The Map Room

Aperture 3 was released earlier this month; the new release adds the geotagging features we previously saw in iPhoto ’09. (Previous versions of Aperture required plugins — for example, Maperture.) An important difference, noted by CNet’s comparison of the “carryover features” found in iPhoto ’09 and now Aperture 3, is that Aperture 3 supports importing tracks from GPS loggers. More on Aperture 3’s Places features.

Casio’s Exilim EX-10HG digital camera, with a built-in GPS and accelerometers to determine location indoors, was featured as a prototype at CES last month; it now appears that it will be released in October.

• Buy Aperture 3 at Amazon.com
• Buy Aperture 3 (Upgrade) at Amazon.com

You may recall that iPhoto ’09 supports geotagging, but requires manual input or a camera with a built-in or connected GPS unit — GPS loggers aren’t supported. Enter myTracks 2.0, a 10€ program that supports a number of GPS loggers and can add location data directly into iPhoto’s database. (I can’t evaluate this because, well, I don’t have a GPS logger.) It wouldn’t surprise me if there were more options for this sort of thing; third-party solutions to gaps in Apple’s feature sets tend to be multiple.

Previously: iPhoto, Geotagging, GPS and the Mac: A Post-Macworld Roundup.

Ortelius, the Mac mapping application I first blogged about two years ago, is finally available. I’ve downloaded the trial version (it’s only a 30-megabyte download); I’ll play around with it and tell you what I think (which should be interesting, given my complete lack of cartographic skills). The trial lasts 31 days and watermarks your projects; the app costs $79 until the end of September and $99 after that (there’s also an education discount). Via All Points Blog and La Cartoteca.

Previously: Ortelius: Forthcoming Mac Mapping Software.

A couple of articles by Derrick Story about geotagging went up on Macworld’s website back in April: one that looks at four automatic methods of geotagging, and one on using the geotagging features of iPhoto ’09, taking manual geotagging as a starting point. Via Richard.

The Mac isn’t exactly known as the most GIS-friendly platform out there, but Leszek has compiled a list of free, Mac-compatible GIS applications (most of them are cross-platform rather than Mac-only).

Maperture is a free geotagging plugin for Aperture, Apple’s pro-level photo management application. It allows you to click on a map (Maperture uses Google Maps) to assign geographical coordinates to your photos. Maperture worked as advertised on two batches of…  •  Continue reading this entry.

When it comes to Macintosh compatibility with GPS units, past entries have largely focused on Garmin’s Mac support. But Garmin certainly isn’t the only game in town on the Mac. Macworld reviews TomTom Home 2.5 for the Mac, which “allows…  •  Continue reading this entry.

It’s an Apple rumour, so take with the usual mountain-sized grain of salt, but if the next release of Mac OS X (10.6 “Snow Leopard”) includes the CoreLocation framework previously seen on the iPhone/iPod touch platform, says rumour site AppleInsider,…  •  Continue reading this entry.

For our purposes, the big news from Macworld earlier this month was iPhoto ’09’s built-in geotagging. iPhoto is not the first application to support geotagging, but it’s the first to provide a compelling answer to the question of what geotagging…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Ogle Earth points to the preview release of Cartographica, a GIS application for the Mac. You’ll have to make do with Stefan’s first impressions; I’m even less of a GIS pro than he says he is, and have no…  •  Continue reading this entry.

What’s this? The Google Earth browser plug-in now works on Mac browsers (Safari 3.1, Firefox 3.0)? Now I’ll (finally) be able to view certain Web sites properly. Digital Earth Blog, Google Earth Blog. The combined Intel/PowerPC download is apparently 47…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Macworld’s Ben Long takes a look at geotagging; it’s another one of those big-picture introductions, briefly noting a couple of cameras with built-in GPS before going on to spend most of its time on software solutions; a couple of gadgets…  •  Continue reading this entry.

GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr devices — they’re GPS loggers for geotagging — are now Mac-compatible, with the release of PhotoTrackr software for the Mac; MacNN, MacCentral. Richard notes that the software “is actually a special version of JetPhoto that adds a GiSTEQ…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Stefan looks at three GIS and GPS applications for the Mac: GISLook & GISMeta (shapefiles in Cover Flow and Quick Look), GPSInfo (geotagging photos), and GPS2Aperture (ditto)….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Geophoto has reached version 2: MacNN reports that it now features simpler tagging, “now sports closer integration with iLife ‘08 and .Mac Web Galleries, and can import photos from Aperture and Lightroom”; at $25, it’s also half its previous price….  •  Continue reading this entry.

If, like me, you’re a Mac user with an interest in geotagging, you must drop everything right now and read Bruce McKenzie’s guide to geotagging photos on the Mac; a more comprehensive guide to the subject I can’t imagine. Via…  •  Continue reading this entry.

MacNN reviews Meander, a Mac software application that, since we last saw it, has reached version 2.1.2 and has moved to another Web site and publisher. From the review: “In essence, Meander is a basic photo-editing program with a section…  •  Continue reading this entry.

I’ve had a few items cluttering up my to-do list that relate to Apple, the Mac and Mac software, and the iPhone/iPod since Macworld; time to stop procrastinating. iPhones and iPods. The iPhone’s mapping application got a major upgrade at…  •  Continue reading this entry.

On the Garmin blog, Chet tantalizes us with coy references to Mac-compatible hardware and software, especially a software product code-named “Bobcat,” to be announced this week at Macworld (Gizmodo). Garmin’s been behind on its now two-year-old promise to provide Mac…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Philip Riggs writes to mention a new Macintosh mapping application currently under development. It’s called Ortelius (after the sixteenth-century cartographer). From the web site: It is a dedicated map-making illustration program that knows geography. Instead of building maps from…  •  Continue reading this entry.

“The state of the union between inexpensive GPS loggers and the Mac is not so good,” Richard writes in a post looking at the state of Macintosh compatibility and support — both current and potential — for four GPS loggers….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Free Geography Tools had a seven-part geotagging series last month beginning with this post; it covered a number of Windows applications that I wouldn’t otherwise have been aware of. Richard Akerman has a couple of relevant posts on his Science…  •  Continue reading this entry.

An article about using GPS with a Mac from the current (September 2007) issue of Macworld. If you’ve been following this blog long enough, you will know that this is a subject dear to my heart. The article is brief…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Another Mac geotagging application to add to an already surprisingly large pile: Magrathea. Free (donationware), integrates with iLife and Flickr. Via Geotagging Flickr. Previously: More Mac Geotagging Utilities; Geophoto: Mac Geotagging Software; GPS, Geotagging Automator Actions for the Mac;…  •  Continue reading this entry.

HoudahGPS is an OS X front-end graphical interface for the open-source GPSBabel utility. It allows you to download data from a GPS receiver to a Mac. Unlike Houdah’s geotagging software, this application is free of charge. Via Ogle Earth….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Virtual globe applications are, with the exception of Google Earth, Windows-only, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use them on a Mac. Back in the PowerPC Mac days we had Virtual PC, which ran Windows inside an emulation window: there…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Geotagging links have been piling up in my note-taking application; time to flush the queue. How to geocode your photos, a long post on bike-community.net. Via GPS Tracklog. HoudahGeo is a Mac-only geotagging app. $35. Via Ogle Earth and TUAW….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Oops — another Garmin app for the Mac in beta: POI Loader, which allows you to upload points of interest to Garmin GPS from a Mac. Also via GPS Review. Keep it up, folks — I’ll get a GPS sooner…  •  Continue reading this entry.

WebUpdater is an application that updates the system software of Garmin GPS units. Previously Windows-only, a beta Mac version is now available for download. The usual caveats about using beta software probably apply. Via GPS Review….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Over on Ogle Earth, Stefan reviews Geophoto, the Mac-only geotagging photo application announced in January. “I’m conflicted about Geophoto,” he writes. “It is exceptionally simple, but it costs $50 for far less functionality than what you get in Google Earth…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Rob Boyer writes to tout his new software application, Ascent: “Ascent is a new application written for the Macintosh that is designed to help cyclists, runners, and hikers train better by displaying, in various ways, their activities uploaded from…  •  Continue reading this entry.

An awful lot of geotagging utilities for the Mac (adding metadata to a file is probably not a difficult programming task). Here are two more, from the same company: PhotoInfoEditor and PhotoGPSEditor; they’re practically identical except that the latter adds…  •  Continue reading this entry.

As promised (see previous entry), the Mac OS X version of Garmin’s Training Center software is now available. (See also GPS Tracklog, TUAW.)…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Also at Macworld, a new geotagging and photomapping application called Geophoto was announced: it apparently integrates with iPhoto on the one hand and Flickr and photo RSS feeds on the other, allowing you to both assign coordinates to your photos…  •  Continue reading this entry.

During his Macworld keynote presentation today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs just announced the iPhone, Apple’s mobile phone that doubles as an iPod and Internet communicator. One of the features announced for this phone — which won’t be shipping until…  •  Continue reading this entry.

For Mac users, some Automator actions to tell you about: GPS Automator Actions (which require GPSBabel) is a collection of scripts that automate downloading data from, and uploading to, a GPS unit and converting file formats; GeoTagging Automator Action…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Macworld: “Garmin’s recent announcement of new Mac software for runners, bikers and other outdoor sports enthusiasts has led some Mac users to wonder where the rest of their promised Mac software is. Garmin says they’re still working on it, though…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The Garmin blog announces the (long-delayed) availability of Training Center (the fitness software used by the Edge and Forerunner lines). Only not quite yet: “now available” (as per the press release headline) means that you can pick up a CD…  •  Continue reading this entry.

A couple of Google Earth items that made me happy. First, via Ogle Earth, the Google Earth Automator Pack, a (still-in-development) collection of Automator actions for the Macintosh version of Google Earth. Second, maps from the David Rumsey collection are…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Grant reviews the Mac version of National Geographic’s Topo! software: “a pretty decent package, but not great.” Via GPS Tracklog. Because the Topo! series is U.S.-only, I haven’t had cause to try it out; I hope someday to find an…  •  Continue reading this entry.

This post about hidden GPS and mapping settings in iPhoto has been making the rounds of the Mac rumour mill and the mapping blogs (AppleInsider, Ed Parsons, GPS Review, MacRumors, Ogle Earth). My response is, cool your jets, everyone. If…  •  Continue reading this entry.

M. Krause writes, “I’m starting a small antique map collection and would like to keep track of it on my computer (Macintosh). Is there map collection software available that will keep track of my inventory? I have searched the web…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Macworld reviews Meander 1.2, a $20 Mac application (it’s nagware) that presents an oblique solution to a common problem: drawing routes on online maps. It works on the premise — one that many of us could confirm anecdotally — that…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Via Ogle Earth: GPS Photo Linker is software to save GPS data to a photo. iPhotoToGoogleEarth exports photos to Google Earth. You should have GPS data assigned to the photo data; isn’t it handy that you already have GPS Photo…  •  Continue reading this entry.

RouteBuddy, a new Mac GPS and mapping application, was announced today (Cartotalk; GPS Review; MacNN; MacWorld; Ogle Earth). It’s a bit of an enigma: at first I wasn’t sure what problem it was trying to solve. After all, there…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Peter Rukavina explores GIS applications for Mac OS X: “The last time I went looking for a desktop GIS application for my Mac all I found was the beast of a system that is GRASS. … Suddenly it seems that…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Drat. Garmin’s previously announced plans for Mac compatibility across its product lines (see previous entry) have been delayed somewhat: Training Center will come at the end of the year rather than the spring (obviously), with other products to follow. See…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The announcement of version 3.5 drew my attention to iMap, and since I assiduously follow map-related software for the Mac, as you know, I should mention its existence here: it’s apparently an application that lets you generate maps from data…  •  Continue reading this entry.

News from Google’s Geo Developer Day, reported by Google Earth Blog, Ogle Earth and The Unofficial Apple Weblog: Google Earth version 4.0 (beta) is now available, with a new interface for all platforms. I say “all platforms,” because there is…  •  Continue reading this entry.

MacGPS Pro 6.4 is a Universal Binary, which means it will now run natively on Macs with Intel processors (rather than via Rosetta emulation). Via MacNN. See previous entries: MacGPS Pro 6.1; Mac Geocaching and GPS Software; Garmin Announces Mac…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The Batch Geocoding Blog has a comparison of the Google, MapQuest and Yahoo! mapping APIs; it’s a quick outline of what the author sees as the pros and cons of each. Via Very Spatial. Alex Stengel says MapMemo 2.5…  •  Continue reading this entry.

(I’m going to try calling these link roundups “Triangulations” and see how that goes.) Via GPS Tracklog, the difference between Garmin’s and Magellan’s topo maps. The National Geographic Society is planning a “mega-map” of the Sonoran Desert region. “It will…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Macworld takes a second look at Google Earth; meanwhile, Google Earth, which was previously Tiger-only, has been quietly made available for OS X 10.3.9. And finally, the first book about Google Earth is finally out — but it’s in German….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Richard Crawford writes, “Is there any software that will enable my Mac to open and read the Ordnance Survey Software and maps that I have on my PC? Or another program for Mac that will open .qct, .qem or .mmi…  •  Continue reading this entry.

A busy day for Mac users, and not just because of the Macworld keynote. Google Earth for the Mac is now officially available (via GPS Review). Key system requirements: OS X 10.4 (Tiger), a 400-MHz processor, and 16 MB of…  •  Continue reading this entry.

In a press release, Garmin announced today “that it will immediately begin to make its line of GPS and mobile electronics devices compatible with Mac OS X version 10.4 ‘Tiger.’ This makes Garmin the first major GPS designer and manufacturer…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Jeremy Atherton’s page on geocaching with a Mac lists a whole whack of Macintosh-compatible GPS software. Via GPS Review. Update, 5:08 PM: GPS Review also points to another bit of Mac software: TrailRunner, route planning freeware that apparently supports importing…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Frank Bisono and Jaron Brass have managed to take a look at the Google Earth OS X preview that seems to be making the rounds; both have dual or quad G5 Power Macs, so naturally they report good performance. Commenters…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Mac rumour site AppleInsider claims that a long-hoped-for OS X version of Google Earth is under development: “Earlier this month, a pre-release version of Google Earth for Mac OS X that uses OpenGL rendering reportedly began making the rounds overseas….  •  Continue reading this entry.

A Virtual Earth Dashboard Widget for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and a tutorial explaining how it was done. See previous entries: More Widgets; Houston Traffic Widget; Dashboard Widgets….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Speaking of bias, my overwhelming interest in Mac software reveals itself when I point out that version 6.1 of MacGPS Pro was announced yesterday. It adds support for some USB Garmin GPS receivers (serial-port support via an adapter only prior…  •  Continue reading this entry.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are several hacks out there to change the Mac OS X Address Book’s address-mapping feature from MapQuest to other mapping services. (See previous entries: Map Sites: Hints, Tips and Observations; More Address Book Hacks.) The…  •  Continue reading this entry.

I’ve talked about using a GPS with a Mac before, and even — back when this blog’s audience was a fraction of what it is now — solicited my readers’ opinions on which GPS I, as a Mac user (or…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Alexander Stengel reports that MapMemo 2 is now out. (See previous entry for version one.) It’s an interesting concept: software that allows you to geotag your files and links and display them on a map from which you can open…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Macworld gives a glowing review to 3D Weather Globe & Atlas (see previous entry)….  •  Continue reading this entry.

If you’re running Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”, here are a couple more map-related Dashboard widgets. Quick lookups are the epitome of Dashboard, so it makes sense that location- and mapping-based widgets will proliferate; it’s worthwhile to keep an eye…  •  Continue reading this entry.

I installed Tiger last night, about which one of the big to-dos is Dashboard, a layer of HTML/Javascript-based widgets that you can call up with a keypress and dismiss just as easily: handy for things like calculators and quick lookups….  •  Continue reading this entry.

More scripts to change the mapping service that Mac OS X’s Address Book uses (see previous entry): this one points it at the Swiss map.search.ch (see previous entry); this one points it at Multimap. Via Mac OS X Hints….  •  Continue reading this entry.

GRASS, the open-source GIS software, has been available for Mac OS X before; on Friday, OpenOSX announced GrassPro, which, in addition to GRASS 6.0.0, adds several related utilities. Panther and X11 required….  •  Continue reading this entry.

A few random links about map sites this morning. Mapquest hacks, to use or avoid highways or toll routes (via Ask MetaFilter; see also this). In OS X’s Address Book, clicking on the address brings up a contextual menu in…  •  Continue reading this entry.

As you know, I like to keep track of what Mac mapping or GPS software is out there. Here’s another one: GPSNavX, which is boating software — both navigation and GPS — for OS X. The folks behind this one…  •  Continue reading this entry.

A couple of links tonight; the tenuous connection is that they both have to do with the weather and satellite imagery. I’ve never heard of Software MacKiev before, but they appear to do educational software for the Mac. They’ve released…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Speaking of GPS receivers. Because of poor-to-nonexistent Mac support by GPS manufacturers, Mac users have to resort to third-party software to connect to their gadgets (see previous entries: Mac Mapping Software, Mac Software Updates). One option I was aware of…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Alexander Stengel writes to announce version 1.0 of MapMemo, a free Mac OS X-only application which allows you to associate various files with maps. This means, for example, you could take an image file and link it to a position…  •  Continue reading this entry.

MacMinute reported updates to desktop mapping and GPS software for the Macintosh yesterday: EarthDesk 2.5, which generates a realtime map of the Earth on your desktop; and MacGPS 5.0, third-party software for using (normally Windows-only) GPS receivers with a Mac….  •  Continue reading this entry.