Top News of the Week

Explorers, adventurers, vacationers, and others will now be able to hold in their hands the landscapes that captivate them thanks to a new company, LandPrint.com, which is offering 3D physical models of any landscape on the planet. Consumers visit www.LandPrint.com, select their favorite place -- e.g., a mountain, canyon, forest, river, volcano, waterfall or glacier -- and submit their order. These models are "3D-printed" in full color by Z Corporation of Burlington, Mass., USA, and shipped directly to the customer's door.

LandPrint.com gets its digital terrain data from NASA and the US Geological Survey, and will soon incorporate street, building and other data from additional third parties, making the site a powerful tool for professionals like architects, contractors and civil engineers.

The Carbon Project announces the latest update to CarbonTools PRO, a geospatial-interoperability toolkit for .NET developers. The release includes updated support to OGC specifications, primarily WFS 1.1.0 and GML, and improved support to Microsoft Virtual Earth and Yahoo! Maps. In addition, the latest release includes the full source code for some of the CarbonTools PRO libraries. The source code provides a reference point for developers and allows further enhancements and modifications by users.

The release includes source code for the Gaia 3.1 geospatial viewer, making it possible for developers to create and deploy advanced .NET applications in minutes. The Gaia 3.1 geospatial viewer application is available as a free download at http://www.thecarbonproject.com/gaia.php.

Pictometry International Corp., a provider of geo-referenced aerial image libraries whose patented and proprietary technology is used globally to capture oblique image libraries, expressed strong disappointment at the recent filing of an action by GEOSPAN Corp. against Pictometry claiming patent infringement.

Acquisitions/Agreements/Alliances

MapQuest, Inc. and Garmin International Inc., announced plans for the upcoming launch of a new feature that will allow consumers to send trip planning results from MapQuest.com directly to their Garmin personal navigation device. Through the partnership, users can find a place, as well as plan and research routes, at MapQuest.com, then send the locations directly to Garmin GPS units by utilizing the "Send to GPS" drop down option. Users will then be able to easily access previously sent location data from their Garmin device without needing to input information directly on the device.

NAVTEQ, global provider of digital map data for location-based solutions and vehicle navigation, announced from CTIA WIRELESS 2008 that uLocate Communications, Inc. will utilize NAVTEQ map data for applications running on the WHERE platform and Buddy Beacon products in the U.S. and Europe.

Announcements

Tele Atlas, a global provider of digital maps and dynamic content for navigation and location-based solutions, today announced the call for entries for the Tele Atlas Maps in Apps 2008 competition. Maps in Apps is part of the Tele Atlas LBS Innovators Series, an ongoing program held in conjunction with Tele Atlas DeveloperLink(SM) to help foster innovation and enable application developers to increase their visibility, credibility and success with key participants in the industry including investors, carriers and technology providers. Tele Atlas invites developers of both Web and mobile location-based applications to participate in the 2008 contest.
The 2008 contest entails:
-- WHO: Participation is open to all mobile and Web application developers
using Tele Atlas data in the U.S. and Canada.
-- WHAT: Up to three finalist applications will be showcased in the Tele
Atlas booth at CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2008; visitors and
attendees will vote for their favorite application via SMS or paper
ballot. One grand prize winner will be awarded $25,000 in cash and
$50,000 in Tele Atlas map data; two runners up each will receive
$10,000 in cash and $20,000 in Tele Atlas map data.
-- WHEN: Applications are accepted through July 18, 2008
-- WHERE: To learn more about the Tele Atlas LBS Innovators Series,
including submission instructions for Maps in Apps 2008, and
information on Tele Atlas DeveloperLink, please visit
http://www.LBSseries.com.


NAVTEQ Corporation, provider of digital map data for vehicle navigation and location-based solutions, announced today that the European Commission has initiated a Phase II review of Nokia's pending acquisition of NAVTEQ. This is part of the Commission's review process and does not in any way signal the ultimate outcome.

The popular Real-Life series, CRIME 360 from A&E once again featured the Leica Geosystems ScanStation, a state-of-the-art forensic 3D laser scanner in its latest episode, ‘Deadly Secrets’ which aired March 20, 2008.

In this episode, detectives are called to a crime scene in a suburban neighborhood late one night. A young male was found shot outside of his grandmother’s house and left between the hedges and the porch. Visible evidence includes seven bullet casings strewn about the front yard.

To preserve the scene, detectives immediately look to laser scan the entire scene with the ScanStation thereby permanently recording the location of the body relative to the house, porch, shrubbery, and bullet casing in a 3D tableau. Fortunately, the long-range 3D laser scanning system operates equally well in both bright sunshine and the dark of night. During the initial crime scene investigation, the scanner's green laser was clearly visible sweeping over the victim and other evidence.

Pictometry International Corp., a provider of geo-referenced aerial image libraries whose patented technology is used globally to capture oblique image libraries, announces its third annual Pictometry FutureView 2008, taking place October 27-29, 2008 at the Marriott River Center in San Antonio, Texas. FutureView is the only user conference of its kind, focused exclusively on geo-referenced oblique aerial imaging technology.

Pictometry will announce the agenda for FutureView 2008 later this Spring. For more on FutureView, visit the website .

People

DMTI Spatial ( DMTI), a provider of Location Intelligence, has announced the appointment of Ted Papotto to Senior Product Manager, Location Hub. Mr. Papotto joined DMTI Spatial in 2006 as a Senior Account Executive, responsible for software sales into the enterprise market.

New Products

HP announced two affordable, power-efficient HP ProLiant servers as well as the market's first Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor-based x86 platforms.

In addition, the company is offering an expanded customer relationship management (CRM) portfolio, Linux-based management tools and remote access technology.

All of the products and solutions are designed to help small to midsize businesses reduce costs, improve security and better manage customer relationships.

Information Builders, the independent leader in production business intelligence( BI) systems, today announced the release of WebFOCUS for Google Maps, the first rapid mashup application in the business intelligence market. WebFOCUS for Google Maps provides an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) for rapid development of geographically aware composite applications and does not require any training or coding by developers.

LizardTech, a division of Celartem, Inc., and a provider of software solutions for managing and distributing digital content, has updated its Educational Licensing program to include the latest versions of GeoExpress for compression and manipulation and Express Server for high-performance delivery and publication software. Students and faculty of higher education institutions now have the opportunity to use LizardTech's latest geospatial technology in a research/teaching environment.

The first LizardTech Educational License bundle includes three GeoExpress 7 floating licenses with a 3TB networked data cartridge and Express Server 6 with unlimited concurrent access licenses. With this bundle, the first year of support/maintenance is required at $1,999. For years two and further, the annual support/maintenance fee will be $1,999/year.

Dell customers can now get a Blu-ray laptop for under a $1,000. Available today on dell.com, movie buffs can pick up the Inspiron 1525 with optional Blu-ray disc playback starting at $879.

You can find the full GISCafe.com event calendar here.

To read more news, click here.


-- Susan Smith, GISCafe.com Managing Editor.