GPS World

Author: GPS World Staff

  • Verve Mobile Ad Company Secures Funding from Nokia, Qualcomm

    Location-powered mobile advertising company Verve Mobile announced today it has closed its Series C financing led by Nokia Growth Partners, a global growth stage venture firm focused on mobile technology, services and media with participation from new investor Qualcomm Incorporated, acting through its venture investment group, Qualcomm Ventures (QCOM), and Series B lead investor BlueRun Ventures.

    The capital will be used to further develop and expand Verve’s proprietary mobile location-based advertising and publishing products and to grow its marketing and sales capabilities.

    “Verve’s focus is combining big data, location-based services (LBS) and ad technologies to make mobile advertising work better for advertisers and publishers,” said Tom MacIsaac, Verve Mobile CEO.  “Nokia and Qualcomm are global leaders in mobile technology innovation and have important insights, assets, initiatives and relationships that can help Verve maintain its lead in location powered mobile advertising.”

    John Gardner of Nokia Growth Partners has joined Verve’s Board in connection with the financing, and Quinn Li of Qualcomm Ventures has become a Board Observer.

    Verve Mobile’s customers are national-brand advertisers who want to engage consumers on their mobile devices with location-aware, data-driven and highly targeted marketing, the company said. Verve has offices in New York, Washington D.C. and San Diego, California.

  • ION GNSS+ 2013

    ION GNSS+ is the annual international technical meeting of the Satellite Division of the Institute of Navigation. It will be held September 16-20 at the Nashville Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Tutorials take place September 16-17. The exhibit hall will be open Wednesday and Thursday, but not Friday.

    The newly added “+” sign reflects the increased awareness and growing emphasis on the rapidly evolving field of alternative navigation offerings at the conference.

    The deadline for submitting abstracts is March 8, 2013.

    Announced panel sessions include:

    • Program Updates
      John Betz, The MITRE Corporation
    • New Products
      Glen Gibbons, Inside GNSS, Gibbons Media & Research LLC
      Gian Gherardo Calini, European GNSS Agency
    • High Integrity Systems
      Sergey Karutin, Russian Space Systems, Russia
    • IP Policies Related to GNSS
      Dave Turner, U.S. Department of State
      Giancarlo Caratti, European Commission, Belgium
    • Emerging GNSS
      European Space Agency Representative
      Xiancheng Ding, BeiDou Management Office, China
    • Unmanned GNSS
      Mikel Miller, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory

  • Intergeo 2013

    Intergeo is a leading conference trade fair for geodesy, geoinformation and land management. With over half a million event website users and more than 16,000 visitors from 80 countries at Intergeo itself, it is one of the key platforms for industry dialogue. Intergeo will be held October 8-10 in Essen, Germany.

    The 19th Intergeo will look at the significance of changes in economic and political structures, among other things. Few locations have been as greatly affected by these structural changes in the past few decades as the German Ruhr area. Essen itself shows the transformation from a coal and steel region to one whose industry is based on technology and services. Strategic networking with Messe München International and the Intergeo Advisory Board launched in 2012 will bring new impetus to the event. Teaser

    Intergeo 2013 promises to bring with it many developments that will strengthen its image as a significant source of inspiration for future national and international business. For example, the newly founded Advisory Board with partners Esri, Hexagon and Trimble will deal with strategic issues and discuss the industry’s socio-political role.

    The collaboration with Messe München International creates new opportunities for global communication through a worldwide network with six subsidiaries in Europe and Asia, and more than 60 offices abroad that are active in more than 90 countries. Messe München International provides Intergeo with a globally comprehensive portfolio of services for exhibitors, visitors and media representatives.

    “The collaborative work between Intergeo and Messe München International will not only have a positive effect in supporting exhibitors and winning new ones. I also expect to see a further increase in the number of international visitors,” said Olaf Freier, Managing Director of HINTE GmbH, which organises INTERGEO on behalf of DVW.

    The host, DVW e.V. — the German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management — is expecting 16,000 visitors and 1,400 conference participants from all over the world. At the heart of the conference are the topics of “property valuation” and “intelligent geoinformation — how to gather, process and put it to practical use” and the continuation of the INSPIRE conference under the patronage of the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, the Steering Committee for Spatial Information Germany, the German Association of Cities, the German Rural District Association and DVW e. V.

    Answers will also be given to questions of urban development and the challenges posed by the energy revolution. The event days will be opened by keynote speeches from Garrelt Duin, minister for Economic Affairs for North Rhine-Westphalia, Jürgen Dold, president and CEO of Leica Geosystems AG, and Prof. Reiner Rummel from the Institute for Astronomical and Physical Geodesy at Munich Technical University.

    Intergeo covers a wide variety of fields, ranging from surveying, geoinformation, remote sensing and photogrammetry to complementary solutions and technologies. Another field is processing, using and analyzing geodata on the Internet or in the field. Associated solutions will be presented and discussed by experts.

    Intergeo will also highlight areas of innovation that are enjoying dynamic growth. Suppliers will showcase these future technologies at venues such as the OSGeoPark and the Innovation Park for young, innovative companies.

  • 2013 Esri International User Conference

    The 2013 Esri International User Conference will be held July 8–12 at the San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, California. The Esri UC covers the entire spectrum of the geospatial industry, bringing together social, economic, business, and environmental leaders who are redefining how people work together at every scale.

    At Esri UC, GIS professionals can spend five days experiencing more than 900 GIS success stories, best practices, and real world projects. This year includes presentations on mobile devices, cloud-based computing, GIS workflows, data management, and new features that improve the efficiency of GIS solutions.

    Pre-conference seminars will be held July 6-7.

    Map Gallery submissions are now open. At last year’s event, Esri featured more than 700 maps from users around the world and across virtually every industry. All submitted maps are considered for one of several cartographic awards and are screened for possible publication in an upcoming edition of the Esri Map Book. Last year’s winners included:

    • Jesse Nett of the USDA Forest Service (Best Overall Winner)
    • Jeannett Phillips of the Chickasaw Nation (UC People’s Choice Award Winner)
    • David Frank of the City of Santa Clarita (Most Unique)

    Map Gallery submissions close on May 31.

  • Telematics Detroit 2013

    Telematics Detroit — scheduled for June 5-6, in Novi, Michigan — is a conference and exhibition focused on the entire telematics ecosystem. In 2012, 1800+ executives attended along with 100+ industry speakers.

    Key topics this year include:

    • The Ultimate End-to-End Telematics Platform: Dispel the “killer app” myth to adopt an approach to connectivity that eschews the next big thing in favor of a holistic suite of connected services that encompasses CRM, HMI and content.
    • Turn the Car into a Money-Making Machine: Subscription-only models have failed to ignite mass adoption of connected vehicle services. Discover how to create a flexible micro-transactional platform that aligns with the service and payment demands of consumers.
    • Make Big Data Useful Data: Tackle the proliferation of vehicle generated information to debate the granularity of data collection required to provide OEMs with data sets relevant to optimizing the driving and vehicle ownership experience.
    • The Telematics Trojan Horse: Debate whether strategic partnerships with the titans of CE, including Apple, Google and Microsoft, will result in diminished OEM influence or translate into the ability to attract tech. loyal consumers and close the automotive innovation gap.
    • The Infotainment Ecosystem Reinvented: BMW, Ford and GM announce their connected car visions to gain cross-industry buy-in. Analyze whether opening up APIs and SDKs will attract third party developers by creating higher volumes to support a truly auto-centric business case.

    Visit the website for more information.

  • Ashton Kutcher among CTIA 2013 Keynote Speakers

    CTIA 2013, a leading wireless tech conference, will be held May 20-23 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas.

    Representing a growing $1 trillion global marketplace, CTIA 2013 will explore the trends shaping the vast mobile ecosystem as well as the impact of mobility on other vertical markets, such as health care, retail, education and government. Presented by CTIA–The Wireless Association, an authority leading the mobile movement since 1984, CTIA 2013 will continue to illuminate the future by showcasing the leaders, ideas and experiences transforming the dynamic wireless industry.

    Keynote speakers include:

    • Mary Dillon, 2013 Chairperson of CTIA’s Board of Directors and U.S. Cellular President and CEO;
    • Ashton Kutcher, actor and technology venture capitalist;
    • José María Álvarez-Pallete López, Chief Operating Officer, Telefónica S.A.;
    • Michael Chasen, CEO of Social Radar and Co-founder and former CEO of Blackboard Inc.;
    • Dr. Thomas Kiessling, Chief Product and Innovation Officer, Deutsche Telekom AG;
    • Gibu Thomas, Global Head of Mobile for Walmart;
    • and MicroStrategy CEO and bestselling author of The Mobile Wave Michael Saylor.

    “CTIA 2013 keynote speakers are the thought leaders, the innovators and the influencers shaping the wireless story. These individuals have been at the forefront at disrupting the status quo by making consumers’ lives better via wireless technology,” said CTIA Vice President and Show Director Robert Mesirow.

    Ashton Kutcher is described in CTIA press materials as a “passionate champion of new and emerging technologies, award-winning actor and technology investor. He has been on the bleeding edge of digital social media from its earliest days. His race with CNN to be the first to one million Twitter followers became a worldwide news story and cemented Ashton’s status as a new media superstar. His unparalleled relationships with the tech industry’s best and brightest leaders keep his VC firm Katalyst far ahead of this fast-moving frontier. Kutcher also stars as Steve Jobs in the upcoming film jOBS, slated to hit theaters April 19.”

    Also speaking is Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy Founder, chairman, president and CEO and the author of bestselling book, The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything.

    A “Power Women in Tech Roundtable” will be moderated by U.S. Cellular CEO and CTIA Board of Directors Chairperson Mary Dillon. It will bring together the female executives defining mobility across industry sectors. The roundtable includes Target EVP and Chief Information Officer Beth Jacob and Adobe SVP and Chief Information Officer Gerri Martin-Flickinger.

    May 20 is for Pre-Conference Seminars, and May 21-23 for the main Conference & Exposition. To register, visit www.ctia2013.com.

  • SeeControl Adds Quake Products to Ag and Heavy Equipment Solutions

    SeeControl, a machine-to-machine (M2M) cloud service provider, announced today that it will add Quake Global’s Q4000 to its line of turnkey M2M solutions for agriculture and equipment telemetry.

    The Q4000 is a dual-mode communication modem that will connect either to a satellite network or to a traditional ground-based wireless data network. The modem will automatically choose the most economical method of sending the data. The combined communication capabilities of the Q4000 and SeeControl’s turnkey telematics applications will allow equipment OEMs and owners to send and receive information from globally dispersed heavy equipment, harvesters, irrigation systems, fluid tanks, generators and vehicles.

    “Our device store offers a vast selection of turnkey M2M sensor devices to enable mixed asset and fleet operations,” Said Bryan Kester, CEO of SeeControl. “Now, with Quake, this extends to effortless satellite and GSM connectivity in a single easy-to-deploy product. It is perfect for equipment owners that want to add new asset types to an existing global fleet, or for OEM equipment manufacturers designing the next generation of telematics programs.”

    “We are very pleased to establish this relationship with SeeControl,” said Polina Braunstein, CEO of Quake. “They are a recognized leader in the agricultural OEM and Telematics solutions arena. We anticipate that considerable agriculture and equipment telematics innovation will be fueled by the global reach of the Q4000, combined with SeeControl’s software-as-a-service cloud for sensor reporting and analytics.”

    The combined offering is on display at Booth P48 at the 2013 World Agricultural Expo, taking place now through Thursday in Tulare, California.

  • Brecht-Clark Replaces Russo as PNT Coordination Office Director

    brecht-clark-W
    Jan Brecht-Clark, director of the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing.

    Dr. Jan Brecht-Clark is the new director of the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing. She has held the post since December 17, 2012. The previous director, Anthony Russo, is now the chief program engineer in the Space Communications and Navigation Division of NASA.

    The National Coordination Office for Spaced-Based PNT is the permanent staff of the National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing. It is the central node within the government for GPS-related policy matters.

    Brecht-Clark is a Senior Executive Service (SES) official from the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA). She is recognized in the areas of research and policy development related to transportation safety and security. She has more than 30 years of experience with federal and state government offices as well as industry firms.

    In 2011-2012, Brecht-Clark served for 19 months as the Counselor for Transportation with the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Appointed by the Secretary of Transportation, she managed a team of professionals from across DOT, working to assist the government of Afghanistan in developing their governance capacity over transportation assets and responsibilities. Her team assisted the Afghan government in the design and approval of both a civil aviation authority and a railroad authority.

    Russo served as the director from January 19, 2010, to December 14, 2012. During that time, he was also an SES official from the DOT’s RITA. Russo also served as deputy director of the National Coordination Office from 2007 to 2009. During that time, he was an active duty Air Force Colonel representing the Department of Defense.

     

  • Magellan Launches Switch Series GPS Fitness Watches in Europe

    Magellan Launches Switch Series GPS Fitness Watches in Europe

    Magellan today announced that it has expanded the worldwide availability of the Magellan Switch Series of crossover GPS watches to Europe for athletes who run, bike, swim or participate in a variety of outdoor activities. The Magellan Switch and Switch Up watches are available this month from select retailers and through Magellan’s European distribution network.

    To support its European users, Magellan has also expanded its Magellan Active website with additional languages including French, Spanish, German, Italian and Dutch as well as English. Magellan Active makes it convenient for multisport athletes who record their performance data on Magellan’s Switch Series to easily upload and track data online with intuitive charts, maps and metrics, from a single location, Magellan said.

    “Magellan is continuing to further enrich the lives of multi-sport athletes worldwide with best-in-class fitness watches and innovative tools to help them take control of their active lifestyles,” said Clark Weber, Senior Director of Fitness Products for Magellan. “The Switch Series is rapidly gaining popularity with fitness enthusiasts, and we are pleased to work with our European distribution partners to make our GPS watches available to consumers throughout Europe.”

    Both Switch watches include features such as an Activity Pacer that shows runners if they are on target with their goal, and provides specific targets to attain the desired result. The Switch GPS watch, designed primarily for runners, includes nine customizable sport profiles, high-resolution display, eight hours of battery life, a high-sensitivity GPS receiver, 50-meter water resistance, and compatibility with ANT+ sensors. The Switch Up GPS watch has the same features as the Switch GPS watch but includes a barometric altimeter for precise elevation data, a thermometer to monitor and capture outside temperature, vibration alerts for notification in louder environments, and a quick-release mounting system to transition between sports.

    The Magellan Switch Series is available from Magellan’s European distribution partners serving UK, France, Germany, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Benelux.

    Developer API Program. Magellan also is making available its Magellan Active Developer API program. Third-party websites and applications can now access activity data from Magellan Active and import data into their websites once customer permission has been granted. A Magellan Active Web Widget can be embedded in any website for uploading activities and gives users the ability to upload activities and perform device software updates from within a personal website or HTML Widget/Gadget.

  • Berg Insight: LBS Revenues in Europe to Reach €825M by 2017

    Berg Insight: LBS Revenues in Europe to Reach €825M by 2017

    According to a new research report by Berg Insight, mobile location-based service (LBS) revenues in Europe are forecast to grow from €325 million in 2012 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.5 percent to reach €825 million in 2017.

    The North American LBS market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 9.2 percent from US $835 million in 2012 to reach US $1,295 million in 2017. Berg Insight estimates that 40 percent of all mobile subscribers in Europe use some kind of location-enhanced application on a regular basis. In North America, the larger installed base of GPS-enabled handsets and smartphones has enabled higher uptake of LBS.

    Berg Insight estimates that about 50 percent of all mobile subscribers in the region now access LBS at least monthly. Local search, social networking and navigation services are the top application categories in terms of number of active users. Mobile workforce management services that aim to improve operational efficiency for businesses are also gaining traction in new industry segments.Berg-LBS-report

    “Smartphones are the most important enabler for LBS adoption in general. The installed base of smartphones in Europe has now reached 45 percent of total handsets and already surpassed 55 percent in North America,” said André Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. He adds that besides differences in smartphone adoption, there are other regional differences. “Mobile operators still play a more central role in North America than in Europe, marketing branded services to both consumer and enterprise customers.”

    However, the operators’ central role in the LBS ecosystem is now being challenged by the smartphone ecosystems that bundle key LBS and give developers access to location data and distribution channels in the form of on-device app stores. Mobile operators are therefore showing renewed interest in offering network-based bulk location data for advertising and analytics, as well as new services such as secure authentication and fraud management.

    A brochure on the report can be downloaded here.

  • Bryton Enhances Sports Monitoring Equipment with u-blox GPS

    bryton

    Bryton Incorporated has chosen to integrate u-blox’ UBX-G6010 GPS single chip to give its sports electronics products location-aware features. Founded in 2009, Taiwan-based Bryton has established a brand of GPS-enabled sports monitoring devices dedicated to four main activities: cycling, fitness, outdoor adventure and athletic training.

    “At Bryton, we understand the mindset of sport enthusiasts, and know exactly what they are looking for when they shop for electronic equipment to enhance their exercise experience: it must be smart, small, attractive, accurate, dependable, and packed with interesting and useful features that make their workouts more fun and informative,” said Wolf Lin, President at Bryton Inc.

    “u-blox’ extremely small GPS chip solution requires very few external components, meaning we don’t need to allocate much space in our products to achieve state-of-the-art, extremely sensitive GPS positioning capability,” added Lin. “Another primary feature is long battery life. Thanks to u-blox’ low power chip design with sophisticated power saving modes, the GPS receiver, which must be active much of the time, requires only a small fraction of the device’s power.”

    Bryton evaluated leading vendors of GPS technology and selected u‑blox’ GPS single-chip based on four key product features: small size, high sensitivity, low-power consumption, and upgradability.

    Bryton markets its products under two main product categories:

    Rider. An extensive line of waterproof bike computers that provide navigation while monitoring location, distance, elevation, route history as well as heart rate and calories usage.

    Cardio. Smart sports watches for runners with integrated GPS that delivers accurate time, pace, distance, stride, lap information and much more.

  • Spirent Technical Interchange Features Hands-on Demonstrations

    Next month Spirent is hosting a meeting with hands-on training sessions on GNSS simulation equipment led by Spirent engineers. The 2013 Spirent Federal 2013 GNSS Technical Interchange Meeting will be held March 19-21 at the DoubleTree Hotel Anaheim-Orange County, in Orange, California.

    March 19 and 20 are for general participation. The third day, March 21, features FOUO (For Official Use Only) sessions for U.S. citizens only.

    Topics covered include:

    • SVN49 anomaly simulation
    • Utilizing Remote Control and Motion
    • Advanced Modeling and Simulation Techniques
    • Differential GPS and Augmentation Systems
    • Multi-GNSS constellation testing
    • Integrated GPS/inertial testing (FOUO Session)
    • M-code simulation (FOUO Session)
    • CRPA testing (FOUO Session)

    View the tentative schedule. (PDF)

    The registration rate of $125 covers all meals and parking for three days.