Mapping

PALM DESERT, Calif.--Flinc is one big idea that could save us all from the horrors of pricey cab rides. Unfortunately, it's years away from showing up in a major U.S. city.

The idea, as pitched in 90 seconds at this year's DemoSpring conference here, is that people who are driving around are often in a position to pick someone else up in return for some cold, hard cash--yet for much less than a taxi.

Sure, it's ride sharing with a receipt, Flinc's organizational system happens entirely in the cloud. The commands get sent … Read more

Navigon has taken its MobileNavigator app for iPhone and split it into three.

More specifically, the new MobileNavigator MyRegion apps take Navigon's United States map data and breaks it into three regions: East, Central, and West. People who don't stray too far from home can simply grab the region of their choosing to get from point A to B for a reduced entry cost. If you decide to add more maps--for example, to plan a family vacation in another region--the omitted maps can be added later as an in-app purchase.

Navigon says that there is no additional download … Read more

TomTom's latest version 1.3 update to its navigation app for iPhone went live this week, adding a handful of new features that we were expecting, and a few that we didn't.

We'd heard previously that the 1.3 update would bring integrated Google Local search and TomTom Traffic. However, rather than rolling the traffic service into the update, TomTom gives users access to the service as an in-app subscription. For U.S. users, this means shelling out $19.99 per year to gain access to live flow and incident data for more accurate routing and arrival … Read more

If you haven't been to Paris, I have the next best thing for you: Paris 26 Gigapixels.

According to the site, "Paris 26 Gigapixels is a stitching of 2,346 single photos showing a very high-resolution panoramic view of the French capital." The site allows users to pan around the beautiful city of Paris to see important spots. Users can also zoom in on different sections to get more detail on particular buildings.

For those folks who want to find important Paris monuments quickly, the site also boasts a list of 20 places around the city. Upon … Read more

Google Maps is set to provide a new option for getting around town: biking directions.

The company plans to unveil what it called "the most requested addition to Google Maps" during the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. Google Maps users looking for directions between two points will now have the option of selecting "bicycling" from the current drop-down menu that lets you customize a journey with walking, driving, or public transportation options.

Anyone who has ever tried to bike across San Francisco knows the value of a good bike map in helping to avoid … Read more

With only a few days to go before the annual South by Southwest Interactive, location-based mobile networking service Foursquare has unveiled its plans for the Austin, Texas digital culture festival: 16 new "badges" that users can unlock by "checking in" to certain venues, with cryptic names like "Swimmies," "Decathlon," and "Survivor."

The company says users will be able to score temporary tattoos of the badges if they show the digital badge to a member of the Foursquare team at a designated location, meaning that there will likely be many SXSWi-goers … Read more

I'm not one to fawn over online maps, but 8-Bit NYC appeals to my two loves: usefulness and 1980s adventure video games.

The 8-Bit NYC map is simply fantastic. The service displays New York City in a depiction that's modeled after maps in adventure video games from the 1980s. Even better, all the content in 8-Bit NYC is accurate, making it a viable mapping tool, as well.

"I hope to evoke the same urge for exploration, abstract sense of scale, and perhaps most importantly unbounded excitement that many of us remember experiencing on the Nintendo Entertainment System, … Read more

The Android mobile app for game-like "check-in" app Gowalla is now live, as Mashable noted over the weekend. Launching its first non-iPhone app is an important step for the start-up as it competes fiercely with several other location-based mobile companies that are all trying to break away from the pack.

Additionally, Gowalla is set to announce a partnership with the Travel Channel for its series "Food Wars," a competitive reality show that pits chefs against one another in blind taste tests. When a Gowalla user checks into a "Food Wars"-featured restaurant, they'll … Read more

GPS device manufacturer TomTom continues to put its weight behind its TomTom app for iPhone with a new version 1.3 update. This revision, which has just been submitted to Apple for review, will add real-time traffic speed and incident reports for more accurate routing and travel time estimates.

Also included in this update is Local Search powered by Google, for finding points of interest that are not included in the preloaded database without leaving the app. TomTom tells us that there will be other yet unnamed enhancements that will be detailed when the app emerges from this end of … Read more