Links: Nokia gets navteq, Phylogenetics2KML, Titan KML tool

  • Nokia makes its mapping play: Nokia buys Navteq for $8.1 billion. (But that’s in US dollars, not Canadian dollars, so it’s relatively cheap for a Finnish company:-) As the race to form the best human sensor web hots up, The coming together of gadget makers and content producers continues apace: Apple and Google form a team when it comes to mapping on the iPhone, TomTom snapped up Tele Atlas, and now Nokia buys Navteq. Which leaves Garmin with… Microsoft? And where is Yahoo!’s strategy? They had some clever mobile technology prototypes 18 months ago…
  • Phylogenetics2KML: Those phylogeographers sure are a resourceful bunch. If you’re an evolutionary biologist, you may do your analysis with Mesquite. iPhylo flags an update to Mesquite’s cartographer module, which lets you automatically map genetic mutations using trees. The update now lets you export the results as KML. (Previous efforts were home-grown.) iPhylo has the screenshot eye candy.
  • TITAN does (more) KML: Leica TITAN, a tool for sharing GIS content on a virtual globe, gets an update, and gains the ability to draw polygons on the terrain that can be saved as KML. (From an email to subscribers on September 26 — I can’t for the life of me find a mention on the website. Somebody please help Leica with their corporate communications.)
  • Census explorer: Free Geography Tools flags and reviews the nifty GE-Census Explorer for Windows.
  • Local Outreach: On October 9, the Net Tuesday San Francisco meetup will host Steve Miller, Product Manager, Google Earth Outreach.