Well Garmin and Magellan had better be looking ahead or they might just get left behind. Why? Because smart-phone navigation is quickly accelerating past conventional GPS navigation units. Google is one such company pushing this new wave of capabilities.

Static Databases – What There is now is all you Have

Most GPS units today from Garmin and Magellan (two major GPS manufacturers for GPS for automobiles) use a static map database along with a static Points of Interest (POI) database. The POIs are all the addresses, business locations, restaurants etc that you can locate using the unit. New maps along with an updated POI database are released annually and often with a charge to update. I have paid up to $75 just to update the map for a single unit. If you have more than one unit in the family, prepare to pay more.

Smart Phones with GPS

However, many smart phones can now download applications such as Google Maps that will lookup locations and obtain directions that use current information and full power of the Google databases. Many phones are now coming with built-in GPS reception too so combining this with the power of the Internet opens up a much more powerful navigation solution. Using the power of Google’s database means that you can find almost any location including all those that are not listed in the POI database of your expensive GPS unit. While this is really great, the problem up to this point has been that your dedicated GPS device could provide visual and audible navigation directions, a must for navigating while driving. However, Google is about to change that.

Navigate to Anywhere Anytime with just your Phone

Imagine if your smart-phone could provide audible, turn-by-turn navigation instructions, turn-by-turn directions on the visual, graphical map, just like your current GPS unit but also had the power of real-time Google Maps lookup. What if you could use your smart-phone to…

Hear and see turn-by-turn directions

Look up locations simply by name or related information

Have maps that are updated continuously

Lookup addresses or locations using your voice

See satellite views or street level views all along your route

Well Google is about to bring this to the Android based smart phones. This means these phones will not only work like your expensive GPS units but will make finding and navigating to your destination even easier due to real-time access to Google’s massive information. And best of all its all free assuming you have an unlimited data plan on your phone which of course you do.

Watch this informative clip from the Google developers.

More Mobile Technologies from Google may be found here:
http://www.google.com/mobile/maps/

Well if you like to tweet and or keep up with all those you are following while on the go, then it just got easier if you are a Blackberry user. Let’s face it, many of us are using the Blackberry for business needs or because we won’t give up our great call quality with Verizon to get an iPhone with AT&T. But Blackberry users need applications too and while Facebook (also available) and Twitter are not necessarily business applications, they do allow us to track our friends on the social networks from anywhere.

Features include:

1. automatic URL-shortening
2. easy photo-sharing
3. push and message list integration
4. search filtered by geolocation

You can learn more about the new Twitter application for Blackberry from this article at Mashable.com. Happy tweeting!

Very often when using either a DataList or Repeater control, you will see folks using an <AlternatingItemTemplate> template section just to change the background color of every other row. While this is perfectly acceptable, it can become time-consuming , especially if the templated row contains a significant amount of HTML. When it does, you have to ensure that any changes to the HTML in either section (<ItemTemplate> or <AlternatingItemTemplage>) are duplicated except for the background color of the table row of course.

If all you are doing is changing the alternating row color but don’t want to have to keep two sets of row level HTML in sync, there is an easier way. You can just use the primary <ItemTemplate> section so you only have one set of HTML to maintain, yet still have the background color of alternating rows change. Here’s how.

For Repeater Controls

First, turn the <tr> tag of the primary ItemTemplate template into a server control by adding ID and runat=”server” attributes.

Next, add the following code to the ItemCreated event of the repeater. Note that it simply locates the row tag you modified above and adds changes the back color.

The code in the ItemCreated event fires for every row created in the Repeater. It first checks if the row is an alternating row and if it is, it then locates the HTML <tr> tag and adds the alternating bgcolor attribute for you. Presto! Instant color change and all without duplicating your HTML layout in a second section.

For DataList Controls

Since the DataList is rendered as an HTML <table>, its DataListItem instances have style-related properties where you can apply a specific style to the entire item. This this makes it easier to accomplish our goal. Simply create a CSS class that defined your new background color, then reference that class as follows in the same event at above.

You can also use the same approach as the Repeater control if you prefer.