A few new 3D cities in Google Earth

As reported by the Google Earth Blog, there are a few new 3D cities in Google Earth — Pittsburgh, PA and Seattle, WA.  There may be others, but those are the two that have been found so far.

I’ll keep poking around see if any other cities have fresh 3D imagery in them.  Here’s a shot from Pittsburgh, which looks great.

Continue reading » · Rating: · Written on: 11-14-08 · 1 Comment »

Amazing 3D recreation of Ancient Rome in Google Earth

Google is about to unveil a new layer for Google Earth that shows over 5700 3D buildings from the city of Rome, circa 320 AD.  This is based at least in part from the model of the city we showed you last year from the University of Virginia.  If nothing else, they’re both based off the the “Plastico di Roma Antica”, a highly detailed plaster version of Rome that was built in the 1970’s.

The layer is not yet available, but will be found under “Gallery –> Ancient Rome 3D” when it’s released.  You can find much more info about this layer at the Google Earth Blog, the Official Google Blog, Google’s new Ancient Rome page, or the video below.

Continue reading » · Rating: · Written on: 11-12-08 · No Comments »

Google Earth has arrived on the iPhone

Somewhat out of the blue, though not totally unexpected after we saw EarthScape, Google Earth has been released for the iPhone!

It’s still being rolled out (Australia and Japan can get it now), and it’s not available for my area yet.  I’ll post more details once I get it.

A little more info can be found on the Google Earth Blog, or you can check out the screenshots below.

Continue reading » · Rating: · Written on: 10-26-08 · 2 Comments »

A few more 3D cities in Google Earth

Just a few weeks after they added a bunch of new 3D cities to Google Earth, there appear to be a few more.  As of right now, according to the Google Earth Blog, the new cities are Los Angeles and San Diego.  As with the other cities, these two are absolutely stunning.

There are likely some others, but those are all we know about for now.  If you hear of any others, please let us know and we’ll update this post.

Continue reading » · Rating: · Written on: 10-17-08 · No Comments »

Google Earth imagery update

It appears that another Google Earth imagery update is underway, covering a variety of locations around the world.  The latest list, as provided by the Google Earth Blog, includes:

  • Large portions of India
  • Various places in the US, including parts of North Carolina and Utah
  • Northern Mexico
  • Romania — maybe the entire country?
  • Parts of Spain
  • The entire Czech Republic

If you find other areas that you think might be new, you can check using Google Maps.  Maps still hasn’t been updated, so if the imagery for a particular area is different in Earth and Maps, then it’s one of the newly updated areas.

Let us know if you find anything beyond what is listed above.

Continue reading » · Rating: · Written on: 10-13-08 · No Comments »

Tons of new 3D buildings in Google Earth

As reported by the Google Earth Blog, Google Earth is now featuring thousands of new 3D buildings.  Some of the updated cities include:

 

  • Atlanta
  • Chicago
  • Jacksonville
  • Miami Beach
  • Nashville
  • Philadelphia
  • San Diego
  • St. Petersburg
There are also new buildings in a  variety of European countries.  There are probably others as well, so please let us know in the comments if you find any.
Continue reading » · Rating: · Written on: 10-01-08 · 1 Comment »

Virtual Earth 6.2 released, with stunning clouds

Virtual Earth 6.2 has been released, with a whole host of new features.  Among them:

  • New imagery —  ”Richer bird’s eye” and new 3D imagery, but I can’t find a list of what’s been updated.
  • Weather integration — Real-time clouds (see more below)
  • Localized maps — English, German, French, Italian and Spanish.
  • Near-matching — Helps find locations with alternate and similar spellings.
  • Landmark-based routing
  • Rich imagery for mobile users — Their screenshot shows an iPhone, but I can’t make it work on mine.  Maybe I need a specific URL?
  • One-click directions

The new imagery might be worth writing about, but I can’t find what’s new.  However, the clouds are very cool.  Fly down low in a city, look up, then wait a few seconds.  Pop!  There they are.

Unlike the clouds in Google Earth, these are fully 3D semi-transparent clouds.  Flying through them, they look almost real — it’s very impressive.There are a few downsides, though.  For one, they load in square tile areas.  If you fly too quickly, they’ll disappear until the next set loads.  Also, there is no way to leave them on and get a satellite view of an area from up high; if you fly very high above them, they simply go away to leave you with a clear view of the ground.

I’ll leave you with a short video demo of the clouds, shot by Frank Taylor at Google Earth Blog.  With it, you can really see just how cool this feature is.  He’s using a SpaceNavigator to fly through them, a tool which I strongly recommend for any avid Virtual Earth (or Google Earth) user.

Continue reading » · Rating: · Written on: 09-25-08 · No Comments »

Details on the Google Earth imagery update

We reported a few days ago about the imagery update for Google Earth, and now they’ve released details about exactly what has been updated:

Americas:

  • USA: Chicago, Houston, Tampa, Nassau County (NY), Westchester County (NY), Rockland County (NY), Putnam County (NY), Rensselaer County, Albany County (NY), Schenectady County (NY), SaratogaCounty (NY), Tompkins County (NY), Schuyler County (NY), Seneca County (NY), Yates County (NY), Steuben County (NY), Allegany County (NY), Cattaraugus County (NY), West Virginia, part of Rhode Island, part of Massachusetts, and part of New Hampshire.
  • Canada: Middlesex County (ON)

Europe, Middle East, & Africa:

  • Spain: Cartagena, Costa Blanca
  • France: Paris, Orleans, Cannes, Nice, Saint-Tropaz
  • Italy: Torino, Bologna, Ancona, Lucca, Latina, Capraia Island, Stintino, Villasimius, Palermo, Agrigento
  • Switzerland: Zurich, Oberhasli, Thun, Emmental-Oberaargau, Basel, St. Gallen
  • Monaco: entire country
  • Czech Republic: Prague, Ostrava
  • Slovakia: entire country

Asia & Oceania:

  • Japan: Kobe, Kyoto, Kawasaki, Saitama, Chiba
  • Australia: Canberra, Wollongong, The Great Ocean Road

New high resolution satellite imagery: sprinkled around the globe, with heavier concentrations in Canada, Mexico, and China.

New 2.5m base imagery for: Greece, Turkey, and Australia.

Continue reading » · Rating: · Written on: 09-09-08 · 1 Comment »

Very cool 3D navigation product released

A cool looking 3D navigation program called Navi2Go from 3DVU has just been released.  It uses real world imagery and terrain and puts it in the palm of your hand as a GPS navigation device.  It’s got the look and feel of Google Earth, with the usefulness of a TomTom.

Of course, the usefulness of a device like this is how well it routes, re-routes, and simply gets you from point A to point B.  I haven’t seen a real review of the device yet, so that remains to be seen.

As of now, it’s available on a wide variety of Windows Mobile, Symbian and BlackBerry devices, with iPhone support “coming soon”.

More information can be found at GISuser or on 3DVU.com.

Continue reading » · Rating: · Written on: 09-06-08 · No Comments »

Major imagery update for Google Earth

It appears that Google Earth has just received a major imagery update.  There is no official word from Google yet, but Google Earth Blog is reporting a wide variety of updates.  They include:

 

  • US: Houston, TX — West Virginia — East Massachusetts — Albany, NY
  • Areas of Australia
  • Turkey
  • Paris, France
  • Near Toronto, Canada
  • Parts of Italy
  • Parts of Switzerland
Frank is keeping the GEB list updated, so check back there often.  If you notice anything else new, please post it in their comments.
Continue reading » · Rating: · Written on: 09-05-08 · 2 Comments »