Customize Your Google Maps
May 22, 2010 @ 4:27 AM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- google maps
We’ve done a lot of work with Google Maps and are glad to finally see some major improvements being made with API v3.
Cartographers around the world will be super delighted over this - Styled MapTypes!! This update now allows you to toggle features on and off (roads, parks, water, transit, etc) and create a new color scheme for Google Maps. Here’s a nice set of potential colors. What will you come up with?
iPad Apps Review, Part 2
May 20, 2010 @ 3:17 PM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- apple apps ipad reviewLast month I reviewed some early map apps that made its way into the iTunes store (iPad Apps Review, Part 1). Let’s see what others have achieved since then:
1. NYC Way (Free!!)
A winner of 3 awards at the NYC BigApps Competition, NYC Way is an extremely well designed app that includes all the information you’ll ever need about the city whether you’re a tourist or resident. Location is huge these days and NYC WAY does a tremendous job implementing your location with nearby businesses and events (and restaurant inspections and job postings and subways and more!) and even allows you to check-in via Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.
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2. Topo Maps for iPad ($7.99)
A little pricey but well worth it if you are really really into USGS topo quads. Just navigate to the quad and download for offline use! It will detect your location and have the option to create and import/export waypoints. Beware if you’re expecting to see hiking trails with these maps. Many of these quads are old (the first I downloaded was from 1955 — Conestoga, PA) and only major trails are shown.
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3. World History Atlas by Maps.com ($1.99)
Eh. Another static image dumping atlas with nothing else. Index is too small. Yawn.
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4. MotionX GPS HD ($2.99)
This is a popular app for the iPhone but the iPad version currently does NOT allow you to save and send your tracks.. which I believe is an important feature to have. However, it’s still getting excellent reviews so give it a shot if you own a 3G iPad. I can tell you right now this app is fairly useless on my WiFi version despite its claims.
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5. 123 World HD ($1.99)
Clearly I am too old for this but kids will enjoy this little coloring book app. Choose your color from the palette and click on the state/country/continent to color them in. As you fill your countries with colors, its name and capital will pop up on screen. Not bad, your kids can play and learn geography at the same time!
iPad assessment by a Geographer who does not have one
May 10, 2010 @ 7:33 PM by Britta Ricker -- apps atlas ipad iphone review
My feelings about the iPad have been evolving. I am sure a lot of you feel that way. When it first came out and I heard no camera and no GPS (I now hear the 3G does have a GPS) I was selfishly disappointed since my research is going in the direction of mobile augmented reality and location based services. The lack of these sensors really highlighted the point that This Week in Tech host Leo Laporte makes in that this device is for consuming information not producing and sharing information. I then started to accept the iPad for what it is. It is a map viewer not a map producer or manipulator.
This NPR article brings up the dangers of “Moving from Maps to Apps.” They point out that the demand for printed road atlases is on the decline. In the article Victoria Lawson (if you are doing a google search-the Professor of Geography not the porn star) is quoted saying “I get the impression that we are losing other abilities to navigate by the shape of the land, the orientation of mountains and rivers as we stare at a tiny screen.” I would like to point out that according to her website Dr. Lawson’s “work is concerned with the social and economic effects of global economic restructuring in the Americas and with articulating critical alternative conceptions of processes of impoverishment.” She is not an interface design expert or even a cartographer or critical GIS prof. However her point still made me think of the iPad.
GPS devices and smart phones have tiny screens that are best suited to reveal micro scale location based information. Viewing wide distributions of spatially related information is not optimal on the small screens. However the iPad… The iPad screen is about the same dimension as the medium sized paper atlas that I would stare at for hours during summer car trips with my family. An atlas is great for showing spatial distribution and relationships. An atlas on an iPad could be interactive and allow the user to inquire about specific information that he or she may be interested in on the fly.
The size of the screen is not the only unique feature of the iPad, from the limited exposure time I had with the device, I noticed that interface design for the iPad is like no other. It is not just a large iPhone, or maybe it is but the larger touch screen surface area make the apps seem much different. What this will mean for location based services and other geography related apps is yet to be seen I think.
I would be totally excited to see an app for the iPad to explore the new 3-D data sets of New York City collected by the twin-engine Shrike Commander! Or information from the oil balloon!
Kumiko Yamazaki: kyamazaki@mapkist.com