MapMyFITNESS Launches Groundbreaking Applications and Redesigned Website

MapMyFITNESS, a health and fitness technology company powering the Internet's largest and fastest growing community of fitness enthusiasts, today announced the launch of a completely rebuilt platform with several new features for its portfolio of online fitness websites, including an innovative feature called Courses, advanced integration of Google Maps API for Business, and a fresh look and feel. Courses will span five primary categories of sports, including cycling, running, walking, hiking and winter sports, as well as hundreds of subcategory specialty activities like cross-country skiing and unicycling.

Courses now provides both elite athletes and casual enthusiasts an unprecedented leaderboard and "check-in" technology, and will be available initially through a private beta test for the first 100,000 users who sign up at new.mapmyfitness.com/maps/courses. The new site, which provides fitness enthusiasts five-times-faster performance, is now available to everyone at new.mapmyfitness.com, and widespread access to Courses will be offered later this summer.

"As the largest online fitness social network community with more than 9 million users, we are excited to expand the functionality of our product portfolio to our rapidly growing base," said Richard Jalichandra, chief executive officer of MapMyFitness. "Our goal is to enable athletes in the 40-plus sports supported by MapMyFITNESS to benefit from this enhanced level of product capability and functionality."

In addition to the introduction of Courses, MapMyFITNESS' new features include the latest mapping technology from Google. MapMyFITNESS enables users to create new Courses directly from their iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Mobile or iPad. The Google Maps API v 3 integration also provides route details like traffic patterns and temperature in real-time, which will help users better plan and experience activities.

"MapMyFITNESS is integrating their applications with Google Maps to help top athletes and beginners easily visualize their routes," said Dan Chu, Google product manager. "We're always excited to see people using Google Maps in new, innovative ways."

The Courses feature does real-time processing of MapMyFITNESS' database of over 50 million routes and 30,000 event courses to produce a fun, engaging and motivating experience that helps users plan activities, measure their fitness and track their progress in real-time and over time.

Specifically, Courses includes:

An automatic "check-in" activity for every exercise logged that tracks the speed, distance, consistency, frequency and intensity of workouts, then ranks MapMyFITNESS members by gender, age and weight on the MapMyFITNESS leaderboard.

A group segmenting feature that allows users to compare themselves against specific groups, including local clubs, friends and competitors.

A points system that incorporates personal best times and consistency each month, then awards badges to the overall King/Queen of the Mountain (most overall points on any official climb course), Speed King/Queen (most points on any official descent), Event Leader (most points on any official event course), Personal Record (your best on any course), Guru (individual who has done any course the most times), and Fastest Time (fastest male and female for any course).

More than 50 million mapped routes, more than 1 million official climbs and more than 30,000 actual event courses featuring Courses functionality in the MapMyFITNESS database.

"The new MapMyFITNESS websites and applications were designed to support a user base that ranges from casual beginners to ultra-competitive athletes," said Robin Thurston, co-founder and chief product officer of MapMyFITNESS. "The Courses feature, powered by our integration with Google's latest mapping technology, is a big differentiator for us, and we think users are really going to enjoy tracking their workouts and competing against others."

MapMyFITNESS has been recognized by some of the world's most credible authorities as the premier fitness application, including TIME's "50 Best Apps list in 2012" (the only fitness app named this year), Runner's World UK's "Best Running App of 2012," About.com Reader's Choice "Best Running App" in 2012 and a consistent top five ranking in iTunes' Health and Fitness category. More than 200,000 health and fitness activities are logged each day by MapMyFITNESS users across 40 different sports - not just running and cycling.

About MapMyFITNESS

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, MapMyFitness is a health and fitness technology company that powers the internet's largest social network of fitness enthusiasts and provides a comprehensive suite of enterprise health solutions. The MapMyFITNESS network of websites and mobile applications -- MapMyRUN, MapMyRIDE, MapMyWALK, MapMyHIKE, MapMyFITNESS, MapMyTRI, MapMyMOUNTAIN and MapMyDOGWALK - offer more than nine million fitness enthusiasts the ability to record and store their daily running, cycling, walking or hiking routes in an online database or map out tomorrow's path. Users get access to a searchable database of over 45 million global routes, online training tools, fitness calculators, nutrition tracking, comprehensive event listings, and the ability to easily share their activities with friends. For more information, please visit mapmyfitnessinc.com.

Google Mapping Tool Shows Impacts of Deforestation on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island

A powerful new mapping tool from Indonesian NGO coalition Eyes on the Forest and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) allows the public to visualize Sumatra’s forests and wildlife such as rhinos, tigers, elephants and orangutan, providing vital information in the race to protect forests, save some of the world’s most important biodiversity and help local communities. The mapping project is one of the first to be awarded a grant by the Google Earth Outreach team to use Google Maps Engine, a platform for hosting, storing and managing map data.

Sumatra is the only place on Earth that is home to elephants, rhinos, tigers and orangutans and its forests are being lost at an alarming rate. As much as 50 percent has been destroyed since 1985, mostly by natural forest clearance for pulp, paper and palm oil production. The map details the shrinking and disappearance of many habitat ranges of the four species over time.

The project will make publicly available a huge and ever growing database of the land cover, land use, land users and biodiversity compiled by many experts over decades of work on the ground in Sumatra. The maps highlight Sumatra’s extraordinary conservation values, the outstanding diversity of its forests, its magnificent wildlife, and the huge carbon stock locked up in its deep peat soils.

“People love maps. So it’s natural that spatial Information is our best tool in saving our last tropical forests. The Eyes on the Forest-Google Maps Engine project puts map-making into our hands so it’s no longer the stuff of specialists,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund. “Our conviction is that if we empower people with the information, the forests of Sumatra cannot only be saved, but we can restore them. So instead of rhino, orangutan and tiger numbers getting smaller each year, they get bigger. That’s our dream.”

To learn more about the project and see a video, go to: http://www.google.com/earth/outreach/stories/wwf.html.

Global transparency is key to achieving this dream. Ultimately, this database will show Sumatra’s threats and challenges, identify the drivers of deforestation, habitat destruction and release of peat carbon, which contributes to global warming. Users will be able to build their own maps using Eyes on the Forest’s data layers such as forest loss over time, species distribution, conservation intervention priority areas, restoration priority areas, degraded lands and government protected areas.

“As a grant recipient, Eyes on the Forest can use the cloud-based Google Maps Engine platform to share its forest data with anyone,” said Tanya Birch, Program Manager for Google Earth Outreach. “Non-profit organizations can simply and easily create custom maps that help their data visually come to life by layering that information on top of Google Earth and Maps.”

Sumatra’s forests are being cut by globally operating Chinese and Indonesian conglomerates to feed the world’s massive demand for pulp, paper and palm oil, while species such as tigers and elephants are being pushed into increasingly smaller habitats where they often come into conflict with humans.

The foundation for the project are Eyes on the Forest’s many years of on-the-ground work, WWF's 2010 report "Sumatra’s Forests, their Wildlife and the Climate. Windows in Time: 1985, 1990, 2000 and 2009" and subsequent analyses and contributions by many persons and entities working on Sumatran issues. They have all been collecting data for decades on deforestation, species and forests in order to gain a better understanding of the state of Sumatra’s forests. The new map will help conservationists understand where the deforestation is taking place, the most critical areas for intervention, and where humans and animals such as tigers are coming into conflict – vital knowledge in the fight to save what is left.

“This project is a step forward for Eyes on the Forest as it is a powerful tool to open windows to the world about the devastating destruction happening to forests, particularly on Sumatra Island,” said Muslim Rasyid, Chairman of Jikalahari, a member of the Eyes on the Forest coalition. “We hope that Google will keep updating its satellite imagery library so the world can see the facts of the devastating destruction on Sumatra, who is doing it, and where those forest products end up. Furthermore, we can show this map to decision makers and urge them to protect the remaining natural forests of Sumatra.”

WWF is the world’s leading conservation organization, working in 100 countries for nearly half a century. With the support of almost 5 million members worldwide, WWF is dedicated to delivering science-based solutions to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth, halt the degradation of the environment and combat climate change. Visit http://www.worldwildlife.org to learn more.

EoF is a coalition of three local environmental organizations in Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia : WWF Indonesia's Riau Programme, Jikalahari ("Forest Rescue Network Riau") and Walhi Riau (Friends of the Earth Indonesia). It was launched in December 2004 to investigate the state of Riau''s forests and the players who influence it. EoF has become a clearinghouse for information on forest conservation in Riau, Sumatra and to serve as a tool for local, national, and international NGOs, companies, governments and any other stakeholders who are willing to take action to conserve forests and protect the rights of the local people who rely on them. Visit http://www.eyesontheforest or.id to learn more.

A powerful new mapping tool from Indonesian NGO coalition Eyes on the Forest and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) allows the public to visualize Sumatra’s forests and wildlife such as rhinos, tigers, elephants and orangutan, providing vital information in the race to protect forests, save some of the world’s most important biodiversity and help local communities. The mapping project is one of the first to be awarded a grant by the Google Earth Outreach team to use Google Maps Engine, a platform for hosting, storing and managing map data.

TomTom Expands Map Coverage For Its Plug And Play Data Solution For Oracle Applications

Location Intelligence Conference, Washington, DC - May 23, 2012 - TomTom today announces the extension of coverage for TomTom Geospatial for Oracle, TomTom's plug and play data solution for geocoding, routing and display. Already available throughout Europe and North America and now in key countries in South America, the product enables easy integration of TomTom map and routing data into location based applications powered by Oracle Database 11g.

Built using TomTom's high quality map database, Geospatial for Oracle offers the most accurate map content with data schemas that are turn-key ready for use with Oracle Spatial and Oracle Database locator feature. TomTom's Custom Systems Consultants have specialized technology knowledge to help customers with the integration or delivery of customized products to fit individual needs. TomTom Geospatial for Oracle enables rich analysis and functionality, saving users time and money. Such location intelligence is used more and more by a broad range of industries, including fleet and logistics, insurance, telecommunications and public sector, to improve overall business results.

"With the Geospatial for Oracle product available in Europe and North America, and now key growth countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, TomTom is able to fuel Oracle applications with its accurate and fresh map data for Latin America," said Alain De Taeye, Member of the Management Board, TomTom. "TomTom is committed to meeting the geospatial needs of customers around the world."

Visit TomTom at the Location Intelligence Conference to learn more about TomTom Geospatial for Oracle, as well as other products.

Founded in 1991, TomTom (AEX:TOM2) is the world’s leading supplier of in-car location and navigation products and services focused on providing all drivers with the world’s best navigation experience. Headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom has over 3,500 employees and sells its products in over 40 countries.

Our products include portable navigation devices, in-dash infotainment systems, fleet management solutions, maps and real-time services, including the award winning TomTom HD Traffic.

For the world’s most up-to-date route planner, including live traffic information go to www.tomtom.com/livetraffic

For further information, please visit www.tomtom.com

Pennsylvania Game Commission Improves Public and Officer Safety with InterAct Products

Winston-Salem, NC - InterAct, a leading provider of incident-response and management software, is pleased to announce that the Pennsylvania Game Commission has deployed InterAct CAD, InterAct Mobile and InterAct RMS. This deployment moves the state wildlife management agency from a paper and pen system to a fully functional modern solution uniquely configured to meet the needs of state wildlife management.

With this new system, dispatchers can better prepare en-route wildlife conservation officers with critical information they need while responding to an incident. With InterAct’s fully integrated CAD and GIS mapping system dispatchers can instantly locate an officer’s vehicle, view en-route travel data and even overlay aerial photography and geographic data to improve situational awareness of the responding officer. Additionally, responding wardens are entered into a “watch” status during enforcement activities, keeping dispatchers and officers in constant communication and improving safety in the field.

“Officer and public safety is the cornerstone of the InterAct system,” said Tom Grohol, assistant bureau director for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. “Our wildlife conservation officers have more intelligence in the field to perform their jobs, and we can monitor them in the field to ensure their safety.”

Also, all Pennsylvania game commission wardens can now share and access vital information from their vehicles equipped with wireless-enabled laptops – accessing both inter-agency and NCIC data in real time. Additionally, the agency has greater insight into its overall system performance through InterAct’s analytic tools. This enables them to track call volumes, measure response times, manage available resources and query call reports.

“We are delighted that the Pennsylvania Game Commission selected InterAct after a rigorous evaluation process,” said InterAct CSO Terry Turner. “We are proud to have built a solution which is truly modern, scalable and configured to fit the needs of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. InterAct looks forward to working with the commission to assist other state game authorities to take advantage of this new system.”

InterAct is a leading provider of public and private safety software solutions. Our mission is to improve the safety and well-being of people and their communities with the most innovative online technology which connect the right people with the right data at the right time.

For 37 years, InterAct has been providing state-of-the-art, integrated incident response software solutions. In 2011, we delivered a new level of innovation with the industry’s first fully CJIS-compliant and cloud-based online records management system (RMS). This is the first in a series of next generation online solutions InterAct will deliver throughout 2012 as part of the Public Safety Cloud.

The Public Safety Cloud simplifies search and data exchange among public safety agencies, securely giving first responders the actionable information they need at the point of enforcement without the expense and complexity of owning the infrastructure. Data access and exchange are simple and available anytime, anywhere through any computer or smart phone connected to the Internet.

InterAct is dedicated to equipping public and private safety agencies with the modern online tools they need to achieve their mission of protecting lives and property. To learn more about our solutions, please visit us at: http://www.interact911.com

Dewberry to Revise USACE Manual for Photogrammetry and LiDAR

Dewberry, a privately held professional services firm, will be assisting with the revision of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Manual for Photogrammetry and LiDAR. This manual has served as an industry standard for mapping professionals around the world for many years.

The current manual requires revision to maintain relevancy with current photogrammetric and LIDAR policies, techniques, and methodologies. Dewberry will be led by the USACE St. Louis District, which is responsible for the rewrite. The publication will be available in 2013.

Dewberry’s extensive background in photogrammetry and LiDAR, as well as history of developing mapping guidelines, specifications, and manuals for other agencies, were reasons for selection.

“Dewberry has the available professional and technical staff to provide guidance to the latest advances in the photogrammetric industry,” said Ted Stanton, chief, geodesy and photogrammetry section for USACE, St. Louis District.

Dewberry is a leading professional services firm with a proven history of providing architecture, engineering, and management and consulting services to a wide variety of public- and private-sector clients. Recognized for combining unsurpassed commitment to client service with deep subject matter expertise, Dewberry is dedicated to solving clients’ most complex challenges and transforming their communities. Established in 1956, Dewberry is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, with more than 40 locations and 1,800+ professionals nationwide. To learn more, visit www.dewberry.com

Indonesian Meteorological, Climatological & Geophysical Agency Chooses SuperGIS Desktop 3.1

SuperGeo Technologies, the leading global provider of complete GIS software and solutions, announced that Indonesian Meteorological, Climatological & Geophysical Agency (BMKG) employs SuperGIS Desktop 3.1 with the powerful GIS tools to integrate and visualize a variety of spatial data and statistics about meteorology.

The meteorology agency plays a vital role to the governments in delivering the information, early warnings, and official recommendations of meteorology. Established in 1984, BMKG is the non-departmental government agency focusing on monitoring environmental and climate changes and providing accurate weather analyses and forecasts to minimize the losses caused by natural disasters.

BMKG utilized SuperGIS Desktop 3.1 to build a GIS platform for integrating meteorological information, conducting in-depth research in environment and climate change, and developing applications such as rainfall analyses, air quality monitoring, damage analyses for tsunami, flood analyses, etc.

Due to the rich natural resources, Indonesia is regarded as one of the most potential markets to multinationals in South-Asia. To exploit the potential for growth in the local GIS industry, SuperGeo will continually improves a strong relationship with Datascrip to promote the SuperGIS software and assists every client in solving difficulties while developing GIS applications.

For more information about Datascrip, please visit http://datascrip.com/

For more information about SuperGIS Desktop 3.1, please visit http://www.supergeotek.com/products_DesktopGIS.aspx

About SuperGeo

SuperGeo Technologies Inc. is a leading global provider of GIS software and solutions. Since the establishment, SuperGeo has been dedicated to providing state-of-the-art geospatial technologies and comprehensive services for customers around the world. It is our vision to help users utilize geospatial technologies to create a better world.

SuperGeo software and applications have been spread over the world to be the backbone of the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. SuperGeo is the professional GIS vendor, providing GIS-related users with complete GIS solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms.