Category: LBS

Categories
Android LBS Mobile opensource

Android and LBS – in the stack at last…

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.

Android

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.

Categories
LBS Mobile Nokia N95 opensource Vodafone

Nokia attacks iPhone or somebody else ?

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.

Categories
Data Policy GIS LBS

Community Data Capture major part of Tom Tom Tele Atlas deal

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.