NAVIGON is a well known car navigation manufacturer and has now released Mobile Navigator for Android. NAVIGON Mobile Navigator was released before also for the IPhone and Windows Mobile smart-phones. There are several navigation applications out now for Android but none of them can be used on a regular basis. From the optical impression NAVIGON could be the first software for serious or semi-professional purposes.
There are special promotional prices for the market release: The regional version for Germany, Austria and Switzerland costs 49,95 Euros and the europe edition 74,95 Euro. You can use the “Try & Buy” option, which allows you to test the product for 30 days without obligations.
Location based applications (LBS) or mapping applications are very useful especially if you are abroad or in a foreign country. Unfortunately roaming costs are still very expensive and most of these “travel” or mapping applications require Internet connection to download cartographic information. Nearly all Android applications which make use of street maps include the Google Maps related “Map View”. This means you have to enable your devices network connection through a GPSRS or WiFi connection (and current international roaming costs are expensive).
The obvious solution is to cache your map tiles before and save them on your SD card, then these tiles can be used later on without having an active Internet connection. Fortunately there are several applications which allow to download map data for later offline use.
One of the most famous application for offline mapping, OffMaps, is not available for Android phones but in this post I will describe two of them in more detail:
MapDroyd:
MapDroyd allows to download maps from different countries with a kind of download manager. All downloaded maps can be used in the mapping application offline. MapDroyd does not store cached maps like most other applications, it allows to download vector data in a special format called MicroMap. The compressed MicroMap format in theory is fully navigable. Map data source is OpenStreetMap (OSM), which represents detailed user generated street maps for most countries. Depending on the size of the country and the OSM detail level a downloaded map has a size from few 10 MBs to several 100 MBs. In the download manager it is also possible to set the zoom level, for the country to download.
List of features (from the Homepage):
MapDroyd provides a built-in remote map browser that allows you to explore and download selected map files from our map server. The hierarchically organized map repository is checked against your locally stored map files and updateable maps are indicated with a yellow arrow sign. Files marked with a green check sign already exist in the newest version on your local storage card. You can either download maps directly to your device, or optionally just copy an external download link to your desktop computer.
MapDroyd allows to rotate maps smoothly in any direction you want. Since we do not use pre-rendered images or (cached) map tiles like Google Maps or others do, MapDroyd can turn the map view into any angle required. MapDroyd does not rotate images - it renders maps on the fly! This is a very important feature for e.g. navigation applications. And MapDrowd draws all labels (city names, streets names, places, etc.) properly depending on your device’s orientation. MapDroyd includes an optional “auto-rotate” function that turns the map direction according to your real orientation (“head-up”).
MapDroyd marks your last known location with a red cross sign and a circle indicating the accuracy of the last positioning method. The smaller the circle is the better your positioning accuracy is/was. Your position is updated whenever you change your location (“tracking feature”).
You can choose between two different navigation modes: In the drag mode (default) you can pull the map in any direction you want by simply dragging the screen. In order to zoom in or out smoothly you have to click on the zoom buttons on the left and right bottom area, or, just roll your trackball up or down. In the rubber-band mode you simply tap the screen to reposition the map center. In order to zoom into a given region you draw a rectangle from the upper left to lower right screen corner. In order to zoom out you draw the rectangle in the opposite way, from the lower right to the upper left screen corner. In both modes you can roll the trackball to the left or right in order to rotate the map counter / clockwise. You can reset the map orientation to north using the main menu bar.
BigPlanet is an map application, which allows to download cache tiles from various map services like Google Maps, OpenStreetMap or Yandex Maps.
List of features (from their Homepage):
supports different map sources: Google Maps, OpenStreet, Yandex Maps
cache of loaded maps – map tile is loaded only once and than saves in local file cache(so you can use app even without any network connection!). This feature allows you to save a lot of money(app don’t use expensive GPRS connection).
bookmarks – just add you favourite places to bookmarks if you don’t want to find it each time when you use app
zoom in by double tap (like in iPhone): You don’t need to use zoom controls from zooming – you can just double tap place you need.
save map in given radius. Allows to save map around selected place. For example, you can save map around your home using cheap wifi connection and then use map offline.
Google Navigation was announced to push location aware applications on Android one step further. Beside Google Navigation Google Maps Mobile is still the major location based application on Android (also because of the lack of Google Earth for Android).
The new version of Google Maps mobile is called 3.2 and include several new features like layers. Layers allows to add traffic, satellite, latitude, wikipedia, public transport or my maps on top of the basemap. Google maps 3.2 is part of Android Eclair and can only be used on HTC G1 or Magic via a custom rom (yet). You can download a custom rom including some instructions here.
An update via the Android Market should be available soon.
Today Mobilizy GmbH reveals a preview of it’s augmented reality navigation system. They claim to introduce the first fully functional mobile Augmented Reality (AR) navigation system. The software should be available for the iPhone and Android phones. Wikitude Drive was developed by the Mobilizy Research & Development group in Salzburg, Austria. Wikitude Drive is a fully-functional, light weight navigational system which overlays point-to-point directions on a camera-view, without the need for maps.
The developers published a list of features:
Mobile AR navigation, similar to a heads up display (HUD);
World wide navigational data which is accessed in real-time from the internet; (a mobile internet connection is necessary to access data while in motion)
Peer-to-peer navigational functions (Social navigational features will be implemented in future releases)
Interfaces with existing navigational APIs (for example: NavTeq, Map24, TeleAtlas)
Launching for Android and iPhone soon.
Mobilizy is a Austrian-based company specializing in software for smartphones. Their focus is on location-based service solutions and augmented reality. Currently they are concentrating on Google’s phone platform Android. Android is a complete, open mobile phone software stack. It includes everything a manufacturer or operator needs to build a mobile phone.
Is it just another Maps API or is there something new?
Every big player in the Internet and mobile industry try to establish their own Maps API. Why is this so and what are characteristics of Nokia’s OVI Maps Player API? Without further details I’ll assume it is optimized for Nokia handsets and LBS on Nokia devices. I’m wondering if developers need such an amount of different Maps APIs but in case of innovation this is a good situation.
Maps Player is the name for the Ovi Maps API. Nokia describes the API as easy to use, and allows to integrate Ovi Maps functionality into your website. The appearance of the map can be changed from 2D to 3D including 3D landmarks or daylight situations to night situations. Look at the following video to get an demo about the API and Ovi Maps functionality.
Currently with an early registration developers can be part of the beta programme and get exclusive access to the API and documentation. Features of Ovi maps include over 200 country maps, location-based search and detailed place information. I’m not sure about the sucess of Nokia Ovi Maps. Most handset producers include Google Maps and their API into mobile applications. We will see if Ovi Maps is seen also outside the Nokia World?
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.
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.
Spys often track their enemies. Now spy tracking becomes affordable for everyone. Watch the following video from David Pouge, who explains the Zoombak Personal Locator.
There are a lot of LBS ideas which are not really applicable. In my opinion “Locale” is one of the more promising examples for LBS.
The following text on the start site of “Locale” points out why this tool could be useful:
In March 2005, Judge Robert Restaino jailed 46 people when a mobile phone rang in his New York courtroom and no one would admit responsibility.
So we invented Locale. Problem solved.
Locale is an Android application that allows to create situations under which your phone settings should change. These situations depends on your current location. For example you can set a situation “At Work“. which refers to your working location 100 Main Street. If you are at this address your ringtone is set to mute and vibration is turned on. With this application you can manage different phone settings for various locations. This is not only applicable for ringtones. You can also display messages, if you enter your home and your battery power is less than 20%, reminding to charge your phone.
Locale utilize Android positioning features like A-GPS and WiFi positioning. The user interaction is mainly done via the touch screen. Locale is extensible through an API, where developer could integrate third party plug-ins. By the way Locale is one of the winners of Google’s Adroid Developer Challenge.
The new Nokia N97 Symbian smartphone combines a touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard, GPS and 32 GByte memory. It connects to the internet with HSDPA or WiFi. With Nokia Maps it is possible to find your contacts near your actual location and the GUI can be customized using widgets.
The touch screen in the N97 has a 3.5 inch screen diagonal and displays up to 16 million colors at a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels. If you touch the screen, there is feedback through vibration, which should simplify the operations. According to the position of the phone the visualisation is in landscape or portrait mode. A sliding QWERTY keyboard allows easy text entry, although the display is slanted so that it is good to see.
The N97 is the first device from Nokia, which offeres the function of “social site”. For this function the integrated GPS receiver is used. The function “social location” is connected with the software Nokia Maps and displays the location of friends and acquaintances on the map in real time. Of course friends have to activate this feature first. The data arrives over a cellular connection on the device, so that a matching data plan should be posted. It is also possible to share photos or videos, with this new feature.
As you already know from other Nokia smartphones, the newcomer is equipped with Nokia Maps and there is a compass function to orient yourself. As a further innovation in Nokia Maps there is an electronic guide containing information about known buildings. This requires that the user photograph the object. The image is then detected by a server that provides buidling caracteristics. A photo of a movie poster for example, brings a trailer of the film and shows how the film runs movie theaters. The map software can be used free of charge, the full navigation functions can be used additional by paying a fee.
The 5-megapixel camera in 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm measured N97 has a Carl Zeiss lens. For a darker environment a dual LED light will be activated. The camera can record videos with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels at up to 30 frames per second. The integrated media player plays music in formats like MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC and eAAC and video files of type MPEG4, WMV, Real Video and Flash. The N97 includes 32 GByte of internal memory and provides a slot for Micro SD cards as well.
The UMTS mobile phone operates in GSM networks 850, 900, 1,800 and 1,900 MHz and supports GPRS, EDGE and HSDPA. Wireless technologies like WLAN 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 are on board. The smartphone is equipped Symbian S60′5th Edition, which is designed for touch-screen interactions.
Battery time: 5 hours UMTS/talk, 6.5 hours GSM/talk, 1 week standby and 37 hours of music playback. The Nokia N97 will be available in the first half of 2009 at a price of approximately 660 euros.
