GigaOM » maps

Now there’s an app to help you dodge bullets

Amanda Alvarez — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:26:05 +0000

Some researchers from Vanderbilt have developed a new app and hardware module that will help you find the direction of gunfire. The research team used the sonic signatures associated with firing to pinpoint its location, and put this on an Android smartphone map.

Originally developed for the Department of Defense, acoustic shockwave bearing estimation was designed to help soldiers locate snipers. The technology takes advantage of the properties associated with gunfire – the initial flash of the muzzle blast and the shockwaves that follow. The supersonic speeds and whizzes of bullets can be tracked with microphones and a really precise clock hooked up to a microprocessor. These sensor nodes communicate with smartphones via Bluetooth; data from a few differently placed sensor nodes are required to triangulate the location of the gunshots.

The sniper location system was built into combat helmets, but the research team has now updated it for smartphones with funding from DARPA. Some nodes are still required, so civilian use may not be practical. But the researchers think security details or police squad cars could make use of the smartphone version.

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Telenav’s Scout iPhone app now lets friends coordinate on a map

Kevin Fitchard — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:00:18 +0000

Telenav’s Scout app is moving beyond mere navigation to include location sharing and planning features, which friends and family can use to coordinate their activities.

In a new update for the iPhone (no word yet on an Android update), Scout now has the ability to share any location or event with a friend via email, text of Facebook. And because Scout’s nav service works as an HTML5 app, those messages will automatically generate browser-based turn-by-turn directions to the location referenced – even if the recipient doesn’t have the Scout app.

The Scout update also incorporates a feature that will send out your estimated time of arrival via a text message. For instance, if you’re meeting a friend at a restaurant, Scout can send that friend a message as soon as you launch the route, calculating ETA not only on distance, but speed limits, traffic lights and real-time congestion data.

You can even program the app to send out your ETA to specific people anytime you start a particularly route. So anytime you program your iPhone to take you home, your spouse would get a message notifying him or her of when to expect you. Or if you’re heading to daycare to pick up your kid, the app will send a similar message to your child’s caretaker.

Finally Telenav is inserting real-time event data into the app. Instead of merely finding the baseball stadium on the map, you can discover when and which games are being played.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock user Ana de Sousa

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Google Maps navigates its way into Kia, Hyundai connected cars

Kevin Fitchard — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:36:19 +0000

We’re still not at the point where we can call up Google Maps on our car dashboards as we would on our smartphones, but we’re getting a lot closer to that point. Google revealed on Wednesday that Hyundai and Kia will use Google’s Send-to-Car technology to ship maps, directions and points of interest directly from smartphones into their cars’ on-board navigation systems.

Kia will tap into Google’s APIs to bring Maps and Google Places data to its UVO eServices connected car platform, which will first be available in the 2014 Kia Sorrento and 2014 Forte. Hyundai will use a similar implementation in its Blue Link connected car system, though it didn’t reveal when or in which car models.

All three companies were short on the details of their respective partnerships — and are likely waiting for the grand stage of CES next week to reveal them — but it looks like Google is acting more as technology enabler than an app developer in both cases. Instead of allowing a version of Google Maps to be downloaded into the car, both Hyundai and Kia appear to be relying on their own navigation apps. But they’re liberally pulling Google mapping and location data from the smartphone and the cloud.

In Kia’s case it’s incorporating the mapping functions into its own UVO smartphone app, which will be available on both the iPhone and Android in the next six months. Meanwhile Kia’s Microsoft-developed in-vehicle platform will host several apps that will use Google map and point-of-interest data as well as local search technology. Google said in its enterprise blog that both Kia and Hyundai would also use its voice recognition technology to find and manage their destinations.

The vehicle navigation space is definitely getting interesting as web and mobile mapping software becomes more sophisticated and more cars get mobile internet connections — either directly from the dash or via a smartphone. Google is working with several other automakers, including Audi, Daimler and Tesla to bring its cartographic, Street View and search data to the dashboard. Chevrolet is also tapping into Google Local Search to provide business and point-of-interest info in its forthcoming BringGo navigation app.

Google isn’t the only tech company looking to break into automotive. Apple announced Eyes Free with the launch of iOS 6, which allows Siri to act as the surrogate voice assistant in the connected car. GM is supporting Eyes Free in upcoming versions of MyLink in the Chevy Sonic and Spark, and several other automakers are working with Apple as well. Eyes Free isn’t a nav platform, but it could become the interface for controlling a car’s navigation system or even a future in-vehicle version of Apple Maps once it works through the app’s laundry list of bugs.

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Video: Nokia gets serious about vehicle navigation with Drive

Kevin Fitchard — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:35:30 +0000

If Nokia doesn’t have already have a deal with an automaker to provide vehicle navigation services, then it’s definitely gunning for one. I recently had an opportunity to do a ride-along with the Nokia Maps – now rechristened Here — team in Chicago, and the one thing that struck me was just how much its updated Nokia Drive navigation service was designed to emulate an embedded vehicle navigation system.

Aaron Dannenbring, Nokia Location & Commerce VP of product management and field opps, said that many of the latest enhancements for the Nokia Drive are designed to bridge those final disparities between a dedicated in-vehicle nav system and a smartphone app. It’s added spoken street names, the ability to tailor your route, multitasking capabilities and a lot more 3D. Here’s a video of our interview for the details:

Watch this video for free on GigaOM

After our talk I tested out the latest version of the Drive software — a beta for Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices called Drive+ — using the new Lumia 822 offered by Verizon Wireless for a few trail runs in the city and in a weekend trip to Wisconsin. I even pitted it against the in-dash nav system in my father-in-law’s minivan. I have to say, the experience was far better with Drive+ than with any other smartphone-based navigation system I’ve used.

First off, to fully utilize Drive+ you need to download map files from Here servers. These are no dinky files and you only select the geographies you plan to use. The map of California, for instance, is more than 200 MB, and the app requires you to make those transfers over Wi-Fi (so don’t wait until you’re in the car to set up the software). The maps are also vector-based, meaning it generates maps from data points rather than loading map images into your screen.

That not only makes the map flow on Drive practically seamless, but it also saves battery life and spares your data plan since the device isn’t constantly reaching out over its 3G or LTE radio to get the next set of map points. Most significantly, it allows Drive to function offline. If you lose your data connection, maps still works and it works well, as long as you can see GPS. I disabled the Lumia’s radios for 20 minutes and navigation continued to function without a single hitch.

I can’t emphasize how important that feature is if you truly want to use your phone as a vehicle nav system. A journey to some far-flung relative’s house in the boonies means I’m going to be driving out of 3G coverage quite regularly, which would render most phone-based nav systems useless. I was also impressed with by the Lumia’s ability to almost instantly capture and hold onto a GPS signal, though that’s more a function of hardware than the Drive software itself.

Nokia is also incorporating 3D across its mapping products, generated from laser arrays mounted on its mapping cars. I could find 3D constructs of every building in my neighborhood on Here.com though most of that information is stripped out in Nokia Drive. The nav software, however, does render a 3D image of your destination if available as well as other significant landmarks. It’s easy to see how this kind of technology could eventually be used to generate more user-friendly routes — instead of instructing a driver to turn left at 1^st Street, the app could tell him to turn left at the giant donut or the 7-Eleven.

It looks to me like Nokia’s ambitions for Drive go well beyond the smartphone and extend to the car dashboard. There are already automakers exploring this kind of bring-your-own-navigation business model. Chevy, for instance, plans to launch a nav app called BringGo, which lives in the smartphone but upon entering the car immediately projects itself into the on-dash monitor of its MyLink infotainment system. It wouldn’t be the a stretch for Nokia to do the same thing if it secures the right automaker partner.

Nokia already sells map data for nav systems through its Navteq division, and its key software partner Microsoft is a big player in the connected car OS space, powering Ford’s Sync system. In order for Drive to become an integrated connected car app, it would have to be platform agnostic, but Nokia is already moving in that direction. It launched its Here app for iOS last month and plans to do the same for Android in the first quarter. Here doesn’t have all of the features of Drive+, which is optimized for Nokia Lumia phones, or Drive, the version for other Windows Phone devices; but it could only be a matter of time.

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Apple Maps’ bad directions called out as public safety issue in Australia

Erica Ogg — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:29:08 +0000

It was bad enough for Apple when its new Maps app’s awfulness was inspiring parody Twitter and Tumblr accounts. But now the app is forcing public safety officials in Australia to issue warnings about it. On Monday, police in Victoria, Australia took the step of issuing a bulletin and asking travelers to the area to use a different mapping software. Turns out, those using Apple Maps are often led astray in a badly mis-mapped national park, and police had to keep rescuing lost, stranded tourists.

From the police report:

Local Police have been called to assist distressed motorists who have become stranded within the Murray-Sunset National Park after following directions on their Apple i-phone.

Tests on the mapping system by police confirm the mapping systems lists Mildura in the middle of the Murray Sunset National Park, approximately 70km away from the actual location of Mildura.

Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the Park and temperatures can reach as high as 46 degrees, making this a potentially life threatening issue.

Some of the motorists located by police have been stranded for up to 24 hours without food or water and have walked long distances through dangerous terrain to get phone reception.

Bad directions and misidentified locations are usually just inconvenient or annoying; they do not usually lead to life-threatening scenarios. But in certain cases like this one, they can be, which is why Apple needs to get a fix in place as soon as possible. Apple is reportedly working to improve the bad imagery, misidentified locations and off-target directions. But this is not exactly great PR for the company and its brand new Maps product.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has admitted that Apple “screwed up” with its initial release of Maps in September, as he said last week in an interview with Bloomberg. Besides removing some former overseers of the project and assigning a new leader, Cook said, “We’re putting all of our energy into making it right. And we have already had several software updates. We’ve got a huge plan to make it even better.”

The sooner the details of this “huge plan” are revealed and implemented, the better.

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As mobile maps competition heats up, Google fine tunes Maps API for Android

Erica Ogg — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:33:55 +0000

Google has remained mostly mum on its plans for a Maps app for Apple’s mobile OS. But the company has been busy with mobile maps for its own platform: On Monday, Google announced an update to the Android API for Google Maps. With the update will come new, easier-to-display vector-based maps that are tweaked to perform better on Android tablets. There will also be new indoor and 3D maps navigable with tilting and rotating gestures.

The update means that the Google Maps API for Android is now vector-based, which is when mapping data is stored as a series of points and lines as opposed to pixels. That makes for easier and better pinching and zooming to points on a map; the previous version of Android maps had to load a new image every time the user zoomed to a new level, which made them look blurry or pixelated sometimes.

Google isn’t the first to take this approach with mobile maps: Apple’s taken a lot of heat over its decision to build its own Maps application for iOS, but it was widely praised for going with vectors. Some thought Google Maps looked a bit sluggish in light of Apple Maps.

Google Maps for mobile has long been the standard for most users thanks to its inclusion from 2007 until this fall as the default mapping app for the iPhone, as well as its presence on the most widely used mobile operating system, Android.

But with Apple throwing its hat into the mapping ring, Google is no longer the default for millions of mobile users. Nokia has also stepped up, and is looking to rejuvenate its business with its own rewritten and rebranded maps for desktop and mobile, called Here.

Google says its new mobile maps are already being used in several high-profile Android apps like FlightTrack, Expedia and Trulia. They can be accessed by updating those respective apps.

This story was updated at 2:05 p.m. to correct that the Google Maps API for Android is now vector-based. Google Maps were previously vector based.

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Report: Apple fires the manager in charge of its Maps app

Erica Ogg — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:29:29 +0000

In response to one of its biggest product flubs in years, Apple has reportedly fired the person who oversaw its Maps application for iOS. Richard Williamson, who was senior director for iOS platform services, has been dismissed from his job by SVP of Internet Services Eddy Cue, according to Bloomberg.

Cue took over responsibility for Maps last month when Apple announced SVP of iOS Software Scott Forstall would be leaving the company. Cue has been known as Apple’s “fixer” and has been charged with getting the Maps program into working shape after a disastrous debut with the company’s iOS 6 software in September. The app immediately drew complaints from users for poor mapping data and bad directions.

Williamson’s replacement has not been named, according to Bloomberg’s sources. But Cue has been talking with mapping experts at TomTom for ideas on how to improve Maps’ accuracy. From Bloomberg’s report:

A team at Apple has been working to fix the mapping mistakes, focusing first on some of the most glaring problems, one person said. The satellite imagery over the U.K. has been improved and labels for popular U.S. landmarks such as the Washington Monument have been corrected.

This isn’t the first head that has rolled at Apple over Maps. Forstall had long been a personality that didn’t mix well with his fellow executives, but the final straw in his ouster was said to be when he refused to apologize to Apple customers over the state in which the Maps app launched in September.

CEO Tim Cook ended up signing his name to the apology instead.

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Nokia’s Here mobile maps app arrives on iOS

Erica Ogg — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:33:08 +0000

Nokia’s big bet on mobile maps is now in Apple’s iOS App Store. The free app, called Here, showed up Tuesday morning, just a few days after Nokia introduced the service.

Apple’s own Maps app has been heavily criticized, and Google does not yet have a Maps app for iOS ready, so Nokia’s timing in offering an alternative on the iOS platform is good as it tries to build up its user base. Here has a few things going for it that Apple’s Maps don’t: offline availability, in-app public transit directions, and voice-guided turn-by-turn directions for walking.

But Here has its own quirks. The look of the maps aren’t as crisp and clean as Apple Maps. The Verge was able to take the app for a spin, and was impressed by some features, while disappointed in others, like the incomplete transit directions.

Incomplete transit directions and other missing data should be filled in the more people use Here — which is why getting on a widely used platform like iOS is so important to Nokia.

Here will eventually be available on Android and in Mozilla’s forthcoming Firefox OS.

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Is Apple bringing Maps, Siri to OS X? It’s testing the idea

Erica Ogg — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:39:37 +0000

We’re just four months removed from Mountain Lion’s official arrival, but Apple is looking ahead to the next version of OS X. Details on what could be in that version are starting to leak out: On Monday 9to5Mac reported that developers are currently testing OS X 10.9, which includes Apple’s own Maps app and its personal assistant, Siri.

Siri would be an upgrade from the Dictation app that Macs currently have. The Maps service may just be for developers who want to integrate Apple’s Maps into their Mac apps. But it could be something else too. Writes 9to5Mac:

With this MapKit framework, as developers refer to it for iOS, in OS X 10.9, it is also possible that Apple will extend its own work on mapping on the Mac besides integration for developers. It is possible that Apple will want its own full-fledged Maps app on the Mac, but we have not been able to confirm that as of yet.

The test version of OS X 10.9 is far from a final product, and anything could happen between now and next summer, when Apple has typically timed its Mac OS releases. But it’s entirely probable that these two services will eventually make the leap from iOS to OS X, perhaps even next year.

One of the hallmarks of 2011′s OS X upgrade was how many features and services built for iOS showed up in OS X: iMessage, Notes, Reminders, Notifications, Game Center, system-wide Twitter integration, AirPlay mirroring, and even little features like the sharing buttons. In that light, why wouldn’t Siri and Maps be next on the list?

Apple’s overarching strategy is for iCloud to hold all of its customers’ content so that any device — Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch — can access that content from anywhere. Part of ensuring a consistent experience across all of those devices will mean that all Apple services, especially heavily marketed features like Siri, will need to be available on all of them.

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New Nokia maps app, Here, coming soon to iOS

Erica Ogg — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 20:08:43 +0000

Now that Apple has left them an opening, competing mapmakers are wisely taking advantage. Nokia, the struggling smartphone maker on Tuesday announced a new mapping product called Here that will be available on a variety of platforms, including Apple’s iOS.

Here are a few details on the new Here product, as reported by the New York Times:

The company said on Tuesday that in the coming weeks it would release a maps app called Here in Apple’s App Store. It will be a free download for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch owners. Nokia also said it would release a toolkit for programmers to make Nokia-powered mapping apps for Android phones. And it is forming a partnership with Mozilla, the browser company, to develop location features for its new operating system, called Firefox OS.

Though the app isn’t released just yet, it could make Apple’s own Maps look behind the times. Here will be available online as well as when a user doesn’t have an internet connection. And more importantly for urban dwellers or those without cars, it will have public transit directions — which Apple still has yet to build into its own maps. Nokia also says that there will be turn-by-turn voice navigation for walking directions. And, it should be noted, if Nokia does expect its app to hit the iOS App Store in the next few weeks, it could beat Google, which is reportedly working on a new version of Google Maps for the iPhone.

Apple Maps is still the default mapping app for iOS devices running iOS 6 or later. But in the wake of the disaster that was the debut of Apple Maps, the company has encouraged users to try other maps apps while Apple improves its own product. CEO Tim Cook encouraged users to try competing apps like Bing, MapQuest, Waze and Google and Nokia maps in a web browser.

Nokia has been finetuning its mapping skills for a while, and this is probably the best opportunity in a long time (subscription required) to try to gain a new following with mobile users on iOS. Also, getting on more platforms means more user data to incorporate into its mapping product.

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