Reading Time: < 1 minAccording to Rafe Needleman of Webware, StreetView will be available inside of Google Earth “within a few weeks”. Rafe quotes an unnamed source with that info. He states that it’s not clear if this will be a public release or an internal testing release. If done smoothly, this could be very slick. It’ll be interesting […]
Virtual Earth / Live Maps
Some background on how Virtual Earth creates 3D buildings
Reading Time: < 1 minThe Virtual Earth 3D blog has a post today that explains in detail how they create each 3D city. From the article: Microsoft’s acquisition of Vexcel Corporation, a 20-year old provider of remote sensing solutions, provided the Virtual Earth team with a broad background in photogrammetry, geospatial data production, and digital elevation model (DEM) generation […]
Hybrid view coming to Virtual Earth’s Bird’s Eye imagery
Reading Time: < 1 minOn April 10, Microsoft plans to release Virtual Earth version 6.1. Among the enhancements: Enhanced experiences with bird’s eye view in 3D, and new bird’s eye hybrid view. Reverse geocoding for U.S. users. Walking directions for North America and European Union users. Traffic-based driving directions. New cross-browser support. Improved printing support for maps. That’s quite […]
Another big imagery/3D update for Virtual Earth
Reading Time: 2 minMicrosoft just doesn’t play around. They’re back with another absolutely massive update, this one totaling around 27TB! I love the amount of 3D they continue to push out. It’s slightly lower quality than Google Earth, but the sheer volume of it more than compensates. Much of the new imagery is for cities that have new […]
Mobile demo of Virtual Earth at CES
Reading Time: < 1 min(via VE / LM) Yesterday at CES in Las Vegas, Bill Gates showed off a completely fake but completely cool demo of Virtual Earth on a handheld device. The technology used in the demo is still a few years away, but it’s a cool glimpse at the future. One thing that stood out to me […]
Golf Nation adds Virtual Earth support to 8,000 course listings
Reading Time: < 1 minGolf Nation, one of the largest golf course directories around, has added Virtual Earth maps to supplement their already existing Google Maps. On any of their course pages (here is an example), you can choose between viewing each course in Google maps or in Virtual Earth (look immediately below the small Google Map on that […]
Wii Remote used to control Virtual Earth
Reading Time: < 1 min(via Spatially Adjusted) Here is a slick video showing a person flying through Virtual Earth using the Wii Remote (with a Nunchuk). The movement is strikingly smooth. He’s moving multiple directions at once (something you can’t do with the Sandio mouse), and it almost looks on par with the Space Navigator. I have a Wii, […]
EPA chooses Virtual Earth
Reading Time: < 1 minThe Environmental Protection Agency in the U.S. has a large number of geospacial apps for things such as oil spills, beach water quality, etc. Today they announced that they’ll be using Virtual Earth as the platform for these applications. The reasons for choosing Virtual Earth over Google Earth weren’t clear, but two things stuck out: […]
KML support in Virtual Earth coming soon?
Reading Time: < 1 minAccording to a post on geothought, Microsoft’s Virtual Earth will be supporting KML in September or October of this year. The implications of this are huge, but it appears there isn’t a solid source on it yet. The author (Peter Batty) heard it in a “vendor spotlight” presentation at the GeoWeb conference in Vancouver, but […]
A few new tips on using the Virtual Earth API
Reading Time: < 1 minA couple new API tips were posted today on some Virtual Earth related blogs. First, the Virtual Earth / Live Maps Blog explains how to display their slick new hill shaded tiles using the VE API. I’ve already mentioned how good looking I thought these tiles are, so it’s nice to see an easy way […]