I very quickly realised that there wasn’t a new version of the GMail application, but there was a new version of Google Maps. This new version of Google Maps has integration with Google Buzz in the form of a Layer. Once turned on, this layer puts speech bubbles anywhere Buzz has been made. Add to this the fact that Buzz can be associated with places and businesses, this gives an excellent way to provide tips for people to find when they’re travelling.

I have to wonder, with Jyri Engeström having worked on features within Google Buzz, whether this is trying to, in any way build on the concept of the original Jaiku service (not the newer JaikuEngine-based service), where multiple feeds are taken into a single activity stream with location attached. One of my personal main use-cases of Jaiku was for travelling, so I could find people in the area to go for a drink with, and I have been lucky enough to get to know several people from around Finland because of it.

I’ve put some screenshots of how I used it on a night in the pub on Saturday.

One of the more interesting features is the Public Location Badge. Although a possible privacy nightmare, having access to your location in KML and JSON format means that developers can start to utilise location without having develop individual mobile clients that use the GPS. Personally I would like to see the WordPress GeoRSS plugin use it to suggest my location when writing these posts.

I think there’s an additional corner which could be cut if we really opened up, by using the location information stored within the mobile operator’s network to give a rough location, without even having to run an application on the phone at all. This might sound closer to a 1984 scenario than anything before it, but the possibilities of knitting services tightly around the location of it’s users would be an incredibly valuable prospect.

Ernest Marples got a cease and desist request from Royal Mail (the controllers of the postcodes in the UK), since they’re in breach of copyright and numerous other licenses for using it in the way they are. So the service has been shut down and they’ve now launched a campaign to petition for Royal Mail to create a new (free of charge) license for use of the postcode data for non-profit purposes. This new license, if created, would help give developers of free services (like myself) the opportunity to provide more geographically-relevant data to UK users.

What can you do to help?

Sign the petition on the Number 10 site or write to your MP and request them to sign EDM2000.

I’ve done my bit, by both signing the petition and writing to my MP – (Shailesh Vara, Concervative MP for North West Cambridgeshire).

The main issue we had was keeping our mobiles logging our trip. They lost the satellites fairly often (and in the case of my N95 didn’t get much signal to begin with) and of course with GPS turned on constantly they didn’t really last that long on battery. So for this next trip I’ve decided to look at a dedicated device for location tracking.

After looking at Garmin and other devices I found two good possibilities which were around £50:

i-gotU (GT-120 & GT-200)

The site for this device is pretty, and they have some nice software for geotagging photos sending to Flickr/Picasa, although it’s Windows-only. Other than that, it’s pretty hard to find information about the devices, compare the differences in specifications and even to see how many points it can record or how long the battery lasts and how to recharge it.

The device looks really nice though and for the average user it would be a great, small tracker to fit in your pocket. Especially at £45.

GlobalSat DG-100

Not quite as pretty as the i-gotU, but has lots of details about the huge battery life (37 hours at 10 second interval captures) and more status indicators on the front of the device, as well as a hardware interval selector on the side.

Since the shops I looked at didn’t have any i-gotU in stock, and for the known brand of GlobalSat, I decided on the DG-100.

For this trip I’m planning on doing most of my photography using my Canon 350D SLR and Canon MD235 MiniDV camcorder, so there won’t be much live content apart some rare photos from my N95 and some Jaiku updates.

After the trip I’ll make sure to bookmark some time to posting what I used, as well as how they coped in the freezing temperatures.

Users can also add an iGoogle widget, which gives the same ‘tracking’ ability directly from the iGoogle homepage.

Quite a while ago, Nokia created Friend View, a very similar application, but focusing on support Nokia devices.  Google’s attempt covers a whole range of devices including S60, Android (of course) and will soon support iPhone, which is sure to raise the profile of the new service above Friend View.

If you have a barcode reader on your phone, you can use the code below to download the application.

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.