slashgeo.org

Bloggage update: Time-aware maps are a very handy way to boil down complex data sets that involve time component. I recently posted maps on arcgis on desktop and smartphone, static results of ‘traveling salesman’ geoprocessing on the desktop or online.Now we can post time-aware maps directly to arcgis, and I thought I’d try it first on my popular “Where in the World is Andrew” map - I related my peregrinations so often (“do you want the short or the long version?”) that I made a simple map using a text file and Java script on Google Maps. My new catalog blog relates why and how I tried in on ArcGIS Online, and how I found an unexpected benefit: to explain an arcane mapping concept of Great Circles to my family.

Here’s the recent Apple-related geonews.

• Welcomed privacy improvements, iOS 8 Strikes an Unexpected Blow Against Location Tracking by randomizing MAC addresses, GeoAwesomeness also shares an entry named Apple’s iOS8 silent war against location tracking
• On indoor mapping, iOS 8 Tidbits: Randomized MAC Addresses, Safari Credit Card Scanning, Indoor Mapping, and More, James Fee add more, Indoor Positioning with Apple’s M7 processor
• And we can expect transit directions, Transit Directions Icon for iOS Maps Briefly Shown in Apple WWDC Session Slides
• A feature that makes sense, iOS 8 Offers Quick Access to Apps Based on Location
• Better maps on iOS? MapBox introduced MapBox GL, a new framework for live, responsive maps in every iOS app, and open source-driven, supports video too, Video in Mapbox GL
• A week ago, Users Noticing Significant Improvements in Apple Maps Data with Quick Corrections
• A new feature, Hidden ‘City Tours’ Flyover Feature for iOS 8 Maps Discovered in Beta 2
• About Apple mapping internals, Lack of Maps Updates in iOS 8 Said to Be Caused by ‘Internal Politics’, Developers Leaving
• Local recommendations, Apple Acquires Social Recommendation Service Spotsetter

If you were at State of the Map EU recently, you might have seen the OpenCage Data team launch a new, open data driven, geocoding API. If you weren’t then you might like to know that the OpenCage Geocoder is now publicly available in beta. Powered by OSM data and a whole lot more and wrapping other open source geocoders, including Nomimatim, for examples, demos, API docs and sign up information.

Ed, Gary and Marc on behalf of the OpenCage team

Catching up this month’s geonews after launching our new site yesterday, here’s the first in a series of ‘batch mode’ posts, this one focusing on Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• The Google I/O conference, here’s the official entry about Maps at I/O’14 with a list of geo-related sessions
• Football/Soccer? See the stadiums with Get a front row seat to the games with Google Maps, and from the GEB blog, the World Cup Stadiums in Google Earth
• At the beginning of the month, StreetView went underwater in Belize and the Philippines, Take a swim with Street View on World Oceans Day
• Here’s libraries recently deprecated, Sunsetting the Google Maps JavaScript API Panoramio and Weather libraries, and a Flash Maps API reminder

From other sources:

• Google will now really have their own satellites in the sky, Google buys satellite startup Skybox for $500m
• For those who really don’t like the new Google Maps, Tired of new, slow Google Maps? This is how you can switch to the old version!
• Here’s an article on Ed Parsons, article named The man who’s making Google Maps smarter
• We mentioned Project Tango a few times, and now Google Unveils Project Tango 3D Tablet DevKit Powered By NVIDIA’s Tegra K1
• Autonomous cars get further, Google Unveils Self-Driving Car With No Steering Wheel
• We still need special instructions for this, Installing Google Earth on Ubuntu 14.04
• APB mentions a new patent, Google Patent: Updating map data using satellite imagery
• It starts in about a week, Mapping the Tour de France
• Cinephile? Locations of famous movies in Google Earth
• New imagery: Christchurch, New Zealand now features 3D Imagery and Google to release Street View imagery in Greece

Inventis today announced the release of ogr2gui version 0.7, the graphical user interface used to convert and manipulate geospatial data.

This release would have been possible without the contribution of David Tran in collaboration with Prof. Stefan Keller of the University of Applied Sciences in Rapperswil, Switzerland and Even Rouault from l’École des Mines de Paris.

What’s new in this version?

• Webservices integration;
• Additionnal geoformats, including sqlite;
• Projection read from a .csv file;
• 64 bit version;
• and much more!

ogr2gui is based on ogr2ogr, a command line utility from the GDAL library. Through its graphic interface, ogr2gui allows to use all the power of ogr2ogr without worrying about its complex syntax. It brings speed, efficiency and accessibility to its users.

ogr2gui is an open source project licensed under the GNU General Public License. Everyone in the developer community is invited to join. To date, more than 1200 users in over 75 countries have adopted the application.