Archive for the 'Map News' Category

Jun 27 2009

Nordic directory Eniro partners with NAVTEQ

Published by admin under GPS & Sat-Nav, Map News


Leading Nordic directory provider Eniro has signed an agreement with digital map maker NAVTEQ, to make Eniro’s local content available in navigation devices using the NAVTEQ map.

Initially Eniro will provide information on 300,000 advertisers and their related content to be integrated into NAVTEQ’s database for Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Poland. Advertiser data from Eniro will thereby be available in cars, Smartphones and other handheld navigation devices.

“Through the agreement with NAVTEQ, we are strengthening our offering towards advertisers – we are adding another distribution channel, making us an even stronger player on the market”. said Jesper Kärrbrink, President and CEO of Eniro.

Eniro is the leading directory and search provider in the Nordic media market with operations in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Poland. The company is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and has some 5,000 employees. In 2008, revenues amounted to SEK 6,645 million (US$847 million).

No responses yet

Jun 10 2009

Iran’s “Wood Carpet” wins Jury Special Award at Hamburg Film Festival

Published by admin under Map News


Iran’s “Wood Carpet” directed by Abdul Rahman Mirani received Jury Special Award worth 1500 euros at Hamburg International Short Film Festival. The film is about people’s endeavor to reconstruct a bridge destroyed as a result of a flood near a village in Kermanshah on the Iran-Iraq border.

Iran's

The 25th edition of the festival opened on June 2nd with 3 Iranian films and was wrapped up on June 8th.

Also Reza Jamali’s “Old Men Do Not Die” and Mehdi Jafari’s “Dad Gave Water” were other Iranian films which competed at the event.

Around 400 films from 40 countries took part in the international festival.

No responses yet

Jun 08 2009

Google rolling out dashboard for local listings in Google Maps and Google Search

Published by admin under GPS & Sat-Nav, Map News


Google last week rolled out a free to use dashboard for local listings in Google Maps and Google Search. Dedicated to local business owners, the dashboard includes very useful information such as:

Impressions: The number of times the business listing appeared as a result on a Google.com search or Google Maps search in a given period.

Actions: The number of times people interacted with the listing; for example, the number of times they clicked through to the business’ website or requested driving directions to the business.

Top search queries: Which queries led customers to the business listing; for example, are they finding the listing for a cafe by searching for “tea” or “coffee”?

Zip codes where driving directions come from: Which zip codes customers are coming from when they request directions to the local business location.

Google rolling out dashboard for local listings in Google Maps and Google Search

Privacy

To protect any potentially personally identifiable information, queries with a very low search volume have been put by Google into the “other” category, addresses are filtered out of the queries (for example, if a someone searched for “bakery near 5873 Maple Ave,” you would only see the “bakery” term.) Privacy is also the reason why Google is limiting at the ZIP code level the accuracy of where started turn by turn directions to the local business.

Stickiness, crowdsourcing and Local Ads

In providing such interesting data Google is cleverly creating a lot of stickiness to its “Local Business Center” where the dashboard is available. Local business owners will be likely to update more frequently their profile, resulting in very fresh information. In addition, the Mountain View company will be able to create more awareness for its “Local Business Ads” (AdWords) – which appear in Google Maps and in other types of local searches – to these local business owners.

No responses yet

Jun 03 2009

GyPSii launches Java into China

Published by admin under Map News


GyPSii adds Java platform compatibility, targets 650 million+ Chinese mobile users.

GyPSii business unit, developers of the award-winning GyPSii mobile social networking application (www.gypsii.com), today announced the launch of the Java version of its application, with both Chinese and English language support.

GyPSii created the Java application with the Chinese mobile consumer firmly in mind. Many Chinese users’ first and only access to the Internet is via a mobile device, and the new GyPSii Java app will appeal to the 70% of the 650 million phone owners in China who own Java-based phones.

GyPSii is already locally available in China for the major operators China Mobile and China Unicom, for download on compatible Java phones. GyPSii is also available globally across a wide range of devices, including Samsung, Nokia, LG, Apple iPhone and Blackberry smartphones.

“The arrival of GyPSii on Java is another milestone for us, which broadens the choice across all mass-market devices that consumers can use and enjoy GyPSii on – alongside the iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Blackberry (RIM), webtop and netbook applications already in our portfolio,” said GyPSii’s Chairman, Dan Harple.

“Our GyPSii members in China are already extremely active mobile social networkers. With Java platform compatibility, they are now free to create, share and connect with the rest of the GyPSii community – across even more devices and networks, at anytime, from any location,” added Harple. “We plan to expand our reach on Java platforms into other countries, extending our mass market coverage further on a global basis”

GyPSii delivers an all-in-one mobile lifestyle experience – featuring simple to use content creation tools, social networking capabilities, and location context. It allows people to instantly capture and share what they are actually doing in their daily lives, building a multi-media virtual world – the places they have been, the things that they are doing and where they are going.

Utilising a wide range of location and multimedia creation technologies for today’s mobile phones, GyPSii empowers people to share their experiences as they happen – including with photos, video, comments, status and information captured and uploaded from their mobile phone, with location context.

No responses yet

May 11 2009

AvMap signs up Citroën Netherlands for in-dash PND

Published by admin under GPS & Sat-Nav, Map News


Italy-based PND maker AvMap, announced last week it closed a deal with the Dutch Citroën branch to provide a dash-integrated PND solution to the Citroën C1 in the Netherlands.

AvMap signs up Citroën Netherlands for in-dash PND

AvMap has designed for Citroën a tailor-made holder which allows integrating in the Citroën C1 dashboard a Geosat 6 portable navigator. “We have pioneered in portable car navigation back in 1994, and today we are offering to car manufacturers hybrid solutions which ensure the best and safest positioning of the PND inside the car without any annoying cable nor suction cup limiting the visibility”, stated Simone Lazzarini, AvMap Managing Director.

This deal follows several similar contracts with leading automotive brands such as Peugeot Automobili Italia and Portugal, Mitsubishi Brazil, and Citroën Italy. To avoid the pitfall of the dropping prices on the PND market sold at retail, AvMap has been concentrating its activities in these automotive deals in order to sustain its margins.

No responses yet

May 08 2009

Virtual Tour of Iran

Published by admin under Explore Iran cities, IranMap, Map News


Iran lovers from around the globe can take a virtual tour of the country with online three-dimensional and panoramic photographs. Iran’s cultural and scenic attractions have been introduced at 360cities.net along with the tourist attractions of other countries.

The site includes photographs taken by prominent Iranian artists such as Ramin Dehdashti as well as international photographers. Visitors can see full-screen images of scenes, change the perspective, see them in detail and copy the pictures to their personal websites.

The site also provides directions to the location from anywhere in the world and describes each location on the map.

Persepolis, Pasargadae, the tomb of Cyrus, Naqsh-e-Jahan Square (Isfahan), Eram Garden (Shiraz) and Dizin ski resort (Tehran) are among the countless Iranian sites available on the website.

To navigate use keyboard arrow keys



Hafeziye, the Hafez Tomb in Shiraz

No responses yet

May 06 2009

Iran adds “Persian Gulf” to Spiritual Heritage list


Iran is planning to hold the Persian Gulf national day and register the historical waterway on the country’s Spiritual Heritage list.

“The Persian Gulf day was marked on the national calendar during the previous president’s term in office, but no effort has been made to protect the Persian Gulf’s identity in recent years,” head of the Prominent Architects Society of Iran, Alireza Qahari told reporters.

Iran adds

“The waterway will be registered on Iran’s Spiritual Heritage list on the national Persian Gulf day on April 31, 2009,” he added.

“Unfortunately our hesitation in such activities has always caused others to lay claim to our national treasures therefore we must not allow the Persian Gulf to be registered as the Arab Gulf on the world list.”

Certain Persian Gulf littoral states have recently stepped up efforts to rename the waterway which historical documents show has always been the Persian Gulf.

No responses yet

Apr 30 2009

UAE sheikh in abuse tape scandal

Published by admin under Map News


A human rights group is calling on Abu Dhabi to take urgent action against the head of state’s brother after video emerged of him torturing another man.

Watch at ABCNEWS.com: Secret Torture Tapes Revealed


Human Rights Watch called for a full investigation into Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan over the footage. The United Arab Emirates Interior Ministry confirmed that the 45-minute video featured Sheikh Issa, but said the issue had been resolved privately.

The victim is seen being beaten, given electric shocks and crushed by a car. A man in police uniform and several other men are seen assisting the sheikh in the abuse, as the terrified victim is held down in the sand.

The UAE says a police investigation found no breach of its rules in the incident. A former business associate of Sheikh Issa al-Nahyan says he smuggled the video out of the UAE.
Bassam Nabulsi, who is suing the sheikh in a US federal court, gave a copy of the tape to the US television network ABC which broadcast clips, saying parts of it were too graphic to be shown.

Violation

The footage shows bullets being fired near Afghan businessman Mohammed Shah Poor as he lies tied up screaming on the desert floor. Sand is shovelled into his mouth. He is also struck repeatedly with a plank with a protruding nail, and had salt rubbed into his wounds.

In the unbroadcast footage, an electric cattle prod reportedly is used on the private parts of the victim, who had been accused of cheating the sheikh in a business deal over a consignment of wheat.

Near the end of the tape, Poor is made to lie onto the ground and the sheikh drives over him repeatedly, with the sound of what appears to be breaking bones audible on the tape.
Human Rights Watch described the acts on the tape as a violation of the UAE’s constitution and international law.

“The government’s failure to prosecute those involved in this undisputed incident of torture and abuse at the hands of a royal family member and the police is an appalling miscarriage of justice,” said HRW’s Sarah Leah Watson.

It said the apparent involvement of a police officer was “tantamount to state complicity in the torture”.

The UAE said the police investigated the events, and found that “all rules, policies and procedures were followed correctly by the Police Department”, according to a letter seen by Human Rights Watch.

No responses yet

Apr 28 2009

Google gets Wi-Fi positioning into web browser toolbar

Published by admin under GPS & Sat-Nav, Map News


Google introduced “Google Toolbar with My Location”, based on its proprietary developed Wi-Fi positioning engine that has been first introduced last September for mobile search. This new version of Google’s web browser toolbar automatically provides search results based on the user’s location both on Google Maps and the included Maps gadget.

Google gets Wi-Fi positioning into web browser toolbar

The user can see his location on Google Maps, search for places of interest around that location and more generally can get locally relevant results when searching on Google.

In terms of privacy, the “My Location” functionality in the toolbar can be enabled or disabled “with just the click of a button”, said Google. In addition, there is no association of location information with a user’s Google Account.

At this stage Google Toolbar with My Location is only available in the U.S. for Internet Explorer 6.0+.

No responses yet

Apr 26 2009

Student From Cardiff Designs Sat Nav for the Blind

Published by admin under GPS & Sat-Nav, Map News


Jason Perkins 34, a student of product design at the University of Wales Institute, has been reportedly shortlisted for a covetous Sir James Dyson award for designing a sat nav system that can deliver confidence to the blind people to visit new places. The new pedestrian sat nav device that he calls ‘Peepo’ can sense the vibrations on the fingertips of the blind men to steer them.

Student From Cardiff Designs Sat Nav for the Blind

Moreover, ‘Peepo’ has been designed in such a way as to listen to the location command of the user, apart from fitting cosily in their palms. Peepo engages the satellite navigation technology to track destinations. Peepo can also be clipped onto the metal lead of the guide dog, as the vibrations on their fingertips tend to provide directions.

Perkins said that he was trying hard to unearth a real requirement for a design that would aid the people overcome a life barrier, and indipendence was one of the best things that could be gifted to someone. He added that he had it designed after considerable research at the Institute of Cardiff for the Blind and around twelve months with his focus group for its development.

He also said that the immediate cause of his coming up with the idea was after knowing the fact that out of ten, nine guide dog owners refused to travel alone to locations they had not been to before. Perkins hopes that he can introduce his invention to America as well.

No responses yet

Next »