July 23, 2008
LBS Hall of Fame 2008
LBS Hall of Fame
Leading LBS sites with a western focus: please contact Jonathan Raper on raper@soi.city.ac.uk to add sites
Mobile guides
Camineo Content mobilisation and location-aware mobile guides
Creativity Software Content mobilisation
Wild Knowledge Educational field trip content delivery
Personal routing and navigation
Satnav
Tom Tom Satnav and connected navigation
Garmin Satnav and personal navigation
Webraska Satnav and personal navigation
Destinator Satnav solutions
Networks in Motion Satnav and personal navigation
Pedestrian
Navitime Pedestrian navigation- Japan
Nokia Maps Pedestrian navigation- Europe & N. America
Kizoom Mobile train information UK
GPSdash GPS navigation
AmazeGPS GPS navigation
Traffic
TrafficMaster Traffic UK
Landsonar Traffic US
ITIS Traffic UK
Leisure
Trimble Outdoor leisure applications
ViewRanger Augmented reality
Verne 21 Mobile tourism
Ambiesense Mobile tourism
Mobile search
Mobile SEO
Mippin Mobile portal
Medio Search platform
Jumptap SEO tools for mobile
Vtap Mobile video search
Taptu Mobile social search
Zodigo Mobile entertainment search
Mobile local
Mobile commerce Local portal provider
M:Spatial Local portal provider
Nearby Now Retail local provider
Seero Video on the map
Lightpole Local content discovery
Zillow Mobile real estate
Location-based advertising
Seeker Wireless Zone detection
Jentro Mobile advertising middleware
Upingme Mobile local advertising
Mobile social media
Social
Loopt Mobile social network- USA
Plazes Mobile social network- global
Gypsii Mobile social network- global
AkaAki Mobile social network- Germany
Dopplr Travel plan sharing
Rummble Mobile social network- global
Locatrix Mobile social network- Australia
BuddyPing Mobile social network- UK
Socialight Mobile social network- USA
Brightkite Mobile social network- USA
ZKout Mobile social network- USA
Whrll Mobile social network- USA
Ipoki Social tracking- USA
Photo sharing
Zurfer Location-based photo sharing
Locr Location-based photo sharing
Gaming
Ambient Performance Location-based gaming
Whereigo Location-based gaming
Plundr Location-based gaming
Mapping and tracking
Navteq LBS map content for satnav
Teleatlas LBS map content for satnav
Automotive Navigation Data LBS map content for satnav
Memory-Map LBS map content for outdoor leisure
OpenStreetMap Community-made mapping
Cloud Made Tools to access Community-made mapping
Pocket GPS World Traffic POIs
POI friend POI creation community
Yotta Video mapping
Trackstick Tracking hardware
Tools
Where.com Location API
Qualcomm BREW API and SDK for GPS hardware
Useful Networks Location API
Geovector API for orientation
Geopositioning
Loki Location broker
Skyhook Location broker
Navizon Location broker
Fire Eagle Location broker
Location-based comedy
The Mapsters The Mapster Monsters from Nokia
230 miles of Love Comedy as you drive along the M6 motorway in UK
Posted by raper at 08:48 AM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2008
Touch Diamond GPS experiences
I have been experimenting with the GPS on my Touch Diamond... and there are some curious aspects to it.
Firstly, as a SIM-free device from Expansys there are no applications included by default on the device that use GPS. So unless you download and install something like Google Maps there is no way to even test the GPS. QuickGPS is installed by default to download ephemeris data and provide assisted GPS support (for fast time-to-first-fix), but this application does not start or use the GPS directly.
Secondly, as there is no installed application, there is no way to know what COM port the GPS is on, making it very hard to configure a GPS-using application. The 'External GPS' control panel is not pre-configured to the right COM port either. For those who have the same device, I discovered it to be COM 4 at 4800 baud using professional mobile GIS software ArcPad (which allows you to search the COM ports and open each in turn).
Thirdly, the Manual gives no information about the GPS beyond instructions on QuickGPS and general regulatory warnings about driving while using GPS. So unless the carriers push GPS with additional guidance and pre-installed apps I suspect many would never know they had it.
Finally, having solved this setup problem I have been astonished at the speed with which the Diamond can get a position when the A-GPS data from QuickGPS is up to date (each download lasts 6 days). It has been taking a about 5 seconds from activation to the first fix on a warm start i.e when the last startup was within the last 24 hours. This is pretty darn fast, and if reproducible on most occasions (watch this space!) would revolutionise pedestrian GPS. It's always about the last mile though: promotion, packaging, manuals and web support are needed to let people know what and how can be achieved with such a powerful tool.
Jonathan
Posted by raper at 08:33 AM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2006
Monthly URL Digest September 2006
Here are a set of interesting URL's from my news feeds from August and September 2006 (in no particular order!):
Listen to Radio on Your Pocket PC (Phone Edition) with Mundu Radio
Screencasts on the subject of Windows Mobile development
Power consumption of Windows Mobile devices
UAVs deemed dangerous
Spybot Search & Destroy for Windows Mobile
Location Sensing Applications with Skyhook
Tim Berners-Lee’s slide of the semantic web as represented by a Tube map
Canalys Reseach Shows EMEA GPS Sales Nearly Doubled within 1 Year
Putting SBAS (WAAS/EGNOS) to the test - Updated for EGNOS Official Launch
GDAL - Geospatial Data Abstraction Library for raster data formats
How probability and data analysis can challenge conventional wisdom
Data Animations from Open Street Map
Nokia acquisition of Gate5 a sign of things to come for client-server LBS?
New Pricing Model & Rewards Program for GPS Data Capture Unveiled for Navizon GPS Service
50 most popular science blogs according to Nature
Mark Monmonier talking on NPR about his new book, From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow
Long Tail on O'Reilly
London cabbies shun satnav
LOC.ALIZE.US - FLICKR + GOOGLE MAPS
On the economies of culture
Latest GeoServer - and Why You Should Care...
Digital rights activists in Ireland take aim at EU data laws
"Smart Dust", IVHS, and Your Traffic in Real-Time
France maps out the path to liberate its data
Interns Create Location Aware Messageing System for IBM
IBM India Develops Location-based Service Finder
HP's rx5915 Travel Companion device on Display
GPS Tuner- an off-road navigation software for Pocket PC devices
Has the time finally come to stop using Google? If you value your privacy...
Cornell Researchers Crack Galileo GIOVE-A Code
GeoTracing is an extensible client/server framework for GPS-based mobile tracklogging
GeoRSS Version 1 Released
GEORSS In Arcweb Explorer
GeoPress Adds Maps to WordPress
Surfing for the right (geographical) word
New Open Source blog-wiki called GeoBliki
Integrating time into your Google Earth workflows using Arc2Earth
Google Earth and Applescript
FOSS4G 2006 (Free and Open Software For Geoinformatics Conference
Flickr geotagging statistics as a choropleth
e-passport cloning risks exposed
Disney Testing LBS Game at Epcot Centre, Florida
You wrote it but did they read it?/
LBS Developments at CTIA IT Wireless & Entertainment 2006
UK music fans can copy own tracks
Good source for quotes: Brainyquote.com
British Council on “Creative Commons Thinking”
Aerial Photography Considered Harmful from commercial air flights...
ESRI ArcPad Software Chosen to Assist with 2010 Census Activities
What’s New In Arcmap 9.2
Arcgis Explorer, ArcExplorer and Arcweb Explorer
Arc2Earth now supports map tiles from Virtual Earth, Yahoo and Ask
AOL publishes database of users' intentions
New Version of Ateksoft CoolCamera for Windows Mobile Released
JASJAR Lil’ Sync® Penguin™ Charger - EU
Access denied to the laws that govern us
Enjoy!
Jonathan
Posted by raper at 10:48 PM | Comments (0)
July 12, 2006
When thieves want satnav... you know you've really got people's attention
The UK paper the Daily Express ran an article this week (Monday July 10 2006) with the screaming headline
"Why sat-nav is now a must-have for thieves"
With data from the car leasing company Masterlease, it seems that Sheffield is the worst place in the UK for sat-nav theft, which has risen between 500 and 1000% in most areas (probably from a very low base). According to the article 2.2 million vehicles in the UK have sat-nav, 670,000 being sold last year at a cost of £305 million.
Jonathan
Posted by raper at 04:48 PM
July 02, 2006
Monthly URL Digest June 2006
Here are a set of interesting URL's from my news feeds from May and June 2006 (in no particular order!):
Win Mobile .NET Compact Framework 2.0 SP1Music fans can copy own tracks
DoCoMo deal opens i-Mode world to Windows Media
.mobi domain opens for business
Second Circuit Decides Fair Use Case Regarding Reduced Copies Of Images
API Keys for Direct Competitors
Garmin's latest patent: Methods and systems to interface navigation operations
Geotagging Manhattan
GEtrackr uses Google Earth to generate “geotags” for images in Flickr
Active Volcanos - Google Maps API example
Tadpole Technology Launches GO! Sync Mobile GIS Framework
Internet scam in which hackers hijack computer files and blackmail owners to get them back
StrataVarious' Boston Hypermap Atlas patent
InvenSense today announced a gyroscope-based solution for handsets
Mologogo is a free service that will track your friend's GPS-enabled cell phones from another phone or on the web
NASA's CloudSat snaps 3-D weather
Net Neutrality: Rules vs. Principles
EBay patent decision: Patent owners do not have an automatic right to an injunction that could cripple the business of an infringer
Harlan Onsrud will be speaking about Public Commons and Marketplace in Technical and Scientific Data and Services
Ed Parson's (self-)critique of the OS
UK based mapping mashups
Evidence that suggests that WAAS and EGNOS make little difference to the quality of GPS fixes
Changes to the OS database per day...
Tagging anything in Google Earth
Setting up GPS on Windows Mobile 5
Openwave speeds up its mobile browser
Installing the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Mobile Edition Device SDK
Ordnance Survey challenged to open up by Berners-Lee
Is Google obliged to list your web site?
3G mobiles 'change social habits'
Jonathan
Posted by raper at 07:51 PM | Comments (0)
June 21, 2006
GPS, PDA's and Google Earth
I've become an enthusiastic user of GPS with a PDA- sooo much nicer screen to view the maps and models. Here's a list of links to PDA GPS applications, some of which work in tandem with Google Earth:
Mobile GMapsGPS Tuner
GETrack
GPS-PAD
Memory Map
I am indebted to the people at PDA Essentials for the links.
Jonathan
Posted by raper at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2006
Testing GPS receivers in the real world
One of the hardest things to find out about a GPS receiver is how well it performs in practice. Hurrah, therefore, for GPS Passion who have road tested a raft of recent receivers:
Read the GPS reviews hereRead the chipset comparisons here
Jonathan
Posted by raper at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)
February 24, 2006
Apparently I'm in the West Midlands (of England)
Actually, I'm not. I'm at home in London. But when I tried out Virtual Earth Mobile on my HTC Universal when connected to my home wireless LAN, I couldn't resist the menu item that said 'Locate Me by WiFi'. Extremely quickly it zoomed the map to Birmingham! Zooming out you can see that the point the system places me at is some sort of centroid for Britain. Outside the US (where the server can be pinpointed to a City) servers are placed at some 'representative point' for the country. Interestingly, when I looked up my home IP address it gives British Telecom HQ, which happens to be in London. So the location held for .uk addresses is mapped to a 'representative point' for the whole country and not the city in the IP location field of the WHOIS database.
Look up your IP address details hereDoes anyone know what method was used to choose the representative point for each country?
Jonathan
Posted by raper at 12:16 AM | Comments (0)
February 18, 2006
Global Locate 'LBS chip'
Was this a significant announcement at 3GSM?
http://www.globallocate.com/PRESS/Press_Releases/GL_Freescale.htmI am beginning to think that A-GPS is going to be a good enough locating technology to enable a new generation of LBS that need 10-20m accuracy to work. Global Locate positioning does not depend on operators and only needs a short network connection every few days to gather the information needed to get a position when less than 3 satellites are available...
Jonathan
Posted by raper at 06:02 PM | Comments (0)