Google like mapping device on laptops, cell phones soon

Think of maps, location and navigation and what comes to most minds is Google. But this mindset will change soon as competition is likely to hot up with device OEMs set to provide such mapping services through GPS loaded portable devices without the need to connect with the internet.

Spime, a California based tech company with R&D offices in Chennai, has just launched Windows 7 based alternative to Google maps. "For the first time ever, OEMs will be launching location, map, POI (point of interest), routing and navigation services on Windows 7-based portable devices competing with Google.

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A day in the life of America's last lighthouse keeper

The sole remaining lighthouse keeper in the United States may be the last one but she isn't about to disappear.

Sally Snowman, 56, is part historian, part tour guide and part maintenance worker who tends Boston Light, a beacon that rises 89 feet (27 meter) on its own island and had guided sailors for almost three centuries.

Her charge, and specifically the 12-sided rotating lens that casts its beam 27 nautical miles out to sea, fills her with a great sense of security.

"When you're out at night on the island, you can actually see the 12 rays," said the ex-schoolteacher. "It actually looks like the rays are going out to the curvature of the earth and it feels so protected, like nothing's going to harm me. It's awesome."

The U.S. Coast Guard has automated the other 278 federally run lighthouses, finding this a more cost-effective way to manage navigational aids that have become less critical since the advent of global positioning systems that harness satellite technology.

But Boston Light, which in 1716 became the first lighthouse in the former British colonies, keeps its keeper thanks to Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy who two decades ago helped push through legislation requiring a full-time attendant.

Snowman got the job in 2003 when the Coast Guard decided it could be held by a civilian. Now she resides on the three-acre

island for up to a week at a time.

She makes sure the lighthouse, keeper's cottage and other buildings are maintained, the 1,000-watt light is lit, and the grounds are in shape for the 4,000 tourists who travel the nine nautical miles from Boston Harbor each year.

RADIATING HOPE AND SECURITY

Snowman dresses the part, wearing a bonnet and long dress to reflect how women dressed in 1783 when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts rebuilt the tower that was blown up by retreating British troops in 1776, as the Revolutionary War got underway.

Twice a day she walks the island's perimeter to inspect its buildings, making sure that the light is still drawing power from an undersea cable stretching from the mainland, and that the island's water and communications systems work properly.

In between, she oversees a crew of about 100 volunteers who help to take weather readings and fill the hundreds of tiny holes that pock the island, thanks to a population of muskrats.

Automation is not the only change facing lighthouses.

As navigators rely on other technologies to find their way, the U.S. government has begun selling or donating to historic preservation groups lights no longer necessary for navigation.

More than 300 lights have passed into private hands this way, according to Coast Guard officials.

But for recreational boaters and small fishing vessels, which represent a sizable chunk of Boston Harbor traffic, the lights still play a role.

"They help with approaches because they can be seen from a great distance away," said David Bryan, general manager of the Boston Sailing Club, which teaches sailing and navigation.

"If the idea is that now everyone is using GPS and you don't need light houses, I would say that redundant information is very important when navigating."

Beyond its role in navigation, Boston Light is also a tourist draw. Snowman has a theory as to why.

"For many, it has a sense of hope and spirituality, not religion, but spirituality," she said in an interview atop the tower, looking out over Boston Harbor. "They look at it and see it as a coming home and safety."

Nokia sees half of cellphones with GPS in 2010-12

Nokia plans to add navigation to half of the phones it sells within a few years to find new revenue streams amid decreasing handset prices, a senior official at the world's top cellphone maker said.

Michael Halbherr, the head of Nokia's location-based activities, told Reuters he remains comfortable with Nokia's year-old goal for seeing up to 50 percent of its phones equipped with global positioning system (GPS) chips in 2010 to 2012.

"We are planning to ship 35 million GPS units this year," Halbherr said, adding "and many more location-enabled phones that use cell-towers to orient themselves on the map".

"You will see few 'E' or 'N' Series phones without GPS," he said.

Last year Nokia sold 437 million phones, and it expects the volume to grow more than 10 percent this year. It sold 38 million phones in its multimedia range "N Series" and some 7 million "E Series" business phones.

GPS chips use orbiting satellites to pin point the where abouts of a phone user, thereby enabling a host of location-based services. SiRF Technology Holdings Inc is the world's largest maker of GPS chips.

Last October, when unveiling an $8.1 billion offer for U.S. based digital map supplier Navteq , Nokia said it would have tens of navigation-enabled phones on the market by end-2008.

It sells five models with built-in GPS and has unveiled four more which will ship in the coming months.

Halbherr said his company's GPS phone strategy goes far beyond the phones themselves.

It's part of a comprehensive strategy to make location-enabled, context-aware phones available across its product line, he said.

Beyond phones specially equipped with location-finding technology, all Nokia phones stand to benefit as GPS phone users move about and effectively update Nokia Maps in real time for other phone users.

"Location will ultimately be in every device," Halbherr declared, not just the half of phones with special GPS chips.

In addition to GPS chips, Nokia's strategy involves pushing Wi-Fi enabled devices that use local wireless network antennas to achieve more or less the same location-awareness in these devices. Even phones without GPS or Wi-Fi can use local cellphone towers to identify their position on maps, he noted.

Nokia Maps, first introduced in early 2006, will come out with a version 2.0 for phones worldwide later this month.

Halbherr mocks the current rush by Internet companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to deliver all their services as centralized, Web-based services over the network, rather than using the growing powers of the device in users' hands.

"I believe memory and computation speed will grow faster than bandwidth," he said. "I am not a believer in cloud computing."

"All the American navigation solutions are basically server based, which overloads the network and degrades the consumer experience," Halbherr said, referring to both Internet map services and companies specializing in car navigation.