CompassCom will offer Esri User Conference attendees a sneak peek at advanced asset tracking capabilities in the upcoming version of its CompassTrac software powered by Esri ArcGIS technology. Scheduled for release in late summer, CompassTrac 6 provides Esri users with custom digitizing tools for geofencing applications and map optimization for any electronic device.
CompassCom will demonstrate the new CompassTrac 6 capabilities in booth #2307 at the Esri User Conference, being held July 14-18 in San Diego.
“The newest version of CompassTrac will enable Esri GIS users to keep track of their vehicles and high-value assets with greater ease than ever before whether they are in the office or out in the field,” said CompassCom CEO W. Brant Howard. “On-the-fly geofence alerts increase fleet efficiency and improve crew safety.”
CompassTrac is the software tool that enables Esri ArcGIS users to view the locations and statuses of vehicles and other high-value assets on their GIS map in real time. Leveraging existing Esri architecture and GIS data files, CompassTrac locates addresses and displays vehicle positions, speeds, and heading on the fly using selected ArcGIS data layers as the map background, including satellite and aerial imagery, the company said.
Over the past 16 years, CompassTrac has provided field service management services for thousands of vehicles operated by organizations involved in public safety, public works, utilities, road maintenance, delivery and transportation.
The premier upgrade to CompassTrac version 6 is a set of digitizing tools that allows the user to draw a geofence polygon around any feature or area — a street, neighborhood or town — on the GIS map. If any vehicle or asset being tracked by the system crosses the geofence boundary, CompassTrac will automatically send a text or email alert to select users and highlight the vehicle in question on the map display. These geofence alerts occur instantly and on the fly in real time, providing enhanced tracking of mobile resources to help operators manage their mobile work force.
Now with version 6, CompassTrac is also hardware agnostic. The software will automatically scale, or optimize, its map view to fit on the screens of desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones, giving Esri users the ability to track assets from any location where they have Internet.
Visitors to CompassCom’s booth #2307 at the Esri User Conference will also view demonstrations of the new CompassLDE Connector, which provides plug-and-play capabilities to link AVL and mobile resource management tracking to the Esri ArcGIS GeoEvent Processor.
Members of EuroGeographics are creating a European platform for networking, sharing best practices, and exchanging expertise on GNSS positioning.
Plans for the new Positioning Knowledge Exchange Network (KEN) were revealed at the association’s recent Extraordinary General Assembly following a proposal by the Head Office for Geodesy and Cartography, Poland. Its focus will include:
maintaining a network of experts in satellite positioning and navigation
following the development of relevant technologies and practices
working on the most effective utilization of Galileo services, and
developing common standards, policies and guidelines for best practice.
Now EuroGeographics members will work to agree on roles and joint actions through a cooperation agreement with the European Position Determination System (EUPOS), the Reference Frame Sub Committee for Europe (Euref), and the Council of European Geodetic Surveyors (CLGE). The new Positioning KEN will incorporate experts from all four organizations and will also invite other key players to participate.
“This is a really exciting addition to our range of benefits for members,” said EuroGeographics Executive Director and Secretary General Dave Lovell OBE. “It demonstrates how they are driving the association’s development to ensure its activities continue to meet their needs by reflecting emerging trends and the relevant interests of the European Institutions. We look forward to strengthening our relationships with EUPOS, Euref and CLGE as we work together to create the uniform GNSS service for Europe.”
EuroGeographics KENs provide an open forum for members and invited experts. Each focuses on an area of particular interest for national mapping, land registry and cadastral authorities. These include Business Interoperability, Quality and Emergency Mapping.
TomTom has begun a strategic partnership with indoor-mapping company Micello Inc., extending its range of mapping products to include indoor venues.
Integrating Micello’s maps and venue content gives TomTom’s business customers access to accurate pedestrian friendly indoor maps with points of interest data in venues worldwide.
“The indoor mapping functionality means that step-by-step guidance can be integrated into daily life for a wide variety of venues, including shopping malls, airports and retail stores,” said Charles Cautley, managing director, TomTom Maps. “By partnering with Micello our customers can now develop smarter apps and locations-based services helping users navigate with ease in and out of the car.”
“We’re excited to be partnering with TomTom, the global leader in navigation.” added Ankit Agarwal, CEO of Micello. “Our agreement means that TomTom’s business customers can use our indoor venue maps and incorporate the content into their automotive, online, or mobile solutions.”
Topcon Positioning Group has released and made available in Europe the Topcon SIRIUS PRO powered by MAVinci, an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) designed to produce the most accurate solutions for automated mapping of construction sites, pipelines, disaster areas, mines, quarries and myriad sites without regard to terrain.
During October 2013, Topcon Europe Positioning (TEP) entered into a strategic partnership with UAS provider MAVinci GmbH. The result of that partnership is the release of the fixed-wing UAS Topcon SIRIUS PRO powered by MAVinci.
“We are excited to announce our distribution agreement with Topcon. This partnership is the ideal expansion of our global distribution network,” Johanna Claussen, CEO at MAVinci GmbH said. “The simple operation of our UAS from flight planning to the final orthophoto and DEM (Digital Elevation Model), allows flexible use in highly demanding environments. Its flexible assisted auto-pilot landing mode enables navigation around any unforeseen obstacles.”
Based in St. Leon Rot, Germany, MAVinci is a aerial surveying company specializing in the development of UAS technology.
“By adding Topcon’s RTK solutions to the UAS and ground control station, the SIRIUS PRO is the first commercially available UAS that can reach 5-cm accuracy without the need for ground control points,” said Sander Jongeleen, mobile mapping product manager for Topcon Positioning Group. “This leads to an enormous reduction of operational cost and allows mapping of areas that are not easily accessible with high accuracy.”
The SIRIUS PRO is a fixed-wing UAS capable of producing high quality and pre-positioned aerial photography without the need of extensive ground control that is required by competitive products. Key features include:
Work in mountain areas — Flight plan adapts to elevation model
Cover areas that require multiple flights — Flight plan automatically splits and rejoins for post processing
Simple hand launch
Land in areas where automatic landing is impossible with assisted auto-pilot mode
Fly in all weather conditions — wind up to 50 km/h, temperature range of -20º C to 45º C and rain.
The regulatory announcement explains that Hexagon, Topcon Europe B.V. and Topcon Corporation have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) related to Veripos, Inc. Hexagon Acquisition Ltd., an indirectly wholly owned subsidiary of Hexagon, has made an unconditional cash offer for all outstanding shares in Veripos not already owned by Hexagon Acquisition Ltd. Hexagon Acquisition Ltd. owns and has received acceptances and pre-acceptances for a total of 9,980,630 shares, representing 30.1 per cent of the outstanding shares in Veripos.
Under the MoU, Hexagon would establish a customer agreement between Topcon and Veripos, under which Topcon will act as a reseller of the satellite broadcast correction signal offered by Veripos. This “TerraStar Agreement” between Veripos and Topcon is intended to be an agreement with TerraStar GNSS Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Veripos and the contractual partner for all resellers and customers of the on-shore services. Under the TerraStar Agreement, Topcon will be entitled to offer the signal to its customers and to make its products compatible with the signal.
Also under the MoU, Hexagon and Topcon will establish a separate joint venture company on an equal partner basis for the purposes of pursuing joint efforts and cooperation in relation to the future development and direction of the services provided under the TerraStar Agreement.
GNSS receiver manufacturers who are partners with TerraStar include NovAtel, Altus Positioning Systems, and Septentrio Satellite Navigation.
The acceptance period for the unconditional cash offer expires on January 29, subject to further extensions but not beyond February 7.
NovAtel, Inc., OEM provider of high-precision GNSS positioning products, has launched its NovAtel Correct positioning technology. NovAtel Correct optimally combines data from multiple GNSS satellite constellations with corrections from a variety of sources, to deliver the best position solution possible.
NovAtel Correct provides integrators with the opportunity to choose pricing and subscription options that best match their OEM business objectives. Delivery of correction data is available via satellite or Internet, depending on the requirements of the application. With NovAtel in control of the entire positioning solution, future innovation including seamless integration with all positioning modes and correction types is assured.
Designed for NovAtel’s OEM6 high-precision receivers, the NovAtel Correct precise point positioning (PPP) solution delivers decimeter-level accuracy worldwide. L-band delivered PPP corrections from TerraStar are supported by NovAtel Correct without users having to add base-station infrastructure. Developers of land, airborne and near shore applications can purchase subscriptions to TerraStar’s correction service directly through NovAtel.
“For a number of reasons, many of our customers have been eager for an end-to-end NovAtel OEM positioning service,” said Jason Hamilton, VP, Marketing for NovAtel. “NovAtel Correct rounds out our product and service offering and gives customers one-stop shopping for receivers, antennas and correction services.”
Satellite and NTRIP-based solutions will be available for OEM6 products in Q1 2014 for all applications requiring decimetre-level positioning.
Not so long ago, paper maps were a necessity in many walks of life. Today, they are increasingly a nostalgic novelty, to coin a term.
It’s not difficult to understand why digital maps replaced their paper brethren. Digital maps are more accurate, more adaptable, and most importantly, in an increasingly real-time environment, much faster at making the appropriate updates and amends.
Now, however, digital mapping finds itself at a crossroads. Crowdsourced navigation platforms like OpenStreetMap — affectionately referred to as the “Wikipedia of maps” — are forcing digital maps and the map-building process to evolve significantly. As a result, the future of mapping is now in the hands of location enthusiasts and everyday map users. These people are redefining what a map is, how data is sourced and utilized, and how much it can cost to harness that information both efficiently and effectively. Those of us who have been in this space for years can see the writing on the wall.
Some, however, are eager to write off crowdsourced mapping. Corporate digital map providers, for instance, often refer dismissively to these mapping platforms as “hobby maps.” Nevertheless, they recognize the potential for change such innovation brings and are vulnerable to it.
What potential? Consider the benefits attainable through a crowdsourced approach, in the following sections.
Scalability
As with any process, cost is critical. It is particularly core to building a digital map. Truth be told, the fewer dollars ultimately spent on a map’s construction, the more its long-term operational preservation and, through that, scalability can be ensured. Despite massive innovation in our field, collecting data and creating a usable international digital map is far from cost-effective or efficient today. Candidly, it is one of the clunkier processes in technology, perhaps because it appears compulsory.
Look no further than Google, which spends billions of dollars a year to maintain its platform, yet we marvel at the huge scope of its operation. In truth, it is an effort in dire need of real streamlining. Google, via its recent acquisition of Waze, along with Navteq, TeleAtlas, and the like, leverage laser-enabled cars and high-tech backpacks that are astoundingly inefficient from a pricing standpoint, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Nokia’s Map Mobiles, for example, are each outfitted with more than $25,000 of computing equipment.
To think this is sustainable in the long term, on an international level, is wrong. It will inevitably cripple a map’s quality and viability, with corporate providers choosing to limit global detail and upkeep to balance costs.
For crowdsourced map platforms, this problem does not exist. They can and are scaling rapidly, without the exorbitant costs corporate players are used to — and tired of. These costs secondarily manifest in mapping service usage fees for third parties, as well as subscription costs for consumer navigaton products. For either use case (business-to-business or business-to-consumer) crowdsourcing delivers cost benefits traditional players cannot match. Again, this leads directly to scalability, with crowdsourcing the most enduring maps option.
Same time, same place — different look. Crowdsourced OpenStreetMap (left) and Nokia map (right) of central Berlin, Germany. Photo: Oliver Kühn
Detail
Crowdsourced mapping services and platforms like OpenStreetMap are more than just cost-efficienct tools to coax scale. As a crowdsourced dataset built using more than a million dedicated mappers, OpenStreetMap inherently delivers benefits above and beyond those obtained from corporate map providers like TeleAtlas and Navteq.
The most visible benefit is the unrivaled map quality. With an army of contributors, the data dynamically and constantly evolves — just as places do. Locations are rarely fixed or stable. They change and progress over time. No other service or platform can immediately provide developers with the real-time, on-the-ground granularity of a crowdsourced map. Google and the others are trying, but the costs they incur will ultimately be too taxing to maintain detail.
Firsthand influence carries equal weight. Mappers who edit an open-source map have often had personal interactions with a place or locale. They know places intimately, and this makes their contributions detailed, rich, and hyperlocal. More companies and developers are looking to OpenStreetMap for this reason: they want to future-proof their services and products, making sure that they always have the best and most up-to-date data. Only a platform like OpenStreetMap can do this. Corporate map providers are painfully aware of it, too.
Flexibility
Google owns Google Maps, and TeleAtlas owns its TomTom platform. Not surprisingly, this affects what a third party, whether an automotive company or a travel brand, can and cannot do with the service. It is essentially a copyrighted product like an MP3, an audio digital file. So, Google can limit the way you visually render and showcase its platform. Needless to say, this can be suffocating for those interested in building their own unique services. This is what makes crowdsourced mapping such a significant development for those interested in integrating additional data with a digital map. Do with OpenStreetMap what you will, visually or design-wise; there are absolutely no limitations. Every map can be made unique and rendered differently. This also speaks to the flexibility of crowdsourcing more generally.
Beyond design, crowdsourced maps can harness the data to build completely new maps that cater to a specific concept, creating thematic maps for different uses, such as walking, hiking, bicycling, routes for those with disabilities, and more. More traditional digital maps lack this flexibility; it affords possibilities to source non-traditional location data to build even more accurate maps.
The Future — Through Cars
Despite the fact that crowdsourced maps are forcing digital mapping to adopt a more scalable, cost-efficient, detailed, flexible andaltogether long-term approach, digital mapping definitely has room to grow.
One of the most exciting opportunities for crowdsourced maps specifically, and digital maps generally, lies in car user data, which is just coming into its own. Cars are obviously one of the largest travel tools utilized by individuals on a daily basis, and, with the advent of the connected car, the data that they collect via internal/external sensors has grown more nuanced, granular, and specific over the years.
Cars are simply getting smarter, with sensors capable of providing everything from weather conditions to speed-zone information.
Making this information available in the cloud and combining it with data available via crowdsourced mapping platforms produces remarkable possibilities for innovation.
Imagine adding road-condition data, as just one example, to crowdsourced mapping services. By marrying a crowdsourced map with crowdsourced car-sensor data, the map’s overall utility multiplies immeasurably.
To avoid missteps that have positioned companies like Google to spend billions on building a digital mapping service — unsustainable long-term figures — we must always look to embrace that which is cutting-edge. We find that today in crowdsourced mapping platforms, as they enable us to maintain, update, and enrich maps as never before. We must also consider the limitations of the cutting edge and understand how to improve the latest innovation (car-sensor data, and more) before the once cutting edge becomes the next paper map, so to speak. This is key to evolving maps for the better and for the future.
Oliver Kühn has an MBA from the University of Cologne, Germany. He has 10 years of location-based service experience and was Head of Product Management Special Projects at navigation systems specialist Navigon AG (acquired by Garmin). In late 2008, he co-founded skobbler GmbH, being responsible for business development and legal matters. He is also a board member of the OpenStreetMap Foundation.
skobbler brings together hybrid online and offline worldwide maps and full turn-by-turn navigation in a low-priced app with the launch of GPS Navigation & Maps for Android.
skobbler is looking to exploit the weaknesses of established Android navigation alternatives with the fully featured GPS Navigation & Maps, which offers an improved experience compared to both Google Maps and high-priced third-party alternatives, skobbler said. GPS Navigation & Maps is effectively two apps in one, with both online and offline turn-by-turn navigation and digital mapping for smartphones.
Using open-source digital map OpenStreetMap and powered by the skobbler NGx map engine, GPS Navigation and Maps has full online and offline capability. The £1 price includes worldwide online functionality as well as an installable map of one country of choice for offline use. From here, users have the option to in-app purchase individual cities, states, countries and continents to use offline, and worldwide maps are available as standard for online use. Existing users of ForeverMap 2 will receive a free upgrade to GPS Navigation & Maps. New users can either purchase the full app or try GPS Navigation & Maps’ free app with unlimited online functionality and a 14-day navigation trial.
While Google Maps is free to download and use, its offline functionality is restricted. Users cannot perform any searching or routing tasks without an Internet connection, which means that when abroad or in low signal areas they either have to pay expensive roaming costs or spend a significant time without map coverage, limiting its usability while traveling, skobbler said. Expensive alternatives such as Co-Pilot Live or TomTom UK & Ireland/Europe do offer premium features and offline navigation, yet none of them give users a choice of which areas they want to use online and which offline. Most premium sat nav apps generally cannot be used as travel apps at all, as their pure map functionalities are limited at best. GPS Navigation & Maps is the perfect blend. Offering the best of both worlds for a fraction of the price, it can be relied upon to deliver any place, at any time, and being two great apps in one offers a fantastic cost-to-benefit ratio and unbeatable flexibility for consumers, skobbler said. Individuals can build their own navigation and maps app depending on what resources they use the most, and more effectively manage the limited storage space on their devices, skobbler said.
GPS Navigation and Maps has full turn-by-turn navigation, worldwide mapping and all features of the software accessible both online or offline. This unique move, and market first, is made possible thanks to skobbler’s NGx map engine, which delivers a seamless browsing experience with ultrafast real-time rendering and stunning map visuals, skobbler said. NGx also offers a range of unique map styles to, for example, accentuate color density for outdoor use to improve clarity. Maps are highly customizable with control over features such as online/offline functionality, map display (style and zoom), routing, map matching and more.
“We’re very proud to launch the first navigation product utilising our powerful NGx mapping engine,” said skobbler CTO Philipp Kandal. “Being the first and only company on the Android platform to offer full online and offline capability for both mapping and navigation, we hope both new users and our existing customers will be won over by the high performance and flexibility GPS Navigation & Maps offers. We’re already working on future updates and have a few powerful additions lined up to improve the app’s functionality and flexibility even further in the coming months.”
Additional maps beyond the free map provided will be available via in-app purchases for offline use. In keeping with the low price for the initial app purchase, add-ons are similary competitive and are priced at £0.77 for cities, £1.11 for states, £2.22 for a whole country, £4.44 for a continent and just £7.77 for the entire planet, so users can quickly and easily supplement their map coverage as they see fit.
skobbler is committed to providing regular updates to users to keep maps fresh and accurate, and promises a range of new premium features in future updates. GPS Navigation & Maps is now available from the Google Play Store, with existing ForeverMap 2 users able to upgrade for free.
The full version of GPS Navigation & Maps, including one free offline country map, can be downloaded.
TomTom has redesigned its personal navigation devices with new TomTom GO. The TomTom GO has new interactive map, lifetime TomTom Traffic and 3D maps that give drivers the ability to know precisely what is going on around them, as well as what lies up ahead, TomTom said.
TomTom has also launched its new navigation engine, NavKit.
“Where navigation used to be about getting people to unfamiliar destinations, we are now empowering drivers with easy access to the information they need to make the smartest driving decisions, every day,” said Corinne Vigreux, managing director of TomTom Consumer. “We have completely redesigned the PND to become an essential daily driving tool. By providing easy access to our world class TomTom Traffic and enabling drivers to see more than just the road ahead, drivers will feel on top of their journey like never before.”
Drivers can easily access the travel information they need via a high-resolution, capacitive touchscreen, TomTom said. A new Interactive Map responds and scales to touch. Drivers can zoom in and out to find and explore places on the map with their fingertips and tap on the map to get an instant route to a destination.
New NavKit Engine
TomTom’s navigation engine, NavKit, will power all future TomTom navigation products and be available for licensing to automotive and enterprise customers. The configurable component architecture has been designed to enable rapid integration. NavKit has programming interfaces for adding a customised user interface, porting to any operating system and integrating navigation services. As a result, the development of a connected navigation system on any device platform becomes far quicker and simpler, TomTom said.
The new NavKit engine incorporates all the navigation logic of an on-board turn-by-turn navigation application. Every element has been enhanced to deliver an improved user experience including route planning, free text search, 2D map browsing and 3D guidance view, map-matched positioning and real-time guidance, TomTom said.
“The automotive industry’s next challenge is to create a seamless connected car experience,” said Harold Goddijn, CEO at TomTom. “To help our customers achieve this, we created NavKit, a flexible, future-proof navigation platform. NavKit makes the creation of connected navigation solutions easier and faster than ever before.”
NavKit’s architecture will allow customers and industry partners to replace components in a modular way. Its new routing engine achieves faster and more accurate dynamic routing, both on TomTom’s maps and on Navigation Data Standard (NDS) maps. Additionally, it provides better routes around traffic and fully supports TomTom Traffic, Version 6.0, including incident duration predictions and jam tail warnings. The new free text search engine provides easier and faster address and POI search. A new map visualization engine greatly improves 2D map browsing and introduces a 3D guidance view.
TomTom GO Features
The new TomTom GO series also comes with Lifetime TomTom Traffic. TomTom’s world-class traffic information pinpoints exactly where delays start and end, helping drivers to get to their destinations faster. Drivers can choose to connect to TomTom Traffic in one of two ways, either via Smartphone Connected or Always Connected. Smartphone Connected devices are ready to receive TomTom Traffic by connecting to a smartphone via Bluetooth. Smartphone Connected uses an existing smartphone data plan to access TomTom Traffic, as well as other services like TomTom Speed Cameras.
Always Connected devices offer the simplest way to receive TomTom Traffic straight out of the box, TomTom said. With connectivity built-in and with no additional costs for roaming, drivers can access TomTom Traffic and other services, including TomTom Speed Cameras.
3D Maps bring buildings and landmarks to life so that drivers always know exactly where they are.
The new TomTom GO range has a simplified product line-up. Customers can select their preferred screen size, choosing from a 4.3″, 5″ or 6″ model; then decide how they prefer to receive their TomTom Traffic information, either via Smartphone Connected or Always Connected.
Additional TomTom GO Features
Route Bar: Essential traffic and travel information at a glance. The Route Bar shows precise traffic and speed camera information on the road ahead.
Quick Search: Drivers can find their destination faster with intuitive search results. Quick Search starts finding destinations as soon as the driver starts typing.
My Places: Drivers can see their favourite locations on the map and personalise their map with My Places. This makes it easier to find and navigate to favourite locations again and again.
Lifetime Maps: Always drive with the latest map. For the life of the product, drivers can download four or more full updates of the map onto the device, every year. Drivers receive all updates to the road network, addresses and Points of Interest.
Speed Cameras (three month trial): Drivers can drive in a more relaxed way, receiving alerts for speed cameras ahead. These timely warnings increase drivers’ awareness of local speed limits and help to save money on speeding fines. As part of TomTom’s global driving community, drivers will benefit from an advanced and highly accurate warning service.
National Geographic Mapshas joined with Avenza Systems to offer a new channel to access its map content. The alliance enhances Avenza’s digital map database by adding more than 500 maps from National Geographic and furthers National Geographic Maps’ established reach with mobile consumers.
The Avenza PDF Maps app takes advantage of geospatial technology and allows users to view, acquire and interact with maps on their mobile devices, including iPhone and iPad, without needing a mobile data connection or being accessed international roaming charges. PDF Maps offers an in-app store to facilitate the transaction and delivery of the maps, consolidating, in a digital format, consumers’ access to hundreds of maps from multiple publishers.
“In the last decade, advances in technology have shifted how consumers receive and use information, and we have responded by making our rich map content available on a variety of platforms,” said Charles Regan of National Geographic Maps. “Avenza’s PDF Maps app provides a unique way for consumers to access our content with an easy-to-use in-app map store and a set of robust features that will enhance the map user’s experience.”
Hundreds of maps from National Geographic Maps’ extensive library are now available in Avenza’s PDF Maps system, including travel and destination titles covering five continents, historical and thematic maps, and educational and reference titles. The app provides constant access to geographic information and points of interest, with additional interactive tools such as measuring, place marking and location tagging. PDF Maps operates without the risk of lost reception, due to cell tower proximity, and does not rely on an Internet connection.
BlackBerry (formerly RIM) has announced the release of its highly anticipated BlackBerry 10 operating system, as well as its first BlackBerry 10 smartphones, the Z10 and Q10, which come outfitted with assisted, autonomous and simultaneous GPS and with a Blackberry Maps application preloaded. One reviewer, however, has said the Blackberry Maps application is “worse than Apple Maps.”
Issues listed include lack of street view or satellite view, lack of public transit directions, and no way to look up news and reviews of venues based on Yelp, Zagat, or a similar service. Another reviewer said, “Although full details of BB10’s map app have yet to be revealed, early reports are mixed. Although it now includes turn-by-turn directions, those who have had an opportunity to try it describe it as basic and underwhelming.”
A TIME magazine review said, “The consensus among BlackBerry Z10 reviews is that its Maps app is subpar. The Verge complained about inaccurate data, and said the software couldn’t reliably find local businesses. CNet bemoaned a lack of features, such as walking directions, transit maps and street views. Apparently the software doesn’t even let you jump into the Maps app by tapping on an address or map in the web browser. That’s just basic stuff. At least the Maps app includes voice-guided turn-by-turn directions.”
The Z10 is equipped with a 4.2-inch touchscreen and the Q10 has a 3.2-inch handset with a Blackberry’s physical keyboard. Besides GPS, the phones have 4G connectivity, Bluetooth Smart and NFC connectivity. The use of Bluetooth Smart in the BlackBerry 10 platform will open it up developers who will be able to take advantage of a growing market of connectable devices such as health and wellness monitors and sports and fitness monitoring equipment, in addition to other devices such as home automation equipment that also uses Bluetooth Smart. According to the IHS study “Wireless Opportunities in Health and Wellness Monitoring – 2012 Edition,” more than 69 million Bluetooth low energy health and sports monitors will ship between 2012 and 2017.
Phillip Maddocks, market analyst at IHS, states, “By incorporating Bluetooth Smart into the BlackBerry 10 platform, BlackBerry will be able to provide a platform that is renowned for its enterprise use, in addition to meeting casual users needs who might want to use their device to monitor their health or sports performance, or in some instances, turn a light off inside their house using their phone. Several sports and fitness vendors such as Nike, Polar, Garmin and Wahoo Fitness have already either released or announced products that utilize Bluetooth Smart.”
BlackBerry has followed a trend set by other smartphone manufacturers on the hardware side by providing up-to-date connectivity, in addition to providing 4G support and support for future mobile payment platforms. Near Field Communication was previously included within the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 and enabled users to make payments using their smart phone. Other platforms such as Android have also been offering the same functionality, utilizing Google Wallet on NFC enabled phones. According to IHS, more than 75 million NFC enabled cellular handsets were shipped in 2012, and with today’s announcement, and the expectation that other major phone manufacturers incorporate the technology, this will continue to grow.
BlackBerry’s announcement brings its handsets in line with where the industry is heading, despite being delayed, and later to the market than expected.
Rand McNally today introduced the RVND 7720, a 7-inch RV GPS device with Wi-Fi connectivity allowing for real-time weather information and display, and new hardware with rugged casing, video input, and brighter screen.
The new device — shipping now to stores, online retailers, and RV dealers and distributors — joins Rand McNally’s line of RVND GPS devices for RVers. Rand McNally pioneered RV-specific navigation by launching the first GPS device designed specifically for RVers and campers, the company said.
RV-specific navigation is necessary to route large vehicles and towables around road restrictions, low bridges and other physical hazards. However, like all Rand McNally RV GPS devices, the RVND 7720 can be used as a car GPS by changing a simple setting.
One of the key new features of the RVND 7720 is Wi-Fi connectivity, which enables the transmission and display of weather as well as other real-time information. With updated weather information, RVers will be able to anticipate delays and make plans by viewing current and predicted conditions displayed on the map and along the route, the company said. Besides weather, other RV-specific connected services will be coming soon for this device.
The RVND 7720 has a new hardware platform as well, with a rugged design with ridged casing for added protection, a brighter screen that adjusts for low and strong light, and video input compatible with a range of back-up and rear-view cameras, Rand McNally said.
The base maps and overlaying content, such as campgrounds, parks, RV service and other RV points of interest, also have been updated for the RVND 7720.
The new device ships with Lifetime Maps, so owners will be able to update their devices at no additional cost.
The RVND 7720 GPS includes the following additional new features:
Fully updated road data, including RV-specific information such as speed limits, legal and physical restrictions, and all Rand McNally proprietary RV data
Fully updated points of interest necessary for safe and convenient routing, including travel centers and RV parking information at rest stops, exits, and other locations
Fuel logs, which are accessible from the Virtual Dashboard or via RV Tools; the feature enables drivers to record fuel purchases for a trip
Additional routing options such as “Avoid State or Province” and “Avoid Smaller Roads”
Address book icon enhancement, which enables unique icons to be created by group and shown on the map for imported locations; address book items can be sorted by name, distance from current location or date added
Text-to-speech alert details for user-imported custom points of interest, such as red light cameras, to reduce driver distraction
The RVND 7720 also has these features: Virtual Dashboard; junction view with lane assist; free downloads of Rand McNally’s proprietary construction information and software updates; Exits Quick View, which shows RV parking and amenities at exits; RV Tools, RV amenities and locations such as campgrounds, RV services, and dumps; Woodall’s Campground information with searchable amenities; Rand McNally exclusive pre-planned trips with photos and video; and routing for 11 types of RVs as well as for cars.
