Nokia is taking an interesting twist with their acquisition of Navteq – they want to focus on pedestrians. At a time when people are working hand over fist to get money into in-car navigation systems, Nokia apparently sees a hole in the market. Clearly Nokia has a delivery mechanism at hand for this as well.
The National Map Corps
This one definitely gets filed under the “I did not know that” category (a fairly substantial category as you might imagine). Apparently for a few years now the USGS has hosted volunteers through The National Map Corps. By volunteering you receive an area (quad sheet or less) in which you and your trusty GPS unit
Groundspeak Forums – talking geocaching
In my recent stumbles around the web I came across an extensive set of forums on geocaching over at the Groundspeak Forums. On the site (which is related to geocaching.com) there are plenty of topics to choose from including geocaching groups from several countries, geocaching adventures, GPS in education and even an online GPS garage
Location-based Live Search
For the first time Frank’s choice of Sprint may actually be a good thing. The mobile phone provider is rolling out Live Search for their phones which is now location-based. Apparently this isn’t an exclusive deal with Sprint and Microsoft, but Sprint is the first to implement the technology which isn’t GPS-based so it should
NYC Cabbies on Strike because of GPS!
Engadget is reporting the breaking news that NYC cabbies have officially gone on strike over GPS units in their cabs. We mentioned this item briefly in the past as the cab drivers have been threatening to strike for a couple of months now. I think this is one of the first large scale protesting of
Vibrating GPS rings – stylish and functional
Yes, that is right. A British designer, Gail Knight, has invented rings with embedded GPS that vibrates to help its wearer find their way in unfamiliar places. While stylish, they come in a pair, and you have to wear one on each hand, as well as a device controller (either around your neck or clipped
Galileo-GPS agreement in the works
The US and EU are working out an agreement (that may be signed as early as this week) to allow both US GPS and EU Galileo satellites to send data on the same frequency, meaning that receivers would be able to get signals from both systems. In theory, this would potentially double the number of
Will TomTom’s Map Share herald the end of professional mapping?
In an article yesterday, PC Pro’s (a UK-based tech news site) Darien Graham-Smith comments on the upcoming release of TomTom’s “MapShare” technology (here’s my previous post), and predicts that its impact will be much more far-reaching than the fairly quiet launch announcement. He argues that this will break consumer SatNav systems’ reliance on commercial map
TomTom’s new Map Share functionality – update your own maps
The new TomTom GO 520 and 720 models will feature a new functionality called “Map Share” will allow users to update their maps to reflect changes in the road network and use them for route planning and directions immediately, instead of waiting for updates from the company. In addition, the new system will allow users
PlaceEngine – Sony’s non-GPS location technology
Back at the beginning of June, Sony released its PlaceEngine technology for use on its portable handheld device, the PSP, in Japan. PlaceEngine uses Wi-Fi signals to determine locations, but adds a twist by relying on the help of its users to add to and refine the accuracy of the Wi-Fi locations. PlaceEngine isn’t the
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