Mapbox product updates
Changelog:
- Mapbox GL JS — v1.7.0
- Maps SDK for iOS — v5.6.1
- Nav SDK for Android — v1.0.0-beta.1
- Vision SDK for iOS — v0.11.0
- Atlas — v2.6.0
Builders,
In product news: We launched mapbox.com/elections and a new solution architecture for joining real-time data to tilesets — then we found real-time data of Coronavirus was easier to find than the Iowa delegate totals.
For inspiration, we published expert perspectives on public health data visualizations, reminding us of the human component:
“Be mindful … we don’t want visualizations to incite fear — we want them to inform and increase understanding of what’s happening.”
Speaking of understanding, our team is seeking volunteers to help us test-drive some things in Mapbox Studio. Got opinions? Sign up to join our User Research Volunteer Program. We love your feedback. You love creating amazing custom maps. Let’s work together!
3D Code Trophy 🏆
“The most intricate public transit network in the world”
2020 is an Olympic year and Mapbox devs in Japan are already winning gold: The Open Data Challenge for Public Transportation in Tokyo awarded Akihiko Kusanagi a 3M¥ prize for his mesmerizing real-time Mini Tokyo 3D map built with Mapbox + Uber Visualization’s deck.gl:
- See the code — github.com/nagix/mini-tokyo-3d
- See the gold — twitter.com/nagix/status/1222836514725347329
Votes are … in?
Everyone’s +upVoting election maps
2020 US Elections are underway, sorta. Unlike Shadow Inc. we’ve launched tools to help visualize results faster than they can come in. Here’s our new Boundaries data including Congressional and State Legislative districts, and a new real-time mapping tool just in time for Super Tuesday.
- Edge to edge: New Boundaries data gives detailed boundaries edge-matched throughout every zoom level with detailed metadata. Explore to examine any region and switch to localized worldviews.
- Throwbacks welcome: Mapbox Elections, a new resource for media, mappers, and citizens, launched with new tilesets of historical data of the 2004–2016 presidential elections for all users. See our showcase and remix the project on Glitch.
- Keep it fresh: A new solution for making your own real-time maps from election data and spatial boundaries went live. Read more and build with the included source code.
- Similar approach: NYT is using Mapbox to visualize every 2020 election and were ready to render Iowa results as soon as they came in, just in time for a virtual tie between candidates.
- Never go straight to GA: Journalists at NYT and LA Times were ready to render live data … if only volunteers were able to upload it. Mishaps aside, results finally came, and the vendor issued an apology to our democracy.
TAKEAWAY
Analyzing every vote matters. Clear Boundaries and fast data-joins allow developers and journalists to transform complex election data into the infographics and interactives readers need to understand the results.
In the Wild
Launch an album, build a city, track an outbreak
- Pearl Jam launched a worldwide scavenger hunt to the global grunge faithful to reveal their 11th album, Gigaton. The band released coordinates for locations where fans found AR filters showing moving clouds and waterfalls. (Gigaton is a measurement used for the melting of polar ice caps.)
- GoGity took us under the hood, explaining how they combined Mapbox with SceneKit, earcut.hpp, and wagyu to build a captivating game world for city-builders.” Dive deeper here.
- Mapbox China and Sinomaps launched a real-time map to visualize the spread of the Coronavirus that ingests data aggregated from multiple sources and renders it using heatmaps. Check out the “time travel” playback and responsive EN/CN language toggle.
TAKEAWAY
What you build with Mapbox is limited only to your mission or imagination.
Bonus Bytes
Dank Maps
- Not a map, just beautiful aerial footage of Honolulu
- Scrollytelling map for dystopian deforestation
- We did a 3D terrain experiment with our storytelling template
Fresh Docs
- [major updates] Directions API playground
- [new] Use Mapbox.js as a fallback
- [new] Migrating to the modern Static Tiles API
- [new] Migrating to the modern Static Images API
- [new] Extrusions using the Maps SDK for Android
- [new] docs.mapbox.jp — こんにちは世界
Watch and Learn
- Studio — How to customize or hide label text in a Mapbox style
- Maps API — How to add a Mapbox map to a webpage using an iframe
- Solutions — Mapbox Interactive Storytelling in 15 minutes, without code
- Design — Data is the core of every map — print or digital
Upcoming Events
- Webinar: On Location Episode 5 -Tomorrow’s future today, with 5G — 2/18
- Create stunning Map styles and using Mapbox’s Storytelling template in Tableau — 3/12
Join our team
- Senior Product Manager, Geodata — San Francisco or Washington D.C.
- Engineering Manager, Navigation SDK — San Francisco
- PM, Map Rendering — San Francisco or Washington D.C.
- Senior Engineering Manager, Search — San Francisco or Washington D.C.
- Engineering Manager, Logistics — San Francisco
- Senior Content Writer — San Francisco
Skimbox is our monthly newsletter highlighting recent product improvements and use cases so you can easily stay up to date on what’s new. To get every issue of this newsletter, subscribe here.
Maps feature data from Mapbox and OpenStreetMap and their data partners.
What’s new | February 2020 was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.