Reminder, Nokia maps (smart2go) Beta is now available

The free mobile mapping/routing application from Nokia is now available for free download today - although it seems to have been up and down! I finally got my download to work.. a tip.. try the PC download rather than the SMS download of the 3.4 MB file! At first glance its quite cool although I'm a bit unsure about the POI database. As a test i tried entering a search on Fort Collins, CO and a number of POIs seem to randomly appear (many are hotels). I quickly jump to the map and browse around, toggling from a 2D to a 3D (sort of) view. The 3D is simply a tilted view giving a somewhat 3D appearance. The POIs are random in nature and features like ATMs, airports etc.. show up on the map. The app is quite fast... i tried connecting via my wireless LAN and via T-mobile internet connectivity.. beware of this if you don't have all you can eat data on your mobile plan. I'm still messing around with it but I'll also try some of the routinng and directions features soon. I lilke the ability to search and them email the results to someone... very handy. Overall for a free app its pretty darned cool. You can get smart2go from www.nokia.com/maps or jump to www.smart2go.com... stay tuned! Note: the app is available for Symbian S603 smartphones and Windows mobile devices also.

A tip for locating Google Earth KML / KMZ files using Google search

A tip... if you'd like to locate some KMLs for viewing in Google Earth there's a very simple way to search ALL the KMLs available onn the web (they are simple text files remember). Using Google Search simply type in the following string to search for a KML for Vancouver... filetype:kmz vancouver or filetype:kmz nanaimo - notice the vast number of results... you can refine your search or add even more detail if you'd like better results. Similarly, if you'd like to locate an AutoCAD DWF format file try this search string - filetype:dwf nanaimo

ShoZu Adds Geotagging for Flickr, YouTube - now supports GPS enabled smartphones

Oh man... while away I almost missed out in this announcement. It involves some of my favorite web services and one of the coolest, free mobile apps around. What do you get when you combine Shozu mobile uploading app with YouTube, Flickr, and then throw in Geotagging too?? Well, you get a kick-ass application that any smartphone would be an idiot to ndo without! Shozu has recently added all this capability to their latest and its amazing. Here's some more details from Shozu (announcement made at 3GSM)... ShoZu Adds Geotagging for Flickr, YouTube & 5 Other Sites - the Share-It one-click image uploading service now offers location tagging for photos and video clips sent from GPS-enabled phones to Flickr and YouTube as well as Buzznet, Dada.net, moblogUK, Pikeo and Textamerica. ShoZu is the only upload service that provides automatic geotagging for cameraphone uploads to more than one Internet destination. It also supports more GPS handsets than any other provider. With the new geotagging feature, GPS-enabled handsets equipped with the ShoZu application can attach latitude and longitude information to images automatically upon capture. ShoZu will then send this information to any Share-It destination that supports tagging, along with all other tags the user has created manually. In the case of Flickr, uploaded images will also be displayed automatically in their precise location on the user’s Flickr map. For users, geotags make it possible to search community photo repositories by geographical location just as they would search by any other tag, whether to explore a vacation destination, find photos of a certain city or area that contributors have failed to tag with location information, or simply hunt for users with common interests. Non-Flickr users who want mapping capabilities can pinpoint the exact location of geotagged photos of interest by pasting the geotags into an application like Google Earth. THIS IS SWEET! see www.shozu.com

DWF Toolkit, DWFx, and more on the Autodesk 2008 suite

I'm currently in San Fran. attending an Autodesk PR event introducing us to the latest in the 2008 product suite. Of interest to me is the introduction of DWFx and following the evolution of DWF and where the supporting products (ie. Design Review) are heading. Unfortunately i missed AU a couple of months ago but it looks like the products are all starting to roll out now. DWFx essentially enables users to access design data from within IE without the need for any additional software etc... no downloads! The app is not as robust (rich) as design review but offers a fast and effective solution. For more detailed comments and information about the latest Autodesk solutions i suggest you check out what Scott Sheppard's Beyond the Paper blog - http://dwf.blogs.com/beyond_the_paper/ - see also http://www.autodesk.com/dwftoolkit to access the latest DWF toolkit. For more on the 2008 products see also http://www.autodesk.com/preview2008

GIS technology and data Google Search Engine

A heads up that I've recently added about 1400 more GIS resources to be indexed in this very useful GIS focused search utility built using Google tools. Check out the GISuser Geo Search Engine for some very fine results if your searching for free GIS data, GIS jobs, and other geospatial technology resources. More than 4400 hand-picked sites indexed to date.