The London Times has an article describing a phenomenon that you almost can't believe. Apparently, a few people a day have been needing a tow out of a ford in Luckington, UK due to paying more attention to their GPS Nav systems instead of road signs and conditions.

Amazingly, despite my gadget freak nature I had largely avoided getting an iPod until very recently. However, a few short Weeks ago my family (thanks again) gave me a new 5G 60 gig do everything you ever wanted and more iPod. While I spent a week or so playing with the music and putting video on it (Get Eye TV 2 if you don't have it already), I finally got around to trying to put USEFUL maps on my iPod. As with everything, there are various different alternatives, some good, some not, some free, some not. Read more after the …

While Gawker has been providing celebrity sighting information for years in their "Stalker" section, they have recently started using Google maps to provide mapped locations of the celebrity sightings. Interestingly, once they put them in map format, everyone decided to freak out. Notably celebrity manager Ken Sunshine has said "It invites weirdos, if not dangerous weirdos, to physically come in contact with anybody they choose to expose on this site". While, I agree that people are a little celebrity obsessed, the information is hardly stalking as it is presented and not worthy of all the negative publicity it has been …

While we are still years away from live tracking by satellite in applications like Google Earth, Wired magazine has an article about how several companies are busy launching new satellites to improve both resolution and image refresh. In particular, the article discusses the plans of companies like GeoEye and DigitalGlobe are launching new satellites that will allow for users to view objects as small as 1.3 feet across and to capture more imagery more often. All of these new features will provide enhanced imagery that will help allay some of the complaints about old and blurry imagery currently used …

My third and final installment about AAG 2006 concerns mostly my own selfish interests in the mapping of crime. Although we didn't do much advertising of the presentations and the times were bad (Friday 8:00 and 10:00 a.m.) in a converted guest room in the middle of a labyrinth maze, the audience was solid. Moreover so were the presentations and the discussion. More after the jump. As a researcher who focuses almost exclusively on the spatial aspects of crime in all of its many facets, our small, by comparison, presentations on Friday were important for a couple …

Although it is actually several days since day 2 of my AAG experience, I am only now getting around to blogging about the days events. While day 2 involved some of the same problems as Day 1, namely over crowded rooms and too many good presentations at the same time slot, there was one presentation which was quite notable involving Google Earth and its impact on spatial perceptions. More after the jump. The best presentation of Day 2 for me was in session 3514 "Geography v2.0: Internet-based Virtual Globes". The session dealt completely with new internet based products from …

Ed Parsons (CTO of Ordnance Survey in the UK, the premier provider of GIS data there) has an article in his blog commenting about a story in the Guardian about the price of data. Ed argues that if you don't pay directly for your GIS data, you're going to get the out-of-date data that is our (the US) national GIS database, with roads and satellite imagery that is has led to a significant amount of amusement (such as the "where is Apple?" comments that he references). Of course, comparing data (especially satellite imagery between a country that measures 241,590 …

Well it was an interesting first day at the AAG conference for me, starting with being part of a panel on Blogging organized by Jesse and Susan of Very Spatial and including seeing some good presentations on spatial analysis and Sprawl. As with any academic conference, much of the best stuff occurs in informal meetings with other attendees, in my case a discussion with a Walgreens Executive about how spatial analysis and modeling is used to determine store locations. Read more about each after the jump. The day began with a panel on Blogging by geography types that was organized …

Starting tomorrow I will be attending the Association of American Geographers conference in Chicago, making and attending presentations and generally getting my fill of all things spatial. Of note will be the panel I am participating on led by the folks at Very Spatial dealing with blogging about spatial issues. Look for a podcast of the panel sometime this week. I hope to post some articles concerning interesting presentations, books, etc... from the conference, but if it is too busy the posting may go down.

It is always interesting to me to see when mainstream media decides to discover a trend that has been around for a while. Today, the trend is the growth and improvement in GPS units and the mainstream outlet is the NY Times. The article is basically an informative piece about how to choose a GPS unit and what features to look for. Overall it is nothing ground breaking, but it is still an interesting piece especially if you are a novice in the ways of GPS and the changes in the market as of late.

ClueTrust, the company that owns and runs Cartographica.com, has announced immediate availability of LoadMyTracks, a program for the Apple Macintosh that reads track, waypoint, and route data from selected GPS devices and converts them to GPX or KML formats. The software is available in beta form immediately and we encourage any interested users to give it a try. We're looking for feedback, especially on GPS compatibility and output file compatibility for both KML (Google Earth and Google Maps) and GPX (widely used GPS XML format). Programs such as PhotoLinker for the Mac can be used to add GPS data …

With the announcement today by Apple of the new Mac Mini and hifi stereo I thought it would be a fitting time to review the current state of GIS on Macs. As anyone who is familiar with GIS knows, the Mac has been virtually ignored by the GIS community in terms of software options. However, there are a few options that serve different markets and have different price points and thus a review was born. Read more after the jump. As some one who teaches GIS at the University level and is an avowed Mac user, GIS has been the …

According to Very Spatial and other sources, a patent issued February 14th to Neil Balthaser, a former Macromedia Executive, may cause problems for Google Maps and other sites that use dynamic movement. Apparently, the patent covers rich media such as Ajax, Flash, and Java, and could impact any web site that use dynamic movement, including video and animation.In particular the patent could spell problems for all of the major web mapping sites although it is unclear if the patent will stand up to legal challenge. Importantly, Very Spatial mentions that one of the options for the patent holder may …

IN what could be the beginning of a great new set of partnerships in the GPS world, Tom Tom has partnered with Dunkin Donuts to place each and every one of the companies 4,400 store locations on Tom Tom maps. Moreover, supposedly the deal calls for them to add all 2,700 Baskin Robbins locations as well in the future in case your sweet tooth is more ice cream then custard and dough. Of course those of us who are bigger fans of Krispy Kreme dounts and Graeters Ice Cream we are hoping that Garmin will partner with …

In order to help viewers of HBO's Sopranos remember what happened in the story when it last aired nearly 2 years ago, HBO is teaming up with Google Maps and Deep Focus, an online marketing company, to show images and video footage from the last season. Using satellite images from Google, the map displays 15 icons that represent the locations where important points in last seasons storyline took place. When a user clicks on the icon the scene plays in a pop up window which also provides a description and list of characters. Apparently Google is allowing the use of …

Thanks to a pointer from VerySpatial, we hear about the announcement that the USGS is providing a portal website for LIDAR data. LIDAR (wikipedia) stands for LIght Detection and Ranging and uses lasers for determining things such as elevation data. CLICK, the Center for Lidar Information Coordination and Knowledge is the USGS clearinghouse for such data and includes browsing and downloading.

DartMaps is a mashup with Google Maps that plots real-time data from Irish Rail and overlays it onto a Map of the area, with the use of some ancillary files. Nice job by the mashup artist and a good example of the type of stuff that Google's really looking for. Consider the revenue model of Google being able to place whatever they want on all of these Mashups. Good advertising space, but free service to the web server customers.

According to a press release (formatted in an extremely ugly fashion due to the lame web site) from the Open Geospatial Consortium, the OGC has approved proposals for putting GML inside of JPEG2000. The specification (PDF) gives details on how this data is to be inserted into the image files.

GlobeXplorer, a major provider of satellite and aerial photo data, has just introduced a new feature to its ImageAtlas aerial/satellite map viewer that allows users to instantly pick, compare, and purchase images from multiple dates. In particular users will be able to use a pull down menu to select from all the different images available from GlobeXplorer. While the range of images available will vary greatly by the location, in some major metropolitan areas the images will go back 15 years or more. Although Google and others have gotten a lot of the press it is good to see …

Engadget Mobile is reporting that the new HP iPaq hw6900 series has a feature that is quite unique, but quite useful for many. Specifically, they are reporting that when the user takes a picture with the built in camera (1.3 mega pixel I think) that the hw6900 will automatically stamp the photo with the coordinates from the built in GPS unit. While I have seen specialized professional software that allows GPS coordinates to be attached to digital pictures this is the first consumer application I have seen. Although some might think this feature is gadget conversion gone awry I …