Andrea Bauer

European Myspace competitor Netlog, which has over 33 million users, has released its native iPhone app. Users can get a feed of friends updates, see pictures, upload content and add pictures. Unusually, it is also GPS-enabled, something Facebook has so far steered clear of. It’s TechCrunch’s general view that if Facebook added true, location-based mobile social networking to its iPhone app, it would probably kill off a lot of the startups in that arena fairly swiftly. But it has yet to do so, leaving the way open for sites like Netlog.

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Posted by Mobile Innovation at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Google on Thursday announced that it has used its Gears Geolocation API to make searching for businesses and locales in your area easier on Windows Mobile devices.

According to the company, Search with My Location approximates your location based on Cell ID technology already employed by Google Maps and returns businesses in that area. If you’re looking to find the best Italian restaurants in your area, you can input “Italian restaurants” into the Search field, and it will return a list of Italian restaurants around your location. But it goes beyond businesses and restaurants. Google said that if you want to know the forecast where you are, simply type in “weather” and it will return the weather for your area.

So far, Search with My Location is only available on Windows Mobile phones for users running Internet Explorer Mobile (a full list of compatible phones can be found here) in the US and UK, but Google said that wider support will be available as it continues to enter into agreements with vendors.

To use the new service now, surf to Google.com, click the My Locations link, and get started.

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AdMonitor, a Google Maps mashup from mobile ad serving company AdMob, provides real time data on who is viewing mobile ads worldwide, including the network they are on and the phone they are using.

San Mateo based AdMob has seemingly slipped under the radar in terms of attention whilst competitors have been acquired; Third Screen Media was acquired bought by AOL and Screentonic was acquired by Microsoft. And yet this is a company with some great stats and backing. AdMob is now serving 1 billion mobile ads a month and has amongst its investors Sequoia and Accel Partners. Director Maynard Web was COO for eBay between 2002 and 2006 and staff include Tony Nethercutt, the former VP of Sales for YouTube and Kevin Scott, a former senior engineering manager for Google.

The AdMonitor mashup provides an accessible way of seeing just how many ads AdMob is serving. Notably, Nokia would still appear to remain the world most popular provider of mobile phones.

AdMob clients include ESPN and CBS.

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Garmin’s Tele Atlas bid following Nokia’s Navteq offer has implications for IP mapping in these emerging mobile applications: 1)Personalization and customization, 2)Social networking, 3)Interactive sharing.

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I found a very thrilling map application for Nokia devices: smart2go. smart2go is a compact programme for your mobile that allows you to load maps from around the world. Discover interesting places with ease, highlight them and get the route. It is a service combining GPRS+ bearers for content download and GPS for localisation. A hybrid between navigation and a travel guide with local based information.

Posted by Mobile Innovation at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Although Galileo, the European alternative to GPS, has been beset by endless delays and even the ignominy of having its access system hacked almost immediately, the project continues to make slow progress this week with the transmission of its first navigation message. GIOVE-A, the first of a planned 30 satellites, has been floating overhead since the beginning of last year, but had only been sending "general signals" until the test last week, when the bird sent the data needed to measure the distance between itself and a ground station in Guildford, England. That's a big step, since the system is supposed go live next year and be fully operational by 2011.

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It's a great feature to have a built-in GPS receiver. What's really great about N95 is that you can download all the maps you need for free. Just go to smart2go.com and download the Nokia Maploader. Use maploader to download maps and store them on a microSD memory card. That way your phone doesn't need to use the network to download maps saving your data charges. It also saver battery life.
You can search for an address or enter the starting point and end point and the N95 will find a route. If you plan to use it as a car navigator with turn-by-turn instructions, you have to pay for a subscription service. Except for the turn-by-turn navigation, there are no other subscription fees. The Maps application is easy to use. You can pan, zoom in/out and change between 2D and 3D views.
The points of interest (POI) database that comes with the maps is very good and you can search for things nearby. The POIs are grouped into dozens of categories and in the settings, you can choose which categories are shown on the map.

In conclusion, the N95 doesn't quite offer the performance of dedicated GPS navigators.

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