Apple Getting Ready to Enter Mobile Navigation Space

So last week Google threw down a huge hand in the bid to be the dominate mobile navigation company.  Heck I can’t even remember who else has mobile navigation devices besides them anymore (though that might be the eggnog talking).  It looks like Apple is going to give it a go for their iOS devices.

Apple seeks job candidates with “valuable knowledge” related to the development of navigation software, as well as “deep knowledge of Computational Geometry or Graph Theory.” Candidates are required to have at least 3 years’ experience of developing “high quality, robust software systems.”

In typical Apple fashion, they describe the work this way:

“We want to do this in a seamless, highly interactive and enjoyable way,” that job listing read. “We’ve only just started.”

Apple navigation seems like a natural progression for their hosted web services.  I doubt Apple will ever do their own search as there really isn’t any way to improve on Google (Bing is trying, but really who wants to Bing anything?).  Navigation though is a space that I’m sure Apple thinks they can do some really amazing stuff.  Navigation devices are clunky and difficult to use.  A little of the Apple design magic might lift all boats (and by all boats I mean only Apple and Google).

Well this isn't likely, but still....

Google Maps Navigation for Android: But What About the Quality of the Map?

I guess I’m spatially aware so I never bother with navigation, but given how many TomTom devices I see on dashboards these days others are.  Well Google has a little announcement this morning which is not a huge surprise.

Today we’re excited to announce the next step for Google Maps for mobile: Google Maps Navigation (Beta) for Android 2.0 devices.

This new feature comes with everything you’d expect to find in a GPS navigation system, like 3D views, turn-by-turn voice guidance and automatic rerouting. But unlike most navigation systems, Google Maps Navigation was built from the ground up to take advantage of your phone’s Internet connection.

And those words that every other company fears…

Like other Google Maps features, Navigation is free.

The Walmartization of technology continues.  Why pay for anything if Google will eventually give it away free?  Heck why invest any time working on anything since Google will just kill it later anyway.  Verizon, welcome to the Google ecosystem.  Don’t bother porting Verizon Navigator over to Android (though you probably already did and are wishing you didn’t about now)

Now there are two great limitations on this product.  First it is only on Android which like the Microsoft Zune is irrelevant.  Second it is only available in the USA which means that my friends around the world won’t be able to navigate to amusement parks that closed 25 years ago in their neighborhood.

So here comes Google ready to obliterate everything in its wake…

Using SVG to create interactive maps on the Apple iPhone

So you can’t have Silverlight, Java or Flash to develop interactive mapping on the iPhone and have to “resort” to using JavaScript. Well maybe not, could SVG be the way forward to creating mapping websites on the iPhone?  My 2G iPhone seems to support SVG fairly well, but many SVG sites aren’t optimized for the iPhone.  Take ESRI’s abandoned (?) SVG Viewer:

ESRIs ArcWeb SVG Viewer

ESRI's ArcWeb SVG Viewer

It loads and you can turn on and off the “widgets” with ease.  But navigating it was impossible.  I know zero about developing with SVG so I suppose someone else will have to comment on if it is possible to create iPhone compatible navigation for SVG apps.  Heck if ESRI were to make a ArcGIS Server SVG API compatible for the iPhone, every ArcGIS Server implementation would be viewable on the iPhone.