ForeverMap provides both online and offline mapping functionality, based on OpenStreetMap. The first iteration used a much older version of Skobbler’s technology and required the user to download a rather hefty 1.5GB of data covering all territories, regardless of where they intended to use the app.

The new version, ForeverMap 2, has been available for Android since November, but is now also out there for iPhone and iPad. It aims to provide the best of both online and offline worlds – to allow proper offline search and routing, unlike Google Maps, and to allow online functionality, unlike travel apps such as CityMaps2Go. Its coverage is global, and users can choose to download offline maps on a per-country basis.

“We know that modern users want one map that handles all of their needs, and we believe we’ve delivered this with a genuinely innovative hybrid solution based on the popular, rich and dynamic OpenStreetMap,” Skobbler CTO Philipp Kandal said in a statement.

However, while ForeverMap2 is a consumer play, it is also a showcase of Skobbler’s GeOS SDK and NGx mapping engine. As co-founder Marcus Thielking told me, it gives the company’s prospective white label clients – who are largely in the automotive business – “a good template” for what they could build on top of the product.

“It’s the perfect pitching tool – we just give it to them and they can see what we can do,” he said. Previously announced customers for Skobbler’s technology include the city guide app outfit Triposo.

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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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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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Now, with an update to version 3.5, Waze users on iOS  and Android  can sign-in with Facebook and see when friends are navigating to the same place and get their estimated time of arrival. Users can send a pick-up request to another user, allowing the recipient to easily navigate to that location. The sender can also track their ride on a map and see their ETA, even without having the Waze app.

Users can also proactively share their location with others by sending a link, which allows anyone to track their progress without having to use the Waze app. For the privacy conscious, Waze offers users the option to go invisible.

The update to 3.5 also includes redesigned maps, an improved interface and other features, such as the ability to see toll roads while routing, send private messages and save parking locations.

Waze has been on fire lately, thanks in part to the botched roll out of Maps on iOS 6. It now reaches 29 million users, up from 13 million six months ago and 26 million just a month ago. Di-Ann Eisnor, Waze’s VP of platforms and partnerships, told me that the company probably picked up an extra 1 million users thanks to iOS 6 and Apple CEO Tim Cook’s endorsement of Waze a Maps alternative.

She said the latest improvements to Waze are designed to help users be more efficient with the system and assist them in connecting through Waze. That’s how many people already use Waze — to pick each other up and meet with friends and contacts who are out and about.

“This is the most social we’ve ever been and the most we’ve dared to go,” said Eisnor. “We wanted to make sure it’s about the driving experience, not another way to look at Facebook. People are already driving with Waze, this is just going to make it much more social.”

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On Monday, Ford’s navigation technology provider TeleNav announced an Android version of its Scout navigation app to complement its already launched iPhone mapping app. The Google Play version works just like the iPhone version, with one exception: if you own an AppLink equipped car the app will automatically connect to your vehicle, turning your dash into scale-downed version vehicle navigation system. So far, the app only works on Verizon, AT&T and Sprint Android phones, but TeleNav said it would support T-Mobile users shortly.

You won’t get all of the bells whistles of a dedicated nav system. There is no big interactive map or 3D renderings of the your route. But AppLink’s more limited screen will display individual route instructions and give you voice prompts. The app also taps into Sync’s voice command system so you can access all of the preset destinations in your phone and uses the device’s data connection to search for addresses or points of interest. You can tell the app to take you home or to look for fast food or gas stations.

It’s the first time that Ford has integrated on-board navigation directly with a smartphone – so far it’s focused primarily on entertainment “radio” apps. And in the process it’s showing its willingness to rethink how it sells services in the vehicle. To activate Scout’s Car Connect feature you have to pay $25 a year annual subscription (or $5 a month if you go month-by-month), but that’s peanuts compared to what Ford could get by selling car buyers expensive embedded nav systems and their accompanying subscriptions.

What’s more the strategy allows Ford to bring navigation to much broader array of vehicles, as Sync AppLink percolates down to all makes and models. The app runs off the smartphone and uses Sync’s dash controls merely as an interface, so Ford doesn’t have to make a big investments in hardware to support it.

Ford Connected Services and Solutions Chief Technologist John Ellis will be at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference this week, discussing just how Ford is reinventing itself as an application platform on wheels. It’s not only Ford that that’s treading into the unknown turf of applications. All of the automakers are wrestling with same questions of how open their connected cars should be to third party development and what services they should control.

Chevrolet has set out on a similar course to Ford and has potentially more at risk. It’s introducing a new smartphone nav app in the fourth quarter called BringGo to its MyLink connected car platform, which will bring an even richer in-vehicle experience to new Spark and Sonic models, which could cannibalize revenues from Chevy’s OnStar navigation services. Unlike Sync AppLink, Chevy’s latest version of MyLink has a seven-inch color touch screen, and Chevy is taking advantage of it. Not only will BringGo display maps directly on that screen, customers can use the touch screen interface to interact with the app.

Ford hasn’t gone that far yet, but it easily could. It’s higher-end connected car system MyFord Touch features all of the necessary hardware to recreate the full embedded navigation experience in its pricier vehicles. Ford has made embedded navigation standard its in all MyFord Touch package, but since TeleNav builds that nav system it could easily integrate its smartphone apps with the on-board platform.

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Telenav opened Scout to iOS developers back in March, so expanding to further platforms was a given. But in addition to announcing Android and Windows support on Wednesday, the company making it easier for any developer to nav-enable mobile websites as well, said Dariusz Paczuski, VP of products and marketing. Telenav plans to make available a new “Drive Button” widget, which once present will immediate launch a browser-based navigation session to a specified location.

The idea is target the growing number of local businesses that are creating a presence on the mobile web, Paczuski said. Since the aim for these restaurants, stores and coffee shops is to generate more foot traffic, a pretty valuable website feature is one that leads those customers right to their doors.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock user Ana de Sousa

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Users of the $49.95 app — it’s a one-time fee — can supplement their navigation and traffic map needs with these new social location apps that are typically used in a standalone version. Link the TomTom app to your Foursquare account and you can find, navigate and check-in to Foursquare locations in a single app:

Find millions of exciting places to visit by searching with Foursquare, even if you are not a Foursquare user. Log into Foursquare and you can also check in at your destination so you don’t miss any points on your way to becoming its new mayor.

The same holds true for the Facebook Places integration from the last software update, making it easier and faster to find locations that friends have recommended.

Given that GPS-enabled smartphones and navigation software have provided a lower-cost option than single-purpose navigation devices, this is a smart move by TomTom. Adding both search and check-in features for Foursquare and Facebook adds value to users of both social networking services, allowing companies such as TomTom to not be shut out of revenues by Google Maps and other mobile apps that replace standalone GPS navigation devices.

This So-Lo-Mo trend is a concept we’ll be talking about in more detail next month at our Mobilize 2012 event in San Francisco. In particular, we’ll be chatting with Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff to better understand how the traditional location-based real estate market is moving towards a mobile-friendly environment with social networking opportunities.

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For Amazon, which doesn’t have a mapping service of its own, the acquisition seems to mark a move into new territory. To access maps on the Kindle Fire, users must download third-party Android apps or access online mapping services through the browser. The Kindle Fire doesn’t currently include a GPS radio but the UpNext acquisition, which would help Amazon offer native mapping capabilities, potentially points to a more robust Kindle Fire in the future, as well as an Amazon smartphone.

Founded in 2007 by high school friends Raj Advani, Vik Advani, Robin Har and Danny Moon, New York-based UpNext offers interactive, detailed three-dimensional maps of cities and venues. The four co-founders mostly bootstrapped the company until March 2011, when they raised $500,000. The company’s investors include Chris Sacca’s Lowercase Capital, David Cohen’s Bullet Time Ventures, David Tisch’s Box Group and Paul Sethi’s PKS Capital. UpNext and Amazon did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

While the price of the acquisition is undisclosed, we’ve heard that investors are getting a 5x return on the investment from 16 months ago. As part of the deal, the four-person company will be shipping off to Seattle to lead the company’s core mapping effort, according to a source familiar with the matter.

UpNext, which had apparently been pursued by other major tech companies, has launched apps for the iPad, iPhone and Android devices. It covers 50 cities nationwide, and, for 23 cities, it offers enhanced details. It’s also partnered with the NFL to develop Super Bowl guides that include 3D maps of the stadium and surrounding area. Through the apps, users can virtually drop down onto city streets and tap their way to more information about buildings and different views of the area. The dynamic maps also provide point to point directions.

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I tested out the new Maps app Apple officially announced last week on my iPhone during my commute, and here are some notes on my experience.

But Siriously

One advantage I’ve found with Maps over a dedicated mapping app is Apple’s incorporation of Siri. There are a couple of places I go to where I know 98 percent of the route, but always forget where the last turn is. Until now, I’ve kept Navigon running in the background on my phone the entire trip so I don’t have to fumble with getting it ready in the middle of traffic in Boston. Now with Apple’s new Maps, I can just listen to music until I get off the highway and ask Siri, “How do I get to Dave’s house?” This also works for trying to get to sports arenas and the like. Asking Siri, “How do I get to the Worcester Centrum?” prompted me with two choices. All I had to do was tap the one I wanted to go to.

The downside to Siri, and Maps in general, is you need cellular connectivity for it all to work properly. While you’re likely to be able to cache a lot of the route directions with Maps, if you deviate from the route you’ll have a problem. The one advantage I expect a dedicated GPS app to always have over Maps is the ability to have the map files stored locally.

Home Sweet Home

I gave Maps an easy task: take me home from work. I have a 50-minute commute on both highways and backroads. One of the chief complaints I have with dedicated GPS apps, like Navigon, is the somewhat creative ways it takes me to my destination. I was expecting that with Maps. But instead of taking me on a tour of every neighborhood between Providence and Boston, it showed me a turn I could take to save me five minutes and avoid a traffic light.

Backseat Driver

Maps overlays a small panel on either the active app or your home screen, that shows you how far it is until your next turn and whether it’s a right or left. This is a gigantic improvement over keeping your dedicated app in the foreground. I usually like keeping Music as my active app so I can skip or replay songs. Now, I’ll also know when I need to worry about the next turn. Also, it’s smart enough to tell you if you need to make an immediate right after that left-hand turn.

What I do hope will be improved is how it calculates the difference between those turns. Often as I rolled up to the light I needed to turn at, Maps told me I was 400 feet away. Then it would quickly bring me to 40 feet away. The problem is, I was actually about five feet from the turn. Looking at the map was the best indication to me that, yes, this is where I needed to turn.

Putting it in Park

Like I said at the beginning, when looking at unreleased software, it’s difficult to be overly critical. Software usually improves with age, and rage-inducing bugs are slowly eliminated. However, even in its early state, Maps made replacing my broken car mount for my iPhone a priority. It’s also moved Navigon to the back of the pack of my installed apps.

There are also a lot of things in Maps that I’ve intentionally left out due the nature of the beta. You will notice I’ve not talked about satellite imagery and 3D maps. That’s because Apple has posted that Maps’ satellite images and 3D maps are still in the process of being loaded. We’ll be doing and in-depth article on Maps when iOS 6 launches this fall.

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The commission shot down LightSquared’s 4G plans last month after the GPS industry and federal agencies claimed that its high-powered LTE systems would overpower commercial and government GPS receivers, which use a neighboring band. But on Friday, LightSquared said it is petitioning the FCC to either reconsider that decision or compensate it with new, less-controversial spectrum over which to launch its network.

“They can’t just leave us without some alternative to build a network,” said Jeff Carlisle, the company’s EVP for regulatory affairs and public policy, at a briefing with media on Friday.

Carlisle said ideally the FCC would green-light its network, but if the commission rules that all or a portion of LightSquared’s 50-plus MHz of L-band spectrum can’t coexist with GPS, then it must swap it out with a similar amount of airwaves in a band suitable for mobile broadband. To make its case, LightSquared summed up all of its beefs with the government and the GPS industry in a filing it will soon submit to the FCC.

LightSquared: It’s not us, it’s you

Those complaints are numerous. Foremost, LightSquared claims that the whole interference mess isn’t the fault of its network, but of sloppy receiver design by companies like Garmin and Trimble – LightSquared’s transmissions aren’t encroaching on GPS’s turf, rather GPS is listening in on its spectrum. Given that LightSquared is coloring within the lines, it claims that the GPS industry should be afforded no legal protection.

Technically LightSquared is right, though interference was never a problem until LightSquared tried to rezone its L-band spectrum from satellite to terrestrial use. Even if the FCC were to agree, the commission is still in a tough spot since allowing LightSquared’s network to go forward could jeopardize consumer, commercial and government navigation and location devices across the country.

But, in its filing, LightSquared also claimed that wasn’t the case. It called the government interference tests “deeply flawed,” asked the FCC for new evaluations of its methodology and conclusions, and demanded that it explore the fixes LightSquared has proposed to mitigate any interference that might remain. Finally, LightSquared claimed it was getting a raw deal. The FCC encouraged LightSquared to build its LTE network to meet national broadband goals, but was now reneging due to political and industry pressures, LightSquared claimed.

LightSquared has a long road ahead

The FCC decision isn’t final until after a public comment period, so LightSquared will get a hearing. If it doesn’t get permission to move forward or receive compensation in the form of alternate airwaves, it could still try the courts – which LightSquared indicated was a possibility. But even if it overcomes all of those obstacles, it still has to find a way to build its network.

On Friday, Sprint severed its ties with LightSquared, taking its commitment to build and operate LightSquared’s network with it. LightSquared now has to find another network-hosting partner or raise billions of dollars to fund its own build-out. Meanwhile, LightSquared only has enough funding to keep going another few quarters, the company said.

Update. The Coalition to Save Our GPS on Friday also filed its comments (pdf) with the FCC in the LightSquared matter. You can pretty much sum up its views in a few words: Kill it now. Here’s an excerpt:

All parties except LightSquared have reached the conclusion that [LightSquared's spectrum] is not [compatible with existing adjacent-band GPS operations]. Therefore, the FCC’s International Bureau should act quickly in adopting its proposal to affirm the findings of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (“NTIA”) that LightSquared’s proposed operations would cause harmful interference to GPS and that no feasible mitigation measures exist at this time, revoke the conditional authority that the International Bureau provided to LightSquared, and suspend indefinitely LightSquared’s [terrestrial network] authorization.

Tower Image courtesy of Flickr user Nikhil Verma.

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