Garmin inches towards Mac OS X support

Two years after first announcing that Garmin would support the Macintosh within the year, more software (still in beta) was announced at San Francisco MacWorld this week.

Codednamed Bobcat, the software "allows you to transfer waypoints, tracks, and routes between your Mac and Garmin device and manage your data using your Garmin maps". Garmin maps still aren't available in Macintosh format (you have to convert your Garmin PC maps with MapConverter for Windows, then use MapManager on the Macintosh to make them accessible to Bobcat).

If I have a few spare moments I'll fire it all up and see how it goes. Will only work with Garmin USB devices.

Increasing Garmin support for the Macintosh

Chet from Garmin is teasing us about "Bobcat": code name for a Garmin software product for the Macintosh to be released at San Francisco MacWorld next week.

Two years ago Garmin promised to move its software to Mac OS X "by the end of 2006", but it has been rather slow. There have been some recent releases from Garmin to support using Garmin GPS devices on the Macintosh, though: POI Loader for Mac, MapInstall for Mac, and MapConverter for Windows. (Thanks, MacOS X Hints!)

Another Photosynth video

A more detailed video covering Photosynth from Microsoft Live Labs:

GPS-enabled cameras?

All of the complicated work that needs to be done now to geocode (or geotag) photographs could be a thing of the past if founder of SiRF chip company Kanwar Chadha is right. According to Stephen Shankland, blogging on Underexposed at c|net News.com, Chadha is predicting cameras with GPS capability will start hitting the market next year in quantity. Shankland's article covers a range of issues with knowing where photos were taken, particularly if the photos are shared through social networking sites like MySpace, Flickr and SmugMug. While there are privacy and personal security issues with sharing any information about yourself, family and friends, if managed properly adding location data is an opportunity to explore user-generated photographs in new ways.

More on Photosynth: Wired Science video

The more I see of Photosynth, the more I want to see something like it on the Macintosh, but done better using Core Animation in Leopard.

Live Maps 3D

Microsoft has integrated Photosynth in Live Maps Virtual Earth 3D (technology preview). No audio in the video, apparently.



Got this from vincenthome.

Why this in a Macintosh blog on GPS? Hoping to see this sort of technology available on the Mac (Virtual Earth 3D requires ActiveX controls)

Using Panoramio

I've been experimenting with Panoramio to simplify serving up geocoded photographs: have a look at a track and the photos from a recent walk in the Warrumbungle National Park. Download the .kmz file and open it in Google Earth. As you change the view on the map, only the photos available in the area covered are included in the list.