LI Blog

LBS Giants Qualcomm and Nokia Settle Lawsuits; Qualcomm Revises Guidance | July 24
By joe francica
Two of the biggest movers and shakers in LBS, Qualcomm (QCOM) and Nokia (NOK), announced that all outstanding lawsuits had been settled. Under a 15-year agreement, the two companies have resolved difference covering various Qualcomm patents for use in Nokia devices. In a separate announcement, Qualcomm announced (PDF) their third Q3 results and revised guidance slightly

Microsoft Make trueSpace Free, Ties it into Virtual Earth | July 24
By Adena Schutzberg
This is the next phase after Microsoft acquired Caligari (apb post) and its trueSpace 3D toolkit last year. Chris Pendleton at the Virtual Earth, Evangelist's blog explains and provides an answer to "how to make money with 3D."

ESRI Lands Nearly $8 Million NGA Contract | July 22
By Adena Schutzberg
The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency has awarded $7,914,778 for the development of a prototype to address "data fusion within a geospatial environment," according to a DoD statement. Work will be done at Redlands to be complete by July 18, 2010. - PE.com

Podcast: MISO and ESRI: Current Status and the Future | July 22
By Adena Schutzberg
MISO are Microsoft, IBM, SAP and Oracle, the big enterprise players in the market today. All have a toe or more in GIS, but all also have a tie to ESRI. What's the state of those relationships and what new players also want and need to hook up with the big E? Our editors explore these questions and toss in

Quote of the Week | July 21
By Adena Schutzberg
"For me, we've always been a believer that Sony Ericsson has done a lot in the past and had a good portfolio. But they've got settled in a comfort zone; they do music and digital imaging very well, but these are now a given for consumers. People are looking for something else now, and that's GPS and browsing and Internet

Arrington: Facebook, MySpace Blow it on iPhone without Location | July 17
By Adena Schutzberg
Michael Arrington at TechCruch (via Washington Post) chastises the two social networks because while they offer effective and popular apps for the iPhone, neither added in location, something he says is the only way to draw new users. But while both applications are useful for heavy users, they won't drive new users to the services because they failed to leverage

Loopt Privacy Issues - Not Location Related | July 17
By Adena Schutzberg
To my amazement this kruffufle is not about sharing one's location, but rather unintended invites going out, per an InformationWeek blog. To Loopt's credit, it addressed the issue, apologized and fixed the problem.

Disposable LBS Apps | July 17
By Adena Schutzberg
Stan Schroeder over at Mashable write on his idea: Location-Aware Disposable Apps For The iPhone. The iPhone part is just obligatory hype since any mobile with location sensing could support the concept. So, what is the concept? It's not really disposable, but location-activated installation for apps. One example: when you are near the train station an app would "pop

ESRI Podcast Series #7: What's New in ArcGIS Mobile 9.3 | July 16
By joe francica
In this podcast, Myles Sutherland, ArcGIS Mobile Product Manager at ESRI, discusses what users can expect with the latest release of ArcGIS Mobile 9.3. Myles talks about the new ready-to-use mobile application as well as productivity enhancements to the ArcGIS Mobile Software Developer Kit. He also highlights a number of the mobile events at the upcoming ESRI International User Conference.

BI Apps for the iPhone | July 15
By joe francica
Oracle and Pentaho have announced the support for bringing business intelligence (BI) applications to the iPhone. I see this as a more important game changer that could potentially unseat RIM as the perferred business communication device that also brings location technology into the mix. While Pentaho, an open source BI application, have already created a way to

Podcast: You are a Sensor | July 15
By Adena Schutzberg

Clever researchers have determined that you, even without a portable device can be an effective geographic sensor. This week we explore examples of how individuals, sometimes along with their electronic gadgets, can act as effective sensors for disease or natural disaster. Our editors share some proven techniques and explore how this type of data collection might play out in the

Implications of "Mashup" JavaScript API for ArcGIS Server | July 14
By Adena Schutzberg
As more and more of the "good stuff" for GIS serves developers it's getting harder perhaps for users and their managers to understand the implications. Programmable Web does a nice job explaining ESRI's new ArcGIS JavaScript API that supports via extensions Google Maps and Virtual Earth. What's hidden below, perhaps, is the rest of the story: that this may

Brightkite API Beta Opens (requests only) | July 11
By Adena Schutzberg
The BrightKite blog has details. Wow it must be really hard to figure out what LBS platform to develop on, let alone use in your day to day life. via Profy

Vietnam City not Happy with State's Land Information System | July 10
By Adena Schutzberg
Le Manh Ha is the Director of the Ho Chi Minh (HCM) City Department of Post and Telecommunications. He's not happy with the software provided by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MoNRE) for land management and has recommended the City People’s Committee not use it. In particular, he notes, that HCM City Department of Natural Resources and

AT&T 3G US Coverage Map | July 10
By Adena Schutzberg
The 3G iPhone goes on sale tomorrow. I note that since I received at least one e-mail telling it was already available; sure Mr. Pogue has one, but not any regular folks. One of Pogue's (and other's) issues is that the 3G for fast access is not widespread. Before you stand in line, check out the coverage map. The

ESRI Acquires Building in Alpharetta, Ga. | July 10
By Adena Schutzberg
No word on the price, but it's a big place. The five-story building has 129,400 square feet and is at Brookside Concourse, which is part of the 204-acre mixed-use Brookside business park. The 45-acre Brookside Concourse, at Highway 120 just east of Georgia 400, eventually will have more than 550,000 square feet of single- and multi-story office space. - Atlanta Business

U.S. Senate to Investigate Web-based Micromarketing and Tracking | July 9
By joe francica
The New York Times is reporting today that the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will hold hearings on how Internet marketers and ISP can track your surfing behavior. Watchdog agencies are suggesting that some are violating federal law. NebuAd, an Internet marketing company that works with ISPs to help track web activity is providing a way for Web

Why Fire Eagle hasn't convinced Rory of the wonders of LBS | July 9
By Adena Schutzberg
Rory Cellan-Jones writes at the BBC blog dot.life about his testing of Fire Eagle. I was disappointed that he didn't seem to get or take advantage of the control users have of their location information, but I was impressed he stated the problems he ran into and how he didn't get LBS. First the problems: That's the theory. In

Popular Science Google Earth Environment Guide | July 8
By Adena Schutzberg
In case you missed it (I think I did) PopSci offers vignettes of 5 science apps built on Google Earth including: volcano ash prediction, hurricane growth, biomapping, ice cap mapping and bird flu.

Podcast: Web Mapping Platform Migration | July 8
By Adena Schutzberg

Last week Ask.com moved off its longtime mapping platform to Microsoft's Virtual Earth. What are the practical choices these days for those who want mapping as part of their portals? Has customization and a unique look and feel been overshadowed by a few strong hosted solutions to which everyone will eventually migrate? Our editors sort out the options and trends

Podcast: Web Mapping Platform Migration | July 8
By Adena Schutzberg

Loopt Launches Web, taxi-based videos to build the brand | July 7
By Adena Schutzberg
The campaign launches today and is aimed at tech-savvy young consumers. The webisodes feature David Price, host of the Internet's "Middle Show," (never heard of it but apparently it's in the late night vein). He uses Loopt's mobile friend-finding technology as he travels around New York City. There's a Loopt ad and a plug from the host for Loopt around

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