All Points Blog

The Latest on iPhone GPS and its Small Antenna

(Adena Schutzberg) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:44:25 -0500

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes at ZDnet tackles it revealing contradictory statements from Apple, the source of NYT's David Pogues "small antenna" statement and a blog all about GPS and the iPhone (Steffen Breitbach's iGPS).

SAP, Oracle Increase Software and Support Prices

joe.francica@directionsmag.com (Joe Francica) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:26:00 -0500

The Wall Street Journal reported today that SAP and Oracle will increase fees on software and support fees. SAP will be increasing maintence fees from 15% to 22% of the cost of the initial software license. Oracle will raise software license fees from 15% to 20% in the U.S. while prices in Europe held steady and some regions experienced a decrease in price.

Arrington: Facebook, MySpace Blow it on iPhone without Location

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:40:56 -0500

Michael Arrington at TechCruch (via Washington Post) chastises the two social networks because while they offer effective and popular apps for the iPhone, neither added in location, something he says is the only way to draw new users.

But while both applications are useful for heavy users, they won't drive new users to the services because they failed to leverage the killer iPhone feature - location awareness.

He acknowledges privacy concerns, but seems convinced these can be managed. It does seem these and other players are simply "late to the party" giving Loopt, Whrrl and others a jump on the mobile platform.

Loopt Privacy Issues - Not Location Related

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 08:00:08 -0500

To my amazement this kruffufle is not about sharing one's location, but rather unintended invites going out, per an InformationWeek blog. To Loopt's credit, it addressed the issue, apologized and fixed the problem.

Disposable LBS Apps

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:47:08 -0500

Stan Schroeder over at Mashable write on his idea: Location-Aware Disposable Apps For The iPhone. The iPhone part is just obligatory hype since any mobile with location sensing could support the concept.

So, what is the concept? It's not really disposable, but location-activated installation for apps. One example: when you are near the train station an app would "pop up" for installation with train times. Or, when you walk by restaurants, you'd see pop up installs for menus or reviews.

The comments tend toward, "don't pop up things I don't want" and are worth reading. The real answer in my mind is a broker for such services. The end user would select what sorts of apps they might find interesting and have the broker only pop those up. The categories might be: business, food, transportation, entertainment, etc. The other half of the story is the "disposable" part. Would it be possible for the app to "uninstall" automatically when the user "leaves" the area of interest? That'd be ideal for those who forget to dump unused apps.

Quote of the Week

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:21:08 -0500

"Digital cameras now come with built-in global positioning system receivers that note the exact longitude and latitude of each picture taken, data that are readable by map services, called neogeography."

- Bill Sones and Rich Sones Ph.D. in the Deseret News in a Q & A column question about the new geographers.

Going hyperlocal

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:00:00 -0500

I've watched the hyperlocal news discussions with interest, but rarely do I feel the need for local news beyond a subscription to the local paper and signs and banners in the square (Davis Square). Today however, I needed, ok wanted, the hyperlocal news. The small restaurant across the street, Supreme Kitchen, had crime tape on it and a broken window when I left to have dinner with my Dad at about 5:30 pm. This is not the sort of place that would be robbed or where there'd be a fight. It's across the street from the hospital and just a few blocks from the fire station.

When I got home I planned to find out what happened. Before I could I listened to the message on the answering machine. It was from the police. Apparently on Saturday there was a hit and run two blocks from me. (The nine year old who was stuck will fully recover, thankfully.) The police, using our reverse call out tool no doubt, were asking neighbors for any information to help track down the perpetrator.

So, how did I find out what happened at Supreme Kitchen? I thought about the hyperlocal sites I'd heard of (Boston and surrounding are not a prime candidate yet) and immediately went to Google News. No luck. Then I went to Google's blogsearch. Bingo. The "other" local paper's blog had the story with cheeky headline ("Do you want eggs with your reckless driving?") and photographs.

Podcast: Interview with Safe Software and WeoGeo on Cloud Computing

(Adena Schutzberg) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:00:00 -0500

Safe Software and WeoGeo are partnering to bring spatial ETL (extract, transform and load) technology to the cloud. Not sure what the cloud is? Not sure how geospatial technologies can take advantage of it? Safe's president Don Murray and WeoGeo's CEO Paul Bissett tackle these topics and prepare you for your future in the cloud.

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Redlands Prof Discusses Disease Tracking in Rwanda on BBC

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:28:14 -0500

The BBC offers an article and audio clip from it Digital Planet program featuring Max Baber from the University of Redlands. The audio, but not the text explains the data collection using GPS.

State of Nebraska Mandates County Assessor GIS

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:00:00 -0500

I didn't know that. Per Superior Express the state has mandated GIS for all county assessors. Nuckolls County, about which the article was written, just received two bids. It's not clear to me from the article if the mandate is direct or if it's because the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service, formerly the Soil Conservation Service) no longer provides paper mapbooks, but only digital data and the Nebraska Property Assessment Division requires county assessors to use new soil codes in that digital data for assessment purposes by Jan. 1, 2009. In either case, its an interesting way to get GIS into those counties that don't yet have it.

CNN's Multi-touch Wall Jr. Will go to Conventions

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:00:00 -0500

UPI reports via Hollywood reporter that CNN has a smaller sized multi-touch wall that will be onsite at the Democratic and Republican conventions later this year. This is covered under UPI's entertainment news. Political correspondent John King who drives the board noted it would show an "electoral map of the United States, along with any other information event planners deem necessary."

"Let us know if you enjoy weekly crime maps in print"

(Adena Schutzberg) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:00:00 -0500

I thought this was an interesting headline in the Shenandoah Valley News Leader. The real question in the article by the paper's data editor is essentially, should the paper continue the challenging process of creating a print map, or just offer the interactive one. When you read about the steps required to make the print one (Windows, Mac, replacing lost decimal places, complex mapping software...) you get a sense of the answer.

ESRI Podcast Series #7: What's New in ArcGIS Mobile 9.3

joe.francica@directionsmag.com (Joe Francica) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:07:00 -0500

In this podcast, Myles Sutherland, ArcGIS Mobile Product Manager at ESRI, discusses what users can expect with the latest release of ArcGIS Mobile 9.3. Myles talks about the new ready-to-use mobile application as well as productivity enhancements to the ArcGIS Mobile Software Developer Kit. He also highlights a number of the mobile events at the upcoming ESRI International User Conference.
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BI Apps for the iPhone

joe.francica@directionsmag.com (Joe Francica) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:52:54 -0500

Oracle and Pentaho have announced the support for bringing business intelligence (BI) applications to the iPhone. I see this as a more important game changer that could potentially unseat RIM as the perferred business communication device that also brings location technology into the mix. While Pentaho, an open source BI application, have already created a way to integate Google Maps with their software, Oracle has been pushing Oracle Maps more than a Google Maps mashup. The image below is from a Pentaho application.

Geomarketing at Work

(Adena Schutzberg) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 06:05:39 -0500

I suspect other bloggers received these e-mails, which suggest some of the newer marketing techniques.

Yesterday I received an e-mail asking for a blog post on a data company in exchange for a data file.

Today my company (not Directions Media) received an e-mail noting an aerial company would be in my state (one of ten listed) and invited me to buy new aerial coverage taken from their Cessna/helicopter (obliques) for a flat fee.

Not all the geo-entrepreneurs are doing Web 2.0 stuff!