Points of Interest

GPSMission by Orbster

If you are looking for scavenger hunt... 2.0 style, GPSMission is right for you!

This new LBS game beta launched at the O’Reilly Where 2.0 conference. It uses your GPS phone for solving problems outdoors (i.e missions), sharing photos, collecting gold and winning trophies. On top of that, GPSMission.com allows the community to create new missions for others to play. To play a mission nearby, like San Francisco, enter the city name and you will find many options.

In short, GPSMission is a social networking game. Give it a try and log on to gpsmission.com … and if you collect enough gold, you could win a trip in Munich for OktoberFest 2008. So hurry up!

GPSMission is a finalist of the Global LBS Challenge for Asia. This game is developed by Orbster, a location-based entertainment company. We all wish the best of luck to Orbster for the APAC Challenge. J

-- Olivier

Orange Partner Camp

This time I hit the road to participate in the Orange Partner Camp, held in Faro Portugal on April 14-16. It was a great opportunity to mingle with European mobile vendors in the application, services and technology space...all the with the hope of working with Orange.

During the show, Orange unveiled all of their new API's to help application developers add functionality into their applications. These included SMS, multimedia, personal photos, contacts, messages and more. Let's hope their location API is available soon!

To find out more information on Orange Partner Camp, visit:  http://www.orangepartner.com/site/enuk/news/events/orange_partner_camp/faro/p_faro.jsp

Find out more about Orange Partner, visit:  www.orangepartner.com

Below are some pictures I took during the event

-Laura

Welcome to Faro!

Opening Pow-wow

Cocktails hosted by Sony-Ericsson

Steve Glagow kicks off the Access Party 

Must see Developers at CTIA

One of the best parts about walking the floor at CTIA is getting a peek at what mobile application developers have been up to.  Lots of eyes are on location-based services and how developers are using this technology to create exciting new applications for the mobile space. Navigation is usually the first thing people associate with location-based services, but companies like Smarter Agent and Socialight have been working on some innovative ways to incorporate location into applications for mobile users. 

Smarter Agent will be demoing their innovative real estate application in Qualcomm’s booth, #1948.   Powered by Autodesk LocationLogic, Smarter Agent® combines location with information about real estate, neighborhoods and interesting places around you.  Looking for a place to buy or rent?  Smarter Agent can help you find the perfect place nearby while on the go!  Smarter Agent augments the powerful capabilities of mobile GPS with local classified advertisements and neighborhood residence guides.  Learn more at:  http://www.smarteragent.com/

Socialight will be demoing their social mapping application in the Nokia booth #2635.  Powered by Autodesk LocationLogic, Socialight allows its users to share reviews, call out cool places to grab a bite or a drink, giving users the inside scoop on what’s near them.  Socialight also integrates with other social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace allowing users to share their notes and maps of places they’ve been with all their friends.  Learn more at http://socialight.com/

Make sure to stop by their booths and see these apps in action! 

To find out more about how to use LocationLogic for your mobile application, please join the Autodesk Location Services Developer program:

www.autodesk.com/lsdevprogram

-Laura

Mobile World Congress 2008 (formerly 3GSM)

55,000 attendees from around the world and thousands of exhibitors spread in 8 large Halls and countless opportunities to network: MWC is an event not to be missed.

Although the show starts officially on Monday, there are plenty of activities on Sunday, from registering early to avoid a 2-hour wait in line on Monday, judging for the Navteq LBS Challenge, prepping for the show with colleagues, or attending Mobile Sunday before a late dinner. With hundreds of attendees, Mobile Sunday set the tone for what the show is: an amazing opportunity to meet, evangelize, listen, share, and start new business initiatives.

 

Throughout the week, the show floor is simply packed.

Autodesk was present at the Tele Altas booth with our local sales team including Lino Gonzalez and Ron Lawrence.

Manufacturers take advantage of the show to launch new products such as first public Android phone, N96 with live TV feed, 6220 with Nokia Maps 2.0.

 

The EMEA Awards Ceremony for the 2008 Navteq LBS Challenge took place in the superb Poble Espanyol location to announce the finalists. Rod Egdorf, Chuck Cone (Judge) and I were very pleased with the level of innovation and quality all participants put into the challenge. Congratulations to the participants. You can find a nice video summary here.

Finally, MWC is really about networking (i.e. the party!), here are some pictures from the Qualcomm reception J

-- Olivier

LBS Tech Pubs Team Honored for Their Work

At the end of 2007, the Society for Technical Communication (STC) held its annual technical communication competition.  Leading software companies submitted their best user guides, websites, tutorials, and Help, making competition strong.  Our world-class Tech Pubs team was given the "Award of Excellence" for the Autodesk LocationLogic XML Web Services Developer's Guide.

Congratulations to our esteemed colleagues: Abby Breedt, John Wilkinson, Marianne Schwerdtfeger, Monique Semp, and Scott Guelich.

This is yet another affirmation of how Autodesk is providing the premier documentation and tools for mobile developers looking to create location-based services.  As a reminder, this doc and all our developer guides are available for free through the Location Services Developer Program.

-- Greg

Socialight Wins the "Attendee Choice Awards"

Socialight, a social media platform provider and partner to Autodesk Location Services, was recently crowned the winner of the second annual Tele Atlas Attendee Choice Awards (press release).

With hundreds of people voting on the applications, it is a significant validation to emerge as the victor.

Congratulations to our friends at Socialight for this much deserved recognition!

-- Greg

AT&T Code Camps

Autodesk Location Services wrapped up the final AT&T Code Camp in Boston, MA last Tuesday. With a focus on AT&T's location infrastructure, the Code Camps provided an opportunity for AT&T developers to learn about LBS basics as well as AT&T specific handset and server side integration. As a preferred geospatial platform partner in AT&T's devCentral, Autodesk co-sponsored the events which took place in Seattle, Dallas, and Boston.  I attended the last session Boston to document the event :)  Check out some of the pics!

-Laura

   

The LBS Challenge in APac

As part of our Global Sponsorship of the NAVTEQ LBS Challenge, Autodesk Location Services has expanded our NAVTEQ content coverage in Asia.  For developers that enter the APac Challenge, Autodesk provides a platform to access the latest NAVTEQ content for Singapore and India.  Developers will have access to a hosted instance of Autodesk LocationLogic and tools, documentation, etc. to create a winning Challenge submission.  To get started, simply register for the Autodesk Location Services Developer Program.  For questions and technical support please use the email alias, locationservices-developers@autodesk.com.  Good Luck!

Singapore Map:

India Map:

-- Greg

CTIA IT & Entertainment

Starting tomorrow, we'll be at the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment event in San Francisco.  If you're planning to attend the event, come by and say hello!  We'll be stationed in the NAVTEQ booth (#615).

And just for fun, here's what happens when you and your colleagues try to sneak into a MTV party...

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Dear Partygoer –

We hate to send this email, but it seems there is a bit of confusion surrounding the MTV Networks cocktail party at CTIA.

Due to the small size of the venue, we can accommodate only RSVP’s from our original list of invitations.

As you received your invitation as a forward, we need to offer you a rain check…

Have a great trip, and we hope to see you soon!

The MTV Networks team

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I think that's my first "uninvitation".  Well, it was a noble effort.  J

-- Greg

Java ME SDK

Ever wondered how to add location services into your mobile applications in Java? Or maybe you want to participate in the NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge and want to learn about the Autodesk LocationLogic platform?

Check out the white paper on Java ME (Download). This document will help you understand the core services offered by the platform. In summary, we have packaged a simple Java ME API that gives access to geocoding, routing, mapping and directory services.

Join our developer program to download the jar library and access to the Java ME developer's guide.

- Olivier