The Map Room

I’ve done a lousy job trying to keep up with all the map- and navigation-related stuff coming out for the iOS platform (i.e., iPhone, iPad, iPod touch). There’s just too much out there. (Someone could do a whole blog about it.) But here are a couple of recent items.

GPS Tracklog notes the Bad Elf GPS, which attaches to iOS devices that lack onboard GPS.

(If I recall correctly, the iPad supports GPS via Bluetooth: you can, for example, tether a WiFi-only iPad to an iPhone and use the iPhone’s GPS.)

Meanwhile, The Unofficial Apple Weblog’s Erica Sadun offers reviews of Navigon’s and TomTom’s navigation apps for the iPhone, both of which sound, well, less than perfect. Despite Navigon’s navigation “oddities,” she prefers their app to TomTom’s because of the latter app’s “weak interface.”

• Buy Bad Elf GPS Receiver at Amazon.com

Esri’s Storytelling with Maps competition invites entrants to “[t]ell us your story and submit your best web map or mobile app that informs, educates, and engages the audience about a topic or event”; the map or app must have been made using Esri software. Via All Points Blog.

Glenn Fleischman’s article on Macworld.com, How the iPhone knows where you are, explains in great detail how an iPhone — or anything else using assisted GPS — can figure out where it is far more quickly than it could using GPS alone (which can take up to 12½ minutes), thanks to cell tower and Wi-Fi trilateration.

Some developments on the iPhone/iPad tracking story since I last posted. For now, I’ll just refer you to the links.

First, Peter Batty’s must-read posts on the subject: So actually, Apple isn’t recording your (accurate) iPhone location; More on Apple recording your iPhone location history; The scoop: Apple’s iPhone is NOT storing your accurate location, and NOT storing history.

A follow-up from the original researchers: Additional iPhone tracking research (O’Reilly Radar).

Opinion: Mike Elgan at Computerworld; Brian X. Chen and Mike Isaac on Why You Should Care About the iPhone Location-Tracking Issue.

Today, Apple has posted a Q&A on the issue: they say it’s a cache of a subset of a larger hotspot and cell tower database, not location tracking.

This could be interesting. Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden report today at Where 2.0 that they’ve discovered that iPhones and 3G iPads have been recording their positions and storing them in one large — unencrypted — tracklog file, and are raising the alarm at the privacy implications. “Anybody with access to this file knows where you’ve been over the last year, since iOS 4 was released.” They’ve yet to hear back from Apple on this. The basic questions: what is the purpose of collecting this data, and why is it being stored in this (possibly insecure) manner?

Reif Larsen’s 2009 novel, The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet, about a precocious 12-year-old cartographer, is now available as an iPad app (iTunes link). Unfortunately not available in Canada, so I can’t say more than that. Via @HodderGeography….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Paper maps have been replaced by their digital equivalents in many fields, but the idea that paper aviation charts could be replaced by an app running on an iPad is something new. Wired: “The Federal Aviation Administration is allowing charter…  •  Continue reading this entry.

A couple of recent announcements from MapQuest: walking and transit directions for the desktop/web version (playing catchup here — Google added walking directions in 2008, Bing in 2010 — but playing catchup is better than not playing at all) and…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Macworld takes a look at 11 iPhone GPS apps, following up on a similar article from a year ago (that I somehow seem to have missed). Compared with last year, Glenn Fleishman writes, Most apps have gone through substantial revisions…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Gizmodo ranks the best navigation apps for the iPhone and Android platforms, awarding gold, silver and bronze medals (figuratively, of course) in each….  •  Continue reading this entry.

The Guardian’s Bike Blog reviews CycleStreets, a free iPhone app; it’s essentially turn-by-turn navigation for cyclists. UK-only, using OpenStreetMap data. Via Steve Chilton. Avenza has announced PDF Maps, a geospatial PDF reader (i.e., PDFs with embedded spatial data). Universal app…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Stefan Geens has discovered that the Maps app on the Chinese version of the iPhone 4 shows the Chinese-censored version of Google Maps (e.g., with the “official” national boundaries approved by the Chinese government), whether or not the phone is…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Mobile versions of Google Earth now have bathymetric and other ocean data: it came with Google Earth 1.1 for Android last month and Google Earth 3.1 for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad today….  •  Continue reading this entry.

In an interview with Reuters, Garmin CFO Kevin Rauckman said sales of Garmin’s mobile phones have been below expectations and that if the situation does not improve within a couple of quarters, Garmin will “have to sit back and evaluate…  •  Continue reading this entry.

AndroGeoid takes a look at the new official Bing Maps app for Android. AndroGeoid is a new blog about mapping, location, GIS, GPS, geography and so forth on the Android platform; it’s by Leszek Pawlowicz, whom you may remember from…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Macworld has a roundup of hurricane tracking apps for the iPhone and iPad — after all, it’s not like there won’t be any more of them after Earl….  •  Continue reading this entry.

James Fee reviews iExtMap, a mobile GIS viewer for the iPhone and iPod touch (it’ll work on an iPad, but not natively). iTunes link. Despite some issues, “I think there is a ton to like about iExtMap,” says James. “Out…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Eddie Jabbour’s KickMap — an imaginative redesign of the New York subway map that tries to address the confusing and complex network of express and local lines — first came to my attention in 2007. Since then, the KickMap…  •  Continue reading this entry.

AllSubway HD is an iPad app that collects more than 100 subway and mass transit maps from cities around the world. That’s about all that can be said about it: it’s essentially an image viewer, with no other features,…  •  Continue reading this entry.

A new twist from the company I posted about earlier this month that was flooding the iTunes app store with hundreds of $1.99 and $2.99 offline map viewers that use OpenStreetMap tiles. All Points Blog reports that they’re now offering…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Working from the idea that it’s counterintuitive to use the iPad as a navigation device due to its size, Forbes.com looks at users and software developers who are nevertheless gravitating to using the iPad in just that manner. There’s more…  •  Continue reading this entry.

James Cheshire offers his first impressions of the new ArcGIS iPhone/iPod touch/iPad app. I’m continuing to poke away at it on my iPad, but as I’ve said before, people who know their ArcGIS are better situated to evaluate this…  •  Continue reading this entry.

ESRI’s ArcGIS for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is now available in the iTunes app store. It’s a free download that, among other things, provides access to ArcGIS Online. I’ve installed it on my iPad and have been…  •  Continue reading this entry.

I’m trying to decide whether this passes the smell test. While searching for navigation apps for the iPad to check out for possible review, I came across scores and scores of street map apps that were identical except for the…  •  Continue reading this entry.

GPS Tracklog has a hands-on review of the T-Mobile Garminfone; Rich is impressed with Garmin’s GPS-enabled entry into the U.S. smartphone market, but is concerned that the phone, which runs Google’s Android OS, is stuck at Android 1.6 and…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Google Earth 5.2 was announced yesterday; the update adds enhanced GPS track support (viewing the track’s elevation, speed, etc.), an integrated web browser, and improvements to the pro version (CNet, Ogle Earth). On a related note, Stefan reports that version…  •  Continue reading this entry.

GeoMaps is a free mapping application for the iPad that differentiates itself from the included Google Maps application by providing maps from both OpenStreetMap and Microsoft Bing Maps (including several OSM layers and Bing’s satellite imagery). It also allows…  •  Continue reading this entry.

After the U.S., the U.K., and Ireland, Google Maps Navigation — providing free turn-by-turn navigation on Android phones — has arrived in Canada and 10 continental European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland)….  •  Continue reading this entry.

No sooner do I post a roundup of GPS reviews than I discover that Gadling has reviewed the Garmin-Asus Garminfone, a smartphone available from T-Mobile in the U.S. next month tomorrow. Truth be told, I have a bone to…  •  Continue reading this entry.

In my review of National Geographic’s World Atlas app for the iPhone and iPod touch, I said: “It’s also rather limiting to look at a large map on an iPhone’s rather small screen; these maps beg for a larger…  •  Continue reading this entry.

I bought an iPad over the weekend. I got the 64-gigabyte model with 3G, which, you may recall, also happens to come with a built-in GPS. (Fun if obvious fact: the GPS works regardless of whether you’re signed up for…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Richard Marsden also picked up a 3G iPad recently, and has some thoughts about the gadget’s map applications. “Maps are visual things, and the iPad’s large touch screen is really designed for visual applications such as this. The touch user…  •  Continue reading this entry.

GPS Review takes a very quick look at how navigation apps for the iPhone work on the 3G-equipped variant of the iPad, which also includes a GPS chip. None of the apps have been customized for the iPad, so they…  •  Continue reading this entry.

PCMag has a roundup of navigation apps for GPS-equipped mobile phones, reviewing seven examples of the genre. They include iPhone apps as well as Nokia, Android and Verizon phones. Via All Points Blog….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Several Apple-oriented sites I follow have reported that Google, fresh off its launch of Google Maps Navigation in the U.K. and Ireland, may be about to release turn-by-turn navigation for the iPhone. That was based on the following line in…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Previously U.S.-only, Google Maps Navigation is now available in the U.K. and Ireland on Android phones. Jemima Kiss of the Grauniad’s PDA blog runs it through its paces. This being satellite navigation in Britain, hilarity is predestined to ensue. Here’s…  •  Continue reading this entry.

National Geographic World Atlas is a $1.99 application for the iPhone and iPod touch (iTunes link) that provides high-resolution scans of National Geographic’s wall maps. Included are standard, executive and satellite versions of National Geographic’s world map in the…  •  Continue reading this entry.

I’ve expressed my enthusiasm before about what the iPad could do for mobile mapping, especially the 3G models with GPS and ubiquitous network connectivity: take everything that’s been done with the iPhone, and quadruple the screen real estate —…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Apparently there’s still a reason to get the dedicated MapQuest app for the iPhone OS rather than using the mobile-optimized website: version 1.5.1, released this week, includes basic voice directions. It’s still a free app. Previously: MapQuest for Advanced Mobile…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Engadget reviews Dual Electronics’s GPS cradle for the iPod touch, and wonders whether the $200 cradle, which, as you might expect, adds GPS and navigation, is worth it when there are plenty of standalone GPS navigation systems out there that…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The MapQuest Blog touts the features of MapQuest’s mobile-optimized website, available without having to download a standalone app (which is, to be sure, still available). “Now more people can get a modern look-and-feel, a friendlier user-experience and new features…  •  Continue reading this entry.

On the Planetary Society Blog (one of my favourites), Emily Lakdawalla reviews two apps that put virtual globes of the Moon and Mars on an iPhone or iPod touch: Moon Globe, which is (now) free, and Mars Globe, which is…  •  Continue reading this entry.

I’m really bothered by this Canadian Press story on GPS-equipped smartphones. For one thing, it’s written as though its target audience is populated by idiots, using the breezy, chatty. brainless prose you’d expect from a fashion article. If you’re expecting…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Engadget does a head-to-head comparison of three GPS smartphone navigation systems: Google Navigation, Ovi Maps, and VZ Navigator. So which is the nav for you? There’s zero platform overlap here, so if you already have a smartphone in your pocket…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The mobile version of Google Earth is now available for the Android mobile phone platform. It’s available for the Nexus One and most devices with Android 2.1. (Which, Gizmodo says, “effectively limits it to the Nexus One. The good news…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Jay Montano goes on and on about how much he loves Nokia’s Ovi Maps on his N97, now that it’s been updated to version 3.03….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Apple says that iPhone developers should not use Core Location, the API that provides an iPhone user’s location, just to provide location-targeted ads. Ed Parsons and GPS Review have what I think is the correct take on this: if you’re…  •  Continue reading this entry.

CNet has a look at maps of Apple’s forthcoming iPad. I freely admit my Apple fanboyishness and confess that I’m looking forward to this gadget. Compared to the iPhone and iPod touch, the iPad’s Google Maps application adds both…  •  Continue reading this entry.

A series of maps based on satellite imagery, including maps of damaged building density and oil spillage, from SERTIT. In English and French. Via Dave Smith. Gaia GPS has released a free iPhone app that is intended to help disaster…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Nokia announced this morning that Ovi Maps for its smartphones, including turn-by-turn navigation, will be free from now on — an inevitable result, I suppose, of two things: the rapid transformation of maps and navigation on mobile devices from paid…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Much of the reaction to Google Maps Navigation for Android devices (previously) focuses on its impact on the GPS industry. The Washington Post’s Rob Pegoraro sees the Google Maps Navigation announcement in the context of whether Google is becoming the…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Google announced Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0 today — turn-by-turn navigation for Google Maps running on Android smartphones, using the phones’ Internet connection to fetch up-to-date map, direction and traffic data. Also satellite imagery and Street View. Also, it’s…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Remember how I mentioned that iPhone navigation applications were expensive? Apparently, TomTom for iPhone will run close to $200 — but that’s including the hardware (a cradle to charge the iPhone and improve GPS reception) as well as the software….  •  Continue reading this entry.

There’s a lot of web commentary trying to figure out why Apple rejected Google’s Latitude as a standalone application (which might have allowed for background processes and real-time updating), restricting it to a web application accessed via the browser (see…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Two items from the world of location services: Google Latitude is now available for the iPhone, via the onboard web browser (which supports location services) rather than the maps application; it doesn’t run in the background, so it won’t update…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Hot on the heels of their review of AT&T Navigator for iPhone (see previous entry), GPS Review has a review of the North American version of Navigon MobileNavigator for iPhone. The notable difference between the two: Navigon’s app stores maps…  •  Continue reading this entry.

GPS Review has a huge, in-depth review of AT&T Navigator for iPhone, which costs $10/month and downloads its maps over a network connection. The latter point has some positive and negative implications: [T]his means that the application relies on network…  •  Continue reading this entry.

“Augmented reality” superimposes computer graphics on real-world imagery; here’s a demo of a forthcoming application for the iPhone called New York Nearest Subway, which superimposes directions to nearby subway stops on top of imagery taken with the iPhone’s camera. It…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Some reviews of mapping applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Peter reviews OffMaps, a $2 app (for the moment) that not only uses OpenStreetMap data, but also allows you to download the map data locally (handy if you’re…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The New York Times’s Jenna Wortham raises the question: if you have a GPS-equipped smartphone, do you need a standalone GPS unit? And what will the near-ubiquity of GPS on smartphones do to the standalone GPS market? Wortham looks at…  •  Continue reading this entry.

All Points Blog points to a forthcoming iPhone/iPod touch application called Old Map App, which, the developers say, “displays layers of geo-referenced historical maps projected onto a modern coordinate system, so that the same location can be compared over time….  •  Continue reading this entry.

The iPhone’s version of Safari supports geolocation with the 3.0 software update, and it’s apparently trivial to write the code to access a user’s location; I wonder if it’s this easy with Firefox 3.5….  •  Continue reading this entry.

BusinessWeek’s Stephen Wildstrom explains why iPhone navigation applications are so expensive: [Y]ou need a source of maps and a data base of directions, driving instructions, and points of interest. There are two main sources of maps, Navteq (owned by Nokia)…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Oh, hello. MapQuest now has a dedicated (and free) application for the iPhone and iPod touch, rather than an iPhone-optimized website: details, iTunes store link. Via AppleInsider, the MapQuest Blog and Understanding Google Maps & Local Search. Previously: MapQuest…  •  Continue reading this entry.

TomTom isn’t the only company with forthcoming turn-by-turn navigation software for the iPhone (see previous entry); AppleInsider reports that both Navigon and TeleNav have iPhone applications in development. Via All Points Blog….  •  Continue reading this entry.

There was, you may have heard, some news about a new iPhone yesterday; over on O’Reilly Radar, Brady Forrest sums up the geotechnology implications of the new iPhone 3GS and iPhone OS 3.0, including the ability of the web browser…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Further to this morning’s post: it’s called Sky Map, and it’s for mobile phones running Google’s Android operating system….  •  Continue reading this entry.

The Sunday Times reports on an upcoming (“as early as this week”) astronomy application for mobile phones: “The Google software, called Star Droid, uses GPS technology found in most new handsets to identify the position of the user and then…  •  Continue reading this entry.

I really shouldn’t be surprised by the number of lunar and star map applications for the iPod and iPhone touch that are aimed at amateur astronomers: I already have to bring a lot of gear out to the field as…  •  Continue reading this entry.

iPhone Central reviews a trio of weather radar map applications for the iPhone and iPod touch: Radar in Motion, RadarScope (“the heavyweight here”; pictured at right) and Weather Radar (“the weakest of the trio of offerings discussed here”). RadarScope…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Joe Francica tries uploading geotagged photos from his BlackBerry Storm to Flickr; difficulties ensue (“it wasn’t a straightforward or intuitive process”)….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Two articles from the February 2009 issue of Wired look at location-aware applications for smartphones with built-in GPS (or other means of determining location). Inside the GPS Revolution: 10 Applications That Make the Most of Location is a list of…  •  Continue reading this entry.

iPhone Central’s review of the $1 satellite photo application for the iPhone, Earth Envi, suggests that a small mobile device may not be the best location to appreciate satellite imagery. “Truth is, many of pictures you see on Earth Envi…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Mapperz notes that Virtual Earth’s bird’s-eye view is now available on Windows Mobile 6 devices; this is apparently the URL (I can’t tell; I don’t have a compatible device)….  •  Continue reading this entry.

It’s been a busy month for Google’s Street View, what with new imagery coming to New Zealand, expanded imagery in Australia, a doubling of U.S. coverage, and its availability on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile (iPhone was last month). Meanwhile,…  •  Continue reading this entry.

I’m late in reporting this, so you probably already know that early this month Nokia announced a beta of version 3.0 of its Nokia Maps software. New features include pedestrian directions and terrain relief maps. Nokia’s maps are also…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Google Maps has now come to South Korea, but only from the Korean version of Google Maps (compare this view of Seoul with this one). This is apparently due to Korean export restrictions on mapping data. Via Google Maps Mania….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Google Earth for the iPhone is now available. I’ve been playing with it in on my iPod touch this evening. My instant reaction: Google has absolutely nailed the interface — Multi-Touch was meant for Google Earth, and using the accelerometer…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The folks from MapQuest — remember them? — have released a version of their site optimized for the iPhone and iPod touch; visiting mapquest.com from one of these gadgets will automatically load the appropriate version. I’m afraid I have to…  •  Continue reading this entry.

An ad extolling the mapping features of the Nokia 6220. Via Visual Think Map. Nokia Maps 2.0 came out of beta in May, which Mapperz and Engadget covered; I, alas, did not. Previously: Nokia Maps 2.0 Beta; Nokia Maps….  •  Continue reading this entry.

My original plan was to write an entry about the navigation applications available for the iPhone and iPod touch by buying a few of them myself and trying them. As often occurs with my plans, that didn’t happen. In…  •  Continue reading this entry.

I’ll have more to say about location-aware iPhone applications once I’ve installed the 2.0 software update on my iPod touch and played with a couple of them. I won’t be able to say anything about the GPS on the iPhone…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The new 3G iPhone’s GPS is only one of several location-finding methods. From Apple’s page: iPhone 3G uses signals from GPS satellites, Wi-Fi hot spots, and cellular towers to get the most accurate location fast. If GPS is available, iPhone…  •  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.

Nokia announced its Maps 2.0 Beta last week; its key feature is pedestrian navigation — i.e., turn-by-turn navigation on foot, rather than in a car (see also CNet Reviews). CNet’s Margaret Reardon tried out the service in Barcelona, with…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Speaking of OpenStreetMap, Mikel Maron has come up with a method of viewing OpenStreetMap map tiles on the iPhone’s map application, which normally uses Google. It’s a hack, and requires a hacked iPhone to do it (to access the…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Nokia, as part of its new suite of Internet services, has made a free map application available for a dozen of its smartphones. It seems fairly versatile at first glance (not having a compatible Nokia smartphone myself). It supports built-in…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Yes, the iPhone has Google Maps on it, but Khoi Vinh feels the need to carry along a mobile version of the official New York Metropolitan Transit Authority subway map on his iPhone. His solution is what he calls…  •  Continue reading this entry.

To read some of the commentary about the iPhone’s implementation of Google Maps, you’d think that a mobile mapping application is worthless without GPS. But is it? All Points Blog’s Joe Francica doesn’t say so outright, but in this dismissive…  •  Continue reading this entry.

I’m working on a big post on Google Maps on the iPhone today — or, more precisely, on the reaction to Google Maps on the iPhone — and I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to finish…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Google Transit adds Reno and San Diego; I must have missed when they added the Japanese rail networks, domestic airlines and ferries. Google Maps for mobile supports GPS on certain devices — for example, the BlackBerry 8800 and some Windows…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Gizmodo disses on MapQuest’s send-to-cell feature, now in beta, which sends directions via SMS to your mobile phone: “In this day and age of mobile Google Maps and Windows Live Maps already on smartphones and dumbphones, only a few people…  •  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.

Gizmodo compares Windows Live Search for Mobile and Google Maps Mobile on a phone running Windows Mobile, and finds the Google option wanting, but then the Microsoft app was native and the Google app was coded in Java: “Google Maps…  •  Continue reading this entry.

At one point I was a heavy PDA user and was watching the release of Garmin’s Palm OS-based PDAs with built-in GPS (naturally) — the iQue series — with great interest. Times have changed: I’ve gone back to pen…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The Map Snapper project seems an awfully complicated way to generate local information and mobile maps, particularly since most of this stuff is available over wireless networks anyway. Essentially: take a photo of a map with a cameraphone, send…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Google’s announcement yesterday of a new Treo version of Google Maps for Mobile made me wonder whether it would also work on WiFi-equipped Palm handhelds, despite their absence from the list of compatible devices. Now, I don’t have a Palm…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Homebrewed subway maps for the Nintendo DS, including London, Lyon, Mexico, Paris and Vienna. Some hacking required. Via Matt….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Traffic conditions for 30 U.S. cities — and directions with driving-time estimates based on those conditions — have been added to the mobile version (i.e., for cell phones) of Google Maps. See previous entry: Google Local for Mobile….  •  Continue reading this entry.

A tutorial on setting up GPS tracking on a Treo 650 using a Bluetooth receiver, the Internet via the cellular network, and some software. Via Slashgeo….  •  Continue reading this entry.

You’ll recall that it was previously reported that MapQuest was responding to the challenge posed by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! by moving in an altogether different direction: instead of a hackable API, satellite imagery and web interface innovations (although an…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Engadget reports that Sony will release mapping software for the Playstation Portable. No GPS; in Japan only. (Original Japanese announcement here.) See previous entry: PSP Subway Maps….  •  Continue reading this entry.

iPods have been used for subway maps before (see previous entries: 1, 2, 3); now this site generates driving directions from Yahoo! Maps that can be exported to a photo-capable (i.e., colour-screen) iPod. Via Scoble….  •  Continue reading this entry.

A little while ago William Bright started a web site where you could download subway maps to your iPod, taking advantage of the photo-storage capabilities of iPods with colour screens (see previous entry). Then some metro transit authorities caught wind…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Subway maps aren’t just for iPods any more; Engadget points to subway maps for the Playstation Portable: a map of the New York subway (in defiance of licencing policies) and maps of other cities’ subway systems. I don’t recall this…  •  Continue reading this entry.

iPodSubwayMaps.com has received cease-and-desist letters from the New York and San Francisco transit authorities, who are invoking their copyright on their system maps, which the site breaks into iPod-screen-sized pieces that can be parsed via the scroll wheel. The developer,…  •  Continue reading this entry.

If you’ve got an iPod with a colour screen, you can put subway maps on it. It’s a simple matter to put digital images on an iPod; where maps are concerned, though, it’s a challenge to make sure they’re legible…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Rich Owings, author of GPS Mapping: Make Your Own Maps (Amazon, web site), reports that he’s started a new blog about GPS and mapping software called GPS Tracklog. Like The Map Room, it’s aimed at mere mortals rather than professionals….  •  Continue reading this entry.

You’ve got to be kidding me: Google Maps and GPS on a Nintendo DS. Via Engadget. See previous entry: Google Maps on Mobile Devices….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Getting Google Maps onto mobile devices is a natural step: when we’re going somewhere, we tend not to leave our maps behind, after all. One project was a hack to get Google Maps running on Series 60 Nokia phones, combining…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Palm has released an application called Traffic for the Treo 600/650 that provides, for a monthly fee, live traffic data and maps for 10 U.S. cities (via Palm Infocenter)….  •  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.

A couple of links about GPS-equipped PDAs — those gadgets I covet but cannot possibly ever afford. Brighthand’s got a review of the Garmin iQue M5, which runs Windows Mobile instead of Palm OS like Garmin’s other PDAs (see previous…  •  Continue reading this entry.

My coverage of GPS stuff is paltry at best, but gadget blog Engadget has a dedicated GPS section (RSS feed) that I’ll be keeping an eye on, to learn more about the subject….  •  Continue reading this entry.

Rough Guides has released a series of interactive city maps for several mobile platforms, and they’re having a sale (US$20) in March. Via Gadling. Earthcomber allows Palm OS PDA users to annotate maps and share that information with other users….  •  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.

My coverage of Garmin’s first GPS/PDA was pretty compulsive — I don’t usually cover GPS receivers, but PDAs are one of my other hobbies — so for consistency’s sake I should at least note two new models announced by Garmin…  •  Continue reading this entry.

I covered the release of the Garmin iQue 3600, a Palm OS handheld with a built-in GPS, rather obsessively last year. Now Garmin has announced a slightly cheaper sibling, the iQue 3200, which has a smaller (320×320) screen and lacks…  •  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.

I did get a couple of replies during the downtime to my post asking for suggestions about the best GPS receiver for my needs. Eric Arnold, who works at the University of Tennessee Map Library in Knoxville, mentioned the Garmin…  •  Continue reading this entry.