Welcome back Steve
Posted on June 7th, 2009 by gpsguy
And thanks for all the fish.
Photo by Barnyardbbs
jeepx.net
public jeepx.net extends jeepx.blogspot.com implements freedom
Hype - noise => 3 newsworthy items
Posted on February 25th, 2009 by gpsguy
From what has been severely overhyped, there are three newsworthy breakthroughs:
.
Pre not out here yet, but already jumping in the scale of newness.
. Today VMWare U.K. showed two mobile OS’s running concurrently and performing, apparently fast enough.
. AppStore@BlackBerry
Spring around the corner.
[Image from ZenBound for the iPhone.]
uPhone: Explore the Open Mobile Space
Posted on July 14th, 2008 by gpsguy
Sometimes I question what really deserves attention nowadays.
1. No, the iPhone is not in my “to get list”, not even close.
2. I may consider hacking an iTouch with a mic and Wi-fi based VOIP plus free SMS.
3. Or to look at an OpenMoko and its Linux-based environment. Or some of the new LiMo phones.
4. But the short term is just too much hype. What about listening to what Doc Searls has to say at his EOF column in the LinuxJournal:
“Why chase the iPhone, when we can free the world with open mobile things”
Following on that, check the Bug Labs blocks: (after the Ethernet and Wireless blocks are shipped) it will include pretty much all you need to hack your own [U, mine?] phone. LinuxJournal also has a nice introduction to the currently available components. Hackable to the extreme.
And check out Chumby for that matter, which could easily make my list.
5. Oh, and there is Android. Open Sourced?
6. Or even an Open J2ME.
7. And don’t forget Open Symbian, according to Nokia. [Have you looked at the Greenphone Open Source codebase?] And Motorola’s OpenEZX, its Open Source effort.
So, it is an open space out there, you don’t need to get yourself locked up inside a very elegant, sophisticated, exclusive… club? Matrix?
More Links @ Del.icio.us
Photo Credits by smardio
iPhone Geotagging, 3D Maps, Geohashing
Posted on May 22nd, 2008 by gpsguy
Biggest GPS drawing in the whole wide world (thanks to DHL). Via AdLand.
iPhone OS 2.0 should include geotagging capabilities in its Photos and Maps apps. From AppleInsider.
Check xkcd on GeoHashing (or more seriously, Wikipedia).
CA Senate voting to legalize GPS on windshields. Via Engadget.
3D Maps on a LBS Game? Check Planet 9 Studio’s RayGun and its GeoFeeder server, via VentureBeat.
Marketing breaks another frontier in UK. Now mobile phones are being tracked so consumers habits can be “studied”. On the TimesOnline.
Where, Android LBS, Geo API’s
Posted on May 18th, 2008 by gpsguy
Location-based apps shine among the 50 Android apps picked as finalists (slide show pdf).
Meanwhile, Verizon picks Limo and MobileCrunch show the differences between Limo and Android.
Talking Google, now Real Estate info on Google Maps.
Yahoo launches Internet Location Platform. Via APB, with Google’s Ed Parsons take on Yahoo’s WOEID (Where On Earth ID).
Where 2.0
John McKerrell blogged the conference and also a bit of WhereCamp 2008.
His coverage from Where includes a talk from Dan Catt about geotagged photos.
Dan’s blog: GeoBloggers covered also Yahoo’s WOEID, and his work with geotagging at Flickr including a slideshow of the Where presentation.
Where was also covered at APB and Radar.
Among the news Ublip, a tracking platform and Veriplace, a Location API with privacy concerns.
Dash API
Dash Opens its API, Via Programmable Web, Webware
Webware also put together a lazy list of Geo Sites.
Blackberry users with Garmin Mobile for life.
Butterfly GPS DIY project. Via Make
Boeing loses GPS contract for Lockheed Martin.
PC Mag covers Geotagging Gadgets.
Apple Patents Speculations by ArsTechnica, PhonesReview and IntoMobile.
Geotagging at Ovi’s upload site from Nokia which launches the first compass phone.
Geotagging: New camera not required with Eye-Fi Explore
Posted on May 14th, 2008 by gpsguy
If your digital camera has a SD slot, you may be able to use it for geotagging with the Wi-Fi SDIO Cards from Eye-Fi.
For about a hundred bucks you can add wireless capabilities to your current digital camera.
The magic behind the Eye-Fi SD cards is provided by the Atheros AR6001GL.
The AR6001GL combines a 2.4Ghz radio transceiver, the frequency range used for 802.11b/g wireless access points with upgradeable firmware.
The card carries 2Gbytes of Flash memory for your photos.
Insert one of the cards into your digital camera SD slot. By turning the camera on, the card will receive about 3.4 volts to start the bootstrap sequence.
By having software running on this SD card Eye-Fi makes it act in fact as an SDIO (Secure Digital Input Ouput) card, a bit smarter than plain storage.
“Activation/Setup”: Shake Well Before First Use
But before inserting it into the camera, you first need to activate the card and set known Wi-Fi locations with a list of the available SSID’s. (Supports static WEP 40/104/128, WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK).
The cards should connect automatically to hotspots from the WayPort network. (First year service included with Explore, $19 a year afterwards, probably a typo).
The card then starts by talking to a running PC connected to the same access point (Eye-Fi Home, see below), or by uploading the photos to websites like Flickr or the storage services of your choice (Eye-Fi Share).
Geotagging
If you are talking to an access point, even better if you happen to have access to a database with matching location of SSID’s & MAC addresses of Wi-Fi hotspots, like the one Eye-Fi licensed from Skyhook Wireless.
Obviously we are talking about pictures taken somewhere close by and/or around a wi-fi spot. Yosemite or that deserted beach won’t quite make it.
Three Eye-Fi SD cards are being offered currently:
Home (~$80): uploads to computer,
Share (~$100): same plus uploads to web service,
Explore (~$130): same plus geotagging firmware marking your EXIF tags of your pictures with the corresponding Access Point latitute/longitude (and maybe altitude?).
DPreview tried the Eye-Fi Share SD card last November.
The Geotagging version (Explore) is the one announced this week.
Geograffiti, Seero, deCarta
Posted on May 11th, 2008 by gpsguy
Artist gives its whereabouts away. Via Mercury News
Geograffiti: Leave voice mail at some place, using the MyVoxApi. It extends the bulletin-board idea from HereCast. Via Mashable, MobileCrunch.
Also from Mashable, Seero Widget for GPS-enabled video streaming.
deCarta getting another round of cash.
MediaScrape: News on the Map.
Ohararp SMD GPS Video Tutorial on Instructables.
LinuxJournal published a tip from Peter Verthez about running Garmin’s MapSource under Wine on Linux.
One more piece in the Dash puzzle: Where 2 Get, route planning provider.
Dash, jPhone, nuviPhone
Posted on May 4th, 2008 by gpsguy
Garmin offering nuviPhone to AT&T.
Dash video from Web 2.0.
Sun working on a Open Source Phone, the jPhone. From an interview to Engadget.
Theoretical memristors developed at HP Labs. Via Wired
Geotagging
Microsoft released a free tool for geotagging.
It requires .Net Framework 3.0, validation and runs on XP and Vista systems.
Initial download of 2.8Mbytes follows extra 31Mbytes for the .Net runtimes.
You can tag photos with “track route files from the most popular formats (NMEA, GPX, and KML)”.
MS also published a tutorial on Geotagging with its Expression Media 2, a “professional asset management tool to visually catalog and organize all your digital assets for effortless retrieval and presentation.”
A similar package from Microsoft that uses .Net Framework 1.1 is available here.
Lightpole, Open GPS Tracker, TellMe
Posted on April 27th, 2008 by gpsguy
Got a Helio Mysto? Try checking for movies at Fandango’s with MS TellMe. Works with GPS-equipped Blackberries too. (Via PC Mag and Washington Post)
iPhone users can try Geopedia. And new drop of the SDK posted during the week.
Ogleearth listed a series of sites that publish/map GPS tracks among them GPSies.
Curious about what’s inside a Garmin nuvi 750? Check EETimes “Under The Hood“.
Make pointing to a Open GPS Tracker:
http://www.opengpstracker.org/.
[BTW, Maker Faire is this weekend.]
Parallel Kingdom, GPS-based RPG game coming up for iPhone and Android phones.
Among the startup’s announced at Web 2.0 check the Location-based Social Network BrightKit and concept bekind Elkin (via Wired).
Lightpole shining its light along the week: VentureBeat, CNET
Nokia has a free beta geotagging software available for download: Location Tagger.
[Update] Second Galileo satellite launched.