Jul 06 2010
A while ago a friend told me about a company called SimpleGeo that develops a geodata infrastructure. It is a bit difficult to understand exactly what it does, but the blog is interesting, and the founders’ biographies are also worth a look.
The infrastructure itself appears to run on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Apr 24 2010
Sometimes Google Maps gets it incorrect… The Mysterious Google Town of Argleton, Lancashire, England.
Jan 31 2010
Hacker pilfers browser GPS location via router attack
Even if it is a month late :)
Oh - and Happy New Year while I am posting :D
Nov 29 2009
I read yesterday that an Irish company called Cauwill Technologies won the Best Emerging Company category in the 2009 Seedcorn Business Competition. For more about the winners see Intertradeireland Seedcorn Competition Announces Winners.
Cauwill Technologies develop GPS based solutions for use with LBSs.
Oct 27 2009
A friend recently made me aware of a new child locating service called num8 by a company called Lok8u. The service is delivered using a child-friendly watch that contains a GPS receiver, and it uses Google Maps to display the child’s location.
The Lok8u website claims:
Now available.. the world’s first GPS locator that locates your child…not just the device.
And…
num8 is the world’s first GPS locator device that has been specifically designed with children in mind.
I am wary of these claims… For example, I think that Wherify would dispute these claims (if it was still operating)!
Wherify Wireless Watches
I am sure that there are many others also!
Jun 04 2009
I am hearing and reading a lot about Bing this week! Microsoft seems to be putting a lot of resources behind it! I have not tried using it yet. This is mostly because I am happy with Google, so there is no real incentive for me to change my search engine. I previously had very bad experiences with Cuil. (I must write about them here :o )
Today somebody showed me the Maps feature of Bing. I thought that the interface seemed nice, and the satellite photos were good. It certainly is as good as Google Maps.
However, then I was shown the Bird’s Eye view! This really impressed me!
Bird's Eye view of Camp Nou in Bing Maps
Above you can see the Bird’s Eye view of Camp Nou (home of the 2009 Champions League winners).
May 20 2009
I previously described how Google will photograph the streets of Dublin for Google Street View in Google Street View Comes to Ireland.
This morning I spotted one of the cars taking the photos in the north side of the city! I am hoping that I will be visible when the photos are eventually published online!
The car that was being used was a red hatch-back, and I think that it had Irish registration plates on it. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to take a photo of it using my PDA :(
May 13 2009
I came across another FriendFinder LBS today called Brightkite. It is interesting to see that this LBS includes many social networking features. I wonder is it only a matter of time before the mainstream social networking web sites start to include location functionality. Maybe they do already!
There is a great promotional story on the Brightkite blog titled New Feature: Brightkite now gives you more legroom… I was considering joining, but then I read Why I’m giving up on brightkite (for now). Now I am not so sure :|
Perhaps there are lots of other similar LBSs of which I am not aware! Perhaps I should make a list of them, and then try them! All I need to do is find the time…
May 06 2009
A friend, with whom I previously work on LBSs, recently told me about a new realisation of the FriendFinder LBS. This realisation is developed by a German company, and you can read more about it in aka-aki.
Interestingly, privacy does not appear to be a major concern in relation to this LBS, as noted by my friend ;)
Apr 26 2009
I read an interesting article during the week that described how Google Latitude was used to locate, apprehend, and arrest the thief of a stolen purse! I guess that this is great advertising for Google! To read the full article see Google nabs purse snatcher.
The most interesting thing that I learned from this article is that the telcos charge the police for this location information, and the charge varies depending on how fast the police want this information! I wonder if this only occurs in the US, or if it occurs in the EU also.
I am surprised that the telcos are not required to supply this location information free-of-charge due to either freedom of information (the mobile phone owner’s location information) or emergency services legislation!
