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Steve Jobs just finished his Apple World Wide Developer’s Conference keynote today, most notably updating the iPhone like with a new 3G version. It also includes a new assisted GPS chip,
adding to the previous “semi-GPS” in the current iPhone 1 model. The new version has the ability to find your location (presumably with greater accuracy than with cell tower/wi-fi estimation) track along a route and I believe show improved traffic information. No telling if it is going to be accurate enough to geocache or replace car units for driving directions. If so, I’m betting Garmin, Magellan, TomTom, etc are not really happy right now.

Phone, iPod, and Internet in one fast 3G device.

Introducing iPhone 3G. With fast 3G wireless technology, GPS, support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, and the new App Store, iPhone 3G puts even more amazing features in your hands. And just like the original iPhone, it combines three products in one —a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device.

Dash (www.Dash.net) is a new GPS device/service that boasts a connection to the web and other cars… not to browse news, but to report and exchange traffic flow data. It can steer you around traffic that slows other Dash users, rerouting you around it. Your speed and route are shared with other users, so if you have low traffic, others will follow you.

They even have several years worth of traffic history for major cities by day, to help predict movement even if there are no other Dash users nearby. Interesting stuff. Here’s a graphical overview of how it works.

They also feature the abillity to email addresses to your GPS from any standard email application. It seems they also use some fancy matching (menu items in this case) and metadata info via the web to help match you with local searches. The example they use is that you can type in “fajitas” and it can match you with restaraunts that serve them, if it’s not in the name. Interesting, I wonder how much of a shop’s merchandise it will search? Like if it will work for most all of the menu or just the featured items? What about “diapers” or “BBQ grills?”

I signed up for Dash’s Beta Program, they recruited over 2,000 users to test out the internet connected GPS for their pre-launch beta program. I didn’t get in, but it’s a great way to get the word out and build some buzz for their new products.

I’m looking forward to how this will smooth traffic negotiation for many in high-traffic cities. Do you have one? Drop us a line, we’d love to hear about it!

Newly released HoudahGPS is a freeware front end to the open source command line tool GPSBabel.

HoudahGPS allows you to transfer track log and waypoint data from your Garmin, Magellan or Wintec GPS devices. It connects via USB to the Garmin and Magellan devices. It interfaces with the Wintec WBT-100, WBT-101 and WBT-201 devices using Bluetooth.

HoudahGPS may also be used to convert between the GPX, NMEA and KML log file formats. The Sony GPS-CS1 track logger uses a special variant of the NMEA format which may also be read.

You can create backup copies of track log files for later use with HoudahGeo. You can also convert track logs to KML for visualization in Google Earth.

uLocate’s WHERE Expands Depth of Content with Local Content in KML and GeoRSS Formats

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–uLocate Communications, Inc., an award-winning publisher of wireless location-based services (LBS), today announced support for GeoRSS and KML to bring worldwide content to the WHERE mobile application. WHERE now provides easy tools to add KML and GeoRSS from Mapufacture to the phone. Mobile phone users will be able to view thousands of location feeds including local news wire stories, user-generated travel guides, local blogs, restaurant reviews, and virtual location notes.

GeoRSS and KML content is available from thousands of websites and content providers. By creating interoperability with these existing formats, WHERE continues to lower the complexity and time associated with launching GPS-based mobile applications. Developers interested in building applications with GeoRSS or KML support can easily create them using the developer tools, documentation and samples available through the WHERE Developer Program at www.where.com/create.

Mapufacture’s GeoRSS: Location Feeds from Across the Internet

GeoRSS is a format for geographic information that helps convert local information on Internet websites into useful local content on the phone. For example, a breaking news story in a local town can be displayed on a map according to the location where the event occurred, allowing people to keep a finger on the pulse of what’s happening in their neighborhood from their phone. The Mapufacture GeoRSS widget allows WHERE users to access the location information from thousands of websites across the Internet in real-time.

KML: Managing Your Location Content

Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is a geographic format for location content that is widely used by geographic tools such as Google Earth and Google MyMaps. WHERE KML widgets allow mobile phone users to easily view the location content from the large and growing KML community, as well as build their own customized maps for viewing on the phone. For example, WHERE KML widget users can access the physical locations for major league and minor league baseball fields, allowing baseball enthusiasts to easily identify and map the nearest ballpark when traveling.

“We continue to improve the WHERE platform in anticipation of market trends and needs. Our developer community asked for GeoRSS and KML support to make it easier to bring GPS widgets to market,” said Walt Doyle, CEO and President of uLocate. “GeoRSS and KML enhance thousands of location-based services on the Web. The integration of those standards in the mobile environment on WHERE provides developers with increased platform flexibility to build compelling content and applications.”

WHERE users and developers interested in GeoRSS and KML can find more information at http://www.where.com/create.

About WHERE

WHERE leverages the same GPS-based technology underpinning MapQuest Find Me, Helio Buddy Beacon and other popular mobile applications. The platform uses simple, yet powerful WHERE mark-up language and scripting to allow developers to write in their preferred development language and assemble applications on mobile handsets. As a result, consumers have a wealth of content to choose from, effectively personalizing their mobile GPS experience to find the people, places and things that matter to them. More information can be found at www.where.com.

About uLocate

uLocate Communications, Inc. (www.ulocate.com) is a privately held, venture-backed leader in location-based services headquartered in Framingham, Mass.

About Mapufacture

More information about Mapufacture is available at http://www.mapufacture.com.

With the iPhone launch just a month away, rumours are circulating that a second version featuring GPS capabilities will appear next year.

The rumour seems to have originated at Apple Tech New
s, which stated “The next iPhone probably due out at Macworld or early spring of ‘08 will incorporate a GPS receiver chip closely matching the SiRFstarIII from SiRF Technology.” No indication was given about the source of the assertion.

Apple Tech News says Apple is “certain” to use Assisted GPS, a technology that uses equipment at cell phone towers to help provide fast and accurate fixes in difficult locations that shade the receiver from satellite signals.

One possibility - and this is pure speculation on our part - is that the GPS-equipped iPhone will be the 3G model much anticipated by the European and Asian markets. Previous reports claimed a Swedish carrier was promised a 3G version by January 2008, matching Apple Tech News’ suggestion of a Macworld debut for the new model.

Get ahead of the game, switch to AT&T Wireless now, in preparation for the iPhone coming out!

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - San Francisco, CA, United States, 05/25/2007 - Planet 9 has produced a GPS and avatar based social networking application for use in games, navigation and emergency response.

Planet 9 Studios’ RayGun is the first 3D cell phone and GPS device tracking system and it includes 70+ high-resolution, 3D models of real world locations. The RayGun client runs on laptops, hand-helds, cell phones and embedded systems. RayGun is supported by the GeoFeeder® server which supports Web3D and Open Geospatial Consortium ISO open standards as well as Google Earth. RayGun is currently in private beta for interested developers and customers. Planet 9 CEO, David Colleen, will be speaking about RayGun at Where 2.0 on Tuesday, May 29th at 1:30 PM in San Jose, California. “3D city simulation used to be limited to high-end flight simulators”, David Colleen notes. “These days, Google Earth and Second Life have generated considerable consumer interest and appetite for desk-top applications that use 3D interfaces depicting real world places.”

Planet 9 Studios is focused on providing the highest quality urban simulation data and visualization tools on the market with over 45 “off the shelf” virtual city models and a robust viewing / tools environment called eScene™.

About Planet 9 Studios

Planet 9 Studios (planet9.com) is a 3D products and content company focused on providing real business solutions for the Internet. We have produced over 250 virtual worlds for a variety of applications such as marketing, advertising, product visualization, training, architectural simulation, military simulation and entertainment. We are constantly incubating new software products for companies and helping them to reach market.