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Archive for May, 2009

• 27 May

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • Event

  Google I/O: What would you say if you get a free Android Phone?

  0

  Attendees of the this years Google I/O Conference get an HTC Magic smartphone for free. If I had known this before maybe I had planned a trip to San Francisco to be there.

  

  Even though the smartphone was the highlight of the first day in the Moscone Center also interesting things were discussed. Main topics were HTML 5, Android, AppEngine, etc. Google made a clear statement to be in favour with HTML 5. They do not want to wait another 10 years before using new technology as it was with AJAX. One slide contains:

  5>2

  Google thinks HTML 5 will be the next evolution after Web 2.0. The examples shown in the keynote gave an shot impression what will be possible with HTML 5. For example Youtube can be coded completely with HTML 5 without the need of further plugins. Also 3D Grahpic application will become possible with HTML 5. According to Google also the browser support is already good. All in all work for developers will become easier interacting on pixel level. The remaining question is: Who will need flash anymore?

  Another part was about Geolocation inside modern browsers. Browser applications will use Cellular and Wireless networks to determine the current location of the user. This could be very need when working with mapping application. The security issue was also mentioned, because of course it could also happend that your location is used by malware (e.g. advertisments, etc.)

  The next version of Android (post 1.5) will include open source speech recognition. It was also announced that today (2nd day) we will hear about an amazing new product launch from Google. I hope we will not be dissapointed after the 2nd keynote.

  You can follow Google I/O on Youtube.

• 24 May

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • Geodata
  • Web

  Data.gov – Also an Geospatial Datasource.

  0

  It is hard to compare American datasources with European ones, because of the different legal pre-conditions. In the USA all data produced with public resources such as taxes have to be available to the public without additional costs for usage. Most counties in the European Union (EU) follow an different strategy, where geospatial data have to be purchased. This is one point why for example the Inspire initiative and Data.gov can hardly be compared.

  

  According to data.gov the platform was established with following reason:

  The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. Although the initial launch of Data.gov provides a limited portion of the rich variety of Federal datasets presently available, we invite you to actively participate in shaping the future of Data.gov by suggesting additional datasets and site enhancements to provide seamless access and use of your Federal data. Visit today with us, but come back often. With your help, Data.gov will continue to grow and change in the weeks, months, and years ahead.

  The platform provides different tools to search for data. One way is to use a searchable data catalog that includes access to raw data, but you can also use your applications to connect to this catalog. If in your opinion important datasets are missing you can suggest more datasets. The usage of the platfom is described in a tutorial.

  RAW data is available in XML, KML, CSV/TXT, ESRI formats or as maps and others.

  [via data.gov]
• 23 May

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • LBS
  • Mobile

  Get a free IPhone for GPS based study…

  0

  … unfortunately only in Japan.

  Nearly 500 students and faculty at Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan will receive free iPhones as part of the school’s Mobile & Net Society Education and Training program. The mobile is used to determine presents of the students using the iPhone’s build in GPS functionality. The university announced a deal with a service provider where the phone itself and basic services are free of change for all students. The experiment will begin this fall.

  

  I’m not aware about a similar study in Europe or the USA, where companies or universities give away free iPhones (or other GPS enabled devices) to track a goup of people an make investigations about their social behavior or other personal characteristics. But maybe also this kind of information gathering will come and a lot of people will sign-up for such studies and make private data public. People should also think about the other side of the golden medal.

  [via Engadget]

• 22 May

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • Mobile

  “Rosie” UI for Android 2.0?

  0

  Android 2.0 should be released in the 2nd quarter of this year. The new version will come with an actual Linux kernel and improved support for x86-based Systems and some  new multimedia features. I think the new Rosie interface will also be part of Android 2.0:

  Currently only HTC has released phones for Android. SonyEricsson now has planned a phone with Android 2.o.

• 19 May

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • Geodata
  • Sites
  • Web

  Wolfram Alpha meets Geography

  0

  As many other Internet users I stumbled across WolframAlpha some days ago. Wolfram Alpha defines itself as computational knowledge engine. The concept for using knowledge alpha can be seen as combination between Google and Wikipedia, but it uses quite an different approach.

  It is an Encyclopedia, which tries to combine different information sources and facts matematically to produce a piece of systematic knowledge. answers from Wolfram Alpha can be combined in an arbitrary way. I have tried some example how geographical facts and questions can be combine to produce more or less meaningful knowledge.

  1. Geocoding:

  • To locate any country should be possible.
    • where is austria? (possible, interpretation as location, visualisation with maps)
  • Finding US States possible, but it is not possible to find smaller districts in other countries
    • where is california? where is bavaria? (partly possible, interpretation as location, visualisation with maps)
  • Finding cities is possible (starting with ~5000 inhabitants)
    • where is boston? where is villach? (possible, interpretation as location, visualisation with maps)
  • Find your current location
    • where am i? (possible, interpretation as location, visualisation with maps)
  • Locate Points of Interest (POI)
    • where is golden gate bridge? where is mt. everest? where is bodensee? (possible, interpretation as location, visualisation with maps)
  • Addresses
    • where is 5th avenue in new york? (not possible)
  • Reverse geocoding
    • 55 deg 45′ N, 37 deg 37′ E (only shows country)
  • ZIP Codes
    • ZIP 60637 (USA only)

  2. Routing:

  • Flight distance between counties
    • austria to denmark (possible, interpretation as “to”, visualisation with maps)
  • Distance between cities
    • salzburg to graz barcelona to singapore (possible, interpretation as “to”, visualisation with maps)
  • Distance between Addresses
    • (not possible)

  3. Others:

  • Projections
    • world Winkel Tripel projection
  • Compare cities
    • New York, London, Tokyo
  • Elevation Data
    • elevation chicago

  You can find some more suggestions about places and geography on their examples site. The embedded video shows an talk from Stephan Wolfram talking about WolframAlpha.

  Unfortunately it was not possible for me to generate thematic maps with wolfram alpha  (for example: all countries population map). Wolframs computational knowledge engine was officially started this Monday and can be accessed via: http://www.wolframalpha.com/

• 14 May

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • Apple
  • LBS
  • Travel

  OffMaps – Allows to use maps without Internet Connection

  2

  OffMaps is an application for the iPhone or iPod touch which can be downloaded via the Apple AppStore.  Online map services consume quite a bit of bandwidth and mobile internet services are often limited. Therefore many users are looking for offline solutions for map services. Map services are of particular interest if your are travelling abroad. And in this case roaming charges can be very expensive.  Also the fast access to maps at remote destinations can be enhanced.

  OffMaps used the community driven map service platform OpenStreetMaps. OffMaps allows you to access maps and location bookmarks and stores Openstreetmap snapshots directly on the device for any area and zoomlevel. It also has two modes:

  • an online and
  • an offline mode.

  Whenever possible OffMaps will use the online mode, but this can be configured. In online mode you can pan and zoom normally through the world map. Map images that have not been cached will automatically be loaded and saved to the cache for later offline use. You can also search for locations around the world, add bookmarks and preload whole areas in a zoom range of your liking. Of course you can view your own location too.
  In offline mode you can only view maps of areas that you have previously seen or preloaded. You can view your current location and bookmarks, but can’t use the search as this requires the large CloudMade database that is only available online. You can even add local bookmarks by tapping the map at any location.

  
  

  Features:

  • Maps with cache and download function
  • Online Search for places, cities and features
  • Bookmarks (offline and online) with internal search
  • Display of own current location with accuracy indicator
  • Map scale in kilometres or miles

  Storage Space of Offline maps by cities:

  City	Most detailed	-1 zoomlevel	-2 zoomlevels
  Barcelona, ES	~37 MB	~10 MB	~3 MB
  Berlin, DE	~125 MB	~35 MB	~8 MB
  Boston (incl. Cambridge), USA	~50 MB	~13.1 MB	~5 MB
  London (center), UK	~30 MB	~9 MB	~3 MB
  New York (incl. Jersey City), USA	~170 MB	~45 MB	~12 MB
  Paris, FR	~60 MB	~15 MB	~4 MB
  San Francisco, USA	~75 MB	~20 MB	~6 MB

  At the most detailed zoomlevel the screen covers approx. 300 meters in width, at the medium details approx. 600 meters and at the “Important streets” level it covers approx. 1km in width.

  [via offmap.net]

• 10 May

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • GeoWeb
  • Internet

  Where Photography meets Geoinformation

  0

  Pixelcase is an online service to create virtual tours. It allows to create impressive presentations about geographic places. By using photographs and panoramic views in a flash frame including functionality like zoom, rotate and pan a spatial feeling is added. Following example shows how Geoinformation can be presented in an entertaining environment: http://www.pixelcase.com.au/vr/2009/newyork/

  

  You can jump between different places, so called hotspots, by using thumbnails on the bottom. This functionality could be enhanced by using direct links in the picture to jump from one hotspot to another. Maybe an navigation similar to Google Streetview can be added of cover all the different hotspots of a covered area.

• 07 May

  

  Posted by
  joesonic

  
  

  Category

  • Fun
  • Hardware

  “Intel Star” TV ad – The (real) image of an Engineer?

  0

  Intel has started a new ad campaign called “Sponsors of Tomorrow”. In this campaign they try to focus on their engineers rather than their products. One of their first video is really well produced and funny. The overall message of this video could be nerds are the modern day rock stars.
  

  I hope some more clips will follow.
  

  [via GeorgHolzer@Twitter]