Monthly Archives: March 2012

Google’s April Fools’ Day 8-bit Map

Posted on March 31, 2012 by

Today, Google launched its annual April Fool’s joke – go to http://maps.google.com right now and you’ll see a new “Quest” map style in addition to the regular satellite and aerial map styles. Looks a little…. familiar? Here’s the 8-bit tileset … Continue reading →

Posted in Spatial | Tagged , | 3 Comments

More Tilt-Shift Trickery… with Bing Maps Birdseye

Posted on March 30, 2012 by

A few weeks ago, John Nelson of IDV Solutions posted an infographic describing how to simulate tilt-shift photography using aerial imagery from Bing Maps. You can see his guide on visual.ly. While using Bing Maps imagery as a source for … Continue reading →

Posted in Bing Maps | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Rotating Bing Maps

Posted on March 28, 2012 by

The question of how to “rotate” a Bing Map comes up a surprising number of times on the MSDN Bing Maps forums. The Bing Maps Silverlight Control has a Heading property, which, according to the documentation: “when overridden in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Bing Maps, Spatial | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Fun with NFC Part Three – Make-your-own Sony Xperia SmartTags

Posted on March 25, 2012 by

(Before continuing, I should state that I am indebted to a reader, “James”, who provided the Sony SmartTag URIs in a comment to my previous post.) My explorations into the world of NFC on my Android mobile phone continue. After … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 24 Comments

Fun with NFC Part Two – Performing Actions with NFC Tags

Posted on March 23, 2012 by

In my last post I described my rather underwhelming first experiences with NFC, using the apps that came supplied with my Sony Xperia S Android handset. I then got slightly more success using the excellent (and free, I might mention) … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Fun with NFC Part One – Reading & Writing NFC Tags

Posted on March 22, 2012 by

Trying to understand and compare the features of modern mobile phone handsets is a nightmare. The rate at which the various fields of technology are advancing is mind-boggling, and it’s not helped by the seemingly endless list of acronyms used … Continue reading →

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Google own me and my phone

Posted on March 19, 2012 by

So I’m writing this post on my new mobile phone – a Sony Xperia S. It’s got a lovely screen, which, at 342 pixels per inch I think is the highest pixel density of any handset currently available in the … Continue reading →

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