and Smartphone platforms.Key features of imov Messenger include:
• Communicate with Google Talk™, AOL™, ICQ™, MSN™, Yahoo! Messenger™ and Jabber™ users!
• Easy setup and use
• Wireless capable
• Encrypted communications (SSL) support
• Support for most Windows CE devices-including the PocketPC and Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphones!
• Automatic new version notifications
• Offline message queuing
• SOCKS5 proxy server support
• Seamless offline/online operation
• Location Based Services support
imov Messenger gives you the ability to instantly and securely communicate with family and friends using the Internet. The Jabber platform's extensibility allows imov Messenger to be compatible with multiple messaging systems including AIM, ICQ, Yahoo! and MSN Messengers! Available for the Microsoft PocketPC, HandheldPC and Smartphone platforms.Key features of imov Messenger include:
• Communicate with Google Talk™, AOL™, ICQ™, MSN™, Yahoo! Messenger™ and Jabber™ users!
• Easy setup and use
• Wireless capable
• Encrypted communications (SSL) support
• Support for most Windows CE devices-including the PocketPC and Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphones!
• Automatic new version notifications
• Offline message queuing
• SOCKS5 proxy server support
• Seamless offline/online operation
• Location Based Services support
TechnoCom Sells Mobile Resource Management (MRM) Business Unit
location based services
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 2006--TechnoCom Corp., a leading provider of solutions to enable wireless services and assure their ongoing performance, announced today the sale of their successful mobile resource management (MRM) device business to CalAmp Corp. (Nasdaq:CAMP), a leading manufacturer and supplier of wireless solutions.
This sale adds further focus to TechnoCom's core businesses, location assurance software and services, key to the success of revenue producing commercial location-based services (LBS) and the performance of life-saving wireless enhanced 911 (E911) services; and emerging wireless technologies, critical to enabling a new class of consumer and safety applications. TechnoCom is retaining rights to the technology used in its innovative LocationAssurance Devices -- an important differentiator in the location assurance marketplace.
"This transaction benefits all parties involved," said Masoud Motamedi, president of TechnoCom. "CalAmp's manufacturing expertise provides efficiencies that will help our MRM customers remain competitive over the long haul. And for CalAmp, this transaction brings with it a superior Location Messaging Unit (LMU) family of smart fleet tracking devices, a strong customer base, and outstanding growth."
TechnoCom's core MRM business unit team is joining CalAmp to ensure a smooth transition for customers.
About TechnoCom Corp.
TechnoCom is a leading provider of solutions to enable wireless services and assure their ongoing performance. TechnoCom offers a portfolio of wireless infrastructure solutions and emerging wireless technologies to network operators, service providers, system integrators and government agencies. These solutions enable customers to manage their wireless and location infrastructures and services, reduce operating and capital costs, increase productivity, and rapidly deploy new revenue-generating services. Founded in 1995, TechnoCom was named for the past three years as one of the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in Los Angeles by Deloitte & Touche. The company's customers include some of the world's largest wireless carriers and integrators, including, among others, Alltel, ARINC, Cingular, Cricket Communications, Raytheon, SAIC, SprintNextel, SunCom Wireless, Telefonica Empresas S.A., Telus, T-Mobile, and Verizon. TechnoCom has received investments from Timeline Ventures, Titan Investment Partners, Third Point Management and iSherpa Capital. For more information, please visit www.technocom-wireless.com.
Wireless Location Leaders is a registered trademark of TechnoCom Corporation. The TechnoCom logo is a trademark of TechnoCom Corporation. Any other trademarks are the property of their respective
location based services
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 2006--TechnoCom Corp., a leading provider of solutions to enable wireless services and assure their ongoing performance, announced today the sale of their successful mobile resource management (MRM) device business to CalAmp Corp. (Nasdaq:CAMP), a leading manufacturer and supplier of wireless solutions.
This sale adds further focus to TechnoCom's core businesses, location assurance software and services, key to the success of revenue producing commercial location-based services (LBS) and the performance of life-saving wireless enhanced 911 (E911) services; and emerging wireless technologies, critical to enabling a new class of consumer and safety applications. TechnoCom is retaining rights to the technology used in its innovative LocationAssurance Devices -- an important differentiator in the location assurance marketplace.
"This transaction benefits all parties involved," said Masoud Motamedi, president of TechnoCom. "CalAmp's manufacturing expertise provides efficiencies that will help our MRM customers remain competitive over the long haul. And for CalAmp, this transaction brings with it a superior Location Messaging Unit (LMU) family of smart fleet tracking devices, a strong customer base, and outstanding growth."
TechnoCom's core MRM business unit team is joining CalAmp to ensure a smooth transition for customers.
About TechnoCom Corp.
TechnoCom is a leading provider of solutions to enable wireless services and assure their ongoing performance. TechnoCom offers a portfolio of wireless infrastructure solutions and emerging wireless technologies to network operators, service providers, system integrators and government agencies. These solutions enable customers to manage their wireless and location infrastructures and services, reduce operating and capital costs, increase productivity, and rapidly deploy new revenue-generating services. Founded in 1995, TechnoCom was named for the past three years as one of the 50 fastest-growing technology companies in Los Angeles by Deloitte & Touche. The company's customers include some of the world's largest wireless carriers and integrators, including, among others, Alltel, ARINC, Cingular, Cricket Communications, Raytheon, SAIC, SprintNextel, SunCom Wireless, Telefonica Empresas S.A., Telus, T-Mobile, and Verizon. TechnoCom has received investments from Timeline Ventures, Titan Investment Partners, Third Point Management and iSherpa Capital. For more information, please visit www.technocom-wireless.com.
Wireless Location Leaders is a registered trademark of TechnoCom Corporation. The TechnoCom logo is a trademark of TechnoCom Corporation. Any other trademarks are the property of their respective
location based services
Diversinet Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: DVNTF), a leading provider ofmobile-enabled personal authentication and security solutions, and ECONZWireless, a leading global developer of mobile software solutions forbusiness and consumer markets, today announced a partnership agreement. Theagreement allows ECONZ Wireless to integrate and extend the MobiSecure BREWclient into current and future ECONZ Wireless applications for saleworldwide through ECONZ Wireless mobile carrier partners. Also in progress is the development of BREW extension for two-factorauthentication with Location Based Services (LBS). This extension willallow developers of BREW applications to bring a new level of security anduser authentication to their products. Applications for this technologyinclude e-commerce, mobile banking, mobile wagering and mature age content. "The increased security offered by Diversinet MobiSecure soft tokensopens a new array of exciting application possibilities for ECONZ," saidMichael Hartley, CEO of ECONZ Wireless. "By broadening our range ofapplications to include strong authentication, carriers will be able toincrease usage of their wireless data networks and ARPU through downloads,purchases and network-connected applications." "We are very excited about working with ECONZ as we add BREW to ourlong list of supported mobiles device platforms," said Nagy Moustafa, CEOof Diversinet. "ECONZ Wireless' mobile applications and their users willnow be able to benefit from the strong user authentication Diversinet'sMobiSecure soft tokens deliver." The BREW solution supports today's business and technology requirementsfor rapid deployment of wireless data applications services. The BREWsolution is currently being delivered through 65 carriers worldwide, and bythe end of 2006 there are expected to be over 266 million BREW-enabledwireless devices. The BREW solution enhances the wireless experience forconsumers and creates new services and revenue streams for the mobilemarketplace. Major mobile carriers around the world who leverage the BREWsolution include Verizon Wireless, KDDI, China Unicom and O2. About Diversinet Diversinet is a leading provider of mobile-enabled personalauthentication and security solutions for the wireless world. The company'ssoftware and services protect a user's identity and provide secure accessfor new, innovative consumer and business applications using a variety ofmobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and personal computers.Diversinet's highly scaleable, open mobile security platform enablesenterprises and service providers to rapidly develop, deploy and managenext-generation wireless security services that leverage the more than 2.5billion mobile devices and PCs deployed today. The Diversinet MobiSecuresuite of mobile tokens and MASC offerings are available on all intelligentmobile device platforms, including Microsoft, RIM, Symbian, Palm, BREW andJava-based phones, as well as personal computers running the Windowsoperating system. Connect with Diversinet Corp. at http://www.diversinet.com. About ECONZ Wireless ECONZ Wireless is a leading global developer of mobile softwaresolutions for business and consumer markets. With an outstanding wirelesspedigree and exceptional products, the company is helping to drivewidespread implementation of mobile applications that entertain consumersand increase business user productivity and efficiency. ECONZ Wireless is a QUALCOMM BREW Select Developer and markets itsproducts internationally in North America, South America, the UnitedKingdom and Australasia. Some ECONZ Wireless products are sold in theUnited States exclusively through a Verizon Wireless National JointMarketing Agreement (JMA). ECONZ Wireless is based in Orange County,California, and is located at 3900 Birch Street in Newport Beach. For moreinformation on ECONZ Wireless and its products, go to http://www.econz.com or call1-866-57- ECONZ. Product screen shots available upon request. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safeharbor" for forward-looking statements. Certain information included inthis press release (as well as information included in oral statements orother written statements made or to be made by the company) containsstatements that are forward-looking, such as statements relating toanticipated future revenues of the company and success of current productofferings. Such forward-looking information involves important risks anduncertainties that could significantly affect anticipated results in thefuture and, accordingly, such results may differ materially from thoseexpressed in any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of thecompany. For a description of additional risks and uncertainties, pleaserefer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Diversinet Contacts: Company Contact: Wally Kowal Vice President, Marketing Diversinet Corp. 416-756-2324 ext. 231 wkowal@diversinet.com
Diversinet Corp. (OTC Bulletin Board: DVNTF), a leading provider ofmobile-enabled personal authentication and security solutions, and ECONZWireless, a leading global developer of mobile software solutions forbusiness and consumer markets, today announced a partnership agreement. Theagreement allows ECONZ Wireless to integrate and extend the MobiSecure BREWclient into current and future ECONZ Wireless applications for saleworldwide through ECONZ Wireless mobile carrier partners. Also in progress is the development of BREW extension for two-factorauthentication with Location Based Services (LBS). This extension willallow developers of BREW applications to bring a new level of security anduser authentication to their products. Applications for this technologyinclude e-commerce, mobile banking, mobile wagering and mature age content. "The increased security offered by Diversinet MobiSecure soft tokensopens a new array of exciting application possibilities for ECONZ," saidMichael Hartley, CEO of ECONZ Wireless. "By broadening our range ofapplications to include strong authentication, carriers will be able toincrease usage of their wireless data networks and ARPU through downloads,purchases and network-connected applications." "We are very excited about working with ECONZ as we add BREW to ourlong list of supported mobiles device platforms," said Nagy Moustafa, CEOof Diversinet. "ECONZ Wireless' mobile applications and their users willnow be able to benefit from the strong user authentication Diversinet'sMobiSecure soft tokens deliver." The BREW solution supports today's business and technology requirementsfor rapid deployment of wireless data applications services. The BREWsolution is currently being delivered through 65 carriers worldwide, and bythe end of 2006 there are expected to be over 266 million BREW-enabledwireless devices. The BREW solution enhances the wireless experience forconsumers and creates new services and revenue streams for the mobilemarketplace. Major mobile carriers around the world who leverage the BREWsolution include Verizon Wireless, KDDI, China Unicom and O2. About Diversinet Diversinet is a leading provider of mobile-enabled personalauthentication and security solutions for the wireless world. The company'ssoftware and services protect a user's identity and provide secure accessfor new, innovative consumer and business applications using a variety ofmobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and personal computers.Diversinet's highly scaleable, open mobile security platform enablesenterprises and service providers to rapidly develop, deploy and managenext-generation wireless security services that leverage the more than 2.5billion mobile devices and PCs deployed today. The Diversinet MobiSecuresuite of mobile tokens and MASC offerings are available on all intelligentmobile device platforms, including Microsoft, RIM, Symbian, Palm, BREW andJava-based phones, as well as personal computers running the Windowsoperating system. Connect with Diversinet Corp. at http://www.diversinet.com. About ECONZ Wireless ECONZ Wireless is a leading global developer of mobile softwaresolutions for business and consumer markets. With an outstanding wirelesspedigree and exceptional products, the company is helping to drivewidespread implementation of mobile applications that entertain consumersand increase business user productivity and efficiency. ECONZ Wireless is a QUALCOMM BREW Select Developer and markets itsproducts internationally in North America, South America, the UnitedKingdom and Australasia. Some ECONZ Wireless products are sold in theUnited States exclusively through a Verizon Wireless National JointMarketing Agreement (JMA). ECONZ Wireless is based in Orange County,California, and is located at 3900 Birch Street in Newport Beach. For moreinformation on ECONZ Wireless and its products, go to http://www.econz.com or call1-866-57- ECONZ. Product screen shots available upon request. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safeharbor" for forward-looking statements. Certain information included inthis press release (as well as information included in oral statements orother written statements made or to be made by the company) containsstatements that are forward-looking, such as statements relating toanticipated future revenues of the company and success of current productofferings. Such forward-looking information involves important risks anduncertainties that could significantly affect anticipated results in thefuture and, accordingly, such results may differ materially from thoseexpressed in any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of thecompany. For a description of additional risks and uncertainties, pleaserefer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Diversinet Contacts: Company Contact: Wally Kowal Vice President, Marketing Diversinet Corp. 416-756-2324 ext. 231 wkowal@diversinet.com
Verizon Wireless Passes E911 Compliance
location based services
Verizon Wireless announced it has reached the E911 compliance threshold set by the FCC, noting that 95 percent of handsets operating on its network now offer location-based services (LBS).
In October 2005, Verizon Wireless requested an extension beyond the set Dec. 31, 2005 compliance deadline. Several other carriers made similar requests during that timeframe, including Sprint Nextel and Alltel.
The carriers have expressed concerns over the mandate because it is difficult to get customers to switch to new phones that offer GPS technology if they do not want to do so.
Verizon Wireless says it was able to bring its operations into compliance through education and a commitment by its staff to reach 95 percent compliance.
The carrier claims to be the first national wireless carrier to meet the FCC requirements.
In the past, CTIA has been a vocal opponent to the Dec. 31 deadline, saying it is unfair to consumers. The association also has pointed out that carriers have been successful in meeting E911 Phase II deadlines and that 100 percent of all new activations are location-capable handsets.
location based services
Verizon Wireless announced it has reached the E911 compliance threshold set by the FCC, noting that 95 percent of handsets operating on its network now offer location-based services (LBS).
In October 2005, Verizon Wireless requested an extension beyond the set Dec. 31, 2005 compliance deadline. Several other carriers made similar requests during that timeframe, including Sprint Nextel and Alltel.
The carriers have expressed concerns over the mandate because it is difficult to get customers to switch to new phones that offer GPS technology if they do not want to do so.
Verizon Wireless says it was able to bring its operations into compliance through education and a commitment by its staff to reach 95 percent compliance.
The carrier claims to be the first national wireless carrier to meet the FCC requirements.
In the past, CTIA has been a vocal opponent to the Dec. 31 deadline, saying it is unfair to consumers. The association also has pointed out that carriers have been successful in meeting E911 Phase II deadlines and that 100 percent of all new activations are location-capable handsets.
WirelessDevNet.com Press Release
Telcontar Adds China to Global Deployment of Location-Based Services
location based services
Shanghai, China – May 25, 2006 – Telcontar, the leading supplier of software platforms and services for the location-based services (LBS) market, today announced the launch of its Drill Down Server® (DDS) 4.1. The newest version of the LBS industry's most widely deployed geospatial software platform adds China map data and a host of customized performance enhancements that enable Telcontar customers to deploy dynamic location-enhanced applications that meet the region-specific needs of China's burgeoning market.China presents a significant opportunity for today's wireless, Internet portal and telematics companies. According to the Ministry of Information Industry, April 2006, there are more than 400 million mobile phone users and an increasingly growing demand for in-car and personal navigation systems. As well, there are over 110 million Internet users; second only to the United States. "With China's Internet and wireless markets booming, there's no better time to enter this market," said J. Kim Fennell, President and CEO of Telcontar. "China's mapping and address data are very different from its US and European counterparts. Traditionally it's been difficult to deploy location-based solutions that meet the specific needs of that market. Our newest software platform solves these challenges by enabling users in China to interact with location-based services in ways that are intuitive and most relevant to their society. At the same time, we continue to provide the benefits that have been the hallmarks of our success: speed, scalability and the ability for our customers to apply their specific identity and brand to their application."In addition to the building blocks of consumer mapping and routing programs—map rendering, driving directions, geocoding and proximity search—the latest version of Telcontar's DDS platform adds a number of new performance features designed to meet China's cultural needs. These features include support for Chinese characters, the ability to look up streets and points of interests and most especially, the ability to conduct landmark-based navigation -- which is the preferred method of navigation in China as many streets are not identified by name.Supporting the release of DDS 4.1, Telcontar is also releasing map data of China from NAV2 formatted in Telcontar's highly efficient and patented Rich Map Format (RMF), a compact and optimized data format that provides efficient map data access for fast route calculation and map display.The Telcontar DDS platform also enables customers to customize location-enhanced applications with their own branding, logo and proprietary content as well as provides a high-level of user customization for greater service differentiation. With DDS 4.1, developers can deliver Web-based and mobile location-enabled applications to the Internet as well as to mobile devices such as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal navigation devices (PNDs) and in-vehicle telematics. The DDS platform, which already processes more than 2 billion mapping and routing transactions per month for Google Local, Yahoo! Local, Ask.com and the company's other Internet, mobile and telematics customers, provides unmatched scalability with the proven capacity to handle the large influx of traffic expected as location-based applications are deployed in China.About TelcontarTelcontar provides the enabling geospatial software platform that powers today's leading location-based applications. The company specializes in providing solutions ideal for Internet, mobile, and telematics applications where scalability, speed, and reliability are vital. Its Drill Down Server® geospatial software platform and Rich Map Engine powers today's most successful and widely deployed LBS applications. Telcontar customers and technology partners include AND, Appello, Ask, ATX, Google, Hutchison Mobile, Local Matters, Motorola, NAVTEQ, Networks In Motion, Pharos, Rand McNally, Tele Atlas, and Yahoo!. Telcontar is privately held and headquartered in San Jose, California with international offices in the UK, France and Hong Kong. Additional information about Telcontar, its products and services, and past press releases can be found at the Company's web site: http://www.telcontar.com.
Telcontar Adds China to Global Deployment of Location-Based Services
location based services
Shanghai, China – May 25, 2006 – Telcontar, the leading supplier of software platforms and services for the location-based services (LBS) market, today announced the launch of its Drill Down Server® (DDS) 4.1. The newest version of the LBS industry's most widely deployed geospatial software platform adds China map data and a host of customized performance enhancements that enable Telcontar customers to deploy dynamic location-enhanced applications that meet the region-specific needs of China's burgeoning market.China presents a significant opportunity for today's wireless, Internet portal and telematics companies. According to the Ministry of Information Industry, April 2006, there are more than 400 million mobile phone users and an increasingly growing demand for in-car and personal navigation systems. As well, there are over 110 million Internet users; second only to the United States. "With China's Internet and wireless markets booming, there's no better time to enter this market," said J. Kim Fennell, President and CEO of Telcontar. "China's mapping and address data are very different from its US and European counterparts. Traditionally it's been difficult to deploy location-based solutions that meet the specific needs of that market. Our newest software platform solves these challenges by enabling users in China to interact with location-based services in ways that are intuitive and most relevant to their society. At the same time, we continue to provide the benefits that have been the hallmarks of our success: speed, scalability and the ability for our customers to apply their specific identity and brand to their application."In addition to the building blocks of consumer mapping and routing programs—map rendering, driving directions, geocoding and proximity search—the latest version of Telcontar's DDS platform adds a number of new performance features designed to meet China's cultural needs. These features include support for Chinese characters, the ability to look up streets and points of interests and most especially, the ability to conduct landmark-based navigation -- which is the preferred method of navigation in China as many streets are not identified by name.Supporting the release of DDS 4.1, Telcontar is also releasing map data of China from NAV2 formatted in Telcontar's highly efficient and patented Rich Map Format (RMF), a compact and optimized data format that provides efficient map data access for fast route calculation and map display.The Telcontar DDS platform also enables customers to customize location-enhanced applications with their own branding, logo and proprietary content as well as provides a high-level of user customization for greater service differentiation. With DDS 4.1, developers can deliver Web-based and mobile location-enabled applications to the Internet as well as to mobile devices such as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal navigation devices (PNDs) and in-vehicle telematics. The DDS platform, which already processes more than 2 billion mapping and routing transactions per month for Google Local, Yahoo! Local, Ask.com and the company's other Internet, mobile and telematics customers, provides unmatched scalability with the proven capacity to handle the large influx of traffic expected as location-based applications are deployed in China.About TelcontarTelcontar provides the enabling geospatial software platform that powers today's leading location-based applications. The company specializes in providing solutions ideal for Internet, mobile, and telematics applications where scalability, speed, and reliability are vital. Its Drill Down Server® geospatial software platform and Rich Map Engine powers today's most successful and widely deployed LBS applications. Telcontar customers and technology partners include AND, Appello, Ask, ATX, Google, Hutchison Mobile, Local Matters, Motorola, NAVTEQ, Networks In Motion, Pharos, Rand McNally, Tele Atlas, and Yahoo!. Telcontar is privately held and headquartered in San Jose, California with international offices in the UK, France and Hong Kong. Additional information about Telcontar, its products and services, and past press releases can be found at the Company's web site: http://www.telcontar.com.
Find adventure with a GPS receiver in hand
location based services
When Needham adventure racer Tim Reif begins the 500-mile Primal Quest race in southern Utah next month, he and his teammates will carry a device that could save their lives: a portable GPS receiver.
As they hike, bike, and paddle across some of North America's most treacherous terrain, Reif's team will lug a specially designed GPS unit that will allow race officials to electronically monitor every step of their progress during a non stop odyssey that could take up to 10 days to complete.
``We'll be covering a huge area, and it's a nice thing to have if you have an injured or sick person," said Reif, 38, a veteran of more than 20 adventure races. ``It's reassuring. If a team wanders off course or doesn't move for 24 hours, you know someone is going to be able to find them."
Portable GPS receivers are becoming a must-have accessory for motorists, boaters, and backpackers. Global Position System technology uses radio signals from a network of satellites to provide real-time mapping information that, depending on the unit, can tell you where you are, where you're going, provide directions on how to get there, and estimate how long your journey will take.
Consumers in North America are expected to spend approximately $300 million on portable GPS devices this year, a 50 percent increase over the roughly $200 million spent in 2005, according to ABI, a New York research firm.
``GPS technology is pretty much everywhere these days," said Frank Viquez , ABI's director of transportation research. ``Now that the market has become so competitive, the costs are coming down. The real winner is the consumer."
With a slew of new devices on the market, ranging from basic $130 units that fit in your pocket to top-of-the line models that feature touch-pad screens and sell for $1,000 or more, Viquez said it pays to evaluate your GPS needs before going shopping.
Need a dash-mounted GPS to navigate Boston streets? Viquez recommend ed looking at the high end, where quality units cost between $600 and $900, but can climb as high as $1,200 to $1,500 for what he call ed the ``Ferraris of navigation systems."
Viquez's list of must-have features for automotive use include a color, touch-pad screen that's 4.5 inches in diameter or larger, voice guidance, a rechargeable battery, an internal hard drive that can store maps and other media, as well as a USB port so that it can download information from a personal computer. Garmin's StreetPilot Series, Magellan's RoadMate series, and TomTom's Go 510, 700, and 910 models, most of which are priced between $500 and $1,000, are good options, according to Viquez.
Hikers and boaters who want a smaller GPS receiver for outdoor use and don't need all of the bells and whistles that come with automotive units can find excellent devices for between $150 and $300, Viquez said .
Garmin's eTrex and Foretrex series, which retail for between $130 and $300, and Magellan's eXplorist series, which start s at $120 for a black-and-white screen and climb s to $350 for color , are compact, durable, and water-resistant.
Reif, who first started using GPS technology in the early 1990s, owns three portable units. He runs with a Garmin GPS watch, and hikes and bikes with a small Magellan unit. He rarely leaves home without them.
``When you spend as much time in the woods as I do, it helps," he said.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
location based services
When Needham adventure racer Tim Reif begins the 500-mile Primal Quest race in southern Utah next month, he and his teammates will carry a device that could save their lives: a portable GPS receiver.
As they hike, bike, and paddle across some of North America's most treacherous terrain, Reif's team will lug a specially designed GPS unit that will allow race officials to electronically monitor every step of their progress during a non stop odyssey that could take up to 10 days to complete.
``We'll be covering a huge area, and it's a nice thing to have if you have an injured or sick person," said Reif, 38, a veteran of more than 20 adventure races. ``It's reassuring. If a team wanders off course or doesn't move for 24 hours, you know someone is going to be able to find them."
Portable GPS receivers are becoming a must-have accessory for motorists, boaters, and backpackers. Global Position System technology uses radio signals from a network of satellites to provide real-time mapping information that, depending on the unit, can tell you where you are, where you're going, provide directions on how to get there, and estimate how long your journey will take.
Consumers in North America are expected to spend approximately $300 million on portable GPS devices this year, a 50 percent increase over the roughly $200 million spent in 2005, according to ABI, a New York research firm.
``GPS technology is pretty much everywhere these days," said Frank Viquez , ABI's director of transportation research. ``Now that the market has become so competitive, the costs are coming down. The real winner is the consumer."
With a slew of new devices on the market, ranging from basic $130 units that fit in your pocket to top-of-the line models that feature touch-pad screens and sell for $1,000 or more, Viquez said it pays to evaluate your GPS needs before going shopping.
Need a dash-mounted GPS to navigate Boston streets? Viquez recommend ed looking at the high end, where quality units cost between $600 and $900, but can climb as high as $1,200 to $1,500 for what he call ed the ``Ferraris of navigation systems."
Viquez's list of must-have features for automotive use include a color, touch-pad screen that's 4.5 inches in diameter or larger, voice guidance, a rechargeable battery, an internal hard drive that can store maps and other media, as well as a USB port so that it can download information from a personal computer. Garmin's StreetPilot Series, Magellan's RoadMate series, and TomTom's Go 510, 700, and 910 models, most of which are priced between $500 and $1,000, are good options, according to Viquez.
Hikers and boaters who want a smaller GPS receiver for outdoor use and don't need all of the bells and whistles that come with automotive units can find excellent devices for between $150 and $300, Viquez said .
Garmin's eTrex and Foretrex series, which retail for between $130 and $300, and Magellan's eXplorist series, which start s at $120 for a black-and-white screen and climb s to $350 for color , are compact, durable, and water-resistant.
Reif, who first started using GPS technology in the early 1990s, owns three portable units. He runs with a Garmin GPS watch, and hikes and bikes with a small Magellan unit. He rarely leaves home without them.
``When you spend as much time in the woods as I do, it helps," he said.
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
GPS Review: Mio C310 arrives for Review at the GPS Lodge
location based services
We just recieved the Mio C310 GPS at the GPS Lodge for review. It is a personal GPS that can fit into your pocket and travel with you as you take to the road on your travels. The unit comes with the now popular MP3 playing capability, a touchscreen, on-board battery, built in maps of North America, and the ability to give directions in English, French and Spanish. The unit also has the highly sensitive SiRF star III GPS module which allows it to be ultra sensitive, locking onto satellites in tough conditions. The unit is small and less than an inch thick (measureing about 4.3" x 3" x 0.78"), and pocketable, nice to take with you.
Overall the unit is impressive out of the box, and is easy to get going. The unit powered up in no time, figured out where I was and the interface was relatively simple to understand; clean and efficient. Mio has done a better job of most in the design of the unit and in its functionality. The unit is elegant, if I can say that about a GPS, with a nice design touch and feel. There are four rubberized buttons down the right side for power, main menu, volume up and volume down. The slight nub on top of the unit that says "GPS", houses the SiRF antenna that is very good at picking up satellite signals.
Right out of the box, I was able to power up, and go for a ride using the unit to navigate to work and back home. The navigation is logical and good, and uses TeleAtlas maps as its base map in the US. We've had some trouble with the TeleAtlas maps in the past on a TomTom review when they didn't have my street on the maps (It's two years old), and this unit still doesn't. Minor issue, and it will be there for the next data update I am assured (another story for another time).
What's in the box? The box comes stuffed with all kinds of things. Since it runs on Windows CE, it comes equipped to sync up with outlook for your contacts, it comes with a map CD, a quick start guide, a car power adapter that runs into the USB connector on the GPS, a USB cable for connecting to your computer, a wall power adapter, a suction cup mount for the car, and of course the GPS. The mount is easy to use and the adapter has a nice and easy clip system to pop the GPS into the mount and out; very nice and very easy to do one handed.
I have to admit that I didn't expect such a well put together GPS but so far so good. It's nicely designed, navigates accurately and has a decent layout for its menus. We haven't dug through everything yet and we'll be driving around for the next few weeks using the Mio C310 to check it out on a long term test and we'll report back on its performance.
Read More in: Automotive GPS GPS Reviews Handheld GPS Reviews Mio GPS News Mio GPS Review
location based services
We just recieved the Mio C310 GPS at the GPS Lodge for review. It is a personal GPS that can fit into your pocket and travel with you as you take to the road on your travels. The unit comes with the now popular MP3 playing capability, a touchscreen, on-board battery, built in maps of North America, and the ability to give directions in English, French and Spanish. The unit also has the highly sensitive SiRF star III GPS module which allows it to be ultra sensitive, locking onto satellites in tough conditions. The unit is small and less than an inch thick (measureing about 4.3" x 3" x 0.78"), and pocketable, nice to take with you.
Overall the unit is impressive out of the box, and is easy to get going. The unit powered up in no time, figured out where I was and the interface was relatively simple to understand; clean and efficient. Mio has done a better job of most in the design of the unit and in its functionality. The unit is elegant, if I can say that about a GPS, with a nice design touch and feel. There are four rubberized buttons down the right side for power, main menu, volume up and volume down. The slight nub on top of the unit that says "GPS", houses the SiRF antenna that is very good at picking up satellite signals.
Right out of the box, I was able to power up, and go for a ride using the unit to navigate to work and back home. The navigation is logical and good, and uses TeleAtlas maps as its base map in the US. We've had some trouble with the TeleAtlas maps in the past on a TomTom review when they didn't have my street on the maps (It's two years old), and this unit still doesn't. Minor issue, and it will be there for the next data update I am assured (another story for another time).
What's in the box? The box comes stuffed with all kinds of things. Since it runs on Windows CE, it comes equipped to sync up with outlook for your contacts, it comes with a map CD, a quick start guide, a car power adapter that runs into the USB connector on the GPS, a USB cable for connecting to your computer, a wall power adapter, a suction cup mount for the car, and of course the GPS. The mount is easy to use and the adapter has a nice and easy clip system to pop the GPS into the mount and out; very nice and very easy to do one handed.
I have to admit that I didn't expect such a well put together GPS but so far so good. It's nicely designed, navigates accurately and has a decent layout for its menus. We haven't dug through everything yet and we'll be driving around for the next few weeks using the Mio C310 to check it out on a long term test and we'll report back on its performance.
Read More in: Automotive GPS GPS Reviews Handheld GPS Reviews Mio GPS News Mio GPS Review
Polaroid MGX-0550 GPS Unit with DVD Player
location based services
Yes, you read that right, a Polaroid GPS that plays DVD's - and you thought the only thing that Polaroid did was to push out those instant pictures from years ago? Shame on you. Polaroid has been pushing into a lot of consumer goods lately, should it be a surprise that they got into one the hottest electronics categories – the land of the GPS? I have to admit I was surprised to see this, but even more surprised to see DVD playback. My kids have been bugging me for a DVD player in the car, and they know I love GPS’s, but could we both be happy with this? When I told them about the DVD player, all that they could say was "Whoa". Can I navigate and play a movie at the same time? Will they still say "Whoa" if I can get my hands on one?
The Polaroid MGX-0550 GPS comes preloaded with maps of all 50 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico, the MGX-0550 is ready to use right out of the box. For starters, a 5.6” LCD touch screen lets you easily access features while a unique rotary knob lets you zoom in on maps. Simply touch your way to where you want to go for instant door-to-door directions. You’ll also enjoy a built-in DVD player that entertains with DVDs and music CDs. Don’t worry about missing your turn; the MGX-0550 quickly interrupts your music for your latest instructions. The on-board battery will also run the DVD for up to 3 hours.
location based services
Yes, you read that right, a Polaroid GPS that plays DVD's - and you thought the only thing that Polaroid did was to push out those instant pictures from years ago? Shame on you. Polaroid has been pushing into a lot of consumer goods lately, should it be a surprise that they got into one the hottest electronics categories – the land of the GPS? I have to admit I was surprised to see this, but even more surprised to see DVD playback. My kids have been bugging me for a DVD player in the car, and they know I love GPS’s, but could we both be happy with this? When I told them about the DVD player, all that they could say was "Whoa". Can I navigate and play a movie at the same time? Will they still say "Whoa" if I can get my hands on one?
The Polaroid MGX-0550 GPS comes preloaded with maps of all 50 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico, the MGX-0550 is ready to use right out of the box. For starters, a 5.6” LCD touch screen lets you easily access features while a unique rotary knob lets you zoom in on maps. Simply touch your way to where you want to go for instant door-to-door directions. You’ll also enjoy a built-in DVD player that entertains with DVDs and music CDs. Don’t worry about missing your turn; the MGX-0550 quickly interrupts your music for your latest instructions. The on-board battery will also run the DVD for up to 3 hours.
Rand McNally Mona: GPS Service for your Mobile Phone
http://www.gpslodge.com/archives/005908.php
location based services
Another mapping service has hit the mobile phone market. This one from Rand McNally has the ability to work with your phone to get you from here to there with easy to follow directions spoken from your phone. When I say your phone, I mean the currently available 4 Moto phones that only work on the Nextel service (Motorola i710, i730, ii736, i830, i860). More to come soon.
"With Rand McNally MONA, anyone who needs to get from place to placecan access reliable GPS navigation affordably using the cell phones theyalready have, without spending thousands of dollars on an in-car navigationsystem," said Robert Apatoff, Rand McNally's president and CEO.
The service will set you back $9.99, but if you need directions in a pinch, the price is cheap.
http://www.gpslodge.com/archives/005908.php
location based services
Another mapping service has hit the mobile phone market. This one from Rand McNally has the ability to work with your phone to get you from here to there with easy to follow directions spoken from your phone. When I say your phone, I mean the currently available 4 Moto phones that only work on the Nextel service (Motorola i710, i730, ii736, i830, i860). More to come soon.
"With Rand McNally MONA, anyone who needs to get from place to placecan access reliable GPS navigation affordably using the cell phones theyalready have, without spending thousands of dollars on an in-car navigationsystem," said Robert Apatoff, Rand McNally's president and CEO.
The service will set you back $9.99, but if you need directions in a pinch, the price is cheap.
location based services
The US investment fund Shah Capital has made an offer to buy the GPS navigation equipment business of Thales for $170 million. Of that, the first $110 million would be paid immediately and the rest would be paid over five years.Thales' GPS business uses the brand name Magellan. Shah Capital has already bought part of Thales Electronic Solutions unit, which makes electronic cards.
Wow, first Lowrance and now Magellan bought up. Magellan once owned almost the entire automobile navigation market, and now they are getting eclipsed by others, maybe if the deal goes through the new emphasis will bring about a more competitive company.
The US investment fund Shah Capital has made an offer to buy the GPS navigation equipment business of Thales for $170 million. Of that, the first $110 million would be paid immediately and the rest would be paid over five years.Thales' GPS business uses the brand name Magellan. Shah Capital has already bought part of Thales Electronic Solutions unit, which makes electronic cards.
Wow, first Lowrance and now Magellan bought up. Magellan once owned almost the entire automobile navigation market, and now they are getting eclipsed by others, maybe if the deal goes through the new emphasis will bring about a more competitive company.
Global Navigation Satellite Systems
location based services
Objective
Harmonize and facilitate field data collection activities undertaken by the different UN agencies.
Activities
This new Task Group works also to:
reviews training materials developed by various agencies to produce an harmonized set of training tools;
surveys the use of global positioning devices within each agency at country level to prioritize training activities.
location based services
Objective
Harmonize and facilitate field data collection activities undertaken by the different UN agencies.
Activities
This new Task Group works also to:
reviews training materials developed by various agencies to produce an harmonized set of training tools;
surveys the use of global positioning devices within each agency at country level to prioritize training activities.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
location based services
Synopsis
This is a Google Maps app that displays Yahoo! Simple Maps files. It implements all of Yahoo!'s enhancements to GeoRSS, including address geocoding, plus a couple of things from basic RSS that Yahoo! missed. Feel free to use it with your own GeoRSS and Yahoo! Simple Map files.
Background
GeoRSS is a simple XML-based file format used for adding location information to data items. It is based on RSS 2.0, plus a couple additional elements - and - that let you specify the geographical location of each - element.
Yahoo! took GeoRSS and added a bunch more elements of their own. The most significant difference is that the latitude and longitude elements are optional in Yahoo!'s version. If you prefer, you can specify the location by street address. Yahoo! then does geocoding behind the scenes to turn the addresses into latitude and longitude.
Creating a Yahoo! Simple Map is just a matter of writing a fairly simple XML file, while creating even the simplest Google Maps app requiries writing a program in JavaScript. Since most people are not programmers, you might expect Yahoo! Simple Maps to vastly outnumber Google Maps apps. In fact, the reverse seems to be true: there are many more Google Maps apps than Yahoo! Simple Maps. Why? I think it's just because Google Maps is prettier and has a more pleasant user-interface. Yahoo! eventually decided the same thing, and came out with AJAX and Flash APIs that are just as nice as Google's. But they are also as complicated to program as Google's.
So, this page tries to give you the best of both worlds. It reads the same XML data files used by Yahoo! Simple Maps, does the same geocoding, but it displays the data as a Google Map. This lets you combine the ease of creating a Yahoo! Simple Map with the nice user-interface of a Google Maps app.
This page also does automatic clustering. This means if your map has a whole bunch of markers on it, then instead of trying to display them all and slowing down to a crawl, the markers will get grouped together into cluster markers. If you zoom in further so that fewer markers are in the map area, they will show up as individual markers again.
Examples
Here are some sample maps:
California State Parks
Alan Brown put together a great map of all the California State Parks. It uses groups for different types of parks, so it's very colorful.
BART and Caltrain stations Together
Jeffrey McManus made a map of BART stations, and Trifon made one of Caltrain stations. You can view them separately, or mashed together on one map.
Yahoo! Traffic Alerts near
Yahoo! has an API for fetching traffic alerts. It is available in GeoRSS form, so it just drops right in here. This form interface lets you show up to three different locations on the same map.
GeoURL Web Sites near
Premshree Pillai made a GeoRSS transducer for geourl.org which we can display here. Yahoo! News Breaking Stories
Akshay Java
wrote a transducer that turns Yahoo! news items into GeoRSS.
-->
Golden Gate Sunsets
I made my own GeoRSS map showing the spots from which you can watch the setting sun right in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Miscellany
Premshree Pillai's Hurricane Rita, Joe Crawford's San Diego Bloggers, Jamie Glenn's San Francisco Dog Parks, Asher Blum's Sunnyvale Street Maintenance, potrerohillsf.com's Potrero Hill Robberies, Dirty Harry Movie Locations.
If you have an example you'd like to show off in the list above, just let me know.
Usage
To use the map page, you first make a GeoRSS XML file and put it on a web server somewhere. Then you take the URL for the map page and the URL for your XML file and stick them together, like so:
http://www.acme.com/GeoRSS/?xmlsrc=http://example.com/yourxmlfile.xml
You can display more than one XML file in the same map if you like:
http://www.acme.com/GeoRSS/?xmlsrc=http://example.com/xmlfile1.xml&xmlsrc=http://example.com/xmlfile2.xml
GeoRSS
Here's an annotated sample GeoRSS file showing all the different elements implemented by this map page, in context. Most of them are optional. For more details, follow the links in the key:
Synopsis
This is a Google Maps app that displays Yahoo! Simple Maps files. It implements all of Yahoo!'s enhancements to GeoRSS, including address geocoding, plus a couple of things from basic RSS that Yahoo! missed. Feel free to use it with your own GeoRSS and Yahoo! Simple Map files.
Background
GeoRSS is a simple XML-based file format used for adding location information to data items. It is based on RSS 2.0, plus a couple additional elements -
Yahoo! took GeoRSS and added a bunch more elements of their own. The most significant difference is that the latitude and longitude elements are optional in Yahoo!'s version. If you prefer, you can specify the location by street address. Yahoo! then does geocoding behind the scenes to turn the addresses into latitude and longitude.
Creating a Yahoo! Simple Map is just a matter of writing a fairly simple XML file, while creating even the simplest Google Maps app requiries writing a program in JavaScript. Since most people are not programmers, you might expect Yahoo! Simple Maps to vastly outnumber Google Maps apps. In fact, the reverse seems to be true: there are many more Google Maps apps than Yahoo! Simple Maps. Why? I think it's just because Google Maps is prettier and has a more pleasant user-interface. Yahoo! eventually decided the same thing, and came out with AJAX and Flash APIs that are just as nice as Google's. But they are also as complicated to program as Google's.
So, this page tries to give you the best of both worlds. It reads the same XML data files used by Yahoo! Simple Maps, does the same geocoding, but it displays the data as a Google Map. This lets you combine the ease of creating a Yahoo! Simple Map with the nice user-interface of a Google Maps app.
This page also does automatic clustering. This means if your map has a whole bunch of markers on it, then instead of trying to display them all and slowing down to a crawl, the markers will get grouped together into cluster markers. If you zoom in further so that fewer markers are in the map area, they will show up as individual markers again.
Examples
Here are some sample maps:
California State Parks
Alan Brown put together a great map of all the California State Parks. It uses groups for different types of parks, so it's very colorful.
BART and Caltrain stations Together
Jeffrey McManus made a map of BART stations, and Trifon made one of Caltrain stations. You can view them separately, or mashed together on one map.
Yahoo! Traffic Alerts near
Yahoo! has an API for fetching traffic alerts. It is available in GeoRSS form, so it just drops right in here. This form interface lets you show up to three different locations on the same map.
GeoURL Web Sites near
Premshree Pillai made a GeoRSS transducer for geourl.org which we can display here. Yahoo! News Breaking Stories
Akshay Java
wrote a transducer that turns Yahoo! news items into GeoRSS.
-->
Golden Gate Sunsets
I made my own GeoRSS map showing the spots from which you can watch the setting sun right in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Miscellany
Premshree Pillai's Hurricane Rita, Joe Crawford's San Diego Bloggers, Jamie Glenn's San Francisco Dog Parks, Asher Blum's Sunnyvale Street Maintenance, potrerohillsf.com's Potrero Hill Robberies, Dirty Harry Movie Locations.
If you have an example you'd like to show off in the list above, just let me know.
Usage
To use the map page, you first make a GeoRSS XML file and put it on a web server somewhere. Then you take the URL for the map page and the URL for your XML file and stick them together, like so:
http://www.acme.com/GeoRSS/?xmlsrc=http://example.com/yourxmlfile.xml
You can display more than one XML file in the same map if you like:
http://www.acme.com/GeoRSS/?xmlsrc=http://example.com/xmlfile1.xml&xmlsrc=http://example.com/xmlfile2.xml
GeoRSS
Here's an annotated sample GeoRSS file showing all the different elements implemented by this map page, in context. Most of them are optional. For more details, follow the links in the key:
About the ACME GeoRSS Map Viewer
location based services
Synopsis
This is a Google Maps app that displays Yahoo! Simple Maps files. It implements all of Yahoo!'s enhancements to GeoRSS, including address geocoding, plus a couple of things from basic RSS that Yahoo! missed. Feel free to use it with your own GeoRSS and Yahoo! Simple Map files.
Background
GeoRSS is a simple XML-based file format used for adding location information to data items. It is based on RSS 2.0, plus a couple additional elements -and - that let you specify the geographical location of each - element.
Yahoo! took GeoRSS and added a bunch more elements of their own. The most significant difference is that the latitude and longitude elements are optional in Yahoo!'s version. If you prefer, you can specify the location by street address. Yahoo! then does geocoding behind the scenes to turn the addresses into latitude and longitude.
Creating a Yahoo! Simple Map is just a matter of writing a fairly simple XML file, while creating even the simplest Google Maps app requiries writing a program in JavaScript. Since most people are not programmers, you might expect Yahoo! Simple Maps to vastly outnumber Google Maps apps. In fact, the reverse seems to be true: there are many more Google Maps apps than Yahoo! Simple Maps. Why? I think it's just because Google Maps is prettier and has a more pleasant user-interface. Yahoo! eventually decided the same thing, and came out with AJAX and Flash APIs that are just as nice as Google's. But they are also as complicated to program as Google's.
So, this page tries to give you the best of both worlds. It reads the same XML data files used by Yahoo! Simple Maps, does the same geocoding, but it displays the data as a Google Map. This lets you combine the ease of creating a Yahoo! Simple Map with the nice user-interface of a Google Maps app.
This page also does automatic clustering. This means if your map has a whole bunch of markers on it, then instead of trying to display them all and slowing down to a crawl, the markers will get grouped together into cluster markers. If you zoom in further so that fewer markers are in the map area, they will show up as individual markers again.
Examples
Here are some sample maps:
California State Parks
Alan Brown put together a great map of all the California State Parks. It uses groups for different types of parks, so it's very colorful.
BART and Caltrain stations Together
Jeffrey McManus made a map of BART stations, and Trifon made one of Caltrain stations. You can view them separately, or mashed together on one map.
Yahoo! Traffic Alerts near
Yahoo! has an API for fetching traffic alerts. It is available in GeoRSS form, so it just drops right in here. This form interface lets you show up to three different locations on the same map.
GeoURL Web Sites near
Premshree Pillai made a GeoRSS transducer for geourl.org which we can display here. Yahoo! News Breaking Stories
Akshay Java
wrote a transducer that turns Yahoo! news items into GeoRSS.
-->
Golden Gate Sunsets
I made my own GeoRSS map showing the spots from which you can watch the setting sun right in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Miscellany
Premshree Pillai's Hurricane Rita, Joe Crawford's San Diego Bloggers, Jamie Glenn's San Francisco Dog Parks, Asher Blum's Sunnyvale Street Maintenance, potrerohillsf.com's Potrero Hill Robberies, Dirty Harry Movie Locations.
If you have an example you'd like to show off in the list above, just let me know.
location based services
Synopsis
This is a Google Maps app that displays Yahoo! Simple Maps files. It implements all of Yahoo!'s enhancements to GeoRSS, including address geocoding, plus a couple of things from basic RSS that Yahoo! missed. Feel free to use it with your own GeoRSS and Yahoo! Simple Map files.
Background
GeoRSS is a simple XML-based file format used for adding location information to data items. It is based on RSS 2.0, plus a couple additional elements -
Yahoo! took GeoRSS and added a bunch more elements of their own. The most significant difference is that the latitude and longitude elements are optional in Yahoo!'s version. If you prefer, you can specify the location by street address. Yahoo! then does geocoding behind the scenes to turn the addresses into latitude and longitude.
Creating a Yahoo! Simple Map is just a matter of writing a fairly simple XML file, while creating even the simplest Google Maps app requiries writing a program in JavaScript. Since most people are not programmers, you might expect Yahoo! Simple Maps to vastly outnumber Google Maps apps. In fact, the reverse seems to be true: there are many more Google Maps apps than Yahoo! Simple Maps. Why? I think it's just because Google Maps is prettier and has a more pleasant user-interface. Yahoo! eventually decided the same thing, and came out with AJAX and Flash APIs that are just as nice as Google's. But they are also as complicated to program as Google's.
So, this page tries to give you the best of both worlds. It reads the same XML data files used by Yahoo! Simple Maps, does the same geocoding, but it displays the data as a Google Map. This lets you combine the ease of creating a Yahoo! Simple Map with the nice user-interface of a Google Maps app.
This page also does automatic clustering. This means if your map has a whole bunch of markers on it, then instead of trying to display them all and slowing down to a crawl, the markers will get grouped together into cluster markers. If you zoom in further so that fewer markers are in the map area, they will show up as individual markers again.
Examples
Here are some sample maps:
California State Parks
Alan Brown put together a great map of all the California State Parks. It uses groups for different types of parks, so it's very colorful.
BART and Caltrain stations Together
Jeffrey McManus made a map of BART stations, and Trifon made one of Caltrain stations. You can view them separately, or mashed together on one map.
Yahoo! Traffic Alerts near
Yahoo! has an API for fetching traffic alerts. It is available in GeoRSS form, so it just drops right in here. This form interface lets you show up to three different locations on the same map.
GeoURL Web Sites near
Premshree Pillai made a GeoRSS transducer for geourl.org which we can display here. Yahoo! News Breaking Stories
Akshay Java
wrote a transducer that turns Yahoo! news items into GeoRSS.
-->
Golden Gate Sunsets
I made my own GeoRSS map showing the spots from which you can watch the setting sun right in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Miscellany
Premshree Pillai's Hurricane Rita, Joe Crawford's San Diego Bloggers, Jamie Glenn's San Francisco Dog Parks, Asher Blum's Sunnyvale Street Maintenance, potrerohillsf.com's Potrero Hill Robberies, Dirty Harry Movie Locations.
If you have an example you'd like to show off in the list above, just let me know.
Retail Marketing in India Goes Cellular
"As marketers see a critical mass developing in the mobile subscriber base, brands are opening up to the idea of marketing through the mobile," says Raj Singh, executive director, ActiveMedia Technology India.
Sell Smart. Hoover's Shows You How. Make each sale more profitable & outflank the competition every time. Hoover's and Miller Heiman have joined forces to outline how you can embrace cross & up-selling, closing more business at higher profits & capturing market share in the most efficient way possible.
Marketers are waking up to the power of the mobile handset like never before. With SMS and short codes becoming passe, the ubiquitous handset is offering new opportunities for brands to make inroads into the consumer's mind space.
Mobile coupons, location specific services, mobile portals and advertising on the mobile are just few of the tools being deployed by marketers to reach the 90 million strong mobile subscribers base in India.
In what could be termed as the second generation of mobile marketing , subscribers can look forward to an array of segmented marketing and advertising initiatives on their mobile screens.
Mobile Coupons
Wireless marketing technology provider Activemedia Technologies has partnered with mobile operator Hutchison Essar to deliver m-coupons, which can be cashed across 40 retail outlets such as Barista, Domino's Pizza, Lifestyle and Kaya Skin Clinic.
Similarly, Airtel has joined with Enpocket, a global leader in intelligent mobile marketing, to give advertisers a convenient, effective way to reach a major cross-section of the country's population. Also, mobile2win is in talks with mobile operators to start location-based services that will enable marketers to reach out to the prospective customer while he is in the vicinity of the outlet by giving various incentives and offers.
With richer capability handsets enabled with GPRS and WAP invading the Indian market, it's becoming easier for marketers to reach out to consumers.
"As marketers see a critical mass developing in the mobile subscriber base, brands are opening up to the idea of marketing through the mobile," says Raj Singh, executive director, ActiveMedia Technology India. ActiveMedia Technology is working with Hutchison Essar to deliver the "Hutch Tuesday" program, wherein Hutch subscribers have exclusive access to offers across retail partners being test marketed in Mumbai.
Hutchison Essar hopes to add more partners to the existing 300 as they go along with the scheme. "We intend to give more offers and privileges to our subscribers in the future through these electronic coupons," says company's operations director Harit Nagpal.
Pepsi Reaching Consumers
Pepsi is also getting into the action. It has recently launched a mobile portal called "Pepsi Globe Smart Client."
"Mobile marketing for us is about delivering to our consumers engaging and interactive content rather than using it as a reach building device," says Vipul Prakash, executive vice president, marketing, PepsiCo India.
Differentiated content from the mainline media is also a key in making mobile campaigns work. Pepsi would be undertaking big cricket campaigns in the future and expects to spend 5 percent of its overall ad spends on mobile and wireless. "Mobile marketing is not a spend intensive industry but a content intesive one," adds Prakash. In the first month, the Pepsi mobile zone has gotten 55,000 downloads, although it is still in the test run stage.
Location-Based Services
Location-based services is another marketing tool being explored by content providers such as mobile2win. "We have the technology ready for location based services. It's the mobile operators who have to give the go-ahead," says Rajiv Hiranandani, country head, mobile2win.
This service will enable marketers to reach out to the prospective customer while he is in the vicinity of the outlet by giving various incentives and offers."
With forecasts of mobile marketing revenues reaching US$3 billion globally, according to RBC Capital markets, Indian mobile operators are also upping their ante to latch on to this revenue generating stream.
Airtel recently appointed Enpocket, a global mobile marketing solutions provider, to provide ad serving technology for mobile Internet via the Enpocket marketing engine.
The Enpocket solution will enable Airtel to offer mobile advertising opportunities to brands and companies. Worldwide, Enpocket provides mobile marketing technology to Vodafone, Sprint, Alltel, Singtel, Nokia, Samsung, Panasonic, BenQ-Siemens, Trinity Mirror, TNT, Pepsi and Nike.
© 2006 Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. All rights reserved.© 2006 ECT News Network. All
"As marketers see a critical mass developing in the mobile subscriber base, brands are opening up to the idea of marketing through the mobile," says Raj Singh, executive director, ActiveMedia Technology India.
Sell Smart. Hoover's Shows You How. Make each sale more profitable & outflank the competition every time. Hoover's and Miller Heiman have joined forces to outline how you can embrace cross & up-selling, closing more business at higher profits & capturing market share in the most efficient way possible.
Marketers are waking up to the power of the mobile handset like never before. With SMS and short codes becoming passe, the ubiquitous handset is offering new opportunities for brands to make inroads into the consumer's mind space.
Mobile coupons, location specific services, mobile portals and advertising on the mobile are just few of the tools being deployed by marketers to reach the 90 million strong mobile subscribers base in India.
In what could be termed as the second generation of mobile marketing , subscribers can look forward to an array of segmented marketing and advertising initiatives on their mobile screens.
Mobile Coupons
Wireless marketing technology provider Activemedia Technologies has partnered with mobile operator Hutchison Essar to deliver m-coupons, which can be cashed across 40 retail outlets such as Barista, Domino's Pizza, Lifestyle and Kaya Skin Clinic.
Similarly, Airtel has joined with Enpocket, a global leader in intelligent mobile marketing, to give advertisers a convenient, effective way to reach a major cross-section of the country's population. Also, mobile2win is in talks with mobile operators to start location-based services that will enable marketers to reach out to the prospective customer while he is in the vicinity of the outlet by giving various incentives and offers.
With richer capability handsets enabled with GPRS and WAP invading the Indian market, it's becoming easier for marketers to reach out to consumers.
"As marketers see a critical mass developing in the mobile subscriber base, brands are opening up to the idea of marketing through the mobile," says Raj Singh, executive director, ActiveMedia Technology India. ActiveMedia Technology is working with Hutchison Essar to deliver the "Hutch Tuesday" program, wherein Hutch subscribers have exclusive access to offers across retail partners being test marketed in Mumbai.
Hutchison Essar hopes to add more partners to the existing 300 as they go along with the scheme. "We intend to give more offers and privileges to our subscribers in the future through these electronic coupons," says company's operations director Harit Nagpal.
Pepsi Reaching Consumers
Pepsi is also getting into the action. It has recently launched a mobile portal called "Pepsi Globe Smart Client."
"Mobile marketing for us is about delivering to our consumers engaging and interactive content rather than using it as a reach building device," says Vipul Prakash, executive vice president, marketing, PepsiCo India.
Differentiated content from the mainline media is also a key in making mobile campaigns work. Pepsi would be undertaking big cricket campaigns in the future and expects to spend 5 percent of its overall ad spends on mobile and wireless. "Mobile marketing is not a spend intensive industry but a content intesive one," adds Prakash. In the first month, the Pepsi mobile zone has gotten 55,000 downloads, although it is still in the test run stage.
Location-Based Services
Location-based services is another marketing tool being explored by content providers such as mobile2win. "We have the technology ready for location based services. It's the mobile operators who have to give the go-ahead," says Rajiv Hiranandani, country head, mobile2win.
This service will enable marketers to reach out to the prospective customer while he is in the vicinity of the outlet by giving various incentives and offers."
With forecasts of mobile marketing revenues reaching US$3 billion globally, according to RBC Capital markets, Indian mobile operators are also upping their ante to latch on to this revenue generating stream.
Airtel recently appointed Enpocket, a global mobile marketing solutions provider, to provide ad serving technology for mobile Internet via the Enpocket marketing engine.
The Enpocket solution will enable Airtel to offer mobile advertising opportunities to brands and companies. Worldwide, Enpocket provides mobile marketing technology to Vodafone, Sprint, Alltel, Singtel, Nokia, Samsung, Panasonic, BenQ-Siemens, Trinity Mirror, TNT, Pepsi and Nike.
© 2006 Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. All rights reserved.© 2006 ECT News Network. All
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
