Skip to Content

What do you buy the Apple fanboy? Visit the TUAW Holiday Gift Guide to find out
AOL Tech

Posts with tag map

Filed under: Fun, Utilities, Google, iPhone

Google Earth comes to the iPhone, and it is good

In an impressive case of two great tastes that taste great together, Google Earth for the iPhone is now available in the iTunes app store. If you like Google Earth on the desktop, you'll like it even more when you can manipulate the globe with your fingertips. Zooming and rotating are easy with the familiar iPhone pinch motion, and the iPhone's GPS adds a new dimension to Earth.

I was hooked on this app from the first time I made Google Earth zoom in on my location. The visuals are stunning, and you can activate Street View once you're zoomed in. It literally took two clicks to get a view of my front door: one click on the location button, and one to allow Google Earth to use the GPS data. There's also a compass button to point you North, and a search function that even includes your Address Book contacts. The only thing missing is a tilt mode: it would be fun to explore the earth by using the accelerometer, but it wouldn't be very practical.

UPDATE: Google Earth does have a tilt mode! You can turn it on and off in the preferences. Thanks, Belden.

CORRECTION: Street View isn't coming until the iPhone 2.2 firmware is released. The satellite image of my apartment is just at an odd angle and looks really good on an iPhone screen. Thanks, Steve.

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Web services, Google, Freeware

Browse the news geographically, explore the stars with Google Earth

Google Earth news
Just when you thought -- "I wonder what Google could possibly develop next?" -- the company busts out a new layer for Google Earth which gives users the ability to browse the day's New York Times headlines by region.

In all honesty, the feature is a great idea, and we're sure the company has some work to do (hopefully adding support for other news outlets), but it comes off as "half-assed" for now with New York (what a surprise!) getting the most NY Times markers. California, Mexico, Michigan, and a few other places get a marker too, and as you can see in the picture, the NY Times provides Google with the most important of news stories. Oh well, it'll probably get a lot better.

Other Google Earth improvements in version 4.2 include a simpler GUI, high-res photos of terrain, the ability to explore stars and constellations, and more.

[via Techmeme]

Filed under: Internet, News, Google

Google Maps diminishing value of homes, causing "mental suffering"?

google maps street view of oakridge lane
A couple is accusing Google of diminishing the value of their property and causing them "mental" suffering" for including their recluse home in the Google Maps Street View project. The road leading up to their house is apparently labeled "private", something the Street View operator must've missed. We checked the Street View footage up to the house and didn't notice any clear "private" signs, but don't take our scientific analysis as fact.

They didn't like that Google invaded their "privacy". Some of the court papers are available online, and if you check them out, you'll notice mainly boring gibberish but also the address of the home. Suing Google has already done more damage to their "privacy" than the pictures on their own.

Aaron and Christine Boring want at least $25,000 and the 360 degree pictures destroyed, but something tells us the case doesn't stand a chance against Google's well paid, state-of-the-art, corporate lawyers, which come from the best lawyer factories in the nation.

Filed under: Features, Hardware, Symbian, Productivity

Hands-on: GPS with Maemo Mapper on the N800

Last time we took a look at the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, we showed how to do some fun, if easy, stuff with it--like setting up custom RSS news sources, placing VoIP calls, and even playing a little Quake 2. Now, we've assembled a new video demonstrating one of the most quirky hacks you can pull off with Nokia's little handheld computer: assembling a functional GPS tracking system using a Bluetooth GPS receiver and freely-available software.

In this feature, we'll show you how to set up Maemo Mapper, the open-source navigation software, and how to obtain and install the map tile images you'll need to equip your N800 with both street maps and satellite imagery. We'll also see how the N800 compares to Nokia's N95 smart phone, which carries onboard GPS hardware and mapping software.

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services, Google, Search

Google gets closer to earth

Google gets closer to earthTime to get virtually closer to a few more pieces to the Earth's landscape. Google Earth, which will be followed by Google Maps, has updated imagery in the US, Latin America, Africa, India, China, Australia and New Zealand.

Google isn't saying exactly where to find the updates, which hit 130 countries. So if you think it is going to be easy to find the new imagery, think again. You are going to have to work a little. Google has put together a list of 11 clues as to where the updates are. Here is one to get you off and running on your Google Earth trip:

The Trojan horse from the 2004 movie Troy is visible in this city:

If any DLSers are map explorers, or have come across the recently updated satellite imagery, feel free to drop a note in the comments as to the locations.

Filed under: Business, Design, Fun, Internet, Productivity, Web services

Plan your trips at TripCart

Plan your trips at TripCart

As the weather slowly shifts from summer to fall, many of us are left thinking about traveling south for some sun. With plenty of trip planning websites out there, TripCart focuses on combining all attractions into a single convenient location.

When the time to getaway rolls around, check in with TripCart. This travel website focuses on attractions that would be interesting to hit up when traveling in the U.S. Select a destination and TripCart pulls up Google Map with pinpoints of places to check out, including hotels, places of interest, theme parks, shopping, golf, sporting events, nature/parks, zoos and aquariums. It certainly takes the hassle out of visiting multiple locations for vacation planning.

Even more useful are the in depth descriptions of cities and the locations around where you are searching. Great if you have never been to the area before.

[via profy]

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services, Google

Where not to speed in Toronto mashup

where not to speed in toronto ontatioWhile we don't condone speeding here at DLS, this is a Google Map mashup that pinpoints locations that people might not want to go above the speed limits in the Toronto, Ontario area.

This male targeted mashup pinpoints the locations more commonly home to hidden police cruisers with radar on their minds. By clicking on cars, users are presented with a description of where they are normally situated. Ok, so this map is great when you are sitting on your computer, but what about when you are out on the road, good luck remembering all these locations. No need to fret, there is a data download that can be imported into GPS devices.

Speedtrap, Beartraps and Copspy also track the locations of where our nation's finest police officers are doing their job.

Filed under: Design, Developer, Fun, Internet, Web services

Browsing Amazon in a few creative ways

BROWSING AMAZON CREATIVELYFlipping through the categories in Amazon can get a little boring after a while, especially if you're just checking in to see if something catches your attention. So why not browse it in a creative way?

Josh Catone has outlined five different ways that users can check out goods on Amazon. From Flash visualization tools to relationship explorers, this small list covers them. They might not be for you, and they may not be the most effective at hunting for the products you want, but they sure do serve up the information in a creative way.
  • LivePlasma uses flash to visualize Amazon's store and links music, artists, bands, movies, directors and actors and gathers information creating a display of related products.
  • Flowser also uses Flash to visualize Amazon's store and provides the top three results for each category searched in.
  • BrowseGoods lets users move and zoom in on Amazon's product galleries. Its very selective right now with only contains cookware, shoes, sporting goods, toys and watches at the moment. Clicking on an item expands it in an info box.
  • TuneGlue, a relationship explorer, mashes data from Amazon and Last.fm, displaying different relationships between musical artists.
  • Coverpop uses covers of goods displayed in a collage format, mousing over expands the covers for a closer look, and link out to Amazons page.
All of these sources are just a different way to get a different view of what Amazon has in stock. We have to assume that all of these visualization tools get their revenue from Amazon's affiliate program. Nonetheless, it gets the information to you in a more creative way with the use of API's and mashup techniques, if you're in to that.

Filed under: Design, Developer, Fun, Internet, Blogging, Web services

Poll the world with PollMappr

poll the world with pollmapprAre you dying to know some answers to a brewing question you have? Get the answers out with PollMappr.

There are plenty of online poll generation tools that demand a fee for usage, and a few free ones that tend to stray on the dull side. PollMappr lets users put polls on their blogs, websites or social network. The fun doesn't stop there however, PollMappr maps where on earth the answers are coming from. Upon viewing the poll results, users and poll generators can click and be taken on a trip through Google Earth to see where people came from.

So not only do you get your questions answered in a few simple steps, you can study the pinpointed locations and get a better understanding of your polls respondents.

Gallery: PollMappr

sample questionssample answersSetting up a questionSetting up choicesFinal poll

Filed under: Design, Developer, Fun, Internet, Photo, Web services, Social Software

Document your life with Maptales

Document your life with MaptalesYou might come across many interesting things during your day to day travels, and may have even thought about how to go about sharing them with others. Google now lets users pinpoint where pictures are taken with Picasa Web, but Maptales lets you tell a story.

Maptales is powered by Google Maps, and allows users to tell a story by pinpointing locations, and showing a route on a map. Users can create and upload their story from a blog or Flickr account, and also from mobile devices. Paging through ones posted story takes users through the journey they have created, and even displays the longitude and latitude. Getting started requires an invitation key, Maptales does provide an email address where you can ask for one.

The project was built by a small team based in Austria, and hey, if you are interested in helping develop it, they are hunting for experts in CSS, Google Earth & Maps, JavaScript, and XML.

Gallery: Maptales

MaptalesMaptales

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Utilities, Web services

Finding cell phone signals with SignalMap

signalmap, mapping cell phone signalsCell phone signals are pretty easy to catch now. Major providers have boosted their signals, and troubleshooted hard to reach areas, but every once and a while we hit a dead spot and the dreaded "hello?, hello? Are you there? hello?" kicks into play.

SignalMap hopes to alleviate any pain in this area. They have used the Google Maps API and mapped up a user generated list of cell phone signals by major service providers, mapping dead spots and comparing signal strengths.

There are a lot of mapped signal areas, but it is not by any means a comprehensive guide at the moment. However, it's building into a great site to check before heading out on business or pleasure to check if you might be heading into a bad area. To help the directory grow users can add their signal strengths, phone type and carrier to the list.

Gallery: SignalMap

0 bars, bad location for AT&TPerfect signal for TMobile3 signals in NewYork3 bars on VerizonAdding a cell phone signal to the list

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services, Google

Map your photos with Google's latest feature in Picasa Web Albums

google picasa web albums image mapping

No more forgetting where you took that picture on your vacation, Google has now made it possible for users to pinpoint the exact places they took their photos by mapping photos.

A new feature called "Map My Photos" was released on Tuesday in Picasa Web Albums, lets users show exactly where on a map pictures were taken. When creating an album, fill out the Place Taken field, or drag and drop individual photos straight onto a map. It's that simple.

You can then share these maps with friends either through Picasa Web Albums or through Google Earth (by clicking on the "View in Google Earth" button on the top right). Google has set up a test gallery you can take a peek at.

Filed under: Internet, Web services

Walk It: Mapquest for British walkers

Walk ItGoogle has added public transit info for some cities, although it looks like we'll have to wait a little while before Google Transit expands beyond a limited number of cities. And HopStop gives you transit and walking directions in a limited number of US cities.

But so far most services that provide directions online assume you're driving a car. Mapquest, Google Maps, and pretty much everybody else calculates time based on driving time, and distance based on streets. If you try to follow those directions on foot, you could end up on the highway, or at the very least going unnecessarily out of your way to follow one-way streets.

Walk It is aimed squarely at people on foot. It only covers a few British cities right now (Edinburgh, Birmingham and central London). It'd be nice to see someone develop one service that can provide driving, walking, and public transit directions fro a whole country. But until then, it's nice to see services like Walk It pop up to fill the gap.

One thing that's a bit odd about Walk It's map is that you pull the scrollbar on the left down to zoom in, and up to zoom out, which is the opposite of Google Maps, Mapquest and other services.

[via AppScout]

Filed under: Business, Developer, Web services, Google

Google buys Panoramio to use with Google Earth

google buys PanoramioGoogle is all about buying companies. Not just any company, companies that help with their mission to organize all of the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Well, they have done it again with a site we profiled late last year, Panoramio.

Panoramio was built as a Google Maps mashup that lets users map photos based on geographic locations. The company is based in Spain and connects digital photographers with the ability to geo locate, store and organize photos in Google Earth. An API is also available with Panoramio that lets developers embed functionality into websites.

Google has already been using Panoramio's images in Google Earth as a default layer since early this year.

Filed under: Design, Fun, Internet, Web services, Google

Get everyone to the wedding on time with Wedding Mapper

wedding mapperGetting hitched soon? Or know a friend that is? This is the perfect tool to use to ensure everyone gets to your wedding events on time.

Wedding Mapper is an online tool that allows people to map out their wedding and all events associated with it so that friends, family and photographers can locate places easily on an interactive map. The mapping tool is free to use, and doesn't take long at all to set up.

Users can get started by entering the location where the wedding is taking place, then entering the date, or dates, that it will take place and Names of the bride and groom. After that, you're brought to the map where you simply drag and drop pinpoints to specify locations, or enter an address to show the exact spot. Photos, Descriptions, Locations and Comments can be added to each so everyone can be provided with as much information is necessary to get to the event on time, and not get lost.

The site is supported by ads, which can be removed for a one time fee of $9.95. That membership also includes a custom URL, ability to add links to wedding registries or other services, and file uploading for wedding invitations that can be printed out.

[via Emily Chang]

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
SXSWi 2008 Schwag Unboxing
SXSWi 2008 Day 1
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

BloggingStocks Tech Coverage

More Tech Coverage

Joystiq

TUAW

BloggingStocks

Autoblog

Xbox 360 Fanboy

Engadget

WOW Insider

Switched.com

FanHouse