For the most part, the only person you can socialize with on a handheld GPS navigator is the chick who tells you to turn left after 100 yards.
Garmin wants to change that. The device manufacturer has partnered with location-based app company ULocate to bring its Where.com software, previously available only on compatible cell phones and carriers, to some of its devices. (It hasn't said which ones specifically.) This will give Garmin owners access to Where's own Buddy Beacon software, which shares users' current locations with friends. It can be hooked up to Where's Facebook application, too, so you can tell your friends where you are.
Personally, sharing my location isn't exactly what first comes to mind when I use an in-car GPS navigator, but some of Where's other services sound helpful: Yelp reviews, gas price comparisons from GasBuddy, and a handful of others. Unfortunately, a Where representative told me on Tuesday, those aren't encompassed in the Garmin deal.
Location-sharing has been met with some skepticism. Many people thought that location-based social-networking and friend-finding applications would explode after the launch of the iPhone 3G, but we still haven't seen an epidemic of location-sharing take off. Many cell phone owners seem to be perfectly OK not having everyone on their Facebook friends list know where they are.
I might be sold if Where makes its gas price widget available to Garmin. That's something that Ms. "After 1.1 miles, take the exit right" hasn't yet been able to offer me.
This post was updated at 6:22 a.m. PT on Tuesday to clarify that only the Buddy Beacon widget will be available on select Garmin devices.
Garmin and MapQuest want others to share the geospatial wealth.
Garmin's GPSmap 60Cx
(Credit: Garmin)In conjunction with the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, Calif., both companies on Tuesday announced moves to share application programming interfaces (APIs) that let programmers take advantage of their products. For years, products or service APIs were often kept secret, but nowadays it's vogue for companies to share them in an attempt to become a vital part of a larger ecosystem.
Garmin, which makes GPS (Global Positioning System) devices that tell people where they are, announced a number of free and licensed APIs that permit sophisticated interactions between Web sites and GPS devices. For example, a hiker can upload GPS data to a Web site to plot travels on a map, or a geocaching enthusiast can download locations to scout out. Those and other interfaces are at a new developer-oriented Garmin Web site.
Meanwhile, MapQuest released a beta version of an API to let programs written in Adobe ActionScript take advantage of MapQuest's online mapping. The widely used Flash technology, as well as its new Apollo technology, both use ActionScript, as does Adobe's Flex software for developing Flash software.
To show what the software can do, MapQuest posted some demonstrations on its Web site.
One route available on Sunday Morning Rides
(Credit: Sunday Morning Rides)A new Web site aimed at motorcyclists lets users share their favorite pleasure rides for use in GPS navigation devices. The site, Sunday Morning Rides, uses Google maps and a few other Web widgets to let users either build a route or download one. It includes on- and off-road courses. Once you select a ride, you can download it as GPX (an XML file), GDB (Garmin mapsource), or KML (Google Earth). Currently, a large number of rides are posted all around the country. One of the coolest things about the site is that along with graphical and satellite maps, it also shows topographical maps.
The other cool thing about the site is the whole concept of GPS sharing. Although the site serves a specific niche--motorcycle riders with GPS devices--the idea of being able to share routes could apply to cars, hikers, and any other self-guided means of transportation. We'd like to see GPS devices besides Garmin's promote route sharing. There should be a common platform. You can send someone a destination address, but GPS devices tend to find the optimal route, rather than the most fun.
See also: GroupRider.com.
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