Archive for September, 2008

  • 28 Sep

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    Location Based Decision Services

    0

    Tomorrow I will do my thesis defense. The topic is the “Development of a distributed Service Framework for Location-based Decision Support“. Here you can see the slides to this presentation. They are not the final version but almost. There were also some difficulties to convert them from the PPTX format in the online format of a slidehoster – So maybe some of the slides look a little bit wired.

    For more information on the topic look at: http://www.joesonic.com/2_master_en.php. If someone is interested in my whole master-thesis please inform me to get an copy in pdf.

  • 24 Sep

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    Google’s G1 vs. Apple’s Iphone – Decide on features not on design

    1

    The first Andoid phone was officially announced by Google, HTC and T-mobile. There was not really a “WOW” effect during the presentation. The design is well known from the first Android presentations and the features could have been expected.

    Here a small list of facts:

    • Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7201A™, 528 MHz
    • Memory: 256 MB ROM, 192 MB RAM
    • Dimensions: (LxWxT) 117.7 mm x 55.7 mm x 17.1 mm
    • Weight: 158 grams (5.57 ounces) with battery
    • Display: 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320 x 480 (HVGA) resolution
    • Network: HSDPA/WCDMA, Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
    • Device Control Trackball with Enter button
    • Keyboard: Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard
    • GPS: GPS navigation capability with built-in GPS receiver and map software
    • Connectivity: Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate, Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11b/g, HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
    • Camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with fixed focus
    • Audio: Built-in microphone and speaker
    • Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, Capacity: 1150 mAh
    • Expansion Slot: microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
    • Special Features: Digital Compass, Motion Sensor

    Some Drawbacks:

    • No syncronisation possible with your PC
    • You have to provide your data to Google
    • No support for Microsoft Exchange Server
    • It is not possible to handle multiple Google Accounts
    • Except Youtube clips it is not possible to play other video formats.
    • No standard 2.5 inch earphone jack (only via USB).
    • No big internal storage.
    • Online music from Amazon can be downloaded only via WLAN and not via UMTS (3G).
    • Text can be entered only via the QERTY keyboard and not on the touch screen.

    But beside all this drawbacks the good thing is that Android is open-source and all software based drawbacks will be eliminated by the community soon.

  • 21 Sep

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    Google switched completely to TeleAtlas

    2

    Google switched their underlying map data to TeleAtlas for their whole branch of products. Now Google Earth, Google Maps, Local Search and Google’s mobile solution using Teleatlas for their underlying data. Many see this as logical step after the acquisition of Navtech by Nokia. Recently there where some differences in locations when you ask for them in two different products (e.g. Google Maps and Google Maps API). This should now be unified.

    Map Errors can be reported:

    With the “Edit” functionality the users have the possibility to correct mapping errors (http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=68474#modify). but Google also encourage people to report errors directly to Teleatlas using following link: http://www.teleatlas.com/ForConsumers/MapFeedback/index.htm

    Information to Teleatlas:

    TeleAtlas was founded in 1984 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TomTom. The headquarter is in Ghent, Belgium and by 2007 about 1900 employees are working at TeleAtlas. The total revenue is more than 300 mio. Euros. Official Homepage: www.teleatlas.com

    [via spatiallyadjusted]

  • 19 Sep

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    Open Street Maps as Shapefile for your GIS

    1

    The German company Geofabrik is specialized to neogeography and open geospatial data. Now they provide the download of OpenStreetMaps as daily updated shapefiles. 

    The data on their server are regional hierarchical structured. All shapefiles are based on OpenStreetmap-raw data. This XML-based file format dist described  in the OpenStreetMap-Wiki at OSM Protocol Version 0.5.

     

    But not all layers of the available OSM data is converted special layers can be requested as additional service.

    OSM data is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0-License.

    [via Mapperz]

  • 16 Sep

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    Nokia Mapster’s Game

    1

    Nokia tries to promote their Nokia Maps with a geographical game. It a flash based game where you have to guess the location of different cities around the globe. At the end you can send them their high score and win some prices.

    The game might be classified as addictive.

    http://www.themapsters.com/index.php
    [Flash Required]

  • 13 Sep

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    Online Interactive Tourist Maps

    0

    OnionMap is a website with interactive and detailed tourist maps of popular cities across the globe. The maps are embedded in flash and provide rich functionality like zoom, pan but also measurement, add attractions to the map and get attributive and textual information about tourist places. The list of cities which are included in this system is quite big, containing, New York, San Francisco, London, Vienna, Bangkok, Tokyo etc. The look and feel is similar to paper tourist maps and are therefore easy to handle.

    [via lifehacker.com]

  • 12 Sep

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    Sites I like 001: Earth from Above

    0

    I will introduce a new series of post on my webblog. It is called “Sites I like”. Once a week I’ll introduce interesting sites I visit frequently. Now the first episode.

    001: http://www.yannarthusbertrand2.org

    The website is called the Earth from above and is an archive of over 2000 photos taken from all around the world. They can be downloaded an used for private wallpapers. Photos can be selected by country and each one has a short description also with geographic coordinates.

  • 07 Sep

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    “Google Satellite” Successfully Launched Into Space

    0

    I’ve already posted that Google together with GeoEye will launch a new Satellite for Google Earth and Google Maps images. The so called “GeoEye-1” satellite will take photos with a resolution of 0.41 cm / pixel. In the following pictures you can see the difference between a image with 100cm/px reolution and a picutre with 41cm/px.

    100cm/px

    41cm/px

    On the GeoEye Website you can watch the lauch of the satellity on video.

  • 04 Sep

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    SiliconAlps.tv presents Carinthian High Tech Start-Ups

    0

    Georg Holzer has started his newest project called SiliconAlps.tv. It is a web based video channel, which introduces Carinthian start up companies. Many companies, which were shown so far are coming from the Lakeside Park Klagenfurt, a habitat for small software companies. I’m working at Klagenfurts Lakeside Park and know a lot of the companies and people working there. Video #4 from Liscon is very interesting. From the two guys I should have learned programming, and they are funny and really smart (and by the way Linux fans). I’ll never forget that we have to write Gerhad Schadens exam for “Programming 2″ on a Sunday morning in the mid of the summer holidays – Those were the days… And by the way thank you for your lectures.

    (For my english only readers, I’m sorry the embeded video is available in german.)

    004 – Liscon from Georg Holzer on Vimeo.
    The idea of the video channel is great. I hope a lot of people recognize this portal.

    [Link: www.siliconalps.tv]

  • 02 Sep

    Posted by
    joesonic


    Category

    Picasa 3.0 – New Version available

    0

    Today Google has not only released a new Browser (Google Chrome), they also introduced a new version of Picasa Web Albums and their Picasa software. Picasa Web Albums looks a little bit fresher. Some news includes different tabs to explore and manage photos. Additionally it is possible to upload new photos via email. The change of the image size can be done smoothly and the album map has  been extended. But the biggest feature is definitively face recognition. It takes a little while until all photos are scanned and faces have to be tagged.

    Also the Picasa software itself has a new interface with additional features.

    One thing still hasn’t changed: Picasa Web Albums offers only 1 GB storage for free. That’s unacceptable nowadays.