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For me the Iphone comes down to this point. Don’t believe the Hype.

Take this from PC World

“Think of mounting your iPhone on the dashboard, and using the iPhone’s GPS/Google Maps functionality to get to the mall, and then using some sort of iPhone……

An iPhone/GPS device looks to be yet another disruptive technology pairing by Steve Jobs and Apple’s talented engineers. It will be interesting to see how the device lives up to the promise, and how competitors scramble to answer the latest Apple broadside.”

What a load of crock… the N95 has had a gps for years now.. I know I use mine all the time. I send Twitter messages with embeded coords all the time. I geotag all my photos and put the non personal ones up on Flickr. Wow the Iphone is so new and cool. There are a number of mash ups around the trap for doing GPS stuff with your phone. BIG F”ING DEAL APPLE.

I think most journalists are being very lazy today. Oh lets read the Apple press release and call that news. It is not news.

And my being lazy today is to only put this one example in.

(Ok.. the other one is that everyone is talking about the 10 hours talk time, sure it is 10 hours, but only on 2g not 3g, that is 5 hours - details here http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html)

Sure the Iphone is a sexy device I will agree with that. But, and it is a big but, there are better devices out there. Touch is not the be all and end all and even then there are touch devices out there by people other than Apple. The reason that touch is not the be all and end all… Phones are 1 handed. You use one hand to make a call (ie speed dialing, texting e.t.c) so you can still pick your nose or drink your coffee.

Look at some of the issues with the Iphone. Fixed battery. Power users are going to find this a problem.Image the case you use your phone for a few months and the battery goes flaky (it does and will happen). Now in the real world you go out buy a new battery plug it and you are away. Time taken 5 minutes. In the mac world here is the case. Take you phone to mac shop if you are lucky get a “loner” phone. Wait a week or so, then get your old phone back. See this works with an Ipod you can do with out music. Can you do with out your phone for a week!

2Mg Camera, seriously that is not good these days as most entry level phones carry this size. Non upgradable user memory, most phones these days take mmc or similar cards to have more memory or apps stored on them (yes my n958gb does not upgrade and it annoys me). Also there is no front facing video camera so video calling is out… you might be able to do it in theory, but in practice it won’t work. (and I have already spoken to a few people that do use video calling and they were shocked at this).

Let the flame wars begin.

Tags: Mobile, apple, gps, nokia by Me
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Whilst not quite as cool as Photosynth this technology leverage’s of a lot of existing content and gets google up and running in the “Dynamic Interrelated images” space very nicely.

Quick thoughts are this is going to take off, and MS are going to pull their fingers out and get Photosynth out much quicker…. all they need to do is get the Flickr image base and they win. The Panoramio image base is nothing compared to say Flickr which would allow you to move “indoors” from a series of photos, where as the Panoramio images are only external and highly moderated. (not sure if this is a plus or minus)

The simplicity of this interface may also be part of it success and less savy users may find it easer to navigate. - anyway on with the show…

digitalearthblog.com…panoramio-brings-a-new-way-to-view-photos/

Sydney Opera house example - http://www.panoramio.com/photo/288737

example and how it is done…

and the main article - google-lat-long

“Panoramio enables photographers to geo-locate, store and organize their photographs and to view those images in their geographic context. You may already have seen photos from the Panoramio layer while zooming around in Google Earth or Google Maps (just click the “more” button), but have you visited the Panoramio website? Now, when browsing photos on the site you can explore multiple images of a particular location in a more seamless way.

For select photos on www.panoramio.com, you’ll find a new link below the photo:

When you click it, a pop-up will appear that looks like this:

When you mouse over an image, you’ll see polygonal frames appear. Each of these frames represents a photo of the same location taken from a different angle or perspective. Just click on the frame to view that photo, and continue exploring. You can also click the thumbnails on the right-hand panel.

Follow the “Look around” link from this photo of Notre Dame in Paris or St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow to see them from all different angles. Take a look at these beautiful photos of the Astrological Clock in Prague.”

Tags: Photos, flash, gps by Me
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New update to my Sport Tracker account… this is the KML of the flight from Adelaide to Melbourne.

I had the phone in flightmode and “forgot” to turn it off.. and so have the gps trace for the plane taking off and then most of the way home until it lost the signal somewhere over Victoria. If this page is blank you may need to refresh it to see this Flash app. Or you can just download the KML of the flight from the KML’S page… (look up it is in the Nav section of the site..)

Tags: apple, gps, n95, nokia by Me
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On the way home last night my wife was driving so I got to play with the gps a little more and found one of those little quirks. Now I am sure that the maps are full of quirks, but if I find one not 500 metres from my house one does have to question just how many their actually are.

The following google links show two routes… the first is what google maps told me was the route, and the second is what Nokia Maps told me was the route.

Google Maps Route

Nokia Maps Route

Now, I know the area (I live here so I should :-)) but the Nokia Maps is convinced that I can not drive across North Road at the intersection with Murrembeena Road. That would be fine if it was a small intersection but it is not. It is really quite large. When the new maps beta came out the first thing I checked was another turning bay just up the road. See that has been added, but in the processes they killed a very large intersection. And they make you do a right hand turn across what in peak hour is one of the main feeder roads into and out of the city, instead of at the lights!

Now I don’t for a minute think that Nokia is alone is doing stuff like this, I am sure all the maps and mapping companies are just as bad as each other.

Perhaps one day (all the privacy issues aside) Nokia Maps will upload any route that you take that deviates from the route that the software suggests, then look for patterns in this and create new routes out of the real world travel (perhaps even real time?). Then I might be able to turn right at the intersection and not drive around the block as anyone coming to visit me who didn’t know the way would go.

P.s

The Maps are done making the new Static Maps API… this I am in love with.

Tags: gps, nokia by Me
2 Comments »

Well hats of to nokia (and those that know me will know I never take of my hat :-)) the new Maps 2.0 is much improved.

Firstly any of the issues that I have had with the beta seem to have all gone away.  So someone must have been listening.  Secondly a lot of the map issues have been updated.  Even with Maps 1.0 there were a few strange things such as railway lines that just stopped and started again and they are all working as they should.

However… why oh why for Melbourne do they not show tram tracks.  Come on people, anyone who drives in Melbourne will really want to avoid roads with tram tracks.  But you can’t.  I have lived here for 5 years now and still get caught out on some roads.  Navigation needs to avoid things like this.

Also river crossings for the Yarra.  There are a few pedestrian only crossings.  Why doesn’t the ‘Walk mode’ have them.  You have to walk a long way to cross the river unless you knew the area.  So tourists are going to have issues.

But overall it is stable, it works and I am happy

Tags: gps, nokia by Me
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