The Sony Ericsson Paris Video of the UIQ P5 smartphone

An interesting video from Paris has been "leaked" to the public. The clip shows the P5, a UIQ smartphone that appears very sleek, has a touch UI, boasts mapping (GPS-enabled??), camera, video, and all the other goodies that come with such a next-gen device.

Indeed, this device is sweet to say the least!










For more on the P5, check out Engadget
or IntoMobile

Space Shuttle Discovery Launch update STS-124

Just reading up on details tomorrows Space Shuttle Discovery Launch. This mission is of interest to yours truly as friend and past neighbor in Florida, Air Force Col. Ron Garan is a mission specialist for NASA on his first NASA space flight. This mission will carry the largest payload so far to the station and includes three spacewalks. It is the second of three missions that will launch components to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. The crew will install Kibo's large Japanese Pressurized Module and Kibo's robotic arm system. Discovery also will deliver new station crew member Greg Chamitoff and bring back Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman, who will end a three-month stay aboard the outpost. Good luck to the crew of STS-124


Relevant links:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts124/index.html
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/news
For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information see: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Twitter over capacity... oops!

Looks like Twitter has really caught on and too many people are tweeting this morning... OOPS! See www.twitter.com if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

Hello to the Google Earth Web Browser Plug-in

The folks at Google have made a huge leap today, enabling developers to not only embed maps (via the maps API) into your website but now you can extend teh functionality of Google Earth to the web... sweet! This from the Google Lat/Long blog... "Today, I'm happy to announce the release of the new Google Earth Browser Plug-in, which brings the full power of Google Earth to the web, embeddable within your own web site. Driven by an extensive JavaScript API, you can control the camera; create lines, markers, and polygons; import 3D models from the web and overlay them anywhere on the planet. In fact, you can even overlay your content over different planets, stars, and galaxies by toggling Sky mode, letting you build 3D Google Sky mashups." The Google Earth Browser Plugin is now live at http://code.google.com/apis/earth.

Details... The Google Earth Plug-in and its JavaScript API let you embed Google Earth, a true 3D digital globe, into your web pages. Using the API you can draw markers and lines, drape images over the terrain, add 3D models, or load KML files, allowing you to build sophisticated 3D map applications. If you have an existing Maps API site, you can 3D-enable your page with as little as one line of code.

hellotxt - update all your social networking apps

A quick tip on a nifty tool called Hellotxt. The app provides a simple online interface, enabling users to quickly update over all their social network apps (well, almost all of them) like jaiku, twitter, facebook, myspace, linkedin, pownce, etc... See http://hellotxt.com/

Heads Up, Mobile Web 2.0 Event slated for July 4 in Barcelona

An interesting event planned for this summer... The MOBILE 2.0 EUROPE conference brings together experts and thought leaders from all aspects of the mobile ecosystem, including startups, investors, mobile carriers, device manufacturers, and mobile application developers and web technologists. This is event is a fine opportunity for companies to connect to industry leadership and startup innovation and broaden your C-level relationships. See http://mobile20.eu/

National Geographic Provides Metalens over Windsor, Colorado

I was interested to notice today in "the paper" that NGS has developed a Metalens app for Windsor Colorado that enables users to tour the recently damaged town in Norther Colorado. From National Geo... National Geographic Maps provides these applications as a tool to visualize the effects of this tragic event and the powerful forces of nature. It is hoped that this will help viewers to experience the community restoration in progress without having to add traffic to the community. An interesting idea, particularly if people in the local area are receptive to view such an application rather than head out and drive around the affected area and add to the congestion. In a small meet-up with the Windsor Mayor and city officials this morning I noted that the Mayor was particularly concerned (and ticked off) with the number of looky-loos in the tornado damaged area of town. Indeed he was not only upset by the congestion but with the lack of sensitivity people from outlying areas had for those who had been directly affected.

I have to admit that I was touring the outlying area myself a couple of days ago and likely adding to the traffic problem, although I made a point of staying clear of the neighborhoods that were directly affected because indeed, traffic was becoming a problem (I stayed in the industrial area). I was also thinking while in the region that I would have liked to have conducted a small photo mapping experiment myself using my Nokia N95 8GB and the Nokia Research Labs application, Sports Tracker - very suitable for such an application. Indeed such an application could be used by onlookers to have a glimpse while also staying out of the way of emergency responders. While the MetaLens does indeed show how geotagged photos can be used in such a case, I'm still a big advocate that any small town, a consultant, or ?? with a small budget can quickly and easily photomap a small area and publish results on the web (with a map interface) perhaps providing another option for the curious. See the National Geographic Windsor Metalens at http://www.metalens.org/ngmapspro/products/

View the Windsor MetaLens using Google Maps here

Geogathering 2008 for Oil and Gas professionals

Don't know how I missed this one but Geogathering 2008 is scheduled to take place next week in Estes Park Colorado, June 2-3 (my local contact Rob from New Century has moved on so I didn't get the oblogatory heads-up this year!) GeoGathering 2008 is a conference dedicated to providing oil and gas gathering system professionals a venue to share their experiences and best practices with geospatial information while learning about current industry regulations and GIS solutions. The event's main sponsors are ESRI and New Century Software - see http://www.geogathering.com/

Connecting Dopplr to LinkedIn Contacts

Looks like Dopplr has added a LinkedIn Connectivity function. Recall Dopplr is a popular social networking app for frequent business travelers. Now you can invite your LinkedIn contacts to track and follow you while your on the road... makes sense. See also www.dopplr.com

DigitalGlobe Quickbird Imagery captured over Windsor, Colorado tornado site

DigitalGlobe was kind enough to share with me some of the imagery captured over Windsor on May 24, 2008, the day after the powerful F3 tornado went through the town, just 1.5 miles West of my office. Some details about the image... On May 22nd, a powerful EF-2 or EF-3 tornado struck the northern Colorado town of Windsor causing heavy damage to more than 250 homes, buildings and property. On May 24th, DigitalGlobe’s QuickBird satellite collected a strip of 60-cm imagery along the east side of Interstate 25, including the town of Windsor, Colorado. The imagery clearly shows the extent of damage from the large tornado.

Of interest in the image below, More than 150 children were in the Windmill Child Enrichment
Center, on the east side of Windsor, when the tornado struck on May 22nd. Teachers at the day care center were able to safely protect all of the children within the building, while the tornado tore off part of the roof. As the QuickBird imagery reveals, virtually all of the surrounding
buildings next to the day care center suffered significant damage or were totally destroyed
by the tornado.

Quickbird Natural Color Image, Windsor, CO, May 24, 2008 (c)DigitalGlobe, 2008

Indeed this is no less than amazing, as you hear from everyone in Windsor this week... simply amazing that nobody was killed in the area. This really jumps out to you as you drive through the hardest hit areas as I did this week-end. Indeed someone was taking care of the people of Windsor last Thursday! My neighbor, a school principal was saying how incredibly lucky it was that the children had not been dismissed from school yet (it was the last day of school for the year) as they would have been scattered throughout the town rather than being safely gathered in shelters and safe havens.Quickbird Natural Color Image, Windsor, CO, May 24, 2008 (c)DigitalGlobe, 2008

GeoEye-1 is Gearing Up For Launch this summer

A reminder that GeoEye-1 is Gearing Up For Launch this summer - Save the date, on August 22. the GeoEye-1 Satellite Imaging Sensor is Scheduled to Launch From Vandenberg AFB, CA, perhaps you might be in the area over summer? GeoEye-1, developed and launched by GeoEye, will be capable of acquiring image data at 0.41 meter panchromatic (B&W) and 1.65 meter multispectral resolution. GeoEye-1 will also feature a revisit time of under three days, as well as the ability to locate an object within just three meters of its physical location. This newly developed sensor will also be optimized for large projects, as it will be able to collect over 350,000 square kilometers of pan-sharpened multispectral satellite imagery every day. See more details on the launch here. See also http://www.satimagingcorp.com/satellite-sensors/geoeye-1.html

Latitude Geographics releases Geocortext Essentials 1.3

Jason over at Latitude Geo in Victoria shares details of the recent release of Geocortext Essentials 1.3 last week. Some details... New functionality with this release include:
Authentication (setting permissions on layers and tools using different membership providers)
Data Linking (using OLEDB, ADO.NET, ODBC, Oracle Client and SQL Client Providers)
Print Templates (using a designer to build templates)
Reporting (using a designer to build reports)
Work Flow Engine (using Microsoft Workflow Foundation)

Recall Geocortex is the web-based GIS division of Latitude Geographics. For more info see:
http://blogs.geocortex.net/blogs/geocortex/default.aspx
http://www.geocortex.com/

MapMe.com - a new, Community mapping mashup

An interesting new social mapping community has popped up over at MapMe.com. Developed by a team from Down-Under, MapMe enables users to map and share their experiences via maps, video, textual comments and more. the application is powered via the Google Maps API. From teh developer team... MAPme.com can be used to create anything from travel guides for any entire country, or a detailed view of a specific street. The maps can be personal (and private if required) or community based (where content is moderated) or a complete free for all (where anyone can contribute). Hopefully these various map 'types' will give map creators enough flexibility to adjust the way that other people view and relate to the maps they create. Thanks to John McCann, developer, for the tip on another great app! To get rolling, simply create an account and start making a map - the create community map feature is way cool. See www.mapme.com