Google Earth is an amazing resource, but if there’s one criticism that can be leveled at it, it’s that it’s permanently out of date due to the lag between when the data is acquired and when it appears online. But right now, a pair of Californian startups are putting swarms of tiny satellites into space, creating real-time satellite imagery that will solve that problem. Read more…
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How Swarms of Tiny Satellites Are Creating a Real-Time Google Earth
itwbennett writes “Taiwan is demanding Apple revise its mapping software and remove a label that describes the island as a province of China, rather than as a sovereign state. The complaint was lodged after local media reports said that users on the island had noticed the change in Apple’s latest iOS and Mac OS versions. ‘The maps don’t acknowledge Taiwan as its own nation. We voiced our disapproval, and hope Apple will make the change, ‘ an official with Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Wednesday. This isn’t the first time such a mistake was made. Google also labeled Taiwan as a Chinese province in 2005.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Taiwan Protests Apple Maps That Show Island As Province of China
Gravity’s often assumed to be constant across the entire planet, but because the Earth varies in shape and density, that’s not really the case. Now, this super-accurate gravity map reveals that the fluctuations are even more extreme than scientists previously thought. Read more…
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A Super-Accurate Gravity Map Shows You Where You Can Weigh Less
Though it seems hard to believe, Earth’s gravitational pull is not the same everywhere you go. And as these gorgeously detailed maps now show, these variances are much greater than we thought. Read more…
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New high-res maps of Earth’s surprisingly inconsistent gravity field
It’s not easy being a satellite; permanent imaging gear becomes outdated mere months after launch, and Mother Nature is constantly caught photobombing close-ups, throwing naughty clouds between a lens and the shot. All that makes for some pretty inconsistent online viewing. Fortunately, Google’s stepped in to set things straight, combining the magic of photo stitching with the capture power of a brand-spanking-new Landsat 8 . The result is a cloud-free planet, enabling millions of web-equipped “explorers” to realize improved aerial views as seen from 438 miles above sea level. It’s pretty spectacular, and it’s about friggin’ time. Filed under: GPS , Internet , Google Comments Source: Google Maps
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Google refreshes Maps and Earth with 800,000 megapixels of new satellite imagery
The mysterious comings and goings of our feline friends just got a little less mysterious. Researchers at the Royal Veterinary College loaded a group of cats in Shamley Green, Surrey, with cameras and GPS trackers to figure out how roaming house cats spend their days . Read more…
An anonymous reader writes “Google and Israeli start-up Waze have agreed in principle on a deal in which the search engine giant will buy the road traffic information sharing application for $1.3 billion. Waze, which claims more than 40 million users, describes itself as an app bringing together ‘the world’s largest community of drivers who work together to fight traffic, and save time and gas money on their daily commute.’ There have been previous reports that first Apple and then Facebook wanted to acquire the Israeli start-up.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Google To Buy Waze For $1.3 Billion
Pretty wild, right? It’s a map of Pangea — a supercontinent that formed roughly 300 million years ago — mapped with contemporary geopolitical borders. Read more…
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Here’s what Pangea looks like mapped with modern political borders
According to Bernhard Seefeld, product management director at Google Maps, “this is the most significant overhaul of Maps since it launched in 2005.” We sat down with both Seefeld as well as Jonah Jones — lead designer of Google Maps — following a marathon keynote to kick off Google I/O . Their slice of the event centered around the desktop refresh of Google Maps , but there’s actually a lot more to be excited about than what was announced today. Essentially, the preview that I/O attendees were granted access to is the first instance of Maps for desktop using vectors instead of tiles. In lay terms, that’s a far sexier rendering engine, and users of the mobile Maps products will already be familiar with how it feels. Seefeld affirmed that the new desktop Maps is slightly quicker to load, but you’ll want a WebGL-supporting browser to take advantage of the bells and whistles. (In our tests, the Maps experience was far superior in Chrome compared to Firefox.) We toyed around with the new layout for a bit, and overall, it looks and feels better. Refreshing, you could say. The search box is now entirely more useful, popping up intelligent cards beneath places you search for. You’ll have glanceable access to operating hours, surrounding traffic and recommended places — that’s not new, it’s just surfaced in a more sensible way now. There’s also dedicated shortcuts to directions and starring. Visually, it looks a lot nicer, the zooms are a little cleaner, and the search box is a tad more useful. Street View is accessed via the search box now, and there’s a toggle on the right side that overlays Google Earth data and (impressively) shows it from varying degrees of tilt. The magic really begins after you sign in with your Google account. If you’ve starred or rated a restaurant using Google Maps or Google+, for example, it’ll automatically populate recommended eateries that your friends have rated highly. If, of course, your friends are using Google+. Gallery: Redesigned Google Maps for Desktop hands-on at Google I/O 2013 Filed under: GPS , Software , Google Comments Source: Google Maps preview
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Redesigned Google Maps hands-on: vector-based, more personal and coming soon to mobile
This is the culmination of Rick Aschmann’s years-long “hobby” of collecting dialects. It’s a comprehensive and detailed map of the dialects (and sub-dialects!) of English-speakers in Canada and the United States. Read more…
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An Interactive Map of Regional American Accents, With Audio