Just in case we were wondering how much mapping is making it into the mainstream, check out the new features in Apple's iLife '09 products. For starters, they've added support for manual geocoding (type a place name and drag a pin around on a map) and maps for navigation of photo data. This is all encapsulated in a new feature they refer to as "places". And, the support has been extended from the photo management side to photo book production, providing nearly effortless map addition to a photo book. Pretty neat. On the video side, Apple's iMovie has map templates …

Google has quietly announced that Google Earth Plus is no longer available. Previously, this version of Google Earth contained the ability to speak with GPS devices (although it was never very flexible about talking to a wide variety of them). According to the blog entry, they'll be offering that feature in the free version of the software "in the near future." In the mean time, Google Earth Plus customers can get an extended (2 month instead of 7 days) evaluation license for Google Earth Pro, which has the ability to import GIS data.

If you are interested in GIS for the Macintosh, we have some exciting news for you. ClueTrust, makers of LoadMyTracks, and owners of this site, are preparing for the first preview release of their GIS software for the Macintosh. In preparation, we've put together a survey that we'd like you to take in order to help us hone the message and features. If you get all the way through it and leave your name and email, we'll provide you with an online coupon for a discount on the final release (expected some time in the spring). Thanks in advance!

GIS Day 2008 is coming, November 19! Mark it on your calendar and make sure you come back here for a special announcement from ClueTrust. The GIS Day web site allows you to search for events near you, and provides historical context for the celebration, which is always held on the Wednesday in the middle of Geography Awareness Week (sponsored by the National Geographic Society). A sample of some of the things going on this year include: National Geographic's continuing Geography Action! ESRI always has something going on at their site. and the USGS is usually doing something at each …

If you know your geography and are from the UK or the US, then click on over to Geography Cup and help your team win! The contest lasts until December 31, 2006 and has been going on since November 12. The UK is clobbering the US in terms of score per participant, but the volume of US participants is keeping them in the lead. Show your team spirit and help out!

In mapping-related personnel news, Ed Parsons, the CTO of Ordnance Survey, will be leaving effective December 22, 2006 to pursue other interests. Having met him, he's a nice guy with a lot of good ideas and it's going to be interesting to see where he ends up. Best of luck, Ed!

As an ESRI customer, I've been interested in getting my hands on 9.2 to check out the new features. Yesterday (annoyingly close to Thanksgiving here in the US) my package arrived. Expect some commentary on the advances and changes in 9.2.

Up next on Google Earth, support for WMS in the free version of the viewer, support for a neat UI for playing timeline "movies", and Featured Content. Among the new features for this competitor for your geospatial content exploration and viewing pleasure are a variety of things that make looking at real data more interesting. Most importantly is the accessibility (in the free version of the player) of the ability to use overlays that come from WMS servers. WMS is the standard for sending out pixel-based (as opposed to shape-based) mapping data on the Internet. Although the particulars aren't completely …

For Macintosh users trying to match up their photos with their GPS devices, the GPSPhotoLinker software (with a newly released version for the first time in over a year) provides a relatively simple way to do that. New features include Universal Binary support, and support for downloading data directly from a GPS. The basic gist of the program is pretty simple: load up your GPS tracks, set the time-zone of your camera, and then let GPSPhotoLinker put the times with the photos. So, this good one-trick pony now has a second pretty-good trick.

For those who don't know, the annual ESRI user conference is currently going on in sunny San Diego. As happens from time to time, ESRI is getting to release a new version of the flagship software ArcGIS 9.2. Any of those of you who are interested in a listing of the new features can check out the following link to the ESRI webpage. Of interest to many is the new feature that allows direct connectivity to Excel spreadsheets. Amazing that this feature has taken so long considering how many people use Excel to handle data. Thanks to Very Spatial …

In an amusing convergence of art and geospatial technology, the project Pioneers in the Valley of the Heart's Delight from Artists Using Science and Technology as pioneers of the computing hitchhiking across the US as life-sized cutouts using GPS tracking to show their locations on a Google Map mash-up.

According to an article on Directions, the Carter Center and ESRI are working together to determine the impact that various forms of media have on voting patterns. The stated purpose of the project is to "reduce corruption and promote equitable access to political information during elections by using the maps to empower policy makers and the public to facilitate constructive reforms of political finance laws and practices regarding media access." Again quoting from the article, "The maps depict which kinds of media reach which voters, and who owns those media outlets. In addition they display voter characteristics in a given …

According to an article on Automotive Business Review Online, TOM TOM is being hit by component shortages which will impact the availability of its GO models (910 and 510). While it didn't reveal what component was in short supply, TOM TOM claims everything is working out and things will be shipping "in line with our planning". This could hurt the bottom line or at least the stock price as earnings are due to be released soon.

Avenza, maker of Cartographic add-on software for Adobe Illustrator and Freehand released a new version of MAPublisher yesterday. According to the site, "MAPublisher 7.0 combines the best features of GIS with the powerful design environments of Adobe Illustrator CS and CS2 to enable native GIS data files to be used as a base for cartographic production. " The software allows the importation of the most widely used GIS data (ESRI, MapInfo, Microstation, AutoCAD, etc..) and the preservation and editing of all GIS data attributes and parameters while working in Illustrator. Available in both Mac and Windows flavors, the software looks …

According to a small article on All Points Blog, Garmin is a great investment for all those who invested before January 1 2006. In the 6 months of this year alone the stock price has gone from $65 to $102 and on May 3rd it offered a 2 to 1 stock split and now offers dividends. I don't have the information on other Spatially related businesses, but I would speculate that they too are doing very well as evidenced by all of the major internet companies jumping on the mapping bandwagon over the last year or so.

Although things have been a little slow on the web site for the past few weeks (development, end of the school year for "the professor", etc.), both Derek and I are out doing interesting things this week, so you can look forward to reports from Where 2.0 (where Gaige and Carol will be for the next few days) and India (where Derek will be for the next few days). Stay tuned!

As a life long soccer player (football for those of you not in the U.S.) and reader of National Geographic, I was pleasantly surprised to see some very interesting maps of an actual soccer game. As an avid reader of National Geographic and major fan of the monthly supplements they include in the magazine, this was one of the more unique maps I have seen in a long time. More after the jump. Leave it to National Geographic to provide a totally unique, and spatially based, way to look at "the beautiful game". The June edition of National Geographic …

National Geographic has an article today about blogs and maps, highlighting—once again—the growing prominence of maps on the webs and the movement towards more map output. However, we're still stuck here wondering when people will become less interested in maps and more interested in having access to the underlying data. Although it's nice that you can create a map easily, there are few sites whose stated objectives are to actually share the data for analysis and further study. It is interesting that the map craze spawned by the availability of raw data and free mapping services may well …

The results of the annual National Geographic Society survey of geo-literacy are in and we are once get a country that is largely "geo-illiterate". The results indicate that despite fighting a war in Iraq for several years, 63% of 18-24 year olds can't locate Iraq on a map. Other major news also failed to have an impact on our geographical knowledge as 3/4 of all respondents couldn't locate Indonesia (Tsunami) on a world map and that 1/3 couldn't find Louisiana and 48% couldn't locate Mississippi on a map. For more depressing news about our country read the article …

Although I live in a very landlocked area of the U.S. I am fascinated by the ocean and sailing upon it. Now my fascination has a new place to manifest itself in the form of Sailwf.info. This site provides a live tracking map of ships locations around the world, powered by the World Meterological Organization's Voluntary Observing Ship service. The site allows users to select different areas of the world as well as different classes of ships (Tall Ships, Cruise Ships, Research Vessels, etc ..) for viewing. In addition, users can query for specific ships as well and chart …