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.

We’re pretty pumped. Why? Well, we always are — that’s how we make such great software. But in particular, our white paper on the MrSID Generation 4 (MG4™) technology has been republished by the good folks at GeoPlace.com, so that word about the format’s new features — support for multispectral imagery, alpha band transparency, support for LiDAR point cloud data and improved mosaics — can reach an even wider audience of users.

If you haven’t seen it yet we encourage you to read it and learn about the capabilities of LizardTech’s latest version of the format that first made it possible for geospatial professionals to use high resolution imagery in their applications and that continues to evolve with advancements in geospatial imaging.

Visit GeoPlace.com, look for the section “White Papers” in the main column on the home page, and click Download now.

We’re excited about the release of Express Server® 7 image serving software. You already know that Express Server is the fastest, most stable, and easiest way to distribute high-resolution raster imagery. Who doesn’t know that? But what you may not know is that besides running as a 32-bit application as it always has, Express Server also can be installed as a 64-bit application on 64-bit systems, which means you can take full advantage of increased memory for performance gains.

Express Server 7 is available now.

And that’s just one reason to look at the new version of Express Server. Here’s another: support for MG4™, the latest version of LizardTech’s MrSID® image format. Through the use of alpha bands, MrSID Generation 4 enables true transparency, which means Express Server 7 can deliver better looking mosaics.

Even more exciting, MG4 supports multi- and hyperspectral imagery, and Express Server 7 enables you to specify any three bands to serve out. You can create any number of band-mapped catalogs so that any image in a given catalog will be served with your desired band arrangement. You can also use the same image for any number of band groupings. This gives you unprecedented flexibility in serving imagery for your geospatial end users.

We hope you like Express Server 7 as much as we do. If you’re at the 2011 Esri User Conference this week, stop by and visit our team at Booth #1311. They’ll be happy to talk with you about image delivery or any other needs you have.

For more information about Express Server, visit http://www.lizardtech.com/products/exp/.

Do you remember the riddle about crossing the river with your fox, your duck and some corn? You only have one small canoe, so you can only take two of your possessions across at a time. The problem is how to get them all to the other side without the duck eating the corn or the fox eating the duck.

Well, we’re having our office space remodeled and the shuffling questions have been similarly complex. We’re not worried that the engineering Lizards will try to eat the sales and marketing Lizards or anything, but walls are coming down and people are having to move over and share space.

Our hardworking sales force are gregarious high-energy types that make use of plenty of joshing, banter and even some bizarre character-building rituals as part of the way they get their work done. Our engineers do their socializing in weekly meetings, then retreat to their desks to puzzle out code issues in solitude or huddled in twos or threes around each others’ computers or whiteboards. Some Lizards were wondering how long it would be possible for us all to work cheek by jowl together before the engineers would all be working from home.

It turns out that it isn’t a problem, and we’ve all been getting to know each other. The sales crew has been really considerate regarding decibels, so there hasn’t been the disruption to the engineers’ precious quiet. And in return, the development team are developing an appreciation of the job that sales and marketing does. (It turns out that these people have been selling the software we build back here). To get to our desks the engineers have to navigate sales’ slap-tunnel of amicable teasing. It seems worth it. Maybe it takes a little disruption in the routine to bring about closer inter-office relations.

In case you were wondering, we’ll still be supporting our products (and selling them!) during the build-out. We expect construction to last through late January.

Oh, and by the way, the answer to the riddle involves three trips across the river and keeping the duck away from the other two the whole time.

Happy Holidays.

Photo courtesy of Walter Wittel.

We’re pretty excited. Last week we announced that version 11.01 of Global Mapper supports LizardTech™ MrSID™ Generation 4 (MG4) among its many supported elevation formats. Mapmakers who use Global Mapper will now benefit from being able to load point clouds compressed using LizardTech Lidar Compressor™ into Global Mapper.

Earlier this week we were able to announce that Merrick & Company has similarly integrated MG4 support into its MARS^® (Merrick Advanced Remote Sensing) software application. Users of MARS 6.0, available now, can load MG4 files into MARS for visualizing and managing LiDAR terrain datasets.

How are they doing this? They’re using LizardTech’s MrSID Generation 4 Decode SDK, a free download.

Oh, and we should remind any ArcGIS 3D Analyst users that MG4 files are supported via LizardTech’s free MrSID Plug-in for ArcGIS 3D Analyst (http://www.lizardtech.com/download/dl_options.php?page=plugins), so you can work with MG4 files the same way you work with LAS files to create contours and surfaces.

The way we feel about all this is: The more the merrier.