Mapping technology and smartphones often go hand in hand, but in California if you want to check your destination on your mobile device don’t be driving at the same time.

That’s the word from a court there that says looking at a mapping program on a phone while driving is against the law.

A driver argued that state laws regarding distracted driving pertain to talking, texting and using the Internet while on the phone, but not using a mapping program. The court disagreed. 

Technically, the ruling suggests if you want to use a mapping program in California you have to do it without touching a mobile device. For a lot of people that wouldn’t be a problem. Google Maps on Android, for example, delivers stellar spoken turn-by-turn directions that you can initiate while parked. 

That said, picking on mapping programs when it comes to distracted driving is bizarre, considering you don’t hear of people getting tickets for using a paper map while driving. Plus, you’d think that trying to find your destination isn’t frivolous behavior, whereas the practice of texting while driving is by and large unnecessary, not to mention hazardous.

In fact, texting while driving has been shown to bemore dangerous than drunk driving,six times worse than talking on the phone while driving and implicated in numerous public transit crashes during which operators were tapping on their phones instead of watching where they were going.

Yet navigating the law when it comes to distracted driving can be tricky, depending on the state.

In Minnesota, drivers can’t write, read or send electronic messages or use the Internet, even when stopped at a traffic light. However, the law does not apply to devices “permanently affixed to the vehicle or global positioning or navigation systems.” 

Fine, but think about all the connected cars rolling off the line these days—vehicles with touchscreen displays that do all sorts of smartphone-like things.

TechHive’s Evan Dashevshy recently wrote about how at the New York International Auto Show Ford shared its keynote stage with representatives from Facebook and Google , who talked about how integrated vehicles will increase social interactions and seamlessly interact with our digital lives.

As for distracted driving legislation, one thing is certain: Many drivers aren’t obeying.

According to a study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, at any time during daylight hours 660,000 people in the U.S. are using mobile phones or other electronic devices while behind the wheel, even though most drivers know texting while driving is perilous, at least when other people do it.

The NHTSA says in 2011 more than 3,300 people died and 387,000 were injured in crashes involving a distracted driver.

Courtesy of Next Web 

MapBox, a service for designing and publishing custom maps, has launched version 1.0 of its iOS SDK. According to MapBox, this release marks the ”completion of the [SDK's] first stage of functionality and stability” since it made its debut last year.

We originally highlighted the SDK, which is based on OpenStreetMap, post-launch for its high quality, customizable maps that challenged Apple’s own MapKit. Now, MapBox has received a number of new features and fixes, including improved documentation and changes which allow for easier memory management.

More specifically, MapBox shares that it has added a new code examples gallery, support for Automatic Reference Counting (ARC), improved documentation, code cleanups and consistency tweaks. Additional changes below:

• Added delegate callbacks for annotation selection & deselection notification.

• Added a long press gesture recognizer for annotation layers.

• Added an API for setting an SDK-wide custom user-agent string for network requests.

• Added a convenience method for MBTiles tile sources to more easily find them in your app’s bundle.

• Allow selection of a nil annotation in order to deselect the current annotation.

• Added an API for clearing MapBox marker local caching.

• Map views now default to a watermarked MapBox Streets map instead of OpenStreetMap.

• User location accuracy circle now bounces when first homing in on coordinate.

• Compass heading path now adjusts width based on heading accuracy reading.

• Annotation clustering API is now much simpler and easier to use.

• Privatized some header files to reduce clutter during Xcode autocompletion.

• Latest upstream improvements, including constraints, annotation z-ordering, and bounding box fixes.

For more on the evolution of the MapBox iOS SDK, head here.

Courtesy of CNET

Big Blue is testing an app that identifies products on store shelves then lets customers sort them by price -- or lets the retailer steer purchasing with coupons.

Amnon Rebak, an IBM Research staff member from Haifa, Israel, shows the idea behind the company's technology for identifying items for sale then letting customers sort through them. (Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

IBM showed off technology today designed to let people use their smartphones to take command of their real-world shopping.

Big Blue showed an app idea from IBM Research in Haifa, Israel, that uses image recognition to identify products on store shelves, then lets people sort those products by attributes such as price and nutrition information. A customer could select only gluten-free products, pick food that's from nearby, or filter electronic gadgets by operating system.

"The same experience people expect online is available in the store," said Amnon Rebak, a research staff member on the project, at theCeBIT show here.

And of course, customers also can sort by items that are on sale or that have coupons. It's not hard to imagine a retailer wanting to use the app to steer customers where it wants them to go.

Although the app Rebak showed was preloaded with information and didn't do any image detection, it's moved at least partway out of the idea stage: IBM is testing the technology at an undisclosed U.K. retailer.

"It's hopeful we will be available with retailers in the U.S.," he added.

The app taps into the augmented-reality technology by overlaying product information on the smartphone screen.

IBM's augmented-reality app uses image recognition to classify items for sale then lets people find out details such as nutrition information and sort them by parameters such as price. (Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Courtesy of Business Insider

National Geographic's recent AR campaign let people interact with dinosaurs.

In a world full of smartphones, augmented reality (AR) campaigns are a very smart and unique way for brands to engage with consumers.

Instead of watching a television commercial, looking at an ad in a magazine, or seeing a quick web ad before your YouTube video, AR lets consumers actually interact with the brand.

Whether consumers are test driving a new car model, learning a new recipe, or playing a game, AR campaigns resonate with consumers in a way that most other ad platforms fall short. The ad becomes a game, versus just promotional material. And the product still comes across, which is, of course, the point of advertising.

More and more brands are starting to integrate AR campaigns into their ad budgets.  ABI Research estimates the market for augmented reality in the US will reach $350 million in 2014, which is up  from only $6 million in 2008.  

Check out which brands have put out clever AR campaigns that got people talking.

Stella Artois' Le Bar Guide app allows consumers to find out how close they are to a Stella-serving bar and how to get there. The app also provides the phone numbers of local taxi services to help users get home safely.

Airwalk's AR campaign allowed people walking through Washington Square Park in NYC to shop at the "world's first invisible pop-up store."

The Airwalk Invisible Pop Up Store from SnapsApp on Vimeo.

Maybelline's AR app allowed consumers to see see what more than 30 different nail polish colors would look like on their hands without testing it on their nails.

National Geographic's AR app allowed people to swim with dolphins, pet a cheetah, and see ancient dinosaurs up close.

The cars on the cover of Top Gear magazine drove off of the page with the help of an iPad. There were in-magazine features as well. 

Volvo S60's AR app allows you to drive the car (using your smartphone) through whatever room you're currently in. So if you're at work, a Volvo S60 will plow through your office and you will have to avoid hitting obstacles, including your co-workers' desks.

 Tic Tac's "Shake it Up" campaign turns ads into interactive games.

BMW's 3D paintbrush allows potential buyers to test drive a Z4 and create art at the same time. Paintings are produced with the colorful Z4 tires.

It is common in Greece to send love notes on a Lacta chocolate bar wrapper. This campaign let people send virtual love notes that were received in a text message format.

Lego's campaign used AR technology to show what toys that were still in the box would look like when assembled.

Ford lets you see how their Grand C-Max is assembled and how all of its cool features, like park assist, actually work. It's a full test drive without ever seeing the car in person.

Everyone loves playing the games on the back of a cereal box. Nestle's AR campaign turned the box into a game console.

AR campaigns were also used to spice up the holiday season. "The Waitrose School of Christmas Magic" allowed consumers to interact with magazine ads and learn how to decorate holiday desserts.

The Google Maps app is seen on an Apple iPhone 4S on December 13, 2012 in Fairfax, California.

How much has mapping software changed your life?

The anecdotal impact is easy to assess. Look no further than the uproar Apple faced after it switched the iPhone’s default mapping program from Google Maps to its own much criticized service.

Or consider the glove compartment. Twenty years ago, that catch-all space under the dashboard was home to road maps, TripTiks and — probably — a magnifying glass. Today, you’re more likely to find a smartphone charger.

But when it comes to fixing an actual value — on the online mapping industry and on the service it provides — it gets much trickier.

Google, which has embarked on an almost zealous mission to map the whole world, said Wednesday that it’s trying to get a handle on how to gauge that value. The company commissioned two studies, one from Boston Consulting Group and one from the European firm Oxera, to look at the geo-services industry in the United States and worldwide.

According to the research, U.S. consumers placed a $37 billion value on mapping services, said Charlie Hale, a Google policy analyst. The American industry, defined as those who work with global positioning satellite systems and mapping, generates $73 billion in yearly revenue and employs half a million workers, Hale said. Worldwide, that number jumps to between $150 billion and $270 billion a year and $90 billion in wages.

Hale said Google wanted to underwrite the studies to take a step back and study how its products and others were changing business and consumer habits.

“There’s been a sea change in technology,” he said. “We’re seeing it as a way to put a flag in the ground and understand what the technology means.”

The studies also ventured into the somewhat fuzzier math of examining the impact of mapping software based on how businesses use it. Hale said that this could include the money that businesses save by using maps and map software to plot ideal driving routes, find new sites for buildings or consult traffic flow to find the best places to put billboards.

All in all, the study found these uses add up to a value of $1.6 trillion. Hale said that Oxera’s study predicts that the industry will see 30 percent growth per year, as consumers rely even more on their smartphones for navigation.

Google commissioned the studies to get a comprehensive snapshot of the landscape, he said, and consider how it should invest in mapping software in the future.

“It helps us make the argument that it’s a growing and important kind of technology,” he said.

The studies, Hale said, also reveal a nice comeback for geography teachers facing questions from students about why they need to know geography: According to the research, students who know how to use geographic data and software on average earn salaries three percent higher than those who don’t.