Enhanced customization and increased accessibility empowers users to analyze 2G, 3G and 4G wireless network coverage BARCELONA – Feb. 14, – American Roamer, the worldwide mapping intelligence source for mobile and network coverage information, today launched new features for its Global Coverage Analyzer (GCA), a web-based interactive mapping application for viewing and comparing 2G, 3G, and 4G wireless network coverage in more than 200 countries worldwide.  New features for GCA include a flexible color palette, enabling users to change the color of each layer to meet specific needs, such as assigning colors to reflect operator specific branding.  In addition to the more advanced web browsers that support the service, GCA can now be accessed using Internet Explorer 7, increasing customer accessibility to the interactive mapping tool. As part of American Roamer’s commitment to update its global coverage database on a quarterly basis, this release also includes a refresh of the global wireless coverage layers found in GCA. “An online, updated snapshot of wireless coverage, including 4G networks, allows users to make better business decisions, acquire and retain customers and execute with a solid information base,” said Ray Westbrook, senior vice president of sales, American Roamer. “The enhancements to GCA provide our customers with an even better ability to view and analyze the largest and most comprehensive mobile coverage database in the world to increase their competitive edge.” GCA, part of the CellMaps mapping services suite, combines American Roamer’s catalog of international wireless coverage, interactive mapping capabilities and industry-leading market research, giving clients the ability to evaluate global wireless network coverage within their web browser.  Industry professionals utilize GCA to support an array of business segments, from wireless roaming and competitive intelligence, to strategic planning and business development. For example, users can view wireless operators’ coverage in a specific geographic area and compare multiple coverage layers to make more informed business decisions. “The new features of GCA reflect our strong commitment to the voice of our customers and continued innovation to meet their demands,” Westbrook said. American Roamer will be showcasing its Global Coverage Analyzer along with other interactive and intelligent mapping solutions at Mobile World Congress, booth 2C93.

  Distribution agreement gives ITT rights to distribute leading software application for analyzing data and imagery from synthetic aperture radar satellites.

Boulder, CO – February 4, – ITT Visual Information Solutions (ITT VIS), a subsidiary of ITT Corporation (NYSE: ITT), and a developer of software products for data visualization and image analysis, announced it has signed an agreement with sarmap SA of Switzerland to distribute sarmap’s SARscape software products worldwide. A popular add-on for ITT’s ENVI software product for image analysis, SARscape provides ENVI users with the ability to read, process, analyze and output information from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data and imagery. SAR is an increasingly popular type of geospatial data and imagery that is used in a wide range of applications because of its unique ability to provide information about an area regardless of time of day or weather conditions.

“We at ITT VIS are committed to providing geospatial professionals with the superior software tools and technologies needed to get actionable information from all imagery and data types in use today,” said Richard Cooke, president of ITT Visual Information Solutions. “As partners with sarmap, we can now provide ENVI users worldwide with a proven solution that allows image analysts to effectively and accurately analyze SAR data and easily integrate the resulting information with other geospatial data.”

“Our company goal has been to provide the best technology and algorithms for analyzing SAR data and imagery,” said Francesco Holecz, CEO of sarmap SA. “ITT’s ENVI product has been our platform for delivering these robust tools from the beginning, and our partnership with ITT VIS ensures that our SAR tools can be distributed to image analysts worldwide allowing them to take full advantage of this versatile, growing data type.”

SAR data, which first became commercially available in the United States in the 1990s, is a data type acquired from airborne and space-borne imaging platforms that can produce two or three-dimensional datasets of surface areas regardless of atmospheric conditions. When combined with spectral imagery, SAR data provides an additional layer of contextual information about a geographic area of interest. Users of ENVI and SARscape will have the ability to process and analyze both spectral and radar data to make more informed decisions.

About ITT Visual Information Solutions

ITT Visual Information Solutions, a subsidiary of ITT Corporation, provides integrated software solutions that help scientists, engineers, researchers, and medical professionals turn complex data into useful information. The company’s 150,000 customers from more than 80 countries use IDL, ENVI and IAS to analyze data and imagery and deploy imaging applications. ITT Visual Information Solutions’ products are used in a variety of industries, including remote sensing, engineering, earth sciences, aerospace, defense and intelligence, medical imaging, oil and gas exploration and biotechnology. Combined with a host of support services including training, consulting and technical support, ITT Visual Information Solutions offers the most complete data visualization, image analysis and image delivery solutions available.

About sarmap SA

sarmap S.A. is a Swiss company founded in January 1998 to provide products and services development in the field of remote sensing (SAR and optical), particularly airborne and spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data processing. Training courses are also offered to extend the understanding of the utilization of SAR data, products and services. Application areas of expertise include Digital Elevation Model, agriculture, forestry, ground deformation, and change detection. In the past 10 years, sarmap has been involved in around 80 projects: approximately 2/3 on algorithm/product/service developments at the European Space Agency. The remaining 1/3 focused on the developments of innovative remote sensing based products/services for the World Bank, EC Joint Research Centre, JAXA, and private sector (re-insurance and forestry sector in primis). sarmap is the developer of SARscape®, a remote sensing software package for the processing of airborne / spaceborne SAR data integrated with ENVI.

About ITT Corporation

ITT Corporation is a high-technology engineering and manufacturing company operating on all seven continents in three vital markets: water and fluids management, global defense and security, and motion and flow control. With a heritage of innovation, ITT partners with its customers to deliver extraordinary solutions that create more livable environments, provide protection and safety and connect our world. Headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., the company reported revenue of $11 billion.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – (January 11) – Urban Mapping, Inc (UMI), a leading provider of web services and on-demand data for interactive mapping applications, today announced new data available within Mapfluence, the company’s web-based mapping platform. US Federal Court Jurisdiction data are now accessible through the industry’s leading on-demand data catalog. The Federal Court Jurisdictions dataset contains geographic boundaries for the 94 US Federal District Courts and 12 Courts of Appeals. In addition, attribute data includes details, such as names for each court's Chief Justice, the number of judges per court and each district's associated appellate court number. Urban Mapping acquired the data from official government sources and verified, curated and published it in the Mapfluence on-demand data catalog. The catalog currently hosts more than 10,000 variables spanning dozens of themes, including demographics, consumer spending data, business analytics, crime statistics, education, weather and natural hazards, and more. With federal court boundaries, developers can use Mapfluence to perform spatial analysis, thematic mapping and create custom applications to leverage jurisdiction data and garner intelligence alongside proprietary and other data.   About Urban Mapping Urban Mapping, Inc (UMI) provides web-based mapping services and on-demand data to simplify the development and deployment of online mapping and data visualization applications. With Mapfluence, UMI’s flagship product, organizations can access an on-demand catalog of 10,000+ high-value variables to query, visualize and analyze data using maps, tables and charts. Since, leading interactive publishers like Microsoft, MapQuest and Yahoo! as well as leading enterprises like CoStar Group, Tableau Software and CoreLogic have been utilizing Urban Mapping's geospatial data and technology.

Recently, we announced a new partnership with iFactor Consulting. Through this partnership iFactor customers will have access to our ParcelStream™ web service, which boasts over 110 million US parcels. Users can access ParcelStream™ through iFactor’s Web Maps Connector and will be able to easily integrate parcel data, view parcel boundaries, and retrieve detailed parcel information all from their existing GE Smallworld applications and without writing any code. While this partnership is exciting, it begs the question “has mapping and GIS technology really become a mainstream component across (even the most intransigent) industries?” It appears that numerous industries are increasingly inquisitive about the exponential benefits of spatial technology and in particular parcel data. Partnering with iFactor is a prime example of industries (in this case the utility industry) embracing spatial technology and how they can leverage it without having to make GIS one of their core competencies. The utility industry, like many other sectors, now relies on GIS technology and geospatial data (whether they know it or not) to increase operational efficiency and strengthen organizational decision making. In particular, the utility industry uses parcel boundary data for land management, right of way work, and transmission corridor planning decisions. So, how have so many industries come to embrace spatial technology to the point of integrating it into their daily processes? Well, here’s a very probable answer: Microsoft (with Bing Maps) and Google (with Google Maps). These two industry leaders have played an enormous role in bringing mapping and spatial technology to the mainstream. Such technology is incredibly powerful when put into the hands of end-users and thanks to Bing and Google even the most unlikely industries have made mapping part of their business processes. Yet, there’s more to the answer. A big part of the mass adoption of mapping is due to the emergence of geospatial web services. These web services significantly lower the hurdles to deploying advanced mapping by making it much easier to access, integrate, maintain and use GIS technology and data. At Digital Map Products we believe that cloud computing is a key enabler of the widespread adoption of mapping technology. The possibilities for spatial technology are endless and we have yet to see just how far it can go, but seeing the integration of key data sets into mainstream industries is an exciting and the new breed of spatial technology companies is making it possible for organizations to deploy GIS to a wide-set of non-technical users and across all industries.

Via internal email, I learned about the OGC announcement of the Georeferenced Table Joining Service (TJS) standard.

From the press release: "The OGC TJS standard defines an interface for services that provide the ability to join attribute data stored in one database on a network with corresponding geometry (points, lines, or polygons) stored in another network accessible database.

For example, a table on one server may indicate the population of various cities, while a second server may contain the geometry that describes the cities' locations and boundaries. The TJS standard describes a set of interfaces for both servers that allows the city name to be used as the "common geographic identifier" in order to join the population data to its geometry, thus enabling mapping and geospatial analysis of the tabular data. An earlier draft of this standard was titled the "Geographic Linkage Service"."

SpatialCloud is proud to announce they’re leaving beta and releasing the first nationwide, pay-as-you-go imagery dataset, SpatialCloud USA. This tiled mapping service (TMS) represents over 3.5 terabytes of imagery with a maximum resolution of 1 meter per pixel. The imagery can be used and resold by anyone by simply subscribing to the MapSource at SpatialCloud. Using 28,000 sq. miles of full resolution imagery annually would cost less than $1,500. Plus, SpatialCloud Global (world-wide Landsat imagery) access is included with the SpatialCloud USA subscription. “Now geospatial developers and users will have unencumbered access to seamless USA aerial imagery without cumbersome licensing restrictions and expensive data infrastructure,” explained Mike Tully, SpatialCloud’s President. “SpatialCloud USA, and future publicly branded datasets, are, and will be, licensed using flexible terms. These terms make MapSources attractive for web application developers, large government, and corporate users.” The SpatialCloud USA dataset is a seamless coverage of the United States created from the USDA’s National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). This imagery benefits users and resellers because it is a national seamless coverage available as pre-rendered tiles, which is faster than WMS and more scalable. SpatialCloud MapSources will support any number of users without showing degradation in performance. Scalable, Flexible Licensing, & Usage Logging SpatialCloud is built on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Users benefit from the rock solid performance and reliability of Amazon. Because imagery is the heaviest component of geospatial web services, outsourcing it to the cloud has the greatest impact on IT costs. In addition, SpatialCloud USA uses the Creative Commons license, freeing customers to use the content in creative ways and to develop new business models. To support these models, SpatialCloud provides logs of individual MapStreams so end-user consumption can be tracked. This is useful for 3rd party billing, among other applications. SpatialCloud USA is available today as a secure RESTful service. SpatialCloud MapSources can be accessed by a number of compliant clients, including OpenLayers, ESRI ArcGIS (with a free extension called ArcBruTile), and using SpatialCloud’s TMS-to-WMS service. Process & Host Your Own Custom Data In addition to access to imagery layers like SpatialCloud USA, government and corporate users with large caches of imagery can elect to host their imagery at SpatialCloud. Customers can choose to create “public” or “private” MapSources. “Private” MapStreams can then be used by anyone with permission and are useful for extending valuable image base layers inside organizations or to important clients. “Public” MapSources are visible to all SpatialCloud users and can be purchased by anyone and resold according to the MapSource owner’s licensing terms. “The SpatialCloud USA (NAIP) dataset is comprised of millions of 256 x 256 pixel web optimized images and demonstrates the robust nature of our cloud-based imagery system,” noted Mark Korver, Chief Technology Officer. “More importantly, our infrastructure allows any content provider, developer, or GIS user to offload the time, money, and frustration of managing heavy imagery internally, by outsourcing this task to SpatialCloud, and do it at a fraction of the cost of using your own infrastructure and IT personnel. You just stream the data over the internet to your employees or customers wherever they may be located. If the content provider chooses to make their MapSource public they enjoy the added advantage of exposing their data to a worldwide market of potential resellers and users.” SpatialCloud expects additional datasets to be available in the near future. ### SpatialCloud is a geospatial services company providing enterprise-ready web-based tools to warehouse, process, publish, and visualize geodata using cloud infrastructure. Founded in and initiated by Aerial Services, Inc., a respected United States geospatial services provider founded in 1967, SpatialCloud is committed to providing quality geospatial imagery data via the cloud.

Apple Open version delivers global mapping and full Outdoors Navigation Cambridge UK, 1 December – Award-winning ViewRanger GPS, the outdoor navigation app, has introduced a Global Open Maps edition for iPhone and iPad, available for download from the iTunes App Store from today. This launch on Apple iOS means that the affordable and popular ViewRanger Open Maps edition is now globally available on all three of the most widely owned smartphone OS (Android , Symbian and Apple). It comes with access to a range of global Open Mapping layers from street, terrain to aerial photo and is now available for just US$0.99/AU$1.19/NZ$1.29/GB£0.59/€0.79 for an introductory period (usual price US$3.99/AU$4.99/NZD5.29/GB£2.39/€2.99). The Open Maps version lets iPhone and iPad owners, who are into outdoor pursuits like walking, mountain biking, cycling and running enjoy the benefits of ViewRanger virtually anywhere in the world. The Open Maps edition, supports the full feature set, to turn your Apple device into a powerful outdoors GPS navigator allowing you to get more from your favourite Outdoor activities. With ViewRanger; you’ll always know your real-time location on the on-screen moving map, you can record your track to export and share. You can even use it to analyse performance statistics, like distance, speed, height gain/loss. The Open Maps edition provides access to a range of map views, including OpenCycleMap** (topo), OpenStreetMap*** and Bing Road Map and Aerial Imagery. Importantly, not only do the maps work virtually anywhere in the world, but also they can be stored on the phone before travel, for off-line use, so they will work even without a mobile signal. Real-time location sharing is one of the app’s key features: the “BuddyBeaconTM” service allows users to share their location with other app or web users and view the location of their friends on-screen - even if they are using a different smartphone platform, which is ideal for progress tracking. The Open Maps edition is fully upgradeable to run full topographic premium maps available across Europe, in New Zealand and USA, which can be bought easily using iTunes in-App purchasing. Alternatively, a “premium maps” edition is available in some markets1 Craig Wareham, CEO of Augmentra, the company that develops and markets ViewRanger said: “Introducing an Apple iOS version of the Open Maps edition makes ViewRanger even more accessible to anyone who wants to enjoy the benefits of personal GPS navigation and location sharing to pursue their sports, leisure or tourism interests anywhere in the world.

First: don't worry, they won't show up on the main page or in the main RSS feed!

Over the years, Slashgeo refused to publish an innumerable amount of press releases. That's going to change. We are now accepting the submission of geospatially-related press releases for publication. Some elements to take into account:

• They appear on the left-hand side column and users can hide this block entirely in their preferences
• Press releases are indexed and use the same tagging system, so they will show up in search results and you can find them in the press-release tag
• There's also an RSS feed for press releases
• Submitted press releases will be moderated by our team of editors
• Only press releases pertinent to the geospatial community will be published
• There's a new menu item on top of the page to submit press releases

Hope this will add some value to our users.

LONDON, 26 November, – Telmap, the original pioneers in mobile location-based services, is proud to announce that it was named Number 41 fastest growing technology company on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in the EMEA region. To determine the fastest growing companies, Deloitte reviewed fiscal year revenues over the past five years, calculated the revenue growth percentage over this period, and compared the growth of technology companies. Telmap is a provider of end to end mobile location-based services that enrich on the-go experiences through integration of local content, community interactions, and personal offers. Telmap views making this list as quite an accomplishment. “We are very proud to once again to be included alongside EMEA’s most prestigious technology companies. This award is representative of our commitment to bringing long-term, sustainable value to our customers fulfilling our strong vision of serving all users’ needs while on-the-go, while creating an optimized user experience. We are pleased to accept this award in recognition of our significant growth”, said Oren Nissim, Telmap’s CEO. "Making the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 is commendable in today‘s highly competitive technology industry," said David Halstead, Deloitte United Kingdom, partner in charge of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA programme. "We congratulate Telmap on being one of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in the region." Telmap previously ranked 189 on Deloitte Technology Fast 500, and number 155 on the programme. In addition to ranking in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, Telmap ranked 4th in the Israel Deloitte Technology Fast 50, which is a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology firms in Israel. Overall, companies that ranked on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA programme had an average growth rate of 1,192% percent.