Meet Me In the Middle Thanks to Google Reverse Geocoding

According to the Google geo dev blog this week, Google now is making reverse geocoding available to developers. This is pretty huge for developers... in a nutshell this enables developers to add functionality that generates an address from a lat/long pair - a much tougher process than the reverse, which is grabbing a coordinate pair from an address (geocoding). See more on this in this article

A cool video tour of Nokia house, Helsinki Finland - retro Nokia devices!

I just dug up this video clip that i captured in HElsinki at Nokia House... some very cool retro mobiles... check out the leopard skin communicator - awesome!

The online marketing virtual conference mashup

Can't find an event of interest... why not create your own. With a ton of fine user-generated media on the web it has to be simple to locate speakers on hot topics that have appeared at events around the world (search youtube, blip.tv, ustream, qik etc...) Do you need to know more about online marketing, the new media, web2.0 and social media? Well here's a nifty virtual conference that's been put together for your enjoyment. Sit back in your office chair, grab a coffee and enjoy the event.. no travel, no hotels, no lost luggage, no security lineup hassles etc... what a great idea!
Enter the event here

Event update - O'reilly Media iPhone Live 2008 event postponed

As a media partner for the event we were surprised to find out the event has been postponed. In a message from an O'reilly Media rep we hear the following...

We're sorry to inform you that we've made the difficult business decision to postpone the O'Reilly iPhoneLive event. We apologize for the timing, and for any inconvenience this postponement may cause.

We are grateful for your support of the event and appreciate your desire to participate. O'Reilly is committed to exploring this space, and we'll keep you informed of plans for a possible future version of the conference.

See the event website here... stay tuned!

VanMap (Vancouver, BC) Gets Update with 2008 orthophotos

An update from Jonathan Mark, GIS Manager, IT Department with the City of Vancouver informs us that the city has recently added the 2008 orthophotos to VanMap. They are of the same
high quality you are used to from VanMap and they join a large set of orthophotos and satellite imagery dating back to 1994. The 2008 images were acquired in late April, 2008. Enter VanMap here

Imagery for highlighting poor energy efficiency

Bluesky thermal maps reveal property ‘hot spots’ using a colour coded temperature map. Matched to Ordnance Survey maps and Council Local Land and Property Gazetteers, visitors to a Council’s website (UK) can simply type in their address and instantly get an idea of how much heat is escaping through their roof.

I've often wanted this ability in my area.. how cool would that be?? See details here

A map should be worth 1000 words and more than a simple PDF

Indeed a map is worth at least 1,000 words in my mind.. I wish the mainstream media would realize this. The only reason I bring this up is because today I'm browsing through the local paper (The Colloradoan) which serves the Fort Collins area. Within the paper I see a story titled "Windsor Map shows future trails". The article rambles on about a new map the Town has created, then meanders off into discussing future proposed crossings etc... so what about the map?? Unfortunately there was no picture of a map with the article, no link to a website where a map could be found etc... pretty strange! So I investigate for myself and hit the Windsor website where a link is found to trail map - there I find a lone PDF showing what appears to be trails along with the proposed trails. I can't help to think how much more useful the article in the paper would have been by simply posting the actual map or a link and forget about all the blabber. Hopefully by the time the trails are done the maps provided online by the Town may be more informative, perhaps at the minimum served up as Geo PDFs, heck, even a Google map that provides more information, perhaps some multi-media or ?? The town does have a GIS and a GIS Dept. so seeing some form of webmapping should be expected shouldn't it? A tip for you small towns, see also some of the tools offered up by Avenza Systems , TerraGo Technologies, or Alta4 to help bring your webmaps alive or at a minimum give them a pulse!

Windsor trail map PDF... yawn! Imagine how much more effective a map with imagery as a base layer would make this. Much more is expected of local government agencies in my mind, particularly given the fine, low cost tools that are available.

Check out R 2009 via The AutoCAD Resource Center

A new online educational resource is now available for AutoCAD 2009 users or would-be users - the AutoCAD Resource Center, a Web site providing an abundance of free resources and information on AutoCAD 2009.

The resource takes advantage of video clips to provide readers with useful educational and tutorial material. For example, a video on layers shows how users managed layers pre-2009 and then how to manage layers using AutoCAD 2009 products. Additional material available to users includes:
customer stories
white papers
how to articles
tips and tricks
Naturally, free trial download software is available. See more at http://resources.autodesk.com/autocad/

Nokia Email Service (NES) the Free Beta service, Questions Answered by the Project Team

Today I was offered an invitation to sit in on an informal Q&A with the Nokia Email Service (Beta) Management Team. Via Tangler, we bombarded the team with questions for an hour. the following are some of the items of interest I picked up on during the conversations. This feedback is valuable in helping us to get a vision of what we can expect from this service down the road - thanks Nokia for taking part in this.

Some of the interesting tidbits I picked up on during the Q&A :
At Nokia we believe, even though mobile email has been available for years, the amount of users who use mobile email has been dissapointgly low

- Nokia is shifting into being an internet company, and email is a top priority for Nokia, and at this time our focus is on the S60 platform.
- When a consumer walks into a phone store, and asks to see all the email phones, the clerk pulls out seven qwerty keyboard devices... three blackberries, two nokias, two other phones. today, chances are, the blackberry gets picked quite often... they have a nice email solution with nice phones.
but, most people come into a phone and say "show me your best camera phone"
or your best music phone
or the phone with the longest battery life
or phones for active lifestyle
or phones with GPS navigation
or phones under $100
Chances are for those categories, there's more Nokia's in those categories than any of our competitors.
Nokia will win its generous share of these phones... and once they choose the Nokia, the operator has the opportunity to sell the consumer email on their phone.

Based on feedback, it's clear people want some shorter options for polling and not as many longer ones (for instance, 2 months is an option right now).. we're looking into this.

Through our research, our design is focused on the five mail things: scanning inbox/reading/deleting/reply/composing email. We're spending our resources optimizing those core mobile email functions.

"Through our research, we have found that there are three main obstacles to the adoption of mobile email"

1. discoverability - people don't even know that their phones can get email, even though it's been on the phone for years"
2. those who discover email on the phone have a very difficult time getting it setup and functioning.
3. Unpredictability of cost - users don't have control over how many emails they receive, worry about receiving large bill at the end of the month".

Nokia's strategy is to solve these three problems and to become a leader in the mobile email space. To solve the discoverability problem, our intention is to include email on the phone (preinstalled on the phone, to answer earlier question)., and make it readily apparent on the home screen / initial startup that the phone supports email.

"Our strategy is making email easy to say "yes to" and opposed to the reason someone buys a phone."

See the full Q&A article here

Blackberry Applications

A reminder to Blackberry device users, if you need apps be sure to consult this fine Application Shop from Blackberry (RIM) - see here
For more suggested apps, developer tips, and news for Blackberry users see this archive of useful tidbits!

T-Mobile G1 is here and the G1 Rap Song!

No doubt you've received some emails today as well announcing the G1 is now available from t-mobile... looking forward to hearing what people have to say about this one... i decided to sit this one out as R 1.0.0 devices scare me a bit!





Video from Phandroid - http://phandroid.com

T-mobile G1 unboxing from tnkgrl mobile

I just stumbled onto a Tweet from tnkgrl (aka Myriam) who I had the pleasure of meeting last month in finland. As luck would have it she was just unboxing the G1... my first sighting of an official G1.. enjoy and thanks!

Things I Dig! The Patchwork National Map

A great resource from the Christian science Monitor, a Patchwork National Map where users can explore the geography of the land and see up close the makeup of 11 sample communities. Very nice! See http://www.csmonitor.com/patchworknation/

The Autodesk press mis-hap - original post removed

Please note - regarding the previous post about Autodesk press. Apparently myself and likely other journalists who are registered to receive Autodesk news items were sent, in error, a PR item via the PRnewswire service. The PR appeared to have been sent on behalf of Autodesk and the item was posted on the Autodesk PR website - I have to assume the news service manages the content on that site. I actually check the site this morning because I wanted to verify it was correct.

It seems the PR (apparently from http://www.asbl.com/) was distributed in error. I was contacted by reps from PRnewswire about the matter and they have taken blame for the error and the confusion. Sometimes you do have to shoot the messenger I guess!

AllTop widget provides content for blog owners

If your interested in adding popular news tidbits to your website or blog then the new widget from Allto (courtesy of Guy Kawasaki) is a great addition serving up content tailored to your site visitors. Select from dozens of topics including iphone, venture capital, web design and mobile (See the "mobile" news widget below). I've selected to feature the mobile widget here on the blog because Guy has listed this blog in his AllTop mobile news sites... thanks Guy! See http://alltop.com/widget/

Google Gears Geolocation API gets a boost

This from the Google Code Blog as Gears Geolocation API so that developers can now securely locate users to within 200m accuracy in major desktop browsers in hundreds of cities around the world. From the blog... Whether your users are Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox or (soon) Opera users, you can now automatically deliver an experience that is tailored to their current location. For web developers this means In Chrome and Android, with Gears built in, you can deliver a location enabled web site without requiring your users to install a plug-in, but in other browsers they will need to go through a simple plug-in install process.

Mobilize your website or blog in minutes with Mippin

ever needed a nice mobile-friendly place to send your web traffic? There's loads of tools, gadgets and widgets out there but this one is way cool and way simple! Mippin enables you to easily mobilize pretty much any website that has an RSS feed. You can test it out using their online emulator at mippin.com - simply enter a website url. Then you get to see what the mobile version looks like and are also provided with a url of the new, mobile friendly website. Very nice! Below you see this AnyGeo weblog as it appears on the emulator as well as a screen shot of the actual mobile site as it appers on my Nokia N95... nice!

This blog as it appears using the mippin emulator

Mobile friendly blogsite as it appears on the N95
My mippin site as it really appears on the N95 8GB

Once you've finished you can save your test site with a proper mobile url and even customize the look and feel. I saved my new mobile site as http://mippin.com/anygeo
Mippin even offers up a friendly little blogger logo as well - see mine to the top right!

Map Loader for Mac

New from the Beta Labs, Map Loader for Mac enables Apple Mac product users to easily load their Nokia mobile with Maps from the popular Nokia Maps web service. With Nokia MapLoader for Mac, you can side-load maps to your phone directly from your Mac. See more details in this posting

For more on this app see the Nokia Beta Labs Blog

Now Official from USCIS - the 3 Year NAFTA TN Visa

This from the USCIS - USCIS Increases Period of Stay for Trade NAFTA Professional Workers from Canada and Mexico

WASHINGTON — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has increased the maximum period of time a Trade-NAFTA (TN) professional worker from Canada or Mexico may remain in the United States before seeking readmission or obtaining an extension of stay. This final rule changes the initial period of admission for TN workers from one to three years, making it equal to the initial period of admission given to H-1B professional workers. Eligible TN nonimmigrants may now be allowed to receive extensions of stay in increments of up to three years instead of the prior maximum period of stay of one year.

The TN nonimmigrant classification is visa category available to eligible Mexicans and Canadians with at least a bachelor’s degree or appropriate professional credentials who work in certain qualified fields pursuant to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Qualified professions identified within NAFTA include, but are not limited to, accountants, engineers, attorneys, pharmacists, scientists, and teachers.

This final rule will ease administrative burdens and costs on TN workers. It will also benefit U.S. employers by increasing the amount of time TN nonimmigrants will be able to work for them before having to seek an extension of status. Spouses and unmarried minor children of TN nonimmigrants in their corresponding nonimmigrant classifications will also benefit from the new regulation.

This improvement to the TN nonimmigrant category was initially announced by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Department of Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez on Aug. 10, 2007. The effort is one of the 26 initiatives identified by President Bush’s Administration to address current immigration challenges using the tools and authorities available under existing law.

For more information on the TN nonimmigrant visa program or to view the final rule, visit the USCIS Web site or call the National Customer Service Center at (800) 375-5283.
Related Files - see http://www.uscis.gov

T-mobile invoicing finally a little greener

Looks like T-mobile is finally starting to do the right thing finally by getting a little greener. I've long wondered (along with many others) why every month I had to receive a 35 page (double sided) bill that detailed every call made from devices on my account. The thick bill was not only terribly difficult to interpret, but it was also a huge waste of paper. so now, finally, T-mobile is sending a greener version and cutting down on paper. It's a start I guess but I still think they can do much better. T-mobile... everyone on the planet has email (if not they should!), why not simply send me a 1 page summary bill like I get for any other utility bill and maybe also email me an electronic copy with a link to my account where I can view a detailed report if I like. The new 4 page bill is a nice try but you can still do better... in short, it's about time!
You can do the Green Thing too - See http://www.dothegreenthing.com/

LBS developers encouraged to create apps for Nokia E71 and N95

Nokia wants to encourage developers to create innovative LBS apps to run on the E71 or N95 smartphones. Nokia will provide qualifying contestants with handsets and software tools to enable the development of LBS applications based on multiple platforms including S60 for Symbian OS, Java ME, Python as well as the WHERE platform in the Americas region. Nokia will also provide qualifying contestants with their choice of the Nokia E71 or Nokia N85 handset to develop their location-enabled applications for the competition.
About the devices:
-- The Nokia E71 is the world's thinnest QWERTY handset and supports the latest Ovi services, including maps, music and media sharing. The Nokia E71 is an Official Device in the EMEA and Americas regions.
-- The dual-slider Nokia N85 enables users to discover new places with turn-by-turn voice navigation, pedestrian navigation, city guides and 15 million points of interest. Users can also upload geotagged pictures from the 5 Megapixel camera or videos on the internet directly from the handset. The Nokia N85 is an Official Device in the EMEA region.


Nokia E71 symbian S60 smartphone - see more on the LBS challenge here

Blackberry storm - Touch, Built in GPS, Video, Camera, Maps and more

Yes indeed, the Blackberry Storm is here. This nifty device feature a Touch UI, 3.2 megapixel camera and much much more! Some of the features include:
* Wireless email
* Organizer
* Browser
* Phone
* Camera (3.2 MP)
* Video Recording
* BlackBerry® Maps
* Media Player
* Built-in GPS
* Corporate data access
* SMS
* MMS

http://www.blackberry.com/blackberrystorm

For Developers:

The new BlackBerry JDE versions and simulators are available as free downloads at www.blackberry.com/developers

More video from Whatleydude in Finland from his social media recap

James is still editing some of the hundreds of video clips that he captured while in Helsinki... enjoy! Nice to see you back blogging again James!



Adventures in Finland 1: The Arrival from James Whatley on Vimeo.

The Sarah Palin Saturday Night Live (SNL) Appearance

I know I know, off topic but what the hey... this one was simply too flipping funny... enjoy! PS: given that mashable and many other blogs are piggy-backing off this skit's hype in an effort to grab some web traffic you may also want to do the same... enjoy! Too bad Palin didn't actually sing the rap herself but it still gets pretty high points... hopefully this one will be the final Palin installment on SNL!

Gotta love those cool autumn days!

Sometimes you need to just kick back and enjoy the day... You gotta just love the fall season with the change in colors and that cool feeling in the air... I had to share this shot from the other day, captured at a rest stop picnic area along HWY 34, headed West towards Estes Park, CO (about 15 miles East of Estes)... hope you're having this kind of beautiful weather in your area!