Mapping

Snigger as you will over Microsoft's decision to call Bing, its overhauled search engine, a "decision engine," but those giggles should dissolve when you start up Microsoft's brand-new Bing for iPhone (and iPod Touch). As a search app goes, Bing, which debuted Tuesday in the iTunes App Store, is the real thing.

The Bing app has a slew of expected features, including voice search, maps, directions, search suggestions, and location-awareness. That's no surprise. Besides these being features common to Bing.com and to the Bing application on other mobile platforms, they're also necessary to … Read more

Could the geolocation wars be the next browser wars? Maybe. There's a fresh $8.4 million in venture funding for Gowalla, a game-like mobile app that lets you "check in" to locations around the world, see where your friends are, and swap virtual goods along the way.

The Series B funding round, announced Wednesday, is led by Greylock Partners with contributions from Shasta Ventures, Maples Investments, previous investors Alsop-Louie Partners and Founders Fund, and individual investors Ron Conway, Kevin Rose, Gary Vaynerchuk, Shervin Pishevar, Jason Calacanis, and Chris Sacca.

Interestingly, at least two of Gowalla's individual … Read more

Navteq announced a partnership Monday under which it will supply 3D map data for Microsoft's newly expanded mapping online services.

Last week, Microsoft took its first steps building 3D imagery into Bing Maps with data from about 100 cities to start with in the Streetside feature that gives a driver's-eye view of the world. But slogging down innumerable streets the world over is an arduous process--Google has been doing it for years with Street View and still has a ways to go to add its first data, not to mention the challenge of keeping views up to date. … Read more

Frequent Yelp users will be pleased to see a Yelp for Android app take its place in the Android Market on Monday. Be forewarned, however, that the app contains the minimum services from Yelp.com in this iteration.

There's the usual search for restaurants and businesses nearby, which Yelp sniffs out using GPS or cell tower triangulation. Results records include ratings, reviews, and photos you can view from the phone. You can click or press a button to call the business. There's another button to map the location to a movable Google map, and this version thankfully includes … Read more

Before Wednesday, you could star a map as a favorite on Google Maps online, and you could star one on Google Maps for Mobile, but you could never connect the two.

A small but significant update that Google added to Google Maps for Mobile 3.3 now syncs your starred locations between the map app on your Symbian and Windows phones, and your online account.

To start your syncing, press Menu and then Starred Items. You'll need to log into your account from the Starred Items screen to start syncing favorite maps. If you're upgrading from a previous … Read more

Venture firm First Round Capital has led the Series A funding round for start-up SimpleGeo, a buzzed-about new company that has built a product for easy integration of "location" features into Web and mobile apps, according to multiple sources familiar with the deal.

Also contributing to the round, sources say, are Redpoint Ventures, Freestyle Capital, and many of the usual suspects from Silicon Valley's merry band of angel investors: among them are Ron Conway, Digg founder Kevin Rose, ex-Googler Chris Sacca, ubiquitous personality Gary Vaynerchuk, and Delicious founder Joshua Schachter. One detail we weren't able to … Read more

You have two main options when it comes to GPS apps for the iPhone: apps with offline maps and apps with online maps. Examples of apps with offline maps are the Navigon, the iGo My Way, TomTom, or the recently added Magellan RoadMate.

These apps are excellent for frequent users as they don't require a live data connection to work. All the maps are included with the app and downloaded to the phone. However, they tend to require gigabytes of storage space and take a long time to install. If you plan on going on a long road trip, they are good fits.

If you are a casual user, however, it's better to use an online GPS application. These applications are just a few megabytes in size and therefore take a few seconds to download to the phone via a 3G connection. This means you can immediately get one the moment you suddenly need turn-by-turn directions.

The first online GPS app for the iPhone is the AT&T Navigator, which works pretty well. Unfortunately, it's only available to AT&T customers and is rather expensive ($10 per month) for what it offers. The good news is, you now have other and more flexible choices. … Read more

As the PND vs. smartphone battle for navigation superiority continues, we're seeing more of the GPS heavyweights hedging their bets by developing application versions of their standalone GPS devices, while others push toward adding cellular technology to their portable devices in a bid to even the playing field.

Magellan finds itself in the former camp with the announcement of its Magellan RoadMate for iPhone turn-by-turn navigation application. The application is compatible with the iPhone 3G and 3GS models and will be available soon on the App Store at an introductory price of $79.99 (which will jump to $99.99 sometime thereafter).

The Magellan RoadMate for iPhone inherits many of the features that we liked when we tested the RoadMate 1470 standalone navigation device, such as the OneTouch user menu--a customizable shortcut menu that allows users to store frequently accessed addresses, POIs, and searches--and the ability to calculate and compare multiple routing options simultaneously. The RoadMate app also uses the same Navteq maps as the standalone unit. Maps and POIs are stored locally so you can keep navigating even without a data connection.

Other positive features that stand out are spoken text-to-speech street names, an oversize on-screen keyboard that's easier to use at an arm's length than the iPhone's default keyboard, native access to the iPhone's contacts list, and graphic lane guidance with digital highway street signs. In-app music control with playlist creation isn't critical to getting from point A to point B, but it's nice to have. 3D building data for major cities may be nice for users who navigate visually, but I think it's more of an eye candy thing than a truly useful feature.

Once you get where you're going, the RoadMate app automatically remembers the location of your car so you can find your way back and can switch to a Pedestrian mode for further navigation on foot.

I got my hands on an advanced copy of the Magellan RoadMate for iPhone app for evaluation and found, for the most part, that it worked as advertised. The app booted quickly and responded snappily to my inputs when tested on an Apple iPhone 3GS. A positive side effect of locally stored maps and POIs is that searching and routing with the RoadMate app is lightning fast, even when calculating four simultaneous routing options.… Read more

Google Earth made a splash when it spun onto the iPhone last October, giving users the capability to explore the virtual globe for free from virtually anywhere with an Internet connection. But without some practical mapping features, like turn-by-turn navigation and street maps, Google Earth was largely a discovery tool that didn't have much real-world impact.

This week, Google Earth 2.0 for iPhone gets more useful by pulling those Google maps you saved in the My Maps section of the Google Maps Web site into the app's mobile orbit. In Google Earth, you'll tap the settings … Read more