Where's Waldo?

Sure, there are many ways to determine your location using a GPS-enabled Apple iPhone. But for simplicity and ease of use, I recommend GPS Coordinates, an Apple Web app utility. (Browse Apple Web apps,  All Categories.) "Use GPS Coordinates to get the coordinates of your current position. Your device will use GPS, wireless LAN and cell towers to get the most accurate coordinates, just as Maps and Compass on the iPhone do. After locating yourself you can copy your coordinates to the clipboard and use them in any app you want. Share your location on Twitter, via mail or text it to a friend who uses it within Maps to see your whereabouts." (Credit: "About GPS Coordinates" by Daniel Gattermann, Web app developer.)

Google Translate for iOS

"Translate words and phrases between more than 50 languages using Google Translate for iOS. For most languages, you can speak your phrases and hear the corresponding translations." (Credit: Apple iTunes Description.) For more details, see the following post on the Google Translate Blog: "Introducing the Google Translate app for iPhone." Google Translate seems to work better translating from English to another language than vice versa. The app is free, so it's hard to complain about not getting value for your money.

Editor's Note: "Google Translate" is available for other mobile devices; there is a desktop version as well.

iPhone Photography Tech Tips: Better Geotagging

Here's a simple tech tip for better geotags in your iPhone photographs: Launch the Maps app and verify your location BEFORE taking pictures with the Camera app. You'd be surprised how inaccurate "Location Services" can be after an iPhone has been either in sleep mode or powered-off.

The Photographer's Ephemeris

"The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE for Desktop) is a free application for Mac/Windows/Linux designed for landscape photographers." (Credit: Stephen Trainor, software developer.) There are two requirements for the program to function on your computer: Adobe AIR (free) must be installed; and your computer must have an active Internet connection. There's plenty of online support, including tutorials (with text and graphics) and video tutorials. In my opinion, the videos for iPad are especially well done and should help to give you a good sense of how the application works and what it can do.

Editor's Note: "TPE 2.0.2 for iOS" ($8.99) is a universal app for Apple iOS mobile devices (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad).

Free real-time traffic information

While talking with a good friend who had been stranded on the road during "Skidlocked D.C. 2011" -- a nightmare traffic jam that occurred throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area during a snowstorm that began on the afternoon of 26 January -- he mentioned that his decision to return to work and hunker down for a while was based upon the free real-time traffic information available on Google Maps. As it turns out, the traffic information on Google Maps is at least as good as traffic info from any commercial service provider.

How does the Google Maps traffic overlay work so well? In a word, crowdsourcing. Huh? Here's how it works. When your GPS-enabled cell phone is turned on and location services enabled, the phone sends anonymous data to Google regarding the position of your phone. It is possible to determine the speed at which your cell phone is moving based upon the change in position of the phone as time passes. Now imagine that the position of your cell phone, as well as the positions of lots of other cell phones, happens to be co-located with a highway, and there you have it in a nutshell -- crowdsourced traffic information that can be used to display on a map both the volume of traffic and the speed at which it's moving. Very cool!

Related Resources:

• Google Maps Help
• Google Maps Help - Traffic
• Google Maps Help - Availability of real-time traffic
• Official Google Blog - The bright side of sitting in traffic: Crowdsourcing road congestion data

Tech Tips: Using the "Maps" app on the Apple iPhone: Tap the "map curl" (shown lower righthand corner of the screen) and select "Show Traffic." Using a Web browser on a computer: "To see if live traffic is available in your area, hover your mouse over the square widget on the top righthand corner of the map. A menu with available layers for your map will appear. Click on Traffic to turn on the layer and view real-time traffic conditions." (Credit: Google Maps Help)

Point-and-Shoot Breakup

Are smartphones replacing digital cameras? For the answer, watch the video, "Breaking up with your point-and-shoot [digital camera]." The clever parody actually mentions several compelling reasons smartphone cameras are often the gadget of choice for mobile photography. See also the parent article that appeared in the New York Times entitled, "In Smartphone Era, Point-and-Shoots Stay Home."

EarthCache

Searching for interesting natural places to visit and explore? "The most exciting way to learn about the Earth and its processes is to get into the outdoors and experience it first-hand. Visiting an EarthCache site is a great outdoor activity the whole family can enjoy. The Geological Society of America (GSA) administers the listing of EarthCache sites around the world. An EarthCache site is a special place that people can visit to learn about a unique geoscience feature or aspect of our Earth. Visitors to EarthCache sites can see how our planet has been shaped by geological processes, how we manage the resources and how scientists gather evidence to learn about the Earth." (Credit: EarthCache Website.)

EarthCache is sponsored by Groundspeak, the good folks who bring you Geocaching.com and Waymarking.com. Educators should visit EarthCache Sites for Teachers, including a free teachers guide and general lesson plans.