I Can’t Figure Out a Use For This, But I Want A 65-inch Multi-touch 3D Display
CES is boring, all companies do is announce products that by the time they hit the shelves they are stale. But this Ideum MT65 3D Display feels so right:
The MT65 Presenter multitouch wall
Engadget says it is available in either Windows 7 today or Linux by March. Thus you can totally be rolling with either your Esri or Open Source GIS tool of your choice. It costs about $18,000 so start saving those pennies!
I Can’t Figure Out a Use For This, But I Want A 65-inch Multi-touch 3D Display
CES is boring, all companies do is announce products that by the time they hit the shelves they are stale. But this Ideum MT65 3D Display feels so right:
The MT65 Presenter multitouch wall
Engadget says it is available in either Windows 7 today or Linux by March. Thus you can totally be rolling with either your Esri or Open Source GIS tool of your choice. It costs about $18,000 so start saving those pennies!
Bing Maps gets Nokia Brand and Possibly the Boot
The Microsoft/Nokia relationship gets a little confusing these days. According to Pocket-Lint:
Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, has told Pocket-lint that we shall soon be seeing the Nokia brand name within other devices and not just the company’s own phones.
“You’ll starting seeing the word ‘Nokia’ on a map that you get from Microsoft properties over a period of time,” Elop explained to Pocket-lint in an interview behind closed doors at CES in Las Vegas. “Even if you are on a BlackBerry device, who recently said they were going to start using Bing Maps.”
Interesting isn’t it? Nokia Maps on other devices. Here is the kicker…
“Part of the relationship we established with Microsoft is that we are clearly placing a bet on the Windows Phone platform. [In return] they are placing a bet on our location-based platform: mapping, navigation and so forth,” said Elop.
Thus it appears, at least in Nokia’s mind, that Bing Maps might eventually be replaced with Nokia Maps. Clearly Nokia believes that they bring navigation and location to the partnership. I’m sure though, as with everything Microsoft related, this is going to be much more complicated than it should be. In a perfect world, Microsoft and Nokia would agree that Bing Maps should be replaced by Nokia Maps and get it done quickly and with minimal fuss. The reality is that there will probably be three mapping platforms. The old Bing Maps, the old Nokia Maps and this new hybrid Nokia Maps (powered by Bing?) that blends the two services.
Ugh, right? Check with Pocket-link tomorrow to see the full interview with Elop and hopefully more detail into what this means. Almost a year ago I talked a little bit about this scenario, maybe it is finally time.
Bing Maps gets Nokia Brand and Possibly the Boot
The Microsoft/Nokia relationship gets a little confusing these days. According to Pocket-Lint:
Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, has told Pocket-lint that we shall soon be seeing the Nokia brand name within other devices and not just the company’s own phones.
“You’ll starting seeing the word ‘Nokia’ on a map that you get from Microsoft properties over a period of time,” Elop explained to Pocket-lint in an interview behind closed doors at CES in Las Vegas. “Even if you are on a BlackBerry device, who recently said they were going to start using Bing Maps.”
Interesting isn’t it? Nokia Maps on other devices. Here is the kicker…
“Part of the relationship we established with Microsoft is that we are clearly placing a bet on the Windows Phone platform. [In return] they are placing a bet on our location-based platform: mapping, navigation and so forth,” said Elop.
Thus it appears, at least in Nokia’s mind, that Bing Maps might eventually be replaced with Nokia Maps. Clearly Nokia believes that they bring navigation and location to the partnership. I’m sure though, as with everything Microsoft related, this is going to be much more complicated than it should be. In a perfect world, Microsoft and Nokia would agree that Bing Maps should be replaced by Nokia Maps and get it done quickly and with minimal fuss. The reality is that there will probably be three mapping platforms. The old Bing Maps, the old Nokia Maps and this new hybrid Nokia Maps (powered by Bing?) that blends the two services.
Ugh, right? Check with Pocket-link tomorrow to see the full interview with Elop and hopefully more detail into what this means. Almost a year ago I talked a little bit about this scenario, maybe it is finally time.
A Minimalist OpenStreetMap Baselayer
I’m a sucker for these simple background base maps.
I am designing a new minimal OpenStreetMap base map in TileMill to use with MapBox hosting platform map builder. The goal for the design is a general OpenStreetMap layer that can be used as a light, very subtle background for compositing further data on top of. Here is an early look at the features and design aspects I have been working on for the map.
Minimal OSM TileMill
Read the post, this is how you create a baseman you can actually use. Stop putting your data on top of map services designed for navigation that end up clashing/competing with your story. Oh and MapBox and TileMill are still very awesome! Windows users should note that TileMill will be available on Windows any day.
Best Way To Future Proof Your Web Map Service Choice? Could Be Mapstraction.
Mapstraction
So there are a lot of companies leaving Google Maps for other services. But you read about others who can’t leave because their customers demand Google Maps. Quite a fluid situation isn’t it?
Someone asked me yesterday what should they do. How can they plan for the inevitable changes they’ll be making to their web map services. A good solution might be Mapstraction. It’s a programming library that allows you to easily switch between web map providers without having to change much if any of your code.
Why Mapstraction?
By avoid dependency on any specific mapping provider (or versions within a provider) your code is easier to maintain. A book I reviewed about a year ago, Map Scripting 101, is a great starter for those who want to read up on Mapstraction. I mentioned that Mapstraction might be a good choice for beginners, but I think with the uncertainty of licensing and costs with web mapping APIs, Mapstraction might be a good choice for anyone.