“One effect of an increased dependence on GPS will be that peoples’ ability to read maps will further decay,” [Middlebury College geography professor Anne] Knowles said. “Americans are generally poor map readers. Some cannot read maps at all because it’s not part of our education.
“But what will grow, instead, will be better geographic imagination and awareness. People will see the connections between places more clearly — not quite as accurately — but will better imagine how to get from one place to another because of this technology.”
People have been giving one another directions — verbally, written out turn-by-turn, or in crude hand-drawn maps — for approximately forever; a GPS navigation system is not exactly a new paradigm. It simply allows for geographical awareness without cartographic literacy — in that sense, the analogy with spell-checking is apt, but not in the way that the article’s author expects: spell-checking doesn’t make you less literate; it removes the requirement for you to be more literate. Ditto here: GPS isn’t making us dumb; it’s making it easier for us to stay dumb.
A few weeks ago, we launched two layers on maps.google.com, accessible via the “More..” button. The photos layer displays Panoramio photos, continuously loading in more photos as you zoom in, and letting you click the photos to see the info window with more information. Behind the scenes, the implementation is basically a GTileLayerOverlay plus array of pixel bounds specifying the clickable areas. It’s a clever technique that can be used whenever you have vast amounts of potentially clickable data, and a server that can render out tiles. However, I’m here today to show you how to create a similar effect using MarkerManager plus Panoramio’s API.
The Panoramio API lets you specify a bounding box query, sort by popularity, and output its data in JSON format. The MarkerManager lets you specify marker batches per zoom level ranges, and only displays the markers for the current viewport. Using these features, we can then do the following:
Create an empty MarkerManager.
Create an empty hash table to store photo ids.
Assign a listener to the map “moveend” event. This function calls the Panoramio API, sends in the current bounding box, and asks for the 10 most popular photos. The query looks like this:
When the query responds, iterate through the results, and for each result whose ID isn’t already in the hash table, add it to the MarkerManager for the current zoom level, and add it to the hash table.
The effect to the user is that additional photos stream in and populate the map as they zoom in - check it out below or here. You can use this technique whenever you have a database that can be queried by bounding box and rank the results.
But if you want to just put a Panoramio button on your site, you can copy the code & scripts from this example. If you’re a Panoramio user yourself, you can actually restrict the layer to only your photos by passing in your user ID to the API call. Developer Ade is experimenting with this on his ibizaA-Z site in order to just display his Ibiza photos.
The new 3G iPhone’s GPS is only one of several location-finding methods. From Apple’s page:
iPhone 3G uses signals from GPS satellites, Wi-Fi hot spots, and cellular towers to get the most accurate location fast. If GPS is available, iPhone displays a blue GPS indicator. But if you’re inside — without a clear line of sight to a GPS satellite — iPhone finds you via Wi-Fi. If you’re not in range of a Wi-Fi hot spot, iPhone finds you using cellular towers. And the size of a location circle tells you how accurately iPhone is able to calculate that location: The smaller the circle, the more accurate the location.
Location-finding came to iPods Touch and the original iPhone in January: old iPhones can use cell towers, and everything can use Wi Fi, so everything using this platform has at least one option. This is no doubt handy for iPhone application developers using the Core Location framework: they presumably can be agnostic about how location information comes to their app.
A lot of commentary is suggesting that mainstream GPS manufacturers are shitting themselves in the face of competition from the iPhone — the implication being that a dashboard-mounted iPhone, which could run all sorts of navigation software, would render a Garmin nüvi or suchlike redundant. I’m skeptical of such punditry. My impression is that the GPS marketplace is a lot more specialized than people think — handheld units don’t compete with dashboard navigation systems or geotaggers — so the dashboard systems will likely still be driving people into the river for many years to come.
Type-A training tweakers, metrics maniacs, peripatetic two-wheeled geo-cachers and the geographically challenged now have something to collectively rally around: the Garmin Edge 705. This latest fitness offering from the GPS giant has more than a little somethin’ somethin’ for the can’t stay put, always get lost, urban treasure hunting, serious bike training, [...]
The company Nokia announced the release of the final version of navigational applications Nokia Maps 2.0. Since last February beta program has been downloaded 240000 times, said the company. The updated version of Nokia Maps includes several new features, such as media guides for cities, satellite maps, treatment for pedestrians and new interface. Download the [...]
“Artist Erik Nordenankar says he has created the Biggest Drawing In The World. He says he gave DHL a case and travel instructions for a 55-day journey, then traced the route using GPS. The route was more than 100,000km long and went through 62 countries. The result was a self-portrait.”
Finally after many months of ‘Beta’ status the Nokia Maps 2.0 has made it available to the normal users. So whats changed? Well from version 1.0 lots but from the 2.0 beta version not very much (a few bugs)
A quick summary: Car Navigation Pedestrian navigation Multimedia city guides
Car Navigation has navigation carousel with three pre-defined navigation views (navigation, arrow and bird-eye) with multi-stops route planner.
(Purchase required based on region 3 day, 1 month, 1 year subscriptions - there is a option for 3 days free trial - this now tied to the SIM card not the IMEI of the Phone - meaning if you change your phone you can keep you licence.) SIM to SIM licence copying can be done. Satellite images Hybrid mode **Note these two modes use either Wifi or GPRS for displaying the layer they DO NOT come with the MapLoader pre-installed onto a memory card.
Nokia Maps 2.0 uses digital vector data provided by Navteq and TeleAtlas Either download directly to the nokia device or by using the Nokia Map Loader on a PC. Nokia Maps 2.0 and the current commercial version of the Nokia Maps Loader are freely available for selected devices.
::: via :::
Google Earth Plus, Pro and EC allow you to track your movements in real time via GPS. For example, you can view a live GPS track of your drive in a car on a laptop as you travel. To do this, you’ll need a GPS device connected to your computer.
After you complete your [...]
::: via :::
Two blogs in one…. “Nokia aiming to banish paper maps” & Nokia Maps 2.0 Beta (pre-release)
BBC News Technology
“Nokia expects to sell 35 million mobile phones equipped with GPS (Global Positioning System) in 2008″
Nokia Maps 2.0 Beta (pre-release)
What is new?
Pedestrian mode
Enhanced driving navigation mode
Satellite maps
Hybrid (satellite and important map features overlayed)
::: via :::
Nokia Location Tagger
(georeferencing your phone camera photos)
“What is it all about? Nokia Location Tagger is a small application running on “selected” S60 3rd devices that allows you to tag pictures captured from Camera application with geographical coordinates from GPS. The tagging process itself is sometimes called geotagging or geocoding (see also this article [...]
::: via :::
Nokia GPS Internal vs External
“The Nokia Bluetooth GPS Module LD-4W is for you if you’re looking for a navigation solution to send you effortlessly on your way. The lightweight, slim design makes this technology a great travelling companion” (AND DON’T HAVE AN INTERNAL GPS BUILT TO YOUR MOBILE PHONE)
