CloudMade Services Are Now Free – Sign Up Today
If you are a mobile or web developer – we have good news! As of today, when you sign up for a CloudMade developer account all of our services will be free of charge and will let you make money with location based advertising (LBA).
CloudMade’s services include:
- Style Editor – customize your maps
- Forward and Reverse Geocoding & Local Search
- iPhone SDK and Mobile SDKs
- Static Maps
- Routing – vehicle, pedestrian and cycle navigation
- Web Maps Studio
- Data Market Place (some sets are now free)
- Navi Studio – add fully featured turn-by-turn navigation apps
Right after you sign up for a CloudMade developer account, you’ll also get LBA with revenue share and instant access to our 10,500-strong developer community to help you get started. To find out more about our mobile services and to sign up, click here. More about our web services can be found here.
Already have an ad partner or want an SLA? Get CloudMade Select
If you already have an ad partner and don’t want CloudMade ads in your app or you need an SLA then CloudMade Select is for you.
By signing up to this plan developers get a whole host of additional benefits including: guaranteed response times for support; guaranteed SLA; HTTP services access; HTTPs/SSL (coming soon); support for intranet apps and no user limits.
New Support Site Now Available
We’ve also just launched a new support site that contains FAQs, Forums and Issue Trackers – everything you need to build awesome apps.
May 16th, 2010 - Posted by Paul Jarratt in developers | | 0 Comments
iPhone Static Framework
Problem with iPhone code sharing
As we all know Apple has not left developers opportunity to create frameworks for iPhone. However, there are a lot of situations when code has to be shared between different projects or even distributed to others developers.
Alternatives
There are a few approaches for the code sharing or distributing. Firstly, code can be shared/distributed as a source code. Although this approach is quite straightforward and XCode provides a good mechanism for including XCode project to another project, developers have to do some extra steps such as setup dependencies and path for headers. On the one hand it seems quite simple for the experienced developers, on the other it might be a problem for the new developers .
Second approach is to distribute code as a static library. This approach is well known and is used widely in Linux/Unix development thus a lot of developers are familiar with it. However, there are some disadvantages of using it in iPhone development which relate to dynamic nature of Objective-C. The problem is that static libraries are normally used for C/C++ code which has neither properties nor categories and so when, for example, Objective-C category is wrapped in static library a developer has explicitly to set additional linker options:
-ObjC
-all_load
If developer forgets to set the options mentioned above he will get runtime error “unrecognized selector sent to instance”
Static Framework
The most suitable alternative, in my opinion, is a ’static framework’. The idea behind is to force compiler to believe that it uses normal iPhone framework whereas shared libraries are substituted by static libraries. Thus if you have the code you want to share as a static library it is quite easy to transform it into a framework. Afterwords such framework can be added to a project without any extra efforts from the developer’s side.
How to create a Static framework
Since there is no option to build frameworks for iPhone in XCode I recommend using a static framework. To build it into XCode MacOS framework template should be used. Static framework has the same structure as a normal framework. Only a few extra steps have to be done:
link together static library for iPhone Simulator and iPhone Device
add file from the previous step to framework bundle
To make it easy we will write a shell script which does all the work. We will use a lipo utility which is distributed with XCode installation. This utility allows to link a few libraries into one file. Afterwords this file will be copied to the framework bundle and appropriate links will be created.
FRAMEWORK=”${BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR}/${PRODUCT_NAME}.framework”
lipo \”${BUILD_DIR}/${CONFIGURATION}-iphoneos/libDev.a” “${BUILD_DIR}/${CONFIGURATION}-iphonesimulator/lib Sim.a” -create -output “${FRAMEWORK}/Versions/Current/${PRODUCT_NAME}”cd “${FRAMEWORK}” && ln -sf “Versions/Current/${PRODUCT_NAME}” ./
This script should be added into a project as a build phase script through the project menu. As a result we get a static framework containing code which now can be easily shared.
LINKS
May 10th, 2010 - Posted by Paul Jarratt in api, developers, iPhone | | 0 Comments
If you’re at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Let’s meet up!
CloudMade is going to have a busy MWC, we’re meeting with press, developers, partners, investors and if you’re game, you too! If you’d like to meet us come along to one of the below events or if you’re a developer why not come to one of our Developer Drop-In sessions we’re running daily where you can enjoy a coffee and pose your questions to our developer team. CloudMade will have a table in the restaurant ‘Buffet – R2′ which is located here:
To reach the CloudMade table at MWC:First, enter the courtyard between building 1,2,4 and 5. Then, head out of the courtyard towards the area between building 1 and 2. Look for the place called “Restaurant Buffet”
Or if you are a FourSquare user? Get an impromptu meeting by searching for one of the team:
http://foursquare.com/user/nick_b
http://foursquare.com/user/copetersen
http://foursquare.com/user/cnilson
Sunday, 14 February
19:00– late - Mobile Sunday – Come and socialize before the big event at the Mobile Sunday drinks evening. You’ll be able to recognize us from our CloudMade name tags and badges
Monday, 15 February
14.30-20:00 – Mobile Premier Awards – We’re presenting as a finalist but still want to catch up with as many people as we can after or during the event, so please come talk to use we’ll be wearing badges
11-12:30 - Developer Drop-In
Tuesday, 16 February
16-17:30 – Developer Drop-In
Wednesday, 17 February
16-17:30 – Developer Drop-In
Thursday, 18 February
11:00– 15:30 – WIPJam @ MWC – ‘Getting Cool Content from the Cloud’ (location: App Planet Auditorium (Hall 7))
16-17:30 – Developer Drop-In
February 9th, 2010 - Posted by Paul Jarratt in cloudmade, developers, events | | 0 Comments
Ten Questions with Zsombor Szabo
This month we interview Zsombor Szabo from IZE. Zsombor has developed OpenMaps for iPhone using CloudMade tools. The CloudMade Coder caught up with him to find out more.
Tell us about your company or application(s)
My partner, Csongor Nemes, and I founded IZE in September 2008. We’re both enthusiastic about making the world a better place like other entrepreneurs. Having graduated with engineering degrees we both believed we had the skills to do that. Since then we delivered a really compelling application called OpenMaps.
OpenMaps for iPhone is a fast and easy to use map application that uses open map data from OpenStreetMap.org. It’s intended to be used as a general-purpose map application, offering features such as: downloadable maps, navigation for car, pedestrian and cyclists and local search. We predict OSM will soon be the de facto map used by people around the world and so our goal is to make OpenMaps the best OSM application available.
How has CloudMade helped your development process? Which tools did you use?
We use two of CloudMade’s web services: CustomMap Tiles and Routing in OpenMaps. The custom map tiles gives users an option to view the OSM map in a different style if they aren’t satisfied with the default one. The Routing gives navigation data with turn-by-turn route instructions which OpenMaps displays elegantly to the user.
What new CloudMade products really excite you?
The soon to be released location based advertising service is on the top of my list. I am curious to find out exactly how it will work, what exact business model it will use and of course what the revenue sharing percentages will be.
The second is the forthcoming freeform search. Search is crucial for a data service to be successful. What is the point of having data if it can’t be searched properly? I applaud CloudMade for innovating with freeform search.
What impact do you think location based advertising will have on independent developers like you?
It wouldn’t be a wise decision to pass on that revenue stream in my opinion. Analysts predict it will be huge. I have the same opinion.
What do you think the next big thing will be in geo-enabled apps?
I honestly don’t know, but we have a bet on what it could be. We are building it now and it will be available as a feature in OpenMaps but we don’t want to talk about it until we will release it.
What will be bigger iPhone or Nexus?
I don’t think Nexus will be bigger than the iPhone. Maybe another Android handset.
Any tips for submitting apps to Apple or Google?
Yes. Follow Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines and be sure to handle Location Services Denied errors if you are submitting an app that uses the device’s location services.
What developer publications / blogs / Tweeters do you read / follow?
I am @zssz on twitter and I follow some Mac nerds and devs too. Usually they inform me about new and noteworthy stuff that I need to know about in the Mac scene. Here are a few examples: @pilky @fraserspeirs @mattgemmell @nikf @mdhughes @ericasadun @iamleeg @thekarladam @bbum @scottstevenson @majicdave @joericioppo @wilshipley @alanQuatermain @ravenme @SteveStreza @mzarra @iTod @jeff_lamarche
What advice would you give other developers looking to emulate your success?
Be ambitious and strive for perfection.
Where does your company go from here?
The next big version of OpenMaps will include basic OSM editing. We are very excited about this. Imagine how cool it would be to be able to edit OpenStreetMap while on the go, modifying a bar’s tags while at that bar.
We have other big features planned too for OpenMaps and one of them is the reason we made the application in the first place. We’ve been developing it for over ~1.5 years now. Unfortunately I can’t reveal any more about it at this time. Only that it is coming and it will be BIG.
February 8th, 2010 - Posted by Paul Jarratt in Featured Apps, cloudmade, developers | | 0 Comments
Going for Gold at Mobile World Congress
We recently found out that we’ve been selected as a finalist for the Mobile Premier Awards, the equivalent of the Oscars for mobile start-ups at the world’s largest mobile conference, Mobile World Congress.
The awards replace the popular Mobile Monday Peer Awards from which companies such as Fring, Plazes and Opera have risen to great heights.
This year’s awards have some heavy hitting sponsors including: BlackBerry, 02 Limtus, RCR Wireless, Mashable and Tech Crunch and if past year’s events are anything to go by, will attract the most influential movers and shakers of the mobile industry.
It’s by no means a small feat to be selected as a finalist considering the quality of the other 250 start-ups that were initially chosen, including companies such as Layar and Waze.
CloudMade was voted by the Silicon Valley chapter of Mobile Monday as its nomination for the awards. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the chapter for choosing us and plan to follow through on stage with a compelling presentation when we pitch our products and company to leading VC’s, handset makers, operators and press.
We feel that we’ve made it to the finals because of our unique product offerings, including our comprehensive and flexible mapping platform which is the only one available built solely for developers. It empowers mobile and web developers by giving them the freedom to create exactly the type of apps they envisage, and allows handset vendors and operators to take control of their own destiny, by giving them a key control point for their mobile business to make successful business ventures.
Combine this with our innovative mapping tools that allow anyone to easily contribute to OpenStreetMap, and we’re well on the way to the democratization of geo data and expanding access to it.
Good luck to the other start-ups and we look forward to taking to the stage on February 15th in Barcelona. We hope you can join us.
For more information or to register for The Mobile Premier Awards click here
Here’s more about our latest product offerings:
Data Market Place, a market place offering a wide variety of rich, pre-integrated third-party commercial datasets for developers to add to CloudMade maps.
Navi Studio, a suite of tools that make it simple to build fully featured turn-by-turn navigation apps for all major mobile platforms.
iPhone SDK, allows developers to add customized maps, geocoding and routing to iPhone applications with ease.
Mapzen and Mapzen POI Collector, allow anyone to easily contribute to OpenStreetMap and share their experiences via Facebook and Twitter
January 30th, 2010 - Posted by Paul Jarratt in cloudmade, developers, events, geodata, iPhone, mapzen, news | | 0 Comments
November Round Up of CloudMade Powered Apps
Here’s November’s round-up of some of our favourite apps built on CloudMade’s platform:
OffMaps – Offline maps on your iPhone or iPod touch
OffMaps is the smash hit iPhone application that lets you take your maps with you when you’re overseas and roaming. It’s also the perfect companion for iPod Touch users who’ve been buying OffMaps in droves.
OffMaps uses many of CloudMade’s iPhone SDK’s features including geocoding, local search, walking and vehicle directions to create a best selling user experience.
Dopplr – Social iPhone Travel Gudie
Dopplr is a must-have service for regular travellers and their free iPhone app is a must have for iPhone owners who travel regularly. Dopplr iPhone makes use of CloudMade’s Style Editor to add beautifully customised maps to the application.
CBS – Do Cameras Make Intersections More Dangerous?
Its not just iPhone apps that can benefit from CloudMade’s geo platform. Global broadcaster CBS have just started using Web Maps Studio – a suite of tools designed to make it easy for web developers to add customised maps, content and more to websites. The CBS Red Light Cameras site took only hours to put together and demonstrates how easy it is to use Web Maps Studio to create a customized, great looking sites that overlay content on maps.
Oakland Crimespotting – How safe is your neighbourhood?
Oakland Crimespotting is a fascinating site that lets Oakland residents – or anyone else – view crime statistics for the city. The site uses a custom map style, created using the Style Editor to give visitors a unique experience. The site’s creators, choose to using CloudMade’s Specialist Toolkit – a range of tools and APIs that let advanced geo developers create highly customised map based applications.
Find out more about building applications that use CloudMade’s geo platform.
November 30th, 2009 - Posted by Nick Black in Featured Apps, developers, iPhone, maps | | 0 Comments
PERL library updated
Short post for those of us using Perl. Perl library, found at http://developers.cloudmade.com/projects/show/perl-api and http://search.cpan.org/~gdm/Geo-Cloudmade-0.2/ has been updated by its author and maintainer Dmytro Gorbunov. Great job, Dmytro!
The latest version mirrors the geocoding API V2 by exposing two simple methods for forward and reverse geocoding, along with one method to access tiles, and yet another to access routing API. Clear and concise – just the way Perl is. Check out examples at http://search.cpan.org/~gdm/Geo-Cloudmade-0.2/lib/Geo/Cloudmade.pm.
November 24th, 2009 - Posted by in api, developers | | 1 Comments
Putting the Developer in Charge
Earlier on this year a smart VC, who multiple times has competed successfully against Google, told me that Google is generally willing to act as an “irrational economic player”. It’s willing to destroy value just so others can’t get at it, even if it means destroying value for itself.
Google just announced that it will offer navigation. Navigation has so far captured 70%+ of the $2 billion mapping market. The bad news for established navigation players like Tele Atlas and Navteq is that this will erode the value of navigation, just like the value of maps have been eroded. The good news for those players is that Google has now tipped its hand and shown that it’s willing to compete against the very ecosystem that it has been nurturing over the past couple of years.
Google’s strategy is to leverage maps, including navigation, to extend its current search franchise into local search. We’ve believed from day one of CloudMade that contextual search, using location data and some knowledge about the user (for example which app he/she is using) creates much more valuable CPM/CPC/CPAs. If you’re an advertiser or a merchant, you will pay more per impression if you know someone is a mountain biker and is near the bicycle mega store you own.
Google betting on one-size-fits all model
Google is betting on building a horizontal, local search franchise. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but please read on, it gets clearer. Google is building a one-size-fits-all set of services around mapping, and will serve the masses with those. Think about Google Maps, Latitude or Earth. They are horizontal one-size-fits-all web apps with little or no segmentation. Everyone uses the same app.
Meanwhile, in the process of building out end-user applications rather than sticking to being a platform player, Google is causing considerable collateral damage. Its move into the territory normally occupied by mobile operators, OEMs and small, medium and large developers is turning the marketplace against itself. The honeymoon is over and the do-no-evil days have ended. Google has declared any monetizable pocket in tech a target, including the key franchises of Apple, Microsoft, the mobile operators and now also mobile application developers. The problem with Google’s approach is, the value is not in horizontal services, but in leveraging the democratizing effect of the app stores to use the 100,000+ vertical apps as a way to divide the market into tiny segments and let them flourish and gain traction.
CloudMade believes vertical apps will inherently nano-segment the market
Most of the impressions that will hit consumers, and most searches that are contextually and location oriented, will occur through vertical apps. Take the mountain biker example. Where will I be more likely to respond if I want to a) navigate my mountain bike though a new trail and b) click on that ad from the bicycle mega store? A horizontal Google app, or a well crafted, vertical app written by a focused developer who understands my special interests? We believe the latter. We believe the mountain biking savvy, app developing expert who knows the hidden trails in his/her community will be better at providing relevance to local mountain bikers.
As I speak to mobile operators and handset manufacturers about the CloudMade business, it’s clear that most of the players understand the value of their immense reach, and want to pick long-term partners with whom they can build a franchise in local search, local advertising and local geo services.
It’s clear that Google’s latest move has served as a lighting rod for clarity in the value chain. Over the past days I have spoken to people throughout the ecosystem. So far, the uncertainty about what Google was doing has actually caused a lot of mobile operators, handset manufacturers and app developers to take a wait-and-see attitude. Now, with Google showing their hand, and making it clear that it’s willing to compete directly with substantial parts of the eco system to get at the local search market, we’re seeing that the wait-and-see is over. With Google choosing to go it alone rather than cooperate with the ecosystem, the ground rules have been laid down, and the competitive landscape is clear.
So what are we doing at CloudMade?
We’re building out our traction in the vertical mobile application area, signing developers within key categories that we believe will drive massive volume. This is a real micro-segmented approach, aimed at driving traffic to thousands of narrow verticals. We’re already seeing this scale.
Local, relevant ads: We’re jumping the learning curve on Location Based Advertising and Sponsored POIs. We’ll shortly be offering developers, mobile operators and handset manufacturers a revenue share on Sponsored POIs and ads that they include in their apps. This is big news to developers, who so far have had to depend on the modest revenues from selling apps at $0.99, $1.99 etc.
Data Marketplace: We’re building a massive marketplace for geo data. In fact, in a few weeks we have our “opening day” at the CloudMade Data Marketplace, the Turkish Bazar from which developers can choose a variety of content that they can mash into their maps. This will result in more app diversity, deeper functionality and even completely new types of vertical apps.
Offering for operators and handset manufacturers: CloudMade has created a super interesting set of propositions for mobile operators and handset manufacturers. We’re doing rev share deals with them where we work side-by-side to build franchises in the local geo spatial arena. We offer them onboard maps (built into their devices) and offboard maps (loaded from our servers), we offer them navigation jointly with our navigation partners and we offer up relationships with our many vertical app developers. For Tier 1, 2 and 3 operators and handset manufacturers this is turning out to be very compelling. The big differentiator is that the operators get to decide what the services look like, they get to brand them and they get to make money from them. That is as opposed to the alternative, which is to take someone else’s services, accept that they are all branded by someone else, who also pockets the ad revenues from them.
We’re focusing on making maps look the way the merchants and developers want them to look. Through CloudMade’s Style Editor anyone, even non-technical people, can produce advanced, custom maps that reflect the brand and identity of their company or their customers company. We’ve found that many, especially those with no yellow in their corporate identity, prefer this to a one-size-fits-all yellow map.
Navigation: We’re continuing to ramp up our work with key players in the turn-by-turn navigation field to increase the scope for navigation solutions. We are building assets to help drive the verticalization of the field, so we see custom navigation for different verticals. Again, CloudMade doesn’t believe in one-size-fits-all. We think different types of navigation will require different types of apps. For example, if I’m hiking in the mountains I don’t care about roads. I want to navigate hiking trails, be directed to places where I can fill my water bottle, and I want to know where the vista points are.
Last, but not least, the most important component of CloudMade’ approach.
Tools, tools, tools: CloudMade is focusing a lot of effort on the tools side. We believe that the best way we can serve the community of mappers and developers is to put all the control in their hands. We’ve demonstrated this through our efforts already, for example with our iPhone libraries. We’re similarly putting the control of Location Based Ads and Sponsored POIs into the hands of developers. Put yourself in the shoes of the vertical app developer. You know better than anyone else how your constituents want to be advertised to, what ads they want (and don’t want) to see and how to place those apps in your app.
Similarly, we’re readying a suite of tools that makes mapping easier, faster and more powerful.
CloudMade’s web based Mapzen tool, and Mapzen POI Collector for iPhone will be available shortly. This suite of tools enables us to further serve the 180,000 person large OpenStreetMap community that is building the most detailed, finely textured and accurate map of the world. The community was founded by the founders of CloudMade, and most members of the CloudMade team are active members of the OpenStreetMap community. The map we’re building in the community is stunning in it’s detail. It’s essentially the Wikipedia of maps. After all, who knows better how to map a community than people who live in the community. Just look at this Stanford example: http://bit.ly/3HJiRh vs. http://bit.ly/1i2N8m.
The Mapzen suite enables us to bridge the needs of app developers, who serve as a proxy for consumers in a given vertical segment, and the mappers, who are members of local communities or specialists in a certain type of mapping (e.g. mountain biking trails). Bridging the consumers needs for maps and the mappers’ desire to create maps that truly reflect their local community will result in mobile and web applications that both feature better maps and be more attractive to users.
So what’s the bottom line?
Over the next twelve months, we will see hundreds of thousands of vertical apps use maps and location services to better serve consumers with data about where they are, where they are going, how they get there and what is surrounding them at their location. We will see mappers collect map data that is highly relevant to local, narrow communities. We will see owners of diverse datasets make their data available though the Data Marketplace. In turn, we will see app developers jump on the opportunity and leverage the map data and Data Marketplace datasets into highly targeted, compelling and enchanting apps. Many will choose to monetize the apps through a combination of app store revenues as well as carefully selected Location Based Advertising and Sponsored POIs.
If you are a developer that has yet to use our platform, get started here: http://bit.ly/Vjdcp (or if you’re an iPhone developer, go here: http://bit.ly/2IRZA3).” If you are with a larger company with a need for a mapping provider that does not compete with you email me at juha@cloudmade.com.
October 30th, 2009 - Posted by Emma Williamson in Uncategorized, cloudmade, developers, iPhone, mapzen, news, products, style editor | | 8 Comments
Your Future is Customized – State of the Map Presentation from CloudMade
In July this year, 250 of the leading lights in community mapping and geo application development gathered in Amsterdam for the annual OpenStreetMap Foundation conference The State of the Map. Video and audio recordings form the three day conference are being processed one by one by a dedicated team of volunteers who recently published the video of Nick Black’s talk: “Your Future is Customized”.
The talk asks why most current users of geodata experience maps through one of two ways: in car sat navs, or online mapping portals and looks towards a future of app stores, specialized map data and geo applications that match the exact needs of consumers.
Enable your applications with CloudMade – Nick Black (CloudMade) from State of the Map 2009 on Vimeo.
Follow along with the slides from the presentation:
August 28th, 2009 - Posted by in api, cloudmade, developers, geodata, openstreetmap, products, tools | | 1 Comments
CloudMade partners release new mobile libraries
Great news!
Our trusted partners CartoType and Nutiteq have created new mobile & desktop libraries, which you can check out here. These new libraries support the latest CloudMade mapping services including raster and vector maps:
Raster Libraries
- Java Micro Edition J2ME (updated)
- Blackberry (new)
- Android (new)
Vector Libraries
- Windows Mobile (new)
- Symbian (new)
- Windows Desktop (new)
Nutiteq have long been a trusted CloudMade partner providing mobile libraries. They have now added CloudMade support for two leading mobile platforms - Blackberry and Android. Blackberry commands a high worldwide market share for smart phones and is the leading platform for email and enterprise. Google’s Android has set a new bar for open source mobile OSes, and we expect a number of new handsets to come to market during the remainder of this year. Both libraries give access to a full range of CloudMade services including custom image tiles, geosearch and routing.
CartoType have been experimenting with CloudMade’s alpha Vector Server which can stream map data to any connected device where it can be rendered on the fly. Per Nick’s previous post, there are a lot of new features planned for CloudMade’s vector server – including multiple outputs formats (XML, JSON, OSM) and a fully featured API that will let you select which parts of the map data are returned to the client. CartoType have been gracious in releasing their libraries to our developer community at an early stage.
We’re excited to hear feedback from our developer community on these new libraries. We’d like to thank CartoType and Nutiteq for their support!
July 29th, 2009 - Posted by Cragg Nilson in clients, cloudmade, developers, tools | | 1 Comments
