His session is split into 4 videos:

• Nokia Sports Tracker - This should track my location as well as photos and videos taken along the way… A little more than a ’sports’ tracker.
• If I can get my GPS tracker up and running again I’ll use that too.
• General GPS logger so that I can add the location metadata in post-production.

Nokia’s newest viral marketing is based around the N82 and it’s integrated GPS. Stavros, an artist in Position Art, encourages you to make Position Art of your own by tracking your position using an application such as Nokia Sports Tracker, then share the work of art online.

The idea is fun, and if it gets people out and active then it can only be a good thing. As for the N82, having played briefly with one, it’s a solid device with superb build quality and a good GPS. I would even go as far as saying that it’s a good non-slider alternative to the N95. It may not have the 5MP camera of the N95 (only 3MP) but with a xenon flash the indoor picture quality is higher.

For more information about Stavros and his Position Art initiative visit The World Is My Canvas, and for a look at the viral ad that started it all at the Mobile Web Congress conference go to Stavros’ post on Share on Ovi

This is a good enhancement, similar to the Network-based and AGPS feature in new S60-based phones and also the offerings from Navizon. The questionable thing here though is, what cell location data is Google using to estimate this? Nokia and Navizon have started their own databases (Navizon includes both Mobile Cells and WiFi APs)… is Google starting another? What are the chances of standardising and creating an ‘open location database’?

(brought to my attention through Lifehacker)

For minor changes it’s an instant fix, but if it’s wildly out (200m or more) the change gets put in a moderation queue.

I’ve been wondering about this kind of thing for a while and it’s nice to see more collaborative mapping happening… now, if we could only convince Google to collaborate on OpenStreetMap.

(brought to my attention through Lifehacker)

It doesn’t do satnav yet, but it can’t be too long before Google comes up with something to rival the subscription-only navigation of Nokia Maps and Tomtom. The only benefit Nokia Maps currently has (on top of navigation) is that you can download the maps and store them on your phone.

If you’ve got a mobile barcode reader (and if you haven’t, why not get one?), you can use the barcode below to go straight to Google’s download page.

Since the 3D buildings are produced in part from OS MasterMap data the project is now only able to be used within government departments, as they have licenses to use the datasets already. The point of the UCL’s project was to allow the public to have a view of the situation.

The Londonist article describes the OS as the bank manager character from the Nationwide adverts, constantly going against normal thinking with ‘it doesn’t work like that’ answers. Some may think this is a bit harsh, but personally I’d say it was apt for:

The UCL’s own user interface is still available on their project site, but I don’t know how long that will last, it is, however, very impressive.

I know some people aren’t technical when it comes to putting content on websites, but most places manage to at least put a link to Multimap/Google Maps, however, people who’s job it is to know about GIS I expect a little more of, and I think rightly so… a company such as the AGI (the focus of this rant) and it’s event sponsors have an interest to promote the use of GIS and mapping in general, and what better way than showing maps on their own sites in the most relevant places?

So what’s wrong with their site?  If you look on their first ‘When and where‘ page there is an address of the location of the event, with a link to the location’s website, but no map or map link.  Then you may notice the link to the ‘Travel Informtion‘, where they do at least have a link to a PDF map and to Streetmap.

Ok, so maybe that would ease my frustration, and I suppose when I saw that they’d at least put some sort of map on there, it did, a little, but of course I’m expecting more… Looking at the PDF map it is an A4 page with a map at the top, and that’s it… no directions (which they’ve got on their site), not even the address (so you can use SatNav).  Then, knowing the Streetmap website, you can’t plot routes to that location (which you can do from almost any other online map service).

Come on! People in the GIS and mapping industry should always be thinking ‘would a map add value to this information’, but it feels like sometimes they’re not thinking properly at all.

A lot of people are looking forward to the release of the iPhone, and I guess only time will tell as to how it performs, but I can see some things which may backfire with the fully online (or at least that’s what it seems) platform.

• Steve hasn’t mentioned anything about GPS support within the iPhone, but I don’t see it not having support.
• Unless there are some sophisticated caching mechanisms, maps are going to be unavailable in areas of low mobile network coverage.
• Points of Interest appear built into the phone are most probably the normal Google Maps, and possibly not very customisable.
• Other POIs are capable through the web browser, with AJAX these websites can appear as if they are native applications on the phone, but only through clicking on an address/location of some sort to trigger the Google Maps view of that point.

I hope to be proven wrong, but those are my reservations. If I am proven correct, this would surely be a major issue for anyone (like myself) who uses GPS/GIS in anger. Any ideas?