Android users, it’s your turn. Following swiftly on the heels of the sophomore release of LizardTech GeoViewer for iOS comes the first release of GeoViewer for Android. Made for devices with version 2.3.3 or later of the Android operating system, LizardTech GeoViewer for Android does everything its iOS counterpart does with the exception of pulling in layers from WMS servers. Fiddling with WMS layers is a huge responsibility, kids, and we want to make sure you can use the basics responsibly before we turn you loose. After all, this is an application that you can use on phones and tablets anywhere — on crowded buses, in corporate boardrooms or even standing in the ticketholders’ queue to see The Hobbit.

Can you handle this? GeoViewer for Android on the Nexus 4.

Meanwhile, you can open MrSID and JPEG 2000 images and pan around and zoom in and out to your heart’s content, select which bands you want to view from a multispectral image, and add vector layers (Esri Shapefiles and KML files) to get more out of your imagery. If you need to calculate distances, you can measure between two points — including your own location if your device’s GPS is turned on — or measure the distance along a path of waypoints.

A walk along Seattle’s waterfront. Hmmm, turns out to be one and a quarter miles that will be much more enjoyable when the Alaskan Way Viaduct is finally removed.

GeoViewer enables you to see any location’s geocoordinates by touching the spot on the image. You can also view layer properties, including the coordinate reference system (CRS) the image is in, the layer’s geo bounding box and its dimensions, colorspace, datatype and resolution. Search locations by geographic coordinates in WGS84 (Lat/Long) or the image’s native CRS. And if you still feel like fiddling, you can change the colors of your layer lines.

GeoViewer viewed on a tablet. Layers (individual images) of the map are listed, and a green dot indicates layers that are visible.

Enjoy! Go get lost, find yourself again, find your friends and compare walking distance to the Sushi bar they prefer versus your favorite barbecue joint. If you don’t break anything, we’ll hook you up with WMS in a future release.

Download LizardTech GeoViewer for Android free at the Google Play Store.

When we released LizardTech GeoViewer for iOS last January it enabled iPad users to view geospatial imagery in MrSID and JPEG 2000 formats and included distance measuring tools and geolocation support.

We’ve released a new version that runs on iPhone and iPod Touch devices as well as iPads, and we improved the UI with easier-to-see tool icons. As an in-app purchase for just $4.99, you can enable this new version to access layers from WMS servers. It’s super easy. You can download the WMS capability in seconds and presto! — instantly view image and vector layers from WMS servers all over the world.

Here are some screenshots of the new GeoViewer for iOS in action:

MrSID image in LizardTech GeoViewer for iOS. You are here. (Actually, we are there.)

Find geocoordinates for any location with a touch of the screen.

How long is SR-520 between I-5 and I-405?  And do you want that in miles or kilometers?

Version 2.0 of LizardTech GeoViewer for iOS is available now at the App Store on iTunes.

To learn more about LizardTech products visit http://www.lizardtech.com/products.

Our Express Server product, a web-server add-on for distributing massive image datasets, has always been a fairly straightforward, simple product — it takes advantage of efficiencies inherent in MrSID and other image formats to make high-resolution raster imagery available at lightning speeds. But we found in listening to feedback from our customers that many of them were intimidated by Express Server’s XML-based setup and catalog configuration files.

Well, we’ve responded by updating Express Server with a spanking new graphical user interface that we call the Express Server Manager. We think customers will be thrilled. Now all you have to do to set up your Express Server and configure the catalogs is check some boxes, fill in a few text fields, and click a button or two.

Express Server 8′s interface for configuring a catalog looks like this:

Express Server image catalogs are easier than ever to configure and manage in the Express Server Manager, Express Server’s new graphical user interface.

On this Basic Properties tab, you can create a spatial index for a catalog, specify its projection (EPSG code), enable or disable the catalog (make it available for viewing or take it offline), and map image bands according to particular viewers’ needs. More advanced operations are on other tabs, but there’s no XML to fiddle with, just buttons, fields and checkboxes.

And that’s just the beginning. It’s really easy to stop and restart your Express Server, check whether or not it’s running, consult error logs, restore a previous configuration from an archive and even license your copy of the software. All this can be done on the Status page, which looks like this:

Administrators can start and stop Express Server, license their copy of Express Server software, consult logs and recover previous configurations — all from a single page in the Express Server Manager.

Version 8 of Express Server also introduces support for Geospatial PDF, so you can take advantage of PDF source imagery and serve a broader range of users.

It’s easy to take Express Server 8 for a spin, too. You only have to download and install it once — the trial version is the same installation as the permanently licensed version. If you like what you see and purchase the software, you simply copy and paste a license code that we send you and your Express Server is street legal. Try it today!

The free 30-day trial is available here: http://www.lizardtech.com/downloads/category/#free_trials.

To learn more about Express Server visit http://www.lizardtech.com/products/exp/.

If you’ve ever wondered about our Express Server product — what it is, what it does, how it works — relief has finally arrived. Not that you couldn’t always just call or email us and bat the subject around with a sales representative (you still can), but for those shy persons among you and those of you who like to do research before committing yourselves to conversation, you can now read all about Express Server image serving software in the quiet of your own browser.

GeoPlace.com has published a new LizardTech white paper titled “How Express Server Software Improves Geospatial Image Delivery”. It provides an overview of what Express Server does, describes how it fits into geospatial workflows, and then dives into some of Express Server’s more amazing features and how they work. We can feel your curiosity brimming over even from where we’re sitting.

• Do we describe the different caching strategies that enable Express Server to put pixels in front of users fast, whether or not the imagery is being used to satisfy WMS requests, or being reprojected upon delivery? We sure do.
• Do we explain how Express Server knows how to overlap one tile over another in a mosaic when an image’s transparency values get changed in compression? You bet!
• Do we show how JPIP-enabled clients can request image data to be streamed across low-bandwidth and even intermittent connections? Of course.

All this and more.

To download a copy, point your browser to http://www.geoplace.com/ME2/Default.asp and click the Download link in the White Papers section. (Note: after a while that link may change; if there’s no LizardTech white paper listed on that page when you go there, then click here: http://form.jotformpro.com/form/21633872862964)

Has MrSID saved your bacon? We’d like to hear about that. The industry standard MrSID file format turns 20 years old this year, and one of the ways we’re celebrating is with a contest.

MrSID debuts in the ’90s, lookin’ sharp.

We’re asking you to send us your story about how MrSID has enabled you to get stuff done (or kept you out of trouble), or about your involvement with any MrSID workflow. In return, you’ll get your name entered for a chance to win an iPad.

Another old MrSID avatar.

Send your anecdote, story, homage, five-act play or other MrSID tribute to “celebrate@lizardtech.com” by July 10th, 2012. Three winners will be selected at random, the first receiving an iPad and the two runner ups each receiving a $50 Amazon.com gift card.

MG4 stands for “MrSID Generation 4″, the latest version.

We’ll announce the winners via Twitter at the Esri Conference in San Diego on July 24th. Our thanks to the geospatial industry for two decades of support!