WordPress.com has introduced geotagging of user profiles and posts. Location is input manually via an integrated Google map or automatically via GPS, the W3C Geolocation API, the Google Gears Geolocation API, or guesstimated from your IP address. The geodata are recorded in posts via the geo microformat plus geo.position and ICBM meta tags, and in feeds via GeoRSS and W3C geodata standards. More here; where's the geotag icon?
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Twitter's geotagging API is official. There is now a checkbox to enable geotagging in your Twitter account settings; enabling this option allows third party applications to annotate individual tweets with location data. Developers could previously integrate only profile location with the Google Maps API as here.
This Dilbert strip may shed some light on why Apple engineers won't publicly acknowledge a defect that causes the 7200rpm Seagate drive upgrades in June 2009 MacBook Pros to make clicking and beeping noises associated with pauses in system responsiveness. Apple's cloak of corporate silence is becoming notorious, with the recent disclosure of an exploding iPod-related gagging order. Google returns many hits relating to Apple's culture of secrecy. It seems like a sure-fire way to alienate the traditionally loyal customer base.
Google seems to be in a geo-frenzy, with the recent release of Google Latitude, and a Google Earth update that supports GPS receivers (formerly a 'Plus' feature; works with my NMEA-compatible GlobalSat BT-335) plus historical imagery, ocean floor topography, Martian and annotated virtual Earth tours. Now Google Labs offer Location in Signature, the IP-based auto-detection of your Gmail posting location. Not without potential downsides for the dishonest (see example) although it can't tell if you're in the bathroom or lounge; in my testing it had a 16km inaccuracy—making cell signal triangulation on my iPhone 2G seem useful.
Nikon ViewNX 1.2.0 is a free download (56.6MB .dmg) and doesn't require a Nikon (e.g. works with iPhone images). Manual geotagging is limited to placing a pin on a Google Map (you can't search the map). ViewNX recognizes automatically geotagged images (embedded at capture, added via a track logger, etc.) and handles geotagging of Nikon's raw (NEF) format as well as JPEG. To view location metadata (indicated by a globe icon), select an image and click it's pin to reveal an info window. Reverse geocoding is not performed and any existing IPTC headers are ignored.
Continue reading 'Geotagging comes to Nikon ViewNX'
Google Latitude, functionally similar to afore-mentioned Fire Eagle, allows computer and mobile phone users to upload and share (or hide) location updates manually or automatically—which are plotted on a Google Map. Latitude for iPhone is "coming soon". No word yet on integration with the Google Maps API. Rumour has it that location-awareness is coming to Mac OSX 10.6—potential for another Apple-Google partnership?








