You gotta love some of the brilliant, green ideas that are being KickStarted these days… case in point, how about this portable, handy charging device powered by candle and can charge your smartphone! Enter the Tellurex tPOD1™ (Patent Pending), a small soup can-sized power-on-demand packable generator powered by a five-cent tea candle. It’s a one-minute, go-anwhere thermoelectric miracle that will light up in a blackout, illuminate your camp table or put a critical limited rescue recharge on a dead smartphone.
The company also has a gadget (Tellurex tPOD5) that can power up and charge your device all powered by a lamp fueled with lamp fuel… nice!
Are you a mobile developer or perhaps a would-be mobile developer? If so then take note of the new mobile iPad app from Accuweather – a fine example of how to deliver an awesome user experience! Accuweather has done all the right things here, right from the get go at point of purchase where they have made available a free (ad supported) and premium version of their latest app – the Pro version is just 99 cents, the perfect price point!
Accuweather has made the app fun and simple to use. A scrollable calendar feature lets the user touch the calendar and scroll in a circular motion to view the forecast for selected days. The graphics used are very nice, ads are non-intrusive yet effective (and relevant) and the options are pretty impressive. Like any good app, Accuweather is location-aware, providing the user with relevant information and data for your area. Additionally, a handy map display is also provided where you can easily view a real-time radar map and even play it forward using the animation feature. If you happen to be a weather fanatic there’s also a handy news feed providing the latest weather related breaking news (like hurricane information and storm threats). For those of you in hurricane country there’s a tab specifically for viewing hurricane updates and related news and a social tab brings up all the Accuweather related social media updates from facebook and Twitter.
Kudos to Accuweather on this update… I’ll be coughing up the extra $ for the Pro version on this one simply because you’ve done such a great job and I’m a fan of supporting developers!
I recently received an update from Vickie Milazzo, author of the New York Times bestseller Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman. In her latest report she looks at the high unemployment rate experienced by recent college grads and provides some pointers to skills that these grads should focus on moving forward. Read on to learn what portable skills anyone could/should put in your tool box and how to perfect them – some sound advice here!
Develop a nose for (your) business. Take this time to really study up on your industry.
Let your creative flag fly. Don’t be afraid to be creative.
Be your own problem-solver. Great employees don’t passively wait for the boss to tell them what to do.
Here’s details of a clever mobile app (Android) designed to help NOAA keep tabs on debris washing ashore from Japan. Recall we recently featured an update from NOAA about the Japan Tsunamis debris field that is headed towards the shoreline of North America. NOAA has made available many resources, however, there really isn’t much effort (yet) to deploy a popular mobile app to help in monitoring debris that has been found. There is, however, one app available for the Android mobile OS – “Marine Debris Tracker”
This interesting visualization (Created by Stamen) has appeared on the Zillow website. The map shows the breakdown by county of where exactly home loans are underwater (i.e. Negative Equity for the owner). Hover over a county and see the % of home owners in the county that are in financial trouble along with the Zillow home price index for the area. (Thanks to @Atanas for this tip via Twitter!)
With U.S. home values falling by nearly 25% since peak in 2007, many homeowners are now underwater in their mortgages, meaning they owe more than their home is worth – See the Map for yourself online HERE at Zillow
With smart phones being the dominant form of communication in regards to how people receive and consume information, a growing number of map publishers -including individual cartographers and trail blazers who have maps to share for enthusiasts of their choice- are tapping into technology in the form of Quick Response Codes (QR codes) to help promote, sell and deliver maps electronically. QR Code usage is gaining popularity but how exactly does it work for maps? A great question indeed and Ted Florence, CEO of Avenza Systems looks closer at this topic, describing what his company is doing with QR codes and how you can take advantage of them with your maps.
Ranking city parks and open spaces… Are you happy with the availability of parks and green spaces in your city? You might want to check and see if you made the top rankings in the Public Lands ParkScore Rankings, designed to help local communities identify where new parks are needed most and which park improvements can deliver the greatest impact. According to the Trust, ParkScores are based equally on three factors:
There’s a number of fine mobile location aware mapping and “Geo” apps available for the hardcore, mobile Geo enthusiast and GeoGeek… I’ve plugged a number of these apps over the years and here’s a reminder of just a few of the fine apps available for you iOS fans. And so, 10+1 GIS and Mapping apps for the iPhone:
Avenza PDF Maps App for Apple iOS – Geospatial PDF reader for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. PDF Maps is the first application of its kind designed specifically for using geographically-aware PDF files on portable devices and opens the door to allowing any map to be GPS-aware.
Esri ArcGIS for iOS app – The app lets users collect, edit, and update features and attribute information while performing field data collection and inspection. To download or get more information about ArcGIS API for iOS, visit the ArcGIS Resource Center
AutoCAD WS – think Autodesk on your iPhone… enable AutoCAD users to edit and share AutoCAD files on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch so they can have real-time collaboration even while on the go. The latest release (1.1) adds new features such as offline capabilities, email attachment support, a more intuitive touch and gesture interface, and more.
TomTom App for iPhone with MapShare – TomTom Map Share enables iPhone users to make changes instantly to their own maps and to benefit from free, map updates made by the TomTom community and verified by TomTom
MapZen PoI Collector for OSM data collection using iPhone (Download directly HERE) A mobile app enabling rapid and simple contribution and data editing of OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. http://mapzen.cloudmade.com/
lLOE – iPhone Little OSM Editor – “iLOE” (iPhone Little OpenStreetMap Editor) was built to use the “iPhone” and the “iPod Touch” to update and insert nodes in OpenStreetMap. More information at OpenGeo or Download directly HERE
Field Assets provides users with a versatile asset management tool. The application enables data collection, mapping, voice recording and photography, all to be carried out using the one device. iTunes download link
iPad GISRoam from Cogent3D, Inc is reported to be the first iOS GIS application to natively load raster and elevation when 3G/ WIFI is unavailable. This is a powerful mobile GIS application for when users are away from the desk and need to collect, review, edit, and colorize Shapefile layers on your iPad/iPhone
CitySourced – I’m a huge fan of crowd-sourcing so this app is a huge hit. CitySourced enables the user to grab information and share a report with their local government agency. Snap a photo, geolocate it, add a description (like a pothole needing repair) and submit! This is an awesome service built using the ArcGIS API for iOS and a perfect complement to any local government looking to get up and running quickly with a useful mobile solution to connect with the local population. http://www.citysourced.com
BONUS app… Fulcrum for iOS- a simple to use, highly cutomizable and flexible full-blow data collection app for iOS from Spatialnetworks. Account hosting, custom form builder, sync to web, data export and much more are provided.
Some useful information in this video from NOAA as the 2012 hurricane season kicks off this week… stay safe! See more related info at the National Hurricane Center website
Let me share an interesting find with you that offers up the latest maps and data visualizations of the US political landscape… enter the Politics and election blog from the Google politics and elections team. Browsing the blog you’ll find some very interesting visualizations along with detailed information on data products, APIs and more. For example, just recently an interesting update looks at tracking the French Presidential election results using google maps and Fusion Tables. There’s also a cool post that describes a new Congressional District map developed with the help of the Cicero API from Azavea – see more HERE. Enjoy this nice find and their cool visualizations from the Google Politics and elections team. See http://googlepolitics.blogspot.ca/
Autodesk has announced yet another app for the iPad – Sketchbook Ink. Designed with the artist in mind, the app enables users to create beautiful, high-resolution ink-style artwork. On sale for just $1.99 in the iTunes store, SketchBook Ink enables users to produce very fine detail in their artwork, independent of resolution, building on the intuitive freehand-drawing Autodesk SketchBook Pro platform. From Autodesk… This new technology also supports the ability to export and print large, high-quality images right from the iPad. Final artwork can be exported at optimal sizes to the photo library on iPad, email, Dropbox, or iTunes file sharing. Images exported to Dropbox or iTunes file sharing can exceed 100 megapixels. See more details HERE
Here’s details of an innovative effort from a group of keen College students – HackCollege. A clever collaboration effort, so far, University of Texas, University of Wisconsin Law School, University of Notre Dame, and University of Arkansas, among others, have listed the project as a resource link for their students. Jennifer from HackCollege shared details of their slogan with me, noting “Work Smarter, Not Harder” epitomizes what their project is about. The community is invited to suggest topic themes, apply to be a guest blogger, or submit a guest article.
About HackCollege… HackCollege is changing education. HackCollege is educating the students of the world about effective, open source software, putting techno-political arguments in everyday language, and creating a cult of “Students 2.0.”
