TOPO! Explorer a Hit at Outdoor Retailer

The kudos for TOPO! Explorer are coming in just days after our first demos at Outdoor Retailer.

For instance, see this piece by Stephen Hinch on his amazon blog.

Coming to the SHOT Show this weekend? See us at booths 5897 (with Magellan GPS) and 21013.

Nat Geo Maps at Outdoor Retailer

We're exhibiting this week at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market.

Outdoor Retailer happens twice a year and is the largest trade show in the outdoor specialty field, catering to trails sports and related activities.

We're getting a fantastic reaction from the industry to demos of our TOPO! Explorer digital map application, trail database and web site announced Tuesday.

Product Manager Mike Dyer (l) and CTO Paul Glauthier (r) introduce TOPO! Explorer to the outdoor recreation industry

Nat Geo Maps at Denver Sportsmen's Expo

The International Sportsmen's Exposition is open in Denver and runs through Sunday afternoon.

Come by our booth to see Trails Illustrated maps covering most of Colorado's great recreation areas, demos of TOPO! digital maps, and more!

The show is at the Convention Center in Denver. Details here.

Nat Geo Maps to Launch National Trails Database

We're putting the final touches on an exciting new Web site and application that will help outdoor enthusiasts locate accurate trail and recreation information nationwide.

TOPO!® Explorer, launching in May, will present users with detailed topographic maps, aerial photography, a hybrid map made from the two, and an extensive, freely browsable, online database of trail descriptions, recommendations and unique points of interest.


At launch, the TOPO! Explorer Web site (topo.com), will contain between 7,500 and 10,000 unique files provided by government agencies, regional trail and access clubs, publishing partners and National Geographic. Users will be encouraged to review posted trip files and share their own files using an integrated publish-to-site feature as a component of a larger social-networking portion of TOPO! Explorer.

Current users of National Geographic's TOPO! map software will find many of the features in TOPO! Explorer familiar, including GPS connectivity, custom map-making tools and printing.

Innovations include support for video and higher-resolution photography, seamless 3-D panning, a powerful Web-based place finder, a sleek new interface and an entirely new database of detailed maps and aerial photographs known as SuperQuads™.

Each SuperQuad is comprised of seven layers, including genuine USGS 1:24,000-, 1,100:000- and 1:500,000- scale topographic maps, i-cubed aerial photography, Tele Atlas roads, geographic names and elevation models, and a new HybridQuad™ that combines aerial photography and topographic line work. SuperQuads can be freely browsed on the Web and will be available for purchase via download for $1.00 each.

Two new retail packages, TOPO! Explorer ($24.95) and TOPO! Explorer Deluxe ($49.95), will be available concurrent to the launch of the Web site this May. Both packages contain the software application that is Mac- and PC-compatible, and 25 map download credits. The Deluxe edition also will include a nationwide set of genuine USGS 1:100,000-scale topographic maps, ideal for planning trips and browsing terrain.

Publishers, trail groups and agencies interested in posting outdoor information to the TOPO! Explorer community and retailers interested in carrying TOPO! Explorer can contact us using the email address at the top of the sidebar.

Nat Geo Maps at Sacramento Sportsmen's Expo

The International Sportsmen's Expo in Sacramento opens tonight and National Geographic Maps will be there!

You can see demos of our TOPO! software, see how it works with GPS handhelds including the new Magellan Triton units and learn the latest about our forthcoming Trails Illustrated maps of northern California public lands.

Kevin Lance and Jeff Bell - Tech Support/Customer Service - at ISE Sacramento
So come to ISE Sacramento at CalExpo tonight through Sunday and see the best maps for sportsmen!

Nat Geo Maps at CES

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), going on now in Las Vegas, has been all over the news. Hundreds of new product announcements are timed for this show. Once upon a time, this show was mostly about stereo equipment. Now with electronics embedded in so many products, attendees see everything from refrigerators to cars there. The Engadget blog has had more than 400 posts in the last several days!

We're excited to be there for the first time in some years, demonstrating TOPO! and how it works on a Magellan Triton GPS.

NGMaps Sales Manager Alisha Daniels demos TOPO! + Triton at CES

Taking the fast track

From the Westchester County, NY Journal-News:

BEDFORD HILLS, January 3, 2008 - A 32-year-old Californian whose rental car got smashed by a Metro-North train last night was issued a minor summons for causing the fiery crash that stranded railroad commuters for hours.

Bo Bai, a computer technician from Sunnyvale who said he was merely trusting his car's global positioning system when he steered onto the tracks, was cited for obstructing a railroad crossing, officials said this afternoon.

He got stuck, tried unsuccessfully to reverse and finally abandoned the 2006 Ford Focus minutes before it was slammed by a northbound Metro-North Harlem Line train, MTA police said.

(read the full story)

I think a growing number of people are satisfied to follow the audible directions from a GPS, or turn-by-turn directions printed from a web site, and lack the desire to know where they are along the way to their destination.

I still have a need to visualize the geography of my trips by looking at a map. How about you?

Thanks to engadget

Outdoor recreation maps - great things on tap

We're cooking up some great things for outdoor recreation map users this year.

mapXchange, our site for downloading trail and other map overlays to use with TOPO! will enjoy a major upgrade this spring.

Look for an announcement about this and other TOPO! news January 22nd.


Trails Illustrated will continue its march across northern California this year with great new maps.

And based on the success of National Parks Explorer 3D, Southern Appalachian Mountains Explorer 3D and Adirondack Park Explorer 3D, we're also working to make more TI maps available digitally.