Public Geodata for Travelling to Europe

One of the great things about traveling to Europe is geographic data science and how easy it is to experience the continent’s rich variety. One week you’re in Glasgow, contemplating the birth of the railroad in the city’s wonderful Museum of Transport, the next you’re in Bucharest, learning first-hand about the fall of communism right on Revolution Square. And no need to go through the hassle of airports – trains will get you around between every major city in Europe with minimal fuss and on a manageable budget.

And where to stay is easily taken care of too. It’s simple to set up accommodation across Europe, and it doesn’t have to break the bank. Many of these tourist accommodation facilities will even pamper your stay with fun and excitement by setting you up with an excellent WiFi connection and a premium access to sites like Yes-Gamble.com, that will welcome you with the latest casino bonus codes to gamble for free! How exhilarating does it sound? A range of options are available, from sight-seeing in Milan to renting a short-term apartment in Barcelona, to arranging bed and breakfast in Berlin. Time your journey to hit cities at the festival time. Head to Venice for the Carnival around Shrove Tuesday; catch the most famous film festival in the world with a visit to Cannes in May; if comedy’s your thing, Edinburgh plays host to the biggest fringe festival in Europe during August; in December make your way down the Rhine for Switzerland’s biggest open-air Christmas market in Basel and pick up some unique gifts.

Navigon

Navigon is a Germany based producer of geospatial data infrastructure, starting out in 1991. With offices in Asia, Europe, and North America, the company employs more than 400 people. Navigon introduced several statistics for spatial data firsts into the world of geographic data technologies. In 2000, for example, public geodata service helped Navigon to be launched as the first navigation software to be used on the pocket PC. In 2002, Navigon was the first to provide Traffic Message Channel (TMC) avoidance measures on a sat nav. With Navigon’s seamless interface, it is easy to search for addresses of businesses you are interested in and receive precise driving or walking directions. A novel feature that every gambler will surely love is Navigno’s unique casino search function. Wherever you are in Europe, you can easily find the nearest casino and get the exact instructions on reaching it. Before heading into one, however, practice playing online first. You can find the best Quickspin online casinos on casinosfranceenligne.com that have free play options ready for you to explore.

The Traffic Message Channel is basically a hidden code embedded into a normal FM radio signal, digitally encoded and picked up by the navigation device, alerting the user to potential traffic black spots.

TomTom Geographic Data Technologies

TomTom is a Dutch manufacturer of automotive navigation systems, or sat navs to be used in the car. The company was founded in 1991 and sold business applications such as geographic data science, meter readers and barcode readers up until 1996 when the company started delving into PDA and spatial data infrastructure. The first actual sat nav was released in 2002 – the TomTom Navigator.

TomTom is certainly one of the main brand names that springs to mind when the words “sat nav” are mentioned. What we want to know is, how well does it actually perform in a working environment?
I asked a team of electricians who used the device how they felt about its effectiveness. Working on-site in numerous locations means that electricians and other contractors may use navigation devices frequently, inputting and finding their way to many different addresses, some of which will be unlisted.

The device the electricians were equipped with was the basic TomTom One which does not possess Bluetooth connectivity. One plus point with the TomTom would be the ability to change the voice that barks out the directions at you. If the user gets fed up of the current voice they can change the accent (the favourite being the Australian), whether or not it’s male or female, or even the language itself.

Garmin Public Geodata Service

Founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao (hence the name) Garmin is a company that produces consumer, aviation and marine technologies using geographic data visualization, or sat nav to you and me. The Garmin Nuvi 250 is the model I am currently using as my in-car sat nav. It is a relatively cheap device at around £64.99 and is small and nicely compact, measuring around 10cm x 7.5cm, roughly the size of my palm.

This means that you could take it out for walkies with you without feeling like too much of a tool thanks to its discreet size. The maps are possibly some of the most accurate around and to be honest, I haven’t had any problems with it from a navigational point of view. The Garmin Nuvi uses GPS to indicate your current speed accurately, more accurately than the speedometer on your car. With this it can give accurate estimated times of arrival, so you don’t need to worry about being late.

The screen mount works off a simple pressure release catch so it easy to attach and remove, without leaving a mark on your windscreen. The software is simple to use and understand, thankfully without having an annoying voice which can be painful over long journeys.