SpatialTau v2.7 — Responsive Mapping and Eye Candy
SpatialTau is my weekly newsletter that goes out every Wednesday. The archive shows up in my blog a month after the newsletter is published. If you’d like to subscribe, please do so here.
I have to get some things off my chest but first just know that most people in Arizona drive around with a lasso in their truck for just such an occasion.
- Most people are very familiar with responsive web design. The concept where a website automatically reformats itself to best fit on the size screen or type of device you have. Awesome stuff right? Rarely do I have to pinch and zoom on a website anymore. Yet I’m still seeing tons of (mostly government) mapping applications fail completely on smartphones and tablets. The mapping libraries are available to handle things, just need to get people to actually use it.
- Apple Maps released an update today. Much of it is just better support to find things but they did go the eye candy route. I don’t know about you but I find 3D mapping a huge pain in the rear on mobile devices. Heck I can’t even remember the last time I opened up Google Earth (quick check, nope I don’t have it installed on this MacBook). Sure the idea that Big Ben has the correct time is pretty cool from a technologist perspective but the user in me just wants to have transit mapping and better traffic results. That’s how you get me to use the map on my iPhone.
- Looks like Apple is also ready to release more details on their smart watch. I’ve seen some really amazing things with the Android Wear products and one can only think that the Apple Watch will push the envelope more. Personally I like the idea of my watch telling me which way to turn while walking in a city. I suspect we’ll see lots more this summer with mapping and smart watches.
- Middleware is so dated, except in our line of business. If there is nothing a GIS developer likes more is inserting multiple levels of severs between an application and a database. Paul Ramsey said on my hangout that he thinks that PostGIS is about feature complete. That’s why I think the magic moving forward will happen in the direct visualization of databases in the browser.
- Pitchers and catchers have reported. Spring is here and the boys of summer are working hard. Don’t worry about me though, it’s an odd year and that means the Giants won’t win the World Series. Next year though be ready!
April 15, 2015 apple maps llama middleware pitches and catchers responsive web Thoughts
Hangouts with James Fee:: Special Guest Steve Pousty
Today at 1pm PDT, Steve Pousty joins me to talk about the deCarta acquisition by Uber.
The backchannel chat occurs on IRC. Follow the instructions here or join in below.
Hangouts with James Fee:: Special Guest Steve Pousty
Today at 1pm PDT, Steve Pousty joins me to talk about the deCarta acquisition by Uber.
The backchannel chat occurs on IRC. Follow the instructions here or join in below.
Hangouts with James Fee:: Special Guest Peter Batty
The next episode of Hangouts with James Fee has special Guest Peter Batty, CTO at Ubisense. Peter will talk about this years FOSS4GNA, Leaflet.js, geospatial business trends and what’s he’s been working on at Ubisense.
We go live next Friday (March 27th) at 1:00pm PDT and you can follow right here on my blog or at the Google+ Hangout event page.
Hangouts with James Fee:: Special Guest Peter Batty
The next episode of Hangouts with James Fee has special Guest Peter Batty, CTO at Ubisense. Peter will talk about this years FOSS4GNA, Leaflet.js, geospatial business trends and what’s he’s been working on at Ubisense.
We go live next Friday (March 27th) at 1:00pm PDT and you can follow right here on my blog or at the Google+ Hangout event page.
Hangouts with James Fee:: Special Guest Glenn Letham
Glenn Letham joined me to talk about the state of the GIS marketplace, changes he’s seen over the past years and what he thinks GIS professionals need to survive moving forward.