Always concerned about being reliant on foreign technology, China has been developing a homegrown satellite navigation system for the past decade that it hopes will replace GPS in the hands of consumers. That’s one step closer to reality today with a massive investment worth RMB 5 billion (US$810 million) to build an industrial park to make products that support Beidou.

Authorities are hoping that the Beidou-focused industrial zone will become a sort of mini Silicon Valley, home to 30 to 50 companies once it’s completed in the city of Tianjin, just outside Beijing, by 2015. It’s hoped that all these in the park will be worth RMB 10 billion ($1.61 billion) in revenue by 2017.

Today’s China Daily says (via TechCrunch) that the Beidou Strategic Emerging Industrial Park will cover an area of 270,000 square meters. 20 companies will be opening there this June. It’s not clear if any major Chinese web companies are being encouraged – or coerced – into opening up facilities in this new area.

Beidou is currently made up of a network of 10 satellites, but will eventually comprise 35 of them in orbit. Beidou is available for use, much like GPS, to Chinese and Asia-region users already, and will open up to the world by 2020.

Like GPS, Beidou has two modes: civilian and military. But it’s not known how accurate it will be for military purposes. The total cost of implementing Beidou is $25 billion.

It’s anticipated that Beidou will account for 70 to 80 percent of the Chinese market for navigation systems by 2020. It’s plausible that GPS could be strongly discouraged in years to come, with makers of things like smartphones possibly forced to support Beidou for location-based services. Currently, nearly all such phones and gadgets rely on GPS.

(Source: China Daily)

Mobile usage in Tokyo, visualized before and after the 3/11 earthquake

When the tragic earthquake hit Japan back in March of 2011, mobile communications were severely disrupted in the affected regions, even in metropolitan Tokyo. The University of Tokyo’s Center for Spatial Information Science has put together an incredible visualization which dramatically illustrates how mobile activity almost completely stops in the minutes after the earthquake hit at 14:46PM on that afternoon.

In the video below, anonymized geo-speatial data from Zenrin DataCom shows the movement of people in the city throughout the day ¹. Time is shown progressing in the bottom right corner. As you can see, mobile movement is most intense during the morning rush hour between 8AM and 9AM, with the majority of movement concentrated on major train lines.

But just after the earthquake hits in the afternoon, mobile activity ‘goes dark’ so to speak. Train service was also interrupted, and you can see that people don’t really resume movement until late in the evening, and even then it was at just a fraction of its usual pace. You can check out the video for yourself below to see how the day progresses in its entirety, and how mobile activity recovers in later that night and the next morning.

As we pointed out last year, even after Japanese mobile carriers pledged to improve network infrastructure, they still experienced some problems in 2012, most notably Docomo, who attributed some problems to increased VoIP activity.

Qi and his expensive GPS card

The advent of mobile phones with GPS technology may have made people easier to track, but even GPS can’t save us from karma. That’s what Mr. Qi, a 45-year-old Chinese man learned the hard way when he tried to use GPS to track down his ex-girlfriend and ended up out several hundred dollars.

Qi’s girlfriend left him, and on the advice of friends, Qi decided to look into tracking her via global positioning systems. He found a number online and ordered a card that ostensibly was supposed to help him track her down. He paid 1200 RMB ($190) for it. But then when he tried to use it to connect to the system, he discovered it required a password. He contacted the seller, who sold him a password for 600 RMB ($95).

But after Qi entered that password, he discovered the system wanted another password before he could get online and start tracking his (former) girlfriend. Qi contacted the seller again and was told this password would cost 800 RMB, but Qi was eventually able to talk the seller down to 600 ($95).

At this point, Qi had spent about $380 on the GPS tracking system, but when he tried to get online, the system told him that he also needed a “network access code.” Again, Qi contacted the seller to ask what that would cost, and was told that it would run him a whopping 10,000 RMB ($1,587). Qi declined to pay it and gave up the search for his girlfriend.

Of course, had Qi had a little foresight and knowledge of mobile apps, he could have just spent a few dollars on a GPS tracking app for his girlfriend’s phone before she left. But the real lesson here is probably that if your girlfriend leaves, it’s best not to use technology to try to track her down like a stalker. Even if you find her, karma will find you, and you don’t want that.

(As a side note: these tricked-into-paying-a-ton-for-technology stories are quite common in China. One can only hope that as internet access, smartphones, and other gadgets become more mainstream, fewer and fewer people will fall into the traps of criminals who prey on the technologically ignorant).

[Southern Metropolis Daily via Sina Tech]

This year, an additional three Big Dipper satellites will be launched to assist in a network expansion that will see the Big Dipper system covering the entire Asia-Pacific region by the end of this year. These three new satellites will join the 13 already in the sky, and they likely won’t be the last to go up. The ultimate goal for the Big Dipper system is for it to be a high-tech, open global positioning system with full global coverage by 2020.

China is also cooperating with all the major international players — Russia, the US, the EU, Japan — to integrate the Big Dipper system with their systems and to meet international standards for aviation and maritime navigation.

[China Youth Daily via Sina Tech]

Chinese search engine Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) has today updated its mobile Baidu Maps app for Android and added free voice navigation for drivers. The new feature – packed into the newly-released v3.0 of the app – is usable when offline in conjunction with the new Baidu Mobile Map Navigator plugin and a bunch of downloadable maps that cover most of China. In addition, the app update brings 3D buildings to some points-of-interest around the country.

The move – especially because it’s offered for free – will be a threat to China’s Autonavi (NASDAQ:AMAP), which specializes in selling such navigation tools. When we recently looked at updated stats for usage of online mapping services in China, Autonavi ranked first, Google Maps had slipped to second for the first time ever, and Baidu had soared into third position [1]. With this update – which will presumably soon come to its iOS app as well – the search engine will be hoping to overhaul both its rivals.

In a post today on the official Baidu Beat blog, a staffer notes that “the number of privately-owned automobiles has grown by leaps and bounds” in China in recent years, “but the navigation products currently available on the Chinese market are expensive, and the navigation data updates required of these products tend to be slow and troublesome.” That sounds like a dig at Autonavi. Baidu seems to want to speed up that process, and squeeze it into the smartphones that are owned by most of the folks who can afford to own cars here.

After testing out the updated app today, I noticed that it worked much better on Android 4.0 than the previous v2.2.0 of the app. Also, when you first hit the Google-esque navigation compass icon, the new Baidu Maps for Android prompts you to download a plugin called Baidu Mobile Map Navigator. Once that’s installed, you’ll also be prompted to download some offline maps so that you can actually use it while driving without needing a data connection – just your smartphone’s GPS function will need to be turned on.

Baidu has been taking its maps very seriously in the past year – both the web and mobile app. Earlier this year it added hotel searches and other local venues; and then last winter it started to feature indoor maps for shopping malls as well as a very recent satellite view.

The updated Baidu Maps app hasn’t yet reached the Google Play store, so grab it instead from the third-party Android store AppChina.

Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) has added some location-based services (LBS) to the mobile apps for its microblogging platform, Weibo. A new update to both its Android and iOS apps allows users to search for nearby users or tweets, and puts a familiar pin logo in the top toolbar above your timeline.

This could cause a backlash from some users who might not want to be located so easily. The updated Weibo apps seem to be able to position people to within a few hundred meters – even those who have not geo-tagged their posts. And so the official Weibo mobile app seems to be discerning where users are using GPS – and where their tweets were posted – without very specifically okaying this with people. I have inputted my city of residence in my profile – as have many people – but the app is now showing me people who live and work on my street. And most users likely don’t even realise.

The updated Weibo app for iOS now has a ‘nearby tweets’ and ‘nearby people’ feature within the ‘discover’ section of the app, while the Android version seems to only have the latter function:

Sina already has its Weilingdi LBS app – made by Finnish location-services experts GeoSentric (HEL:GEO1V) – which is a separate download. But this week Sina seems to be integrating much of those location-specific aspects into the regular Weibo mobile apps. And so Weilingdi is now pretty much obsolete now that microbloggers can ‘check in’ to a venue in the plain Weibo app.

There are third-party apps for Weibo which make a better choice in terms of aesthetics than Sina’s, but it seems that whichever app you use to post from, you’re tied-in to these new features.

We’ve reached out to Sina HQ for comments on this issue, and will update if we hear back.

Let us know in the comments if you think this is a privacy concern, feature bloat – or a useful new feature.

[Hat-tip to 36kr for spotting this new feature]

Today, MapmyIndia has launched a useful location-based service (LBS) app called ShowNearby that leads users to nearby places and venues, such as restaurants, gas stations, ATMs, and stores. ShowNearby is a free app for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry.

It’s actually a collaboration between ShowNearby, a Singaporean start-up that specializes in LBS (and that already has separate apps on those three platform), and the Indian digital mapping experts. This tie-up brings a sort of home-grown Google Places-like service to India for the first time.

But ShowNearby’s cleverer than just that (from a monetizing standpoint, anyway) as it comes with location-based marketing for brands and businesses – whether global or local – that allows companies to set up what are called “mobile store locators and business pages” within this ShowNearby service. So if you’re on the street, and whip out your smartphone to search for a place in ShowNearby, there’s a chance for a competing business/brand to lure you to their own store, with an eye-catching digital locator, or even a discount or promo.

In a press release, Douglas Gan, CEO of ShowNearby, said:

India’s one of our biggest opportunities as we plan the global expansion of ShowNearby after the success we’ve achieved in Singapore. We’re closely engaged with MapmyIndia to localize the application experience with innovative and dynamic content.

If you live in India and want to try out the MapmyIndia versions of the app, here are the download links for BlackBerry, Android, and iPhone.

A Chinese start-up is trying to ride a new wave in health and fitness in the country with its multi-platform exercise app called Codoon. As more younger Chinese folk move away from the traditional calisthenics or tai ji quan (tai qi) in the mornings, and instead take up jogging and other work-outs, Codoon is aiming to beat Nike (NYSE:NKE) and Adidas (ETR:ADS) – or indeed Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) or Tencent (HKG:0700) – to the punch.

The start-up is called LeDong, and is based in Chengdu, western China. It has made a whole suite out of Codoon, with free apps for iPhone, Android, Windows, and Mac. On smartphones there are actually two separate apps under the same service: one called Codoon Running, and the other being Codoon Body.

The Codoon Running app, with GPS for recording routes.

Of course, for more detailed analytics, a hardware sensor accessory is needed. And so Codoon users can snag either the company’s own ‘Scale’ (for 150RMB) or ‘Fitness Tracker’ for (199RMB) to get read-outs of, say, sleep patterns or body-mass index. All data generated during your runs – or walks, or tennis games, or whatever you’re up to – gets synced to the Codoon servers to be cataloged and viewable across the apps, or even on the web app. The company uses the B2C Tmall.com site to sell its hardware – obviating the need for more tricky physical distribution across the country.

For a social element, selected friends can view your activity and post comments – or you can challenge other folks to stretch your athletic range. In theory, you could even use it to find fellow health-freaks in your area with whom to play a match or jog a few blocks. As with a few other such services, your GPS-enabled smartphone will enable you to track cycling, walking, or running routes.

Major sportswear companies have such apps already, of course – such as the Adidas MiCoach, or Nike Running (aka Nike+) – but no major Chinese web company has yet sprinted in to this segment, perhaps because of the software-hardware combo being difficult to get right.

LeDong secured just over 10 million RMB for Codoon at the end of last year, and so far claims 50 million registered users, and 50,000 hardware units sold. Most of the service’s income comes from hardware sales, so its something they’ll need to push harder.

Sign-up at the Codoon homepage, and snag the free apps as well.

[Source: 36kr - article in Chinese]

The pixel-art style of Sogou Maps' 3D layer.

Sogou Maps has Google’s rival service in its sight in China as its opens up its 3D maps API and adds voice navigation to its Android app. This marks a significant push forward for this perpetual underdog as it seeks to engage with more third-party developers to expand its business listings and other supplementary features. Its Maps service seems designed to act as a halo product to bring people to its search and social features.

To that end, its map service already has apps for Android phones (pictured below) and tablets, and a web app designed for iPhone and iPad users. It’s not clear if iOS standalone apps are under development.

Sogou Maps for Android shows a suggested route, time, and taxi fare. Look out for the voice navigation update later.

Sogou was designed as a Google and Baidu competitor, with similar areas of expertise in search, music, and maps. It was created by Chinese portal Sohu, which sold parts of it to Alibaba last year.

The 3D feature of Sogou’s online mapping site is a cute-looking pixel-art creation (see the above screenshot, showing Shanghai’s financial district) that gives a better idea of an area’s look and feel than its own satellite imagery – or that of Google and Baidu. There’s no Google StreetView in China – likely due to regulatory restrictions – although a small mapping service, City8, has painstakingly created a StreetView clone. One key feature of Sogou’s 3D layer is that every building is clickable, to give the user more details of what’s inside. That’s where the revamped – and free – API comes in, giving greater access to developers in many industries to use this layer to promote businesses or provide useful local information. The 3D aspect covers 84 cities across China.

At the moment, despite the Sogou Maps app push – as well as nice web browsers and free IMEs to further ingratiate themselves with Chinese netizens – Sogou’s progress is slow. In the last batch of search engine market share data, the company hit just 1.55 percent (to Baidu’s 75.81); while in the mapping arena, Sogou Maps didn’t even register a mention in a segment still dominated in China by Google Maps (with 46.3 percent).

Take a look at Sogou Maps here. The Android app will get the voice navigation update sometime later this month.

[Source: Donews - article in Chinese]

SafeAutoRickshaw.com, a new initiative by Viswanath Seetharam and Bangalore City Traffic Police Force, hopes to solve some of the problems between autorickshaw drivers and commuters by making auto rides easier and safer in the city.

The basic premise of this website is quite simple, you register on safeautorickshaw.com by entering your name and email address, choose the beginning and the end point and click “Submit”. The website will then furnish you a detailed list of autorickshaw drivers available in that area along with their phone numbers, using which you can directly book a ride by contacting them.

The website also features a dedicated profile for every driver with their photo, which provides details like registration number, license and home address, which could come in handy, to recover any valuables commuters may forget in the vehicle.

Viswanath Seetharam said these details are initially checked for authenticity and correctness before making it public. In addition, the drivers also undergo a series of tests and are reportedly trained on courtesy.

Launched on 28th Aug 2011, Viswanath said the auto drivers have been very receptive of this initiative and they already have 28 drivers onboard with more than 100 drivers waiting in the pipeline. They also plan to launch a call centre in four months using which a commuter can give his current location and find out the nearest driver available. Viswanath said:

We are planning on recruiting two physically challenged people for this call centre. The commuter can call the centre and give the start and end points. The call centre will be able to connect the commuter to the nearest driver. This will be set up in 3 to 4 months.

This initiative seems quite impressive on paper but it does come with its own doubts regarding the implementation. Firstly, there is no information on whether this service uses Global Positioning system (GPS) in any form. Quite honestly, it would be meaningless to run the service without it, since auto drivers keep plying their vehicles on different routes throughout the day.

Another issue is the willingness of the driver to pick up the passenger and drive to the destination without any fuss. i.e. Will the drivers under this initiative accept all commuters or do they have choice to reject some, based on their interest to drive to that specific place, which has become a quite common phenomenon of late.

[Source: Times Of India]

Return to hometown with motorcycle. Packed.

As the Eid celebration is only a week away, Indonesian tradition compels people to start returning to their hometowns. Using cars, buses, trains, or motorcycles, urban folks are starting their journey these days with a bit of help from their little best friend: mobile phones. We reckon Indonesia to be a mobile centric nation, thus it is not a surprise to see how apps and mobile devices in general become a crucial tool at Ramadan and Eid. The long journeys – some people travel for as long as 24 hours – seem to be a lot easier with many useful apps to guide or amuse.

Feature Phones Are Powerful Too

Ahmad Fauzi, a clothing retailer who was going to start his journey yesterday from Bandung to Palembang, Sumatra, on his 2007 Suzuki motorcycle, explains:

Since the last few years, my journey to my hometown every Ramadan became much easier. I rely a lot on the device. Although my mobile phone is not an expensive one, I still can access road info, police posts, gas stations, and keep in touch with friends who are also on the road.

Usually phone operators like Indosat or Telkomsel provide travel guide applications and resting area promotions for people during their trip. With no internet connection needed, people can still access useful information to help them on their way. “This year I changed my phone for a newer one with better features, so now I can listen to music while riding, and update my Facebook status as I tag every town I pass through in Foursquare,” Ahmad added with a laugh.

Smartphones and Tablets Are The Savior

For many people, the journey to their hometowns can be a pain. Mirna Hasyim, a bank employee who will go on her first Eid trip to her husband’s hometown in Surabaya, East Java, by car, feels that gadgets make it all a lot easier:

I have my BlackBerry and iPad as my weapons. With Google Maps and GPS, I’m sure we won’t get lost on our way. And when I get bored as my husband drives, I can use Twitter, Facebook, and play games.

Considering how mobile phone sales tend to rocket during Ramadan, these gadgets have become a part of our daily lives and even a part of old traditions for Indonesians. With their mobile devices, this year’s Eid hometown journey won’t be that arduous for most people. Here is a video of an ad that mobile operator Telkomsel uses to promote its mobile app for Eid hometown trips.

[Image source]

This September KDDI will begin selling the Mi-Look, a mobile phone created by manufacturer Kyocera, which aims to help people in Japan take care of elderly family members.

The Mi-Look handset features speakerphone capabilities and large, simple buttons that should be easy to understand, even for older people not accustomed to technology. It is unique in that it sends information to an off-site caretaker. The device has pedometer and GPS functions as well, capable of sending data to the caretaker over email. It also comes with a cradle mount, complete with a ‘human presence sensor’ that can also send data about the person’s movement.

One of the most interesting functions is an emergency strap near the bottom, which when pulled will trigger a buzzer sound as well as an email alert to the caretaker. For more details about the Mi-Look, check out the video below.

The problem of Japan’s aging population is no secret, but it is giving rise to some interesting ideas about how to best care for seniors. Japanese companies also need to adjust to an aging consumer market, so solving such problems should help them compete in the marketplace as well.

Kyocera is known for designing unconventional handsets. You may remember back in May when we got a look at the company’s dual-screen Echo handset that switches to ‘tablet mode’ when it’s expanded.

[KDDI via Techon]

If you are driving on the streets of Jakarta and have the Google Maps service switched on, you can now find information about traffic around town. Google just rolled out this feature for the Indonesian capital, a handy tool to help drivers avoid traffic jams.

With the help of traffic information from data provider PT Neo Fusion Indonesia, Google Maps also updates with crowdsourced and anonymous data from GPS devices on the streets of Jakarta. In this way the map can indicate smooth road conditions green line, or show a traffic jam in red or black.

Dr. Elly Sinaga, a director from the Ministry of Transportation expressed her happiness about having this real-time traffic information:

The traffic feature on Google Maps is certainly very useful for people in Jakarta who now have a tool that will help them plan their travel in the city more efficiently. They can use this traffic information from their computers or cell phones to avoid unexpected delays and to reach their destination faster.”

In addition to Google Maps, social media also can help you to deal with road traffic in the capital if you follow the Jakarta Metro Police‘s Twitter account. Similarly in India, the Facebook page of the Noida Traffic Police became very popular after providing traffic information submitted from citizens.

via Detik

Ibnu Sina Wardy, CTO of GITS Indonesia, explained that Toresto contains more than 2,400 restaurants in Bandung and Jakarta and also provides a list of menus that makes search easier.

For Android phones, you can download Toresto for free at the Android Market. iPhone and Nokia users will have to wait until April.

Developed in Bandung, the application was originally named ‘Raos Pisan,’ which in Sundanese means ‘delicious’. However, the developers eventually saw there was a need for the app  in other cities too, especially Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. As demand grows, the name was eventually changed to Toresto. The app will also explore other cities in Indonesia in the near future.

With the rising development of social media in Indonesia, applications like Toresto are especially exciting, as there are many future possibilities for integration, partnerships and promotions.

[Via kompas.com]