I like maps. I even read maps. If Tive goes quiet in the back of the car don’t worry, he hasn’t fallen through the armrest, he’s just reading a map. Thankfully reading maps is normal behaviour for the bored. It won’t beat MarioKart but it keeps boredom at bay in traffic jams. Luckily for me, and the rest of you closet map lovers, there are a multitude of map oriented services and applications. Some of them are even quite useful…

The advent of GPS into smartphones has made apps like Google Maps a cheap and convenient way to get around the “we do/don’t need a GPS in our car” debate. Now you can simply use your phone to work out how to get to auntie Beryl’s in Puddledock-under-Twee. You can even use it to chart your progress, or lack thereof, on the 18:07 Great Northern to Newcastle in your extreme boredom.

Meanhwile, some phones like the Nokia N95 let you take photos which are geotagged instantly, thereby keeping a record of where you took that snap. That’s pretty cool if you’re travelling. In fact, that’s just plain cool wherever you are. And it is not restricted to phones. Though digital cameras are on their way to being phased out by cameraphones, till then you can use a pretty clever memory stick that does the same thing: Eye Fi. (Eye Fi also allows you to wirelessly upload your pics to your PC without having to track down that darned cable.) I’ve got a few holidays lined up over the next year or so and I’m looking forward to seeing my trails blaze across a digital map. It’s an added dimension to the traditional photo album.

Mapping has been broadened to include plenty of services such as Famster’s map of registered sex offenders in your ‘hood and recent newcomer Spotcrime (via Tech Crunch via Lifehacker) which maps local crimes complete with strangely amusing symbols depicting different types of criminal activity.

And lastly, something that mesmerised me, but wasn’t particularly useful (could it be art?) - Cabspotting via Geeksugar.

I love maps. I want a phone which tracks me all the time and makes a pretty picture of my life. Or just one long squiggly line.

Update 28/7/8:

Government plans to launch crime maps.

Tags: cabspotting, eye fi, geotagging, google maps, GPS, map, nokia, nokia maps, spotcrime