Spotlight on NN4D: Partner Network --> Esri

Have you seen the new Esri pages in NN4D’s Partner Network yet? The NAVTEQ Network for Developers has recently created a Esri section in our Partner Network and filled it full of NN4D and Esri created technical content! Esri’s arrival in our Partner Network is exciting for us! NAVTEQ data is integrated into much of Esri software and services and, since we also have a ton of Esri users in the NAVTEQ Network for Developers community, it makes for a perfect fit!

Example of the types of collateral found in the
 new Esri zone. Go check it out! 

For all you NN4D members out there, we have quite a bit of stuff you can download and learn from. Even if you are not a NN4D member, you can still download case studies and other collateral that explores Esri and NAVTEQ’s relation and mutual support. NN4D and Esri staff have worked together to come up with a comprehensive group of technical and informational documents that will help developer and BizDev types to quickly learn about the benefits of working with Esri. Make sure you visit the NAVTEQ and Esri  page and browse through all the material that is gathered there.

Besides all the great resources you can find on NN4D.com, Esri.com also has much to offer the developer. Make sure to visit the Esri.com Developer Tools section and see what is available there. Between both the new Esri section found on NN4D and Esri's own Developer Tools, there is a ton of information and resources available to help you get started with NAVTEQ and Esri right away!  Go check it out! (Hey, what else you got going on over Winter Break anyway?)  

Win a Parrot AR Drone Quadcopter!

Vote for your favourite augmented reality applications of 2011 and you could win an amazing Parrot AR Drone.

NAVTEQ Network for Developers are proud sponsors of this year’s Augmented Planet Readers Choice Awards, the Oscars for the augmented reality developer community. Along with Augmented Planet, we’re offering you the chance to win an amazing Parrot AR Drone, a remote-controlled flying quadcopter, just for voting for your favourite augmented reality experiences.

Parrot AR Drone Quadcopter

The AR Drone is equipped with two on-board video cameras that broadcast the live video feed directly to an iOS or Android device. Suitable for both indoor and outdoor flying, it’s the ultimate remote-controlled flying experience. To learn more about the amazing Parrot AR Drone, read the Augmented Planet review.

To be automatically entered in to the competition to win the AR Drone, simply vote for your favourite augmented reality experiences now. Voting closes at midnight on 4th December, 2011 UK time, so don’t delay!

Good luck!

Congratulations Echoecho, Siine and Runtastic for the AppCircus London Win!

Posted by Lauren Sarno, Developer Marketing

NN4D EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) have been sponsoring local meet-ups throughout our region this year. Two of them (in Dusseldorf and London) were put on by AppCircus, who stage app showcases and competitions globally. I had the honour of representing NN4D at AppCircus London, by giving the sponsor pitch at the top of the evening (a five-minute explanation of what NN4D offers), and then serving on the jury.

If you have a chance to be on the jury for an app competition, jump on it! It’s a blast. If you’ve watched the television programmes Dragons’ Den in the UK or Shark Tank in the US, it’s just like that: For three hours, you’re a mover and shaker in the world of entrepreneurs. Fun, fun, fun.

The AppCircus format is fairly standard for the industry: App developers get five minutes to make their pitch, with the assistance of a presentation or videos. Then the jury may ask questions, such as “What is your revenue model?” or “How many customers do you already have?” or “Do you have any significant customers or partners?” The winner is entered into an overall competition, the grand prize winner of which is announced each year in a ceremony held at Mobile World Congress. The runner up gets to pitch again at another AppCircus.

The attendees at AppCircus London (which was held at technology incubator TechHub) were lively, attentive and knowledgeable, which made the event speed by. The competition was stiff, and all of the presenters should be proud of their pitches. Ultimately, however, we selected the following applications:

Honourable Mention: Runtastic, for their application Roadbike. This location-aware application, in combination with body sensors manufactured by a Runtastic partner, allows you to track all your biking stats (heart rate, speed, cadence, distance etc.) and lets others follow your progress and cheer you on. Even in the crowded field of personal training apps, this one stood out for richness of features and the quality of the user interface.

Runner Up: Siine, for their application Siine Writer – check out the video. I’ve seen alternative on-screen keyboards for Android before, but this one shone for its exuberant creativity. Although I don’t have the space here to describe everything it does, I’ll give you one example:

Siine Writer allows you to personalise your keyboard and create buttons that have multiple functions for strings of text. For instance, if you tap your “Regards” button, the word “Regards” appears; tap twice, you get “Best regards”; tap three times, you get “Warm regards”.

I can see a ten year old figuring out Siine Writer in about 10 minutes and mastering the personalisation in about 30. The rest of us may take a bit longer. This team of creative thinkers will go far.

Winner: Echoecho, for its application of the same name. I don’t know if this application will ultimately live as a stand-alone download or be snapped up by another company to be integrated into a larger platform, but we loved it for its immediate usability. It’s got a simple premise: Select one of your contacts and Echoecho sends the message “Where are you?” When your contact responds, she or he sees exactly where you are on a map and you see exactly where they are. It also offers you points of interest nearby (coffee shops, restaurants, pubs) that you can select as your meeting point. The Echoecho team is loaded with enthusiasm and drive and I’m confident they’ll make good business development decisions.

Congratulations to all! Thanks for the opportunity to see your work.

Check out the Nokia Maps API!

As readers of this blog know, the NAVTEQ Network for Developers tries to keep you up to date by informing you of all the APIs and companies out there that use NAVTEQ data.

One API we have not talked about yet is the Nokia Maps API. Nokia just recently released version 2 (v2) of this web based API and it looks pretty slick!

OK, before we go on, we have a full disclaimer: NAVTEQ is entirely owned by Nokia. Yes, it is true, Nokia is NAVTEQ’s parent company, and at the end of the day, we answer to them. Also be aware that even though NAVTEQ is owned by Nokia, we are not “pwned”, and the NAVTEQ Network for Developers is agnostic when it comes to who we support and promote. As long as you use NAVTEQ data, then it is all good and we want to promote you! Nokia Maps is no exception to this rule, so that is why we are writing about them here. Does this make any sense? Ok, cool!

Nokia Maps API Playground

Now with that out of the way, you really gotta check out the new Nokia Maps API!  Nokia Maps API has some nifty features that you just might be interested in!

The first thing to note (which is very useful to Developers) is the Maps API Playground. This is basically a developer sandbox that allows to you run many of the Nokia Maps API calls, and see how the map behaves. If you want to quickly check out the Nokia Maps API available features, then you will definitely want to check out the Nokia Maps Playground. You can easily see most of the available features, just by clicking each example found in the side panel. This makes it pretty simple to take the Nokia Maps API for a test spin even if you have never written a line of code. Just make sure you click on the tiny, “Example selector” text in the bottom left hand of your screen to open the Example panel as that can be a bit confusing at first. The other really cool thing about the Nokia Maps API Playground is that after you run an example, you can grab the code! Yeah, that is a handy feature that Developers have come to expect, so it is good this is included in the Playground!

The Nokia Maps API has some other notable features worth mentioning… Besides being able to do some basic things like display multiple addresses and create a route from A to B, the Nokia Maps API has the ability to make a route dragable. This is  a feature many users have come to rely on, so it is good to see this included. Another really cool feature is the ability to center the map on a device’s GPS location. This is a groovy feature for all you Mobile Developers out there and is something you should really check into a bit more.

One of the coolest updates in the Nokia Maps API v2, is that it now supports KML files! As you all know, KML files are a quick and easy way to get your custom location data to display on a map. The fact that you can now use the API to drop a KML onto Nokia Maps is huge! You can use Nokia Maps to make your own map mashups using a KML file! This ability is super cool any way you slice it!

Lastly, something that really might interest you is the price. It is hard to believe, but it looks like, (at this time) is unlimited and FREE! Yes, you thought the days of unlimited and FREE use of web map APIs was over, didn’t you? Well, apparently Nokia Maps is still providing this elusive perk, unlike some other Map APIs that don't use NAVTEQ data.

Check out what it says right in the Nokia Maps API terms and conditions: “Your use of the Software may be or may become subject to charges. Nokia reserves the right to charge for the Software and to change its fees from time to time, at its discretion.”

So there you have it!  As of now it seems like use of the Nokia Maps API is unlimited and FREE! Something to think about for all you start-ups out there, isn’t it? Seriously, who doesn't like a FREE map with unlimited use?

With all these things going for it, Nokia Maps API is really something you should consider checking into a bit more. No really, you should.  Go check it out!

Well, what do you think, was this blog post too biased?

Ok, it might have been a bit biased, but the fact of the matter is that the Nokia Maps API is a quality product and NN4D would be doing a disservice to our readers by not letting you know about it! So go check it out and judge for yourself and see what you think.

Have you seen the new NN4D.com?

The all new NN4D.com! 

We have some exciting news to share! The NAVTEQ Network for Developers has a brand new website! The NN4D team has been hard at work for the last few months, totally revamping the site.  What is really cool is that we pushed the “launch” button earlier this week and the site is now live!

We took all of your feedback and suggestions and rolled them into a new and super slick design. Now, it is easy to find everything you are looking for! Yes, we have consolidated a bunch of content and grouped it together and even added some new search functionality, which is pretty cool!

For all you Developer types out there, we have also gathered all our technical content and Partner resources into one, easy to use section, so make sure to visit the Developer Resources section, where you can find everything we have to offer to all you Geospatial Developers.

To get a good feel of the new site, you can watch our new overview video we have embedded below.

After you watch the video, make sure to visit the site to see for yourself and go ahead and click on over to the new NN4D.com and check it out! As always, we would love to hear what you think, so feel free to leave a comment in the comments section.

European Satellite Navigation Competition NAVTEQ Special Topic Prize winner!

NN4D was very excited to participate in the 2011 European Satellite Navigation Competition. NAVTEQ was a sponsor of the European Satellite Navigation Competition and gave out a Special Topic Prize for Best Mobile Enterprise Solution. If you are not familiar with the European Satellite Navigation Competition, it is an international competition that seeks navigational concepts that harness the increased accuracy and reliability provided by Europe's satellite navigation system, Galileo.

We are excited to announce the winner of the Special Topic Prize for Best Mobile Enterprise Solution, Making Virtual Solid!

Not only did Making Virtual Solid win the NAVTEQ Special Topic Prize, but they also won the USA Regional Prize and the overall Galileo Master prize!

Our congratulations go out to Making Virtual Solid for winning all three prizes!

What did they win?

Making Virtual Solid will receive a business incubation package valued at over €75,000 in data licenses, technical consulting and business development services. Making Virtual Solid was chosen by NAVTEQ for its location-aware mobile True3D™ Head Up Display. The True3D HUD is used to safely portray objects as translucent overlays in the landscape, inside the natural field of view while driving, using an immersive augmented reality projection system. The system can pull preferences from a smartphone to display safety and navigational symbols that enhance real objects and images on the road in front of the driver.

Yeah, we are talking an augmented reality (AR) display that is a bit different than your traditional HUD so check out their website to see how it works. It is seriously very cool!

Making Virtual Solid had to beat out over 40 mobile enterprise solution ideas received from around the world. NAVTEQ evaluated these submissions using a strict set of judging criteria. These criteria included innovation, marketability, feasibility, and effective implementation of location content.

Once again, our congratulations go to Making Virtual Solid on their big win!

Now, how about some  pictures of the event!

Juliana and Tom from MVS

All the ENSC Winners

Official State Reception

The Awards Ceremony 

ESNC Trophies

How to get 25 hours of FREE app testing!

Hi there all you LBS Developers!

Are you working on a location based app? How many devices have you tested it on?

You have tested your app on multiple devices, right?

No? You have only tested it on your personal phone that you are carrying around in your pocket? Uh oh, that is not good. You want your app to get good ratings in the various app stores out there, right? Well, if you do, you will want to make sure you test your app on as many GPS enabled devices as you can.  You want to do this so you can find, (and fix) all the bugs before you release it in the wild.

How can you test your app on multiple devices? You can always go out and buy a bunch of phones for testing, but that would be a bit expensive.

NAVTEQ Virtual Developer Lab interface

Or, you can just sign up for the NAVTEQ Virtual Developer Lab and test your app on over 110 GPS enabled devices! Yes, the Virtual Developer Lab (powered by DeviceAnywhere) is a package of GPS enabled smartphones and tablets that allow you to load and test out the cool LBS app you are building.

The best part is that you can get started for FREE!

That's right, all members of NN4D get 5 FREE hours of app testing. You can get stared right away and we won’t even ask you for your credit card! You just go and sign up and start testing.

If you act now, you can even get an additional 20 hours of FREE testing, which would bring the total to 25 FREE testing hours! To get your additional 20 hours FREE, just use two free test hours before November 15, 2011 and receive 20 ADDITIONAL FREE HOURS just for completing a brief feedback survey.

Yeah, we want you to complete a feedback survey, but really, how hard is that? Especially considering you get 20 FREE testing hours for doing it.

Now you might think that there is some sort of catch, or that the Virtual Device Lab is so complicated, it will take you all of the 20 hours just to learn how to use it. Fear not young Padawan! NN4D has lots and lots of Virtual Developer Lab training materials on our site to help you get started before you even use one FREE testing hour! Just visit our Virtual Developer Lab section to see them all linked on the right hand side. All these materials are available for review before you ever get started testing.  This means that by the time you do decide to use your FREE testing hours, you will be prepared to make the most of it!

This is a seriously insane amount of testing hours, and it is all FREE, FREE, FREE!

Follow this link to go to the Virtual Developer Lab and get started.

Still not convinced?  Check out these videos on the Virtual Developer Lab to see what it is all about.