MapWith.Us’s latest roll-out was a large one, and it was many weeks in the making. Our latest push included updates to both our Web and mobile applications, with powerful new services to make our site and underlying system more useful for both our everyday users and our business partners.

First and foremost we have introduced a brand new subscription service model, allowing our business customers to create comprehensive, subscriber-driven services that interface directly with our mobile application. This addition comes simultaneous to our release of MapWith.Us Mobile version 2.0 for BlackBerry phones, allowing wielders of supported handsets (see our mobile page) to upload photos, audio, video, and text annotations to their maps. By integrating this new application with our subscription services, we have provided our users with a one-of-a-kind tool for compiling highly informative location-based content via a truly social medium.

Our updates didn’t stop there, however. The latest push to MapWith.Us also introduced a dramatically refined user interface for map creation. Our mapping toolset has been streamlined, combining all of our best features into one easy-to-use, comprehensive tool able to display a variety of content related to a location using any of a number of user-prescribed look-and-feel selections. The end result are cleaner and more personalized maps, perfectly suited to representing our users’ data in the best possible way.

MapWith.Us unveiled today the latest product in its line of mobile applications. When Android-based phones begin to ship in the next several months, users will immediately be able to download and install MapWith.Us Mobile for Android to publish photos in real time to personal or collaborative maps on the Web.

Read the tutorial below, or check out the video demo.

The user begins by entering their MapWith.Us username and application key. This information is used to access the user’s list of mobile maps and permit photos to be uploaded directly to the Web.

With a MapWith.Us account selected, the user chooses a specific mobile map to upload their photos to. If the user has no mobile maps, a new mobile map is created for them automatically.

Before taking a photo, the user either selects an existing location or saves a new location. These locations are obtained via either the phone’s built-in GPS capabilities or its address geocoding services.

Having selected a location, the user takes advantage of the camera function to save and upload photos. GPS coordinates are sent along with the photo to correctly locate it on a map, as well as embedded into the image itself for later reference.

Uploaded pictures are automatically collected into photo albums based on time and location. The user may elect to keep the map with their photo albums private, share it with a few friends, or else publish it publicly for the whole world to see.

Also available for download: Get the video demo

It has been a couple of weeks since our last update, and the MapWith.Us development team has been hard at work bringing you more great features.

Our latest push included a variety of fixes and additions, not the least of which were the following:

• A refined photo album viewer offering more space and better responsiveness
• Map thumbnails to better represent your creations in searches and profiles
• Dozens of new built-in icons sorted into several convenient categories
• Custom map views to quickly pan/zoom to prescribed locations
• New embedded map settings to center your map on custom views or map items
• Scripting enhancements to eliminate intermittent errors in Internet Explorer

MapWith.Us also remains committed to bringing you the best mobile geotagging software suite available today. We are delving deep into a variety of popular and upcoming platforms. Expect your favorite mobile application on these and more:

• Android (Google, Open Handset Alliance)
• iPhone
• Symbian OS (Nokia N95 and more)
• Windows Mobile

Also expect the arrival of our current software offerings for many new carriers.

Thanks again for helping to make MapWith.Us the best map media site on the Web. Keep on making maps!

Welcome one and all to the new blog from the developers of all your favorite MapWith.Us tools.

These past few weeks have been nothing if not hectic for us here at MapWith.Us. Apart from basking in the less than sultry rain of Vancouver, Washington, we’ve been up to our ears in code striving to improve our existing service, and simultaneously rolling out a handful of new tools and features for your map-making pleasure.

First and foremost, we hope everyone has heard by now about the introduction of our new mobile application, the easiest way imaginable to upload and publish photos on the spot to your maps on the web. Owners of Sprint-branded BlackBerry Pearl 8130s can plunge right in: download the application from your phone and start sending photos straight to your mobile map. Other phones and networks are in the works, so we’ll keep you apprised.

Here are just some of our other new developments over the past few weeks:

• A new comprehensive help menu to straighten some of MapWith.Us’s twists and turns
• Filled paths and customizable line widths to create more attractive routes and shapes
• An easy-to-use drag-and-drop file manager with directories and thumbnails
• A new video tool to add videos to your maps from all your favorite video sites
• New personal and business tier accounts to accommodate even the most avid map-makers
• Cosmetic enhancements from top to bottom

Rest assured, we never sleep. Additional great updates are coming soon. On the near horizon, expect the following and more:

• Easy merging and splitting of photo albums
• A more polished and refined photo album viewing interface
• Map thumbnails and other helpful map options
• Numerous cosmetic and functional enhancements to embedded maps
• A simple rich text editor for article items

As always we appreciate and value your constant feedback. Thanks for helping make MapWith.Us truly a community worth sharing!