This is just so cool, and having used it over the past few months around the world, it actually is improving with time as other users improve our cell database. Another great example of the power of cloud-sourcing and another shot in the arm for the prospects of LBS – as a platform not an application.
This is really just the first step..
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
So maybe now Mr Balmer is reconsidering his comments of last week..
For me and my interest in geographic information the key detail about the Android SDK is the LBS component, and where is appears in the whole android stack. I have often argued that LBS would only really make sense as an underlining infrastructure that is available to all applications, therefore allowing much higher levels of integration.
One of the key factors to the success of the iPhone is the great integration between its applications, it’s just a shame these are currently restricted in number, to the Apple supplied applications.
With Android the Location Manager component is part of the core application framework, meaning that all user applications have access to the devices location. At a simple level this means that applications like the address book as access to the device location, so your contacts rather than sorted alphabetically could be sorted based on distance from your locations.
Or slightly more “left field” how about a security application which locks the device waiting on the user to enter a PIN if the devices location does not match the scheduled location from the calendar application.
For really the first time, the innovation which always comes from Open Source development can be focused on building LBS.. at last !!
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
One of the major memes of the Blogosphere of the moment is the backlash against Apple for making the iPhone and closed platform tied to specific network operators, and for then breaking the hacks with a firmware update that had allowed a very small group of users to add new applications to their now “simfree” iPhones.
Nokia it appears have jumped at the opportunity with the adverts above appearing around New York, making the point that their N-Series phones represent an open platform.
Now don’t get be wrong I think Apple have made a huge mistake with the iPhone, in that they had the opportunity to break the current operator dominated market, to be frank I’m not that bothered about the ability to add new applications, I think I have added one or two to my N95 but don’t really use them very much.
For me the real villains remain the network operator who lock down the ability of all makers phones on their networks, remember the fuss about vodafone dropping the VOIP application from the N95 ? In the US the situation is even worse with the level of control demanded on CDMA phones by the operators reaching extreme levels.
This is not just about adding applications, to upgrade my “open” Nokia N95 to the point that the GPS actually worked, I had to first replace the firmware with a Generic English one as Nokia would not update a vodafone branded phone, in doing so I have not doubt voided its warranty.
So maybe the target for Nokia’s poster campaign is wider than the iPhone, perhaps the operators are also in the firing line. You get the sense that Nokia has run out of patience with operators messing about with their phones and increasingly see their own Nokia branded online services delivered independently of the network operators as the way forward.
Get your music, games, and Location Based Services from Nokia for your Nokia mobile device, Vodafone, t-mobile, o2 and orange just move the bits around the network and add no other value themselves. (Those 3G licenses are a real bind no !!)
I think this is quite a smart strategy although I’m not sure symbian the preferred OS for nokia mobiles is the right way forward, however, the demands for a truly “open” mobile internet increase every day – although remember the calls are coming from a very small geek community ( that’s you dear reader) most people don’t even change their phones wallpaper !
Written and submitted from the BA Lounge, Milan Linate Airprt, Italy, using the BTOpenzone 802.11 network.
Just listening to the conference call on the Tom Tom acquisition of Tele Atlas one of the major drivers behind the deal is the recognition of an ecosystem between PND’s capturing geospatial data and traditional “professional” GIS data capture techniques.
Without community generated content, in a online future if will not be possible to provide the expected level of currency of data – Strong stuff but hard to argue with.
If this is not a wake-up call for the traditional mapping organsiations I don’t know what else is !!
Written and Submitted from the Google Office, London.
A while ago I speculated that the Nokia N95, might be using a A-GPS solution, now with the V12 firmware release available for unlocked phones from Nokia A-GPS really is supported and it does seem to make a difference.
There is a lot of confusion on the blogs and discussion groups as to what A-GPS, assisted GPS is, and how it works. This is a technology that is indepedent of network operators and does not use the location of Cell towers.
A-GPS works by supplementing the performance of the “not very good” GPS chipset on the N95 with an assistance server operated by Nokia. The assistance server knows the up to date ephemeris data of the GPS constellation and can help process whatever weak signal the phone is picking up and pass a possible location back to the phone.
This in theory and to some extent in practice means that the time to first location is reduced and you can expect to get a location in some areas where without A-GPS it would not be possible.
So how do you set it up and how can you tell it’s working… This is more informed speculation… some definitive information from Nokia would be good !!!
First you need to be brave and upgrade you firmware, after backing up everything on your N95, I still find this a little scary – a bit like a heart transplant operation for your phone..
With the V12 firmware you will find you have a new menu at – Tools>Settings>General>Positioning.
Here there are two sub-menus, Positioning Methods with the new option on Assisted GPS, which you need to enable and a sub menu called Positioning Server which contains the details for the assistance server. Here you will find the Nokia server already listed as supl.nokia.com , but you will need to manually enter an existing network access point to allow network access to the server, for me I used the Vodafone WAP APN on which I get vodafone’s new “unlimited” data tariff. You will need to enter your networks own APN here, I guess a Wifi access point should work just as well, but I have not tried.
Go to the Maps application or GPS Data tool and select the View Satellite Status menu, you should now more quickly than in the past see the familiar list of GPS satellite numbers and the open estimated signal strength bars – this is now coming from the assistance server and within a minute at least three of these will turn solid and you will have a location.
This has just worked for me on the window sill of a hotel room in the centre of Manchester giving a location in around 50 seconds !!!
I have been wrong about this in the past, but this seems to be progress !!
Written and submitted from the Novotel Manchester, using the Orange 802.11 network.
Happy listening to the Macbreak Weekly podcast today, and was surprised to hear a really good discussion on the potential of LBS, PND’s and the rumour that Apple may be developing a standalone GPS device – unlikely methinks.
Still it was not so long ago that if you used a mac you were geographically challenged and lonely in the geospatial community.
Now… well, I’d say around 50% of the audience of the recent Where 2.0 conference were using MacBooks.
Written and Submitted from the Google Office, London.
There is a campaign that Mastercard runs in the UK and maybe elsewhere comparing the value of goods and services with the value of Mastercard, of course the value of Mastercard is always priceless ! Well is appears over the past couple of months and with the latest announcement from Motorola picked up by All Points Blog, The price of maps on a phone is zero.
I have two mobile devices I carry around with me, my N95 and a Blackberry both of which have manufacturer installed mapping applications which offer extensive street level mapping data free of charge.. in the case of the N95 I can even download offline a global mapping dataset to store on my 2GB storage card so that I won’t incur the stupid data rates imposed by the network operators in the UK
Of course if you don’t have a new Nokia, Motorola or Blackberry you can download Google Maps for Mobile which delivers the same Google maps experience of the desktop on any mobile device which can run Java.
I remember as a data supplier we had such high hopes of the mobile market and LBS taking off as a major revenue stream, it still is a potentially a major stream, but it is certainly not going to be the gold mine it was hoped to be with individual transaction based billing of consumers. That was always going to be too costly and complex to build a business model around, at best a subscription model as used for some of the navigation applications might be sustainable.. but time will tell.
Written and submitted from Hyatt Hotel, Calgary, using its in-room wired network.
Like myself you may have been using the mobile version of Google Maps for the last year or so and it works very well, the application is well adapted to mobile devices – if you look carefully you will see that it uses a different rendering to the normal browser based Google Maps – mobile cartography needs to be different !!
This week a new version of maps was released in the UK which starts to really deliver on the potential of location based services, now like our American cousins we have up to date points of interest information available, so that if you try to search for a business you will actually find one now..
It’s not new or unique but what I think is really important here it that the content about locations is actionable, so if I search for a pub in London called “The Garrison” I am presented with a map, directions to the pub from where I might be, its address and telephone number which if I click on actually is dialled by the phone – remember the N95 and suchlike actually have telephone capability as well as GPS, WiFi, cameras, coffee machines etc. in them as well 🙂
Content that is actionable is key I believe to LBS finally taking off, a map on a screen is not enough, it’s still often easier to ask somebody for directions, but how likely is it that they will know a pub’s telephone number or its opening hours..
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
Well somebody gets it !! Sometimes just surfing for some unrelated information brings up a really interesting nugget of information like this.
Clearly the guys in MV get it.. it’s all about context !!
Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.
A very good article by Jo Best at silicon.com, on how the balance of power is shifting between network operators and mobile phone manufactures following the announcement of the iPhone. 
A small shift perhaps and we could be replacing one walled garden with another ? I amongst others are hopeful that we seen some momentum behind the OpenMoko Open Source phone project, which is coming soon !!
Written and submitted from the garden at home ( 16°C !!) , using my home 802.11 network.