MapPoint News
Action Engine Announces Application Support for
Microsoft's MapPoint Location Server Ron Jasper, EVP of
marketing and business development for Action Engine said, "By
supporting leading technologies like MapPoint Location Server and
MapPoint Web Service, Action Engine is driving the industry and
enabling wireless carriers to take full advantage of existing
infrastructure and location technologies to rapidly deploy value-added,
revenue-generating data applications and services to their mobile
subscribers."
Small Businesses Fuel Economy With Help From Technology
"We're seeing that technology is
leveling the playing field between small businesses and their larger
competitors," said Cindy Bates, general manager of Small Business for
the U.S. Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners Group at
Microsoft.
"Today more small businesses are realizing that technology can open new
doors for them to compete more effectively and operate more efficiently
in ways that were only available to larger companies a few years ago."
2004 North American Gaming Almanac
Research
and Markets announced the addition of 2004 North American Gaming
Almanac to their offering. The North American Gaming Almanac covers
nearly 1,500 casinos, card rooms, racinos, horse tracks, dog tracks,
and casino cruises in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. A
map file is also included on the CD displaying all North American
gaming properties geographically on a map. Different types of gaming
properties are identified with color-coded icons. Property details can
be viewed by clicking on each icon. The map file can be opened using
Microsoft MapPoint software.
Tool
to Draw TomTom/NMEA GPS Log in MapPointGrossman IT announced
GITMapPointCreateTrack - a small tool to convert GPS logs in NMEA
format (e.g. created with TomTom Navigator) to a track in Microsoft
MapPoint version 2002 or higher. Microsoft
.NET framework 1.1 is required and the tool is presently freeware.
Microsoft Announces Volume Licensing Changes
From CNET News -
"Microsoft also said Wednesday that it has added two online
services--MapPoint Web Services and Microsoft Office Live Meeting--to
its July lineup of products available under volume licensing."
Microsoft Keen to Think Small
From Silicon - "Microsoft said it
will partner with the US Small Business Administration to sponsor a set
of programs and a show, dubbed Microsoft Across America, designed to
make technology more accessible to small businesses. The show will
travel across the nation and attempt to better inform small businesses
about Microsoft's products, including its Office Small Business Edition
2003, MapPoint, Retail Management System and Windows Small Business
Server 2003 applications."
Review of the Plenary Sessions at the Location Technology & Business Intelligence Executive Symposium
From
Directions Magazine - "Shaun McMullin, field service technology
specialist for DHL/Airborne Express and J. Patrick Moore of Integral
GIS talked about using Microsoft’s MapPoint to develop a relatively
inexpensive routing system fairly quickly – Directions readers will
learn more about their next steps as the two plan to provide an update
article in late June."
Submit your news
Microsoft and Technology News
Map24
Wins Webby Award for Technical AchievementInternet mapping technology fans will appreciate Map24.com, winner of this year's Webby Award for technical achievement. The Webby Awards are considered the “Oscars of the Internet“ and winners in recent years have included the likes of Google, Amazon.com and Microsoft. The site appears to stream vector data to a lightweight client in the browser.
These last two stories require subscriptions, but for what it's worth, I would recommend both publications. The WSJ article includes quotes from both MapInfo and ESRI and discusses exactly the type of service now being offered with the MapPoint Location Server.
A Kinder, Gentler Microsoft?
From The Economist (subscription
required) –
"Microsoft is not only settling law suits, but turning companies that
it has not even offended into new allies. On May 3rd, it announced a
huge cross-licensing agreement with Siemens, a German electronics
giant, that will give the two companies access to many of each other's
patents. This week it announced another cross-licensing deal, this time
with SAP, the leading provider of high-end business software."
On
the Road Again, But Now the Boss Is Sitting Beside YouFrom The Wall Street Journal (subscription
required) – "Developed in the 1970s for military use, GPS relies
on a cluster of satellites orbiting 12,500 miles above Earth. The
satellites emit coded signals, which a ground-based receiver can pick
up to triangulate its own position. GPS trackers remained expensive
niche products through much of the 1990s largely because they were
difficult to use and it was expensive to relay location data from a
moving truck back to a company's home base. Now, thanks to the spread
of cheap cellular-phone service, the devices can send the information
as easily as a commuter can make a call from the road."
