TopoShare has now over 1000 users and a lot have plotted in their geographical location. The location map shows that users are concentrated on the coasts and the east side are now on level with the west. We have also started to get some Canadian users, so maybe it is time to start thinking on how to include Canada in the geocoding rutine?

As you may have noticed the TopoShare.org web site has been updated with some new graphics. Under the hood it has a new caching system making it faster.

Another big new feature is a Flickr.com mashup, which enables time/geocoding of trails and Flickr photos. This feature is still very beta.

Enjoy!

I’ve written a geo-time coding script, which can add your Flickr photos a location by coding time stamps in photos and gpx. It outputs a GeoRSS feed. Check it out http://wms.mapuse.net/demo/playground/phpgpx/

The Flickr service will be a part of the toposhare.org site. Try out test.toposhare.org.

While some of us have forgotten that Lowrance still makes GPS units, they have been quitely innovating.  Their recent release at CES 2009 is the Endura line of handheld units that are worth looking at.  The first feature that caught my eye is the touch screen — something that is a first in the handheld GPS market.

While Garmin and Megellan (I mean Mitac) have been busy building proprietary mapping systems, Lowrance seems to be much more open — allowing you to load map from Accuterra, Navionics, and even the familiar Navteq maps used by Google.

Via GPS Tracklog

Well, it is CES time of year again and new electronic adventure gear is hitting the shelves for another year.  It seems like nothing happens the rest of the year in the handheld GPS market, but when CES rolls around, the wires a buzzing.

This year Delorme has launched an update to their line of GPS products.  One of the areas they have been pushing the old guard is in the area of being able to load aerial photos from your PC to overlay with your GPS maps — a very nice feature.  This year, the big news is that the units sports support for a lock onto 32 satellites.  This is supposed to give you an almost instantaneous fix on satellites when you turn the unit on.

I will have to see it to belive it, but if GPS makers can solve the problem of getting a lock onto satellites without standing around and waiting, they will deserve a chunk of my hard-earned money.

Via Delorme.com

This waterproof video camera is available Stateside and would be a nice addition to the adventure gear stash.  Panasonic claims it is waterproof to 5 ft, dust tight, and able to withstand drops from 4 ft.  Now if the  weather would just clear up, you could actually see what I am shooting.

Via Panasonc.

Here is another waterproof phone from Asia.  It may be waterproof, but it sure doesn’t look very rugged.  Unfortunately, they don’t seem to make it over the pond so we can get get our mitts on them..

Via Devicetime.

Polar recently announced a new GPS / heart-rate monitor watch. At least it doesn’t look like a wrist wreck!

Via Navigadget