The closure of Pownce, which was announced Monday via posts by co-founder Leah Culver and her new employer, blog software company Six Apart, didn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who’s followed Pownce since its launch last year. Despite help from co-founders like Kevin Rose of Digg and usability guru Daniel Burka, the service never really found an audience, or at least not one big enough to make a go of it. In the end, Pownce was just too much like Twitter (and Jaiku and Plurk, for that matter); the added features it had — including the ability to transfer files — weren’t enough to set it apart in people’s minds, much less turn it into a must-have utility.

So why did Six Apart, the blogging software provider founded by husband-and-wife team Ben and Mena Trott, decide to buy the company? It’s possible that they just saw Culver and her fellow Powncer Mike Malone as valuable hires in the programming department, and decided to acqu-hire them, as Google has done with so many startup founders over the years. But while the Pownce service is being shut down, could its features live on inside Six Apart and its Vox blogging service? I think that’s a very real possibility. Culver, for example, notes in her blog post that she hopes to “come back with something much better in 2009.”

Twitter and its ilk are often referred to as platforms for “micro-blogging,” because (in the right hands at least) a 140-character message posted to the service can be almost as good as a blog post. More than one blogger has said that the frequency of their blog posts has decreased since they began Twittering, and some have given up full-blown blogging altogether. Others, however (myself included), use Twitter as a kind of feeder system for their blogs. Not only do they use it to find ideas, links and conversation that spark longer blog posts, but they use it in reverse — to alert potential readers to their posts. And in many cases the conversation extends from the blog to the chat service and vice-versa. There’s an almost symbiotic relationship between the two services, with each feeding off and benefiting from the other.

Six Apart has made a number of acquisitions that indicate the company is thinking about how to extend its services, including social media application maker Apperceptive. Much like its blog software competitor Automattic, the home of WordPress (see disclosure below), the company seems to be looking for tools that can be incorporated into its platforms to make them more robust as media publishing services. Could a Twitter-style tool be part of that vision for Six Apart? It would make a lot of sense, just as WordPress buying Buddypress (a startup that added social networking functionality to the platform) and launching a Twitter-style chat theme called Prologue made sense.

There are already a variety of plugins and tools that allow WordPress and Movable Type bloggers to incorporate Twitter into their blogs, either by posting their messages automatically in a sidebar, or in some cases, by allowing them to post to Twitter from their blog dashboard. But having someone who understands how such services operate could help Six Apart integrate these kinds of features more fully into their platforms, as well as making it easier to develop new ones that could merge micro-blogging and “real” blogging. At the end of the day, Six Apart and Automattic aren’t just blogging services but content-management and content-publishing companies, and Twitter messages are just another form of content that needs to be managed and published.

Auttomatic is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of this blog, Giga Omni Media. Om Malik, founder of Giga Omni Media, is also a venture partner at True.

Societe : ABRAXAS - Lieu de travail : Paris - Type de contrat : CDI - Salaire : A négocier - Detail : As an ASM Service Manager you will be responsible for: Coordinate the activity and control the quality of the work performed by the support Engineers in the provision of ASM services and ensure a balanced workload among the support teams Manage change requests and control the development and implementation of approved change requests Pre-sales and sales support Interacts with other teams (internal and customer’s teams) to identify and clarify requirements or problems, manage conflicts... Informs the customer about exceptional situations that may impact the daily operations and presents plans to avoid/minimize problems Communicates and reports normal activity as well as exceptional situations Discusses plans with peers on the customer side to exploit and detect new opportunities, informs Functional Business Development Manager so as to plan adjustments to service scope or ASM services evolution Assesses client IS current situation and prepares service setup Develops/supports the development of Software License Agreement’s or contracts Anticipate adjustments of the team to accommodate the new reality Controls the execution and quality of the work performed and the results produced by the support engineers against SLA as well as against requirements specified or solution identified to problems reported Coaches the execution team, provides technical support and know-how promotes a service attitude, whist allocated to servicing his/her customer. Experience required: You have +4 years of experience in Oracle Retail in a least strong experience in one of these following Oracle Retail modules: ORMS, ORDW, ORSIM, ORWMS, ORPM, ORIB. Strong technological knowledge and strong Knowledge on retail business – at least one area is required MUST BE fluent in French and English Maturity level on costumer relationship management its needed. If you are interested in this opportunity please send your CV to Sandrine INAUDI, recruitment consultant, sandrine.inaudi@abraxas.com or +44 207 255 56 03. Abraxas plc is a leading specialist recruitment agency for the IT industry. Due to the high level of applications we receive, please be aware that you may not hear from us immediately, as we can only respond to those applicants whose skills and qualifications are suitable for this position. If you would like Abraxas to help you find a similar position, or for a complete listing of all our current vacancies, please visit our website at www.abraxas.com and register your details. Please note that no terminology in this advert is intended to discriminate on the grounds of age, and we confirm that we will gladly accept applications from persons of any age for this role

a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/turnerprize2008/artists/leckey_video.shtm"Mark/a a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7759698.stm"Leckey/a a href="http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/mark_leckey/"has/a a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961workid=84098searchid=9450"won/aa href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/latest/2008/12/02/felix-the-cat-artist-mark-leckey-wins-turner-prize-115875-20940764/" the/a a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/dec/01/turner-prize-mark-leckey"Turner/a a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hDqYxzfQ8osCigjzu4XAJ66_OE5w"Prize/a. a href="http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article5270325.ece"Quote/a: “I kind of hate the relationship the press in Britain has towards art,” he said. “I hate the way it’s all Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin and Banksy. They expect spectacle and shock. Art is not like that. The art world I know is not like that; it’s a whole other world.” br / a href="http://www.newyorkartworld.com/reviews/leckey.html"Soundsystem/a | a href="http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individualVideoID=3673711"The March of the Big White Barbarians/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2008/dec/02/turner-prize-mark-leckey"'I want a TV show'/a

img src="http://cdn.thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2008/12/1202 Madonna concert/post_image/post_image-1202_madonna_concert_00.jpg" border="0"br Madonna and Alex "A-Rod" Rodriguez are doing a super job keeping their relationship on the down low. Because you know what's always incredibly discreet? Shopping for $60 million mansions together in New York City. They should be spies. a href="http://www.nypost.com/seven/12022008/gossip/pagesix/madge__a_rod_hunt_love_nest_141739.htm"Page Six/a reports: blockquoteA knowledgeable real estate source tells us the kabbalah-crazed pop queen and the skirt-chasing power hitter are "discreetly looking at properties between Fifth and Park avenues, from just above 60th Street through the 80s.br "Madonna personally came to look at one house a couple of months ago, and Alex has been looking recently," the insider said. "We're talking about private, double-width mansions in the vicinity of $30 million to $60 million."br Madge and A-Rod are also interested in scoring a house "with a garage that you can drive into for additional privacy - although those are rare and hard to come by," our spy added. Another source said they were also looking in the Hamptons. /blockquote So, wait, $30 to $60 million for a "double-width" mansion and it doesn't even come with a garage? Christ, even my strikeshitty, dilapidated/strike quaint, child-friendly place has a garage. *light bulb* Excuse me, folks, I suddenly feel the need to move some real estate. Anyone know how many zeroes are in $50 gajillion? div style="width: 425px; margin: 0 0 0 30px; padding: 0;"ul style="list-style-type: none; display: block; width: 425px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"li style="display: block; float: left; width: 90px; height: 134px; margin: 0; padding: 0 10px 10px 0;"a href="http://thesuperficial.com/2008/12/madonna_arod_shop_for_30_mil_m.php" style="display: block; width: 90px; height: 134px; background: #CCC; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; padding: 0;"img src="http://cdn.thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2008/12/1202 Madonna concert/gallery_thumb/gallery_thumb-1202_madonna_concert_00.jpg" style="display: block; border: 1px solid #cccccc; width: 88px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/a/lili style="display: block; float: left; width: 90px; height: 134px; margin: 0; padding: 0 10px 10px 0;"a href="http://thesuperficial.com/2008/12/madonna_arod_shop_for_30_mil_m.php?bfm_index=1" style="display: block; width: 90px; height: 134px; background: #CCC; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; padding: 0;"img src="http://cdn.thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2008/12/1202 Madonna concert/gallery_thumb/gallery_thumb-1202_madonna_concert_01.jpg" style="display: block; border: 1px solid #cccccc; width: 88px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/a/lili style="display: block; float: left; width: 90px; height: 134px; margin: 0; padding: 0 10px 10px 0;"a href="http://thesuperficial.com/2008/12/madonna_arod_shop_for_30_mil_m.php?bfm_index=2" style="display: block; width: 90px; height: 134px; background: #CCC; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; padding: 0;"img src="http://cdn.thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2008/12/1202 Madonna concert/gallery_thumb/gallery_thumb-1202_madonna_concert_02.jpg" style="display: block; border: 1px solid #cccccc; width: 88px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/a/lili style="display: block; float: left; width: 90px; height: 134px; margin: 0; padding: 0 10px 10px 0;"a href="http://thesuperficial.com/2008/12/madonna_arod_shop_for_30_mil_m.php?bfm_index=3" style="display: block; width: 90px; height: 134px; background: #CCC; overflow: hidden; margin: 0; padding: 0;"img src="http://cdn.thesuperficial.com//bfm_gallery/2008/12/1202 Madonna concert/gallery_thumb/gallery_thumb-1202_madonna_concert_03.jpg" style="display: block; border: 1px solid #cccccc; width: 88px; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/a/li/uldiv style="clear: left;"/div/div div class = "credit"Photos: a href="http://www.splashnewsonline.com"Splash News/a/div pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/FpfTRMdQpLSa5cKSIQlbPiD_EVE/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/FpfTRMdQpLSa5cKSIQlbPiD_EVE/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thesuperficial/SNxk/~4/vnWaC0FYy3Y" height="1" width="1"/

pFiled under: a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/web-services/" rel="tag"Web services/a, a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/open-source/" rel="tag"Open Source/a, a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/social-software/" rel="tag"Social Software/a, a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/browser/" rel="tag"Browsers/a/pimg vspace="4" hspace="4" border="0" align="right" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.downloadsquad.com/media/2008/12/openidcew.png" alt="" /a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/tag/openid/"OpenID/a is a really great concept. The ability to use a single digital identity across the web and avoid having to sign up for yet another user account is a real productivity boon. More and more high profile sites and services are adopting a href="http://openid.net"OpenID/a, but the project still hasn't gained the traction that many of us think it deserves. This is partially because it still isn't easy to use OpenID -- or even find out if a site supports OpenID -- on all services. MySpace, Flock and Vidoop think they've come across a solution: let the browser handle it.br /br /Back in June, a href="http://myspace.com"MySpace/a a href="http://openid.net/2008/07/25/myspace-announces-support-for-openid/"announced support/a for OpenID and also became an OpenID provider. In order to help users more easily manage their online identity across other sites and services, MySpace teamed up with a href="http://vidoop.com/"Flock/a and a href="http://vidoop.com/"Vidoop/a to create OpenID for Flock, available today at a href="https://extensions.flock.com"https://extensions.flock.com/a. OpenID for Flock is an open source plugin, part of the larger Identity in the Browser (a href="http://code.google.com/p/idib/"IDIB/a) project which is focused on having the browser, not the user handle, authenticate and mange multiple user identities.br /br /I had the chance to demo the plugin yesterday and it is pretty cool. Essentially, once installed an OpenID icon appears on the right of Flock's chrome bar. The extension scans a page for OpenID compatibility, and if a site supports OpenID, the icon starts to glow. You can then automatically choose to populate the OpenID fields with your designated OpenID URL or associate that site with a specific OpenID account. You can manage all of your OpenIDs, choose what sites to associate certain profiles with and view the login history and OpenID-to-site-relationship with each site.br /br /br /pa href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/12/02/myspace-flock-and-vidoop-release-openid-for-flock-plugin/" rel="bookmark"Continue reading emMySpace, Flock and Vidoop release OpenID for Flock plugin/em/a/pp style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/12/02/myspace-flock-and-vidoop-release-openid-for-flock-plugin/"MySpace, Flock and Vidoop release OpenID for Flock plugin/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com"Download Squad/a on Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:12:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href=https://extensions.flock.com/Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/12/02/myspace-flock-and-vidoop-release-openid-for-flock-plugin/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/forward/1388421/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/12/02/myspace-flock-and-vidoop-release-openid-for-flock-plugin/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/J_vjH2BbC7GyfFNuec8jCqk2e1s/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/J_vjH2BbC7GyfFNuec8jCqk2e1s/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/downloadsquad?a=1Gc5Ga2l"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/downloadsquad?i=1Gc5Ga2l" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/downloadsquad?a=QJkc5cfT"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/downloadsquad?i=QJkc5cfT" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/downloadsquad/~4/bytnxcl9FbU" height="1" width="1"/

MySpace, Flock and Vidoop have developed OpenID for Flock. I’ll skip the talk about standards which you don’t care about, cut to the chase and tell you what it does.

Now, when you browse with Flock and open a web site that has OpenID support, Flock will collect and manage OpenID credentials, and automatically alert you if you can use a stored OpenID to log into it. You can choose which OpenID you can use to log into a particular site and later view the login history for each OpenID-to-site relationship you’ve created.

Or, if you’d like an even shorter version: Flock now has a password manager for OpenID.

If you’re wondering what MySpace and Vidoop’s role is in this, it’s simple: they’ve helped develop this because they want to ride the open/social/data portability buzzword train. One such buzzword is IDIB (Identity for the Browser), an open source project that is “focused on determining how OpenID in the browser will help OpenID gain overall adoption;” you can find out more about it on the official Google page.

---
Related Articles at Mashable | All That's New on the Web:

Flock Public Beta Now Live
The Daily Poll: How Often Do You Use OpenID to Login?
Another Victory For OpenID: Yahoo Announces Support
Flock Gets a New Boss, Flock 1.0 Coming
How Can Flock’s Social Browser Play Into the “Open” Movement?
Blogger’s OpenID Support Now Official
Flock Releases Minor Upgrades in Response to Users

Today at Nokia World 2008, Nokia has released (via Beta Labs) the latest version of Nokia Maps, v3.0, as well as a full personalized 'online mapping experience' on Ovi (also now available). The combination of Nokia Maps 3.0 plus Ovi is claimed to be "the first free service that allows people to pre-plan a journey at home and synchronize with their phone, giving access to pre-planned routes and favourite destinations while on the move." Nokia Maps has also been updated to include higher resolution aerial images, 3D landmarks for 216 cities across the world and terrain maps. Screenshots, info, download link (for selected devices) and notes below.
Taking a very Web 2.0 standpoint, Nokia say that "Maps on Ovi is becoming more than just a mapping tool. Over the coming months, Maps will become a destination for people to save and organize places, pre-plan trips and post-edit them. People can share their location and all their personally and socially meaningful content with friends, inviting them to join in activities and share experiences."
Other new options for Nokia Maps 3.0 include:

• a route overview screen in navigation mode.
• instant access to real time information such as camera alerts, safety spots and traffic information for selected countries.
• Wcities event guides that give real-time information for events and movies in over 450 destinations.
• better pedestrian navigation, adding straight-line guidance, which allows you to walk the shortest distance between point A and point B even if there isn't a proper (routing) road system available. Pedestrian routes now take in footpaths and parks.
• in pedestrian mode, beeps and vibrations alert you when you need to make a turn along your route.
• the level of detail in the maps has increased to the point that you can, for example, view multiple entrances to the same underground metro station.

The higher map quality is apparently a direct result of the relationship that now exists between Nokia and the bought-in NAVTEQ.
Downloading


Nokia Maps 3.0 (for all S60 3rd Edition FP2 devices except the N96) is now available on the Nokia Beta Labs web site. A version for the N96 and other S60 3rd Edition phones will be available shortly. The online (planning) version is now accessible from http://maps.ovi.com, though with some browser compatibility issues (it runs as a plug-in). Both versions are released as a Beta, so the usual precautions apply.
Of special note is that Maps 3.0 isn't directly compatible with previous versions, in that new maps and a new PC installer are needed. As a result (and presumably to avoid confusion), Maps 3.0 is only available via this new 'Nokia Maps Updater', which manages the process.
Existing navigation licenses are preserved, by the way.
Ewan's tried to install Maps 3.0 on the AAS N85 (the only non-N96 FP2 he and I have to hand), but failed, Maps Updater seems to be a little flaky at this stage.... If you've tried it, your comments most welcome!
Steve Litchfield
PS. more screens, from Nokia's data sheets:

More...

Today at Nokia World 2008, Nokia has released (via Beta Labs) the latest version of Nokia Maps, v3.0, as well as a full personalized 'online mapping experience' on Ovi (also now available). The combination of Nokia Maps 3.0 plus Ovi is claimed to be "the first free service that allows people to pre-plan a journey at home and synchronize with their phone, giving access to pre-planned routes and favourite destinations while on the move." Nokia Maps has also been updated to include higher resolution aerial images, 3D landmarks for 216 cities across the world and terrain maps. Screenshots, info, download link (for selected devices) and notes below.
Taking a very Web 2.0 standpoint, Nokia say that "Maps on Ovi is becoming more than just a mapping tool. Over the coming months, Maps will become a destination for people to save and organize places, pre-plan trips and post-edit them. People can share their location and all their personally and socially meaningful content with friends, inviting them to join in activities and share experiences."
Other new options for Nokia Maps 3.0 include:

• a route overview screen in navigation mode.
• instant access to real time information such as camera alerts, safety spots and traffic information for selected countries.
• Wcities event guides that give real-time information for events and movies in over 450 destinations.
• better pedestrian navigation, adding straight-line guidance, which allows you to walk the shortest distance between point A and point B even if there isn't a proper (routing) road system available. Pedestrian routes now take in footpaths and parks.
• in pedestrian mode, beeps and vibrations alert you when you need to make a turn along your route.
• the level of detail in the maps has increased to the point that you can, for example, view multiple entrances to the same underground metro station.

The higher map quality is apparently a direct result of the relationship that now exists between Nokia and the bought-in NAVTEQ.
Downloading


Nokia Maps 3.0 (for all S60 3rd Edition FP2 devices except the N96) is now available on the Nokia Beta Labs web site. A version for the N96 and other S60 3rd Edition phones will be available shortly. The online (planning) version is now accessible from http://maps.ovi.com, though with some browser compatibility issues (it runs as a plug-in). Both versions are released as a Beta, so the usual precautions apply.
Of special note is that Maps 3.0 isn't directly compatible with previous versions, in that new maps and a new PC installer are needed. As a result (and presumably to avoid confusion), Maps 3.0 is only available via this new 'Nokia Maps Updater', which manages the process. Ewan's trying this as I speak - more later!
Existing navigation licenses are preserved, by the way.
We'll have more on the new Nokia Maps soon... and, once you've tried it, your comments most welcome!
Steve Litchfield
PS. more screens, from Nokia's data sheets:

More...

Today at Nokia World 2008, Nokia has released (via Beta Labs) the latest versionof Nokia Maps, v3.0, as well as a full personalized 'online mapping experience' on Ovi. The combination of Nokia Maps 3.0 plus Ovi is claimed to be "the first free service that allows people to pre-plan a journey at home and synchronize with their phone, giving access to pre-planned routes and favourite destinations while on the move." Nokia Maps has also been updated to include higher resolution aerial images, 3D landmarks for 216 cities across the world and terrain maps. Screenshots, info, download link (for selected devices) and notes below.
Taking a very Web 2.0 standpoint, Nokia say that "Maps on Ovi is becoming more than just a mapping tool. Over the coming months, Maps will become a destination for people to save and organize places, pre-plan trips and post-edit them. People can share their location and all their personally and socially meaningful content with friends, inviting them to join in activities and share experiences."
Other new options for Nokia Maps 3.0 include:

• a route overview screen in navigation mode.
• instant access to real time information such as camera alerts, safety spots and traffic information for selected countries.
• Wcities event guides that give real-time information for events and movies in over 450 destinations.
• better pedestrian navigation, adding straight-line guidance, which allows you to walk the shortest distance between point A and point B even if there isn't a proper (routing) road system available. Pedestrian routes now take in footpaths and parks.
• in pedestrian mode, beeps and vibrations alert you when you need to make a turn along your route.
• the level of detail in the maps has increased to the point that you can, for example, view multiple entrances to the same underground metro station.

The higher map quality is apparently a direct result of the relationship that now exists between Nokia and the bought-in NAVTEQ.
Downloading


Nokia Maps 3.0 (for all S60 3rd Edition FP2 devices except the N96) is now available on the Nokia Beta Labs web site. A version for the N96 and other S60 3rd Edition phones will be available shortly. The online (planning) version will be accessible from http://maps.ovi.com imminently. Both versions are released as a Beta, so the usual precautions apply.
Of special note is that Maps 3.0 isn't directly compatible with previous versions, in that new maps and a new Map Loader are needed. As a result (and presumably to avoid confusion), Maps 3.0 is only available via a Windows PC installer which manages the process. Ewan's trying this as I speak - more later!
We'll have more on the new Nokia Maps soon... and, once you've tried it, your comments most welcome!
Steve Litchfield
PS. more screens, from Nokia's data sheets:



More...

Today at Nokia World 2008, Nokia has released the latest version of Nokia Maps, v3.0, as well as a full personalized 'online mapping experience' on Ovi. The combination of Nokia Maps 3.0 plus Ovi is claimed to be "the first free service that allows people to pre-plan a journey at home and synchronize with their phone, giving access to pre-planned routes and favourite destinations while on the move." Nokia Maps has also been updated to include higher resolution aerial images, 3D landmarks for 216 cities across the world and terrain maps. Screenshots, info and download link (for selected devices) below.
Taking a very Web 2.0 standpoint, Nokia say that "Maps on Ovi is becoming more than just a mapping tool. Over the coming months, Maps will become a destination for people to save and organize places, pre-plan trips and post-edit them. People can share their location and all their personally and socially meaningful content with friends, inviting them to join in activities and share experiences."
Other new options for Nokia Maps 3.0 include:

• a route overview screen in navigation mode
• instant access to real time information such as camera alerts, safety spots and traffic information for selected countries
• Wcities event guides that give real-time information for events and movies in over 450 destinations
• better pedestrian navigation, adding straight-line guidance, which allows you to walk the shortest distance between point A and point B. (I'll have to test this, I thought that this was what pedestrian navigation already did!)
• in pedestrian mode, beeps and vibrations alert you when you need to make a turn along your route
• the level of detail in the maps has increased to the point that you can, for example, view multiple entrances to the same underground metro station

The higher map quality is apparently a direct result of the relationship that now exists between Nokia and the bought-in NAVTEQ.
Downloading


Nokia Maps 3.0 (for all S60 3rd Edition FP2 devices except the N96) is now available on the Nokia Beta Labs web site. A version for the N96 and other S60 3rd Edition phones will be available shortly. The online (planning) version will be accessible from http://maps.ovi.com imminently. Both versions are released as a Beta, so the usual precautions apply.
We'll have more on the new Nokia Maps soon... and, once you've tried it, your comments most welcome!
Steve Litchfield
PS. Two more initial screens:


More...

[b]Sandro Djukić[/b] was born 1964. in Zagreb. He graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in 1989. In period from 1989 to1993 he attended Art Academy in Dusseldorf (class of prof. Nam June Paik and prof. Nan Hoover). At the same academy he attended postgraduate studies (class of prof. Nan Hoover) in period from 1993. to 1994. Exhibited in Slovenia, Germany, USA, Italy, Serbia, Austria and Croatia and lectured at the numerous conferences dedicated to media art (Rijeka, Zagreb, Plasy). In 1991. he received Croatian Artist Association Award.br / br / br / Taxonomy of technological transformation (by Igor Markovic)br / br / The exhibition of Sandro Djukić is demanding. It’s demanding for the author, but even more demanding for the audience. Not as much by its form – although certain level of technological and visual literacy is requred – as by its content, more precisely by the issues it inquires and their heaviness. One of these issues is the nature of photography as a form of art in this, more and more, digitalized world. Althoug digitalization of photography began (in its rudimentary form) more than half a century ago, recent development of technology, with particular relation to lowering costs of personal computers, storage media and digital cameras, results in two important things.br / br / Photography does not go through chemical processing anymore, which change its values. Not necessary in positive or negative way, but in its essence. Increasing megapixels are not necceserily technologically improving the quality of photography, but adversely excluding numerous possibilities the classic, anolog photography has to offer: from the moment of taking a photograph to developing and processing it. Of course, speed is obtained, as well as authenticity to some degree, but the question which remains unanswered (and often unquestioned) is what is lost. Question raised in mid-nineties by Critical Art Ensamble i Geert Lovink refering to information technology and digital communication is emerging in its new variant. The speed of information transfer, as well as its quantity and accessibility, is rapidly increasing, but time needed for processing remains the same – limited by human cognitive ability. Does the limitation go toward superficiality and prefering quantity over quality? In photographic discourse this question may be: Does increasing quantity of digital photographies leads to less time to observe, analize and process it visually and/or intelectually?br / br / Sandro Djukić is going even further. In a way he is reversing the question that Benjamin asked in the 1930s (how has photography changed art?) to make it: how has technologicaly mediated art (applied as in graphic design, but also the art market) changed photography? More and more common artistic practices transformed what was essentially an art born in print into a salon art of single pictures on walls, often incorporated in some multimedia instalation in which digitaly taken photograph is digitaly presented or screened – never getting a chance to be present in its intrinsic medium.br / br / What is in that proces changed in visual economy? The very notion of visual economy is developed from the work of Deborah Poole, and places emphasis on the organization of the production and exchange of images, rather than relying simply on an analysis of their visual content: The word economy suggests that the field of vision is organised in some systematic way. It is also clear that this organisation has as much to do with social relationships, inequality, and power as with shared meanings and community ... For Poole, a visual economy has three levels: the organization of production, encompassing both the individuals and the technologies that produce images; the circulation of ... images and image-objects; and the cultural and discursive systems through which graphic images are appraised, interpreted, and assigned historical, scientific, and aesthetic worthbr / br / By removing the images from their original contexts of production and circulation, and placing them into a gallery, the visual economy that produced these images is negated or obscured in favour of a more neutral sense of the photograph as raw material or a window onto history. Whit such an action single photographs, but also their whole (in the form of photography data-base) becomes repositioned in relation to the time/place of thir origin, and at the same time in relation to the time/place of their initialy intented purpose. That is leading us to (maybe) the crucial problem of digitaly mediated photography: the question of clasification, of taxonomy. That is the question more and more essential in many branches of information and library sciences (especially in the theories of so-called semantic web), but also unavoidable one for consuments of visual images, ranging from pornophiles probing the Net in search for a distinct fetish, marketing experts deciding on media campaign’s visual images, or common people trying to handle ever biger family albums. How to find what one is looking for in the seemingly endless piles of photos (not to mention that very often they are incredibly alike each other)?br / br / Analogy with another problem of classification of visual material is almost inevitable. Every human fingerprints is unique (although the final scientific verdict is still awaited), but the clasification of them is a problem yet unresolved. In case of photohgraphy confirmation is much easier. Acoording to the laws of physics two objects can not occupy the same space in the same time, therefore, no matter how short exposition is, even bursted shooting allways will result with a set of very similar (to the point of concealment), but not the same photographs. System of clasification, however, can not benefit from such evidence, as analogy with the history of dactiloscopy unmistakably shows.br / br / An important first issue is that any one image has varied content, which may be available either consecutively or concurrently to the same or to different viewers. These multiple ways of seeing have been discussed over the years, but it’s still a very open field. It is worth noting here the contrast with textual data. While textual data can have a multiplicity of content and meaning, in terms of the discrete elements of a query, the visual and linguistic content are homologous. The fundamental building blocks of text databases are ASCII character strings representing words that have a direct semantic interpretation.br / br / In contrast, the pixel values making up digital images have no inherent significance. Considerable processing of the image is necessary even to infer the presence of a simple shape like a circle, let alone a complex object such as a tree. Direct comparison of image bitmaps can tell us only one thing about a given pair of images – whether they are identical or not. Nothing can be deduced about their similarity in terms of the objects they contain, or scenes they represent.br / Art history and its pertaining theories are rich in narratological, iconographic, multidiscursive and other attampts of clasification of visual material, ranging from already classics like Panofsky to contemporary, technologicaly highly sofisticated theories of Ornager and Rasmussen (among others), however there is still no universaly applicable method of catalogizing photographies, other then on a very basic, bumpy level. Neither contemporary catalogization of image types nor more traditional iconography just aren’t a match to the problem.br / br / Maybe the premier value of Sandro Djukić’s exhibition lay in the fact that, thorough playing with his own archive, thorough permutations and variations of its parts, excessing from one media to another, from one technique and technology to another clearly pointing to the problem itself.img src="http://rhizome.org/syndicate/nothing.gif?f=announce" border="0"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhizome-announce/~4/472403430" height="1" width="1"/

Today at Nokia World 2008, Nokia has released the latest version of Nokia Maps, as well as a full personalized 'online mapping experience' on Ovi. The combination of Nokia Maps plus Ovi is claimed to be "the first free service that allows people to pre-plan a journey at home and synchronize with their phone, giving access to pre-planned routes and favourite destinations while on the move." Nokia Maps has also been updated to include higher resolution aerial images, 3D landmarks for 216 cities across the world and terrain maps.
Taking a very Web 2.0 standpoint, Nokia say that "Maps on Ovi is becoming more than just a mapping tool. Over the coming months, Maps will become a destination for people to save and organize places, pre-plan trips and post-edit them. People can share their location and all their personally and socially meaningful content with friends, inviting them to join in activities and share experiences."
Other new options for Nokia Maps include:

• a route overview screen in navigation mode
• instant access to real time information such as camera alerts, safety spots and traffic information for selected countries
• Wcities event guides that give real-time information for events and movies in over 450 destinations
• better pedestrian navigation, adding straight-line guidance, which allows you to walk the shortest distance between point A and point B. (I'll have to test this, I thought that this was what pedestrian navigation already did!)
• in pedestrian mode, beeps and vibrations alert you when you need to make a turn along your route
• the level of detail in the maps has increased to the point that you can, for example, view multiple entrances to the same underground metro station

The higher map quality is apparently a direct result of the relationship that now exists between Nokia and the bought-in NAVTEQ.
Downloading


The new version of Nokia Maps (for selected devices) is available on the Nokia Beta Labs web site. The online (planning) version will be accessible from http://maps.ovi.com imminently. Both versions are released as a Beta, so the usual precautions apply.
We'll have more on the new Nokia Maps soon... and, once you've tried it, your comments most welcome!
Steve Litchfield
PS. Two more initial screens:


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Ponoko is an on-demand manufacturing service. You submit your design and they’ll cut it out of one of their many materials. The site is built so you can sell your products or designs directly. They recently took a major step with the introduction of Designmake Prime. It’s a monthly subscription based service with many benefits. It lets you submit DXFs for evaluation instead of their standard EPS or SVG. You can request any material you want and they’ll provide direct support. You also get priority in manufacturing queues. While they’ve always offered an à la carte service, this new move puts Ponoko directly in the role of a traditional manufacturer. Offering manufacturing as a service shows their intention of former a relationship with their customers, but at the an individual level, which most manufacturers can’t approach because of scale.

Ponoko first came to our attention when RepRap published an acrylic version of their machine.

[via Fabbaloo]