Posts tagged Maps
Apple Begins Using OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap is having a moment. FourSquare recently ditched Google for them and now we discover Apple is using OSM in their newly launched iPhone for iOS. The iPhoto OSM test makes sense: location and mapping is so central to mobile function and usage any hiccups during an OS level change-over would sting for quite some time. (Via ArsTechnica)
Foursquare Ditches Google for OpenStreetMap
Ever since Google Maps instituted a significant charge, more and more lean-minded startups have been taking control of their map stack and shifting to OpenStreetMap. I’m excited to see a larger fish like Foursquare take the plunge with a platform that only gets better with use.
Hand-drawn railroad map symbols, from the Army Corps of Engineer’s Symbols for Small Scale Maps, 1953. Click through for descriptions. (Via Making Maps)
OpenStreetMap should create an iPhone app where users can ‘donate’ their location data to the service.
Mapnificent shows you were you can be in a given amount of time. Here’s everywhere I can be in 15 minutes. So cool.
Harry Kao’s Commute Map visualizer is fascinating. Check it out.
Europe’s alcohol belts.
“This map shows Europe dominated by three so-called ‘alcohol belts’, the northernmost one for distilled spirits, a middle one for beer and the southernmost one for wine. Each one’s existence and extension is determined by a mix of culture and agriculture.” (via Strange Maps)
Scattered across the centre of San Francisco are almost seventy semi-secret spaces, privately owned but open to the public. Subject to the fine print of a little-known pact between City and Commerce, these so-called POPOS (Privately Owned Public Open Spaces) allow alluring vistas of San Francisco and access to its intimate interiors. However, they are often poorly indicated – perhaps a deliberate tactic by the private companies who own the spaces to prevent the pesky public from using them. Accessing POPOS sometimes even requires walking past security guards, or through unmarked doors. No wonder many are underfrequented.
My building is #24 (via Strange Maps)
“In Russia and other post Soviet countries there were a real craze on independence after they finally got it with USSR collapse. Sometimes this took some weird forms like, for example, making the globes of their own country.” (Via English Russia)
