DeepDarkSee

OK, I’m out to win this trip to Seoul, and had some fun writing about “The key features of the phone of the future.” in 200-300 words for the entry!  I decided to go ‘first person’ to try to make it accessible.  Here is what I submitted:

My new phone connects to everything around me, it’s got a great display for viewing information, and lets me use voice commands or a mini keyboard for privacy.  Features I want are immediately available to me from the net, yet within all this, I retain control over my personal information.

I make voice and video calls, but what I really have is a personal technology access point.  By the way, you should check out my screen.  It’s usable as one side of my credit card sized ‘access point’, but a flip of the cover and it folds out to four times that size with a mini keyboard for private texting!

I sent this to a contact at NAVTEQ today after a conversation on mobile and maps earlier in the week at the Moto Developer Summit in San Jose.  I think this is an opportunity waiting to be leveraged, by a map vendor, or mapping web service provider (ESRI, Autodesk, you there?).  I also think that in cases where carriers mandate map providers, this kind of thinking could win contracts.

As a developer, we want to do more with maps on handsets.  We want to pan and zoom, turn layers on and off, add custom layers, and have a responsive UI experience for the user.  I looked hard for some solutions for this 2.5 years ago as we got started, and have kept poking around since.  This solution means vector maps to me, but as Google as shown, it can also be done ‘marginally well’ with tiles on handsets.  We do it like most right right now with single static images or small groups of tiles.

The key issue is that as a single developer, we don’t have the resources to build a great map display engine in our Java and BREW apps.  We also don’t want to run our own map servers (we use ESRI). 

I was (and am) really surprised that no vendor has shown up at the table offering a map display/rendering module for BREW and for JavaME that developer can adopt and use in their apps. This would be VERY leveraging for developers.I think that a company that solves these problems would be very well received.  I could even see the license for the tool require a certain map vendor. 

I could see NAVTEQ doing this, and working with companies like ESRI or AutoDesk to serve  (and enable their leased servers) vector data to the handset display components you provide.  It just seems like a win-win situation all around.  You don’t step on the toes of your content resellers or server vendors, you enable customers, and you lock in NAVTEQ as the map source.

On a related topic, I think the JSR-293 Location API 2.0, the replacement of the JSR-179 JavaME standard for GPS, provides an interesting opportunity for NAVTEQ along these same lines.  The new standard includes a map display component.  NAVTEQ could write a reference implementation of the map component, but even more interestingly, NAVTEQ could build and make available a super charged version of the implementation – not as a reference but as a value add implementation.  It could be the kind of high end vector display capability that would turn peoples heads, and could be locked to NAVTEQ content (through your existing distribution channels).  This could be part of that same “super handset map display component” work effort.

I see these as opportunities to take a leadership position, as well as advantage NAVTEQ in the mobile space.

Check it out on YouTube here!

Runner’s World is launching “Wireless Run Tracker” – powered by Bones in Motion. A huge step for our company. We may make it on the map yet!

Take your training to the next level with Wireless Run Tracker. Record your speed, distance, route and caloric burn during your run through the convenience of a GPS enabled cell phone.

• Upload data such as mile splits, speed, distance, and calories burned to your PC
• Real time pace information displayed on your cell phone
• Access hundreds of running routes
• Track your progress online
• Create routes on Google maps
• Blog your results instantly

Lots of interesting things have been happening in the area around BiM Active and GPS. Things I find most interesting…

Nike + iPod Sport Kit – a step sensor in your running shoe that talks to your iPod – but they key is the implication of a low power wireless body network between the iPod and multiple sensors on and near your body. Step sensor now, but I’m waiting to see the iPod start communicating with things like a heart rate monitor, body temp and respiration, a GPS puck, and devices in exercise equipment. The implications of Apple making a strong play for owning the “body server” complete with a wireless network and path to the internet (USB docking today) are huge. And their entry point is only $29 plus an iPod.

Trimble has acquired AllSportGPS (a lite and Java only version of BiM Active without the strong web support). Congrats to Dave Sutter – couldn’t happen to a nicer guy! Between Trimble Outdoors and the AllSportGPS acquisition, Trimble has declared itself clearly in the mobile phone GPS space. Garmin is in with a navigation handset entry and a ‘GPS device on your phone’ entry. So how about the rest of the GPS space? Time to get in or be passed by. Should be interesting.

ADEO Fitness GPS by MotionLingo is a $149 stand alone GPS receiver with headphones, music, activity recording, pace/progress/goal feedback, and a web site back end. I’m not much for the “have to connect a cable to your PC ” issue, but I’m biased because I love the wireless saving/update of BiM Active. But it’s an interesting looking product, doesn’t have cell phone network issues, and is at a pretty good price point. You can mark laps, and it’s getting great press.

Wow, so much has been going on.  The big news… we publicly launched Bones in Motion and our first product, BiM Active, at Demo 2006 yesterday.  We’ve all been working non-stop to pull this off.  You can check out the 6 minute video of the presentation.  We also announced availability on Sprint and Nextel phones (and another big carrier will be announced very soon).

The bigger news is that we’ve had a fantastic response from the launch at Demo.  An AP story highlighted us in an article that was picked up by over 50 papers, including USA Today.  The San Jose Mercury News featured us (1 of only 6 companies mentioned and first in the story) in their article.  Editors from several major publications are requesting phones to take back from Demo 2006 to use for testing and in-depth articles.  We’re hearing from Sprint that no application launch has ever generated this level of inquiry and activity to their PR group (a reflection on ‘Demo’ as a great launch vehicle).

Oh, and I spoke at Mobile Monday the night before the launch (and I’m told that despite sleep deprivation, I was even coherent)!

Info from Red Herring about some of Verizon’s “Location Based Services” plans here.

Good info here. Now I wonder if they will fund a mobile phone initiative, or keep the attention on Garmin hardware.

Via Engadget: Sazo GPS tracker for nervous parents:
There’s apparently no end to the steady stream of devices that use some combination of GPS, RFID and cellphones to help nervous parents track their children. The latest, now on sale in the U.K., is the Sazo, a £100 GPS unit that sends location updates to its distributor’s server via GPRS.

Parents can retrieve data via a browser or get updates by SMS. There’s also a panic button that automatically sends a text message to parents, and a deluxe version includes a full-fledged cellphone. Sounds great. Until the kid loses it. Or spends too much time indoors, and falls off the satellite’s signal. Or the server gets hacked, letting anyone get in and retrieve the location data. While parents might like the idea of a GPS tracker, in the end, they may find that just giving the kid a cellphone (even a simplified one like the Firefly) is a heckuva lot simpler.

This is an arm band from a Canadian firm…targeted for Alzhelmer’s patients using GPS boundary/fence crossing services (have they left the house/neighborhood?).

Via Engadget and Textually.org