King of Bing
Aug 24, 2010 @ 11:20 AM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- apps bingIn the age where everyone strives to become the mayor (Foursquare) or duke/duchess (Yelp) of a location, Bing was going to crown some fine developer the King of Bing.
If you haven’t heard of the King of Bing Maps Challenge, it was just the most recent of the many successful app contests being held. Winners receive a small amount of cash and some street cred, and the organizers receive a gallery full of apps created by the community in return. Everybody wins!
This year’s King of Bing was Ricky Brundritt with his Taxi Fare Calculator. This app estimates the total fare for most U.S. cities and 18 additional international cities to help residents, tourists, and businessmen navigate around.
My favorite, however, was Ricky’s Data Viewer - another app by Ricky Brundritt. It integrates GeoRSS feeds into the app and also allows you to overlay shapefiles on top of Bing.
For example, if you wished to view the latest earthquakes as published by the USGS, you would visit the USGS Earthquakes Hazards Program and download their Atom XML Feed. Select the GeoRSS file through the app and you’re done!
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!
iPad Apps Review, Part 1
Apr 20, 2010 @ 2:55 PM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- apple apps ipad reviewWhile all of you were keeping busy at the AAGs in DC, I was in the office glued to the new love of my life, the glorious iPad!! I’ve already downloaded some geo-related apps so here’s a brief summary of each:
1. National Geographic World Atlas HD ($1.99)
Gizmodo recently called this “$2 of app spam” and it’s pretty accurate, albeit a little harsh. You receive several of their world maps, basic country info, and a search feature that plots the location on the map. It’s not jaw-dropping but it looks nice and runs ok (crashes every now and then). However at $2 and a brand like National Geographic, you just expect wayyy more than the few searchable world maps they provide. The free native Google Maps app will do fine for almost everyone.
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2. The World Factbook for iPad ($1.99)
This is the entire CIA World Factbook packaged offline. It offers all their country maps, locator maps, flags, and more information than you’ll ever need on a particular country. It’s good reference material and the best of all world factbooks currently available.
Just to be nitpicky, I’m going to point out the flags on the left menu are all incorrectly shown as having the same dimensions.
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3. Geo Hangman HD ($0.99)
BIG! SHINY! BUTTONS!! Geo Hangman looks beautiful and is a simple hangman game where each correct answer is a country. Once you’ve guessed correctly, you’re also informed the capital of the country and have the option of viewing its location on a map.
Some students may complain about the lack of a scoring system, but it does at least have educational value.. unlike some mindless games I’m officially (shamefully) addicted to!
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4. World Atlas for iPad ($0.99)
This app does nothing but display a single general reference map for each country. These shaded relief CIA maps can all be found on the Perry Castañeda Map Collection website. Do not buy.
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5. Carta Compact Atlas HD, Bible Maps ($4.99)
Over 30 Bible maps done well with traditional cartographic styles. Unfortunately, this app has zero interactivity other than pan/zoom and is priced too high.
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What does everyone think? I think we can all agree that no ‘killer app’ has been developed yet. Personally, I’d like to see more geography games that are engaging to both students and adults - am I being selfish? :) I’d also like to continue reviewing iPad apps in the future so I hope you enjoyed this first installment!
Foursquare as a Marketing Tool
Mar 9, 2010 @ 6:45 PM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- apps foursquare locationBy now, most of you have heard of Foursquare, the location-based app that lets you virtually check in to a location. You let the application know where you are and in return, you receive badges (bragging rights) and work your way to becoming the mayor of your favorite venue. You are also encouraged to leave “tips” for others letting them know what you loved or didn’t love about the particular venue.
Foursquare is very similar to visiting a website online except it’s real life. Many website owners will use analytics on their site to learn more about the behavior of its visitors for market research, so it comes as no surprise that business owners may want the same type of analytics for their venue.
This feature is now available for a few select businesses - Foursquare Introduces New Tools for Businesses [via NYT].
It’s amazing the amount of data that is available through Foursquare and the advantages it can provide to businesses everywhere. The obvious error with these analytics is that only a small percentage of people use Foursquare. The children and elderly will most likely not appear in the data.
However, what they will receive are a core of young adults who may be social media gurus and can persuade their entire social network to visit (or not visit) your business. This new tool offers a direct personal relationship with your customers so the lesson here is to let them know they are valued customers and offer them incentives to keep coming back. Foursquare is just a location-based game for most people but is also becoming a valuable marketing tool for businesses.
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Cartograms for Everyone
Nov 11, 2008 @ 1:08 AM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- apps cartogram: scapetoadTrying to update more frequently here, we’ll see how I do.
By now, I’m sure we’ve all seen the election cartograms by Mark Newman. It’s received a lot of press this past week for good reason. He’s done a wonderful job describing how certain maps can look misleading at first glance and what can be done to more accurately display such data.
Fortunately for us mappers, there are a number of ways to create our own cartograms. My favorite is the free one I finally tested a couple days ago — ScapeToad. It uses the Gastner/Newman diffusion-based algorithm we see everywhere and comes with an easy-to-use interface. There is literally a ‘Create Cartogram’ button, can it get any easier??
To the left is an example of the result after less than 5 minutes of work:
The above map is showing the number of Walmarts per 1 million people in each state. (Some of the New England states look more bloated than I expected). Ignore colors here, it’s representing cartogram size error. For stylization, I would suggest exporting as a shapefile and using a separate GIS application.
Enough blogging for the time being. I’ve entered the Apps for Democracy contest and the deadline is this Wednesday.. doh!
Maker! And my Reaction!
Oct 2, 2008 @ 11:20 PM by Kumiko Yamazaki -- apps geoweb: maker!Here’s my first creation on Maker!. It’s displaying obesity in the U.S. along with the top bike commuting cities.
Visually they look great, and Maker! did an excellent job with its ease of use. If you know what you’re looking for and can find it on Finder!, it literally only takes minutes to create a map similar to what’s seen below.
I specifically sought out datasets that weren’t yet available on Finder! so I can upload them myself and contribute to what’s potentially becoming the source for GIS data. This isn’t just for personal use, I believe Finder! can also be used as a resource for businesses and people who are constantly in need of various data (like myself).
However, a downside - perhaps more of a compliment - is that it almost feels like a web based GIS application. You almost expect it to have more robust functionalities and tools like ESRI’s ArcGIS which can cost thousands of dollars. What if I only wanted to show the top 10 bike commuting cities? Would I need to re-upload another .csv file onto Finder! showing just the top 10? And why can’t I zoom in/out with my mouse scroll? I’m being spoiled here, I want more! If only I can code such things..
All kidding aside, I really enjoy what GeoCommons has put together between Finder! and Maker!. The professional cartography behind all of this has made it difficult for anyone to create an ‘ugly’ map. And for that alone, I thank them. This is definitely a step in the right direction for web mapping.. I only wish I had the idea and the skills to come up with it myself!
Kumiko Yamazaki: kyamazaki@mapkist.com