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The biggest difference is speed, layers of weather data have improved and load even faster.
The rainfall layer shows you a radar image of rain across the country. The different colours show different intensities of rain, from dark blue (least severe rain) to white (most severe).
Faster radar and coverage expanded users will find the 'Tools' easier to control opacity (even in timeline mode).
Timeline:(animated weather in time lapse)
The timeline has been improved due to the layers speed, one of the most important parts of the weather map. By clicking on timeline, you can see recent observations or forecast weather.
The weather that is being displayed on the map has its date and time shown on the timeline, and its segment is highlighted in green.
Note that segments on the left-hand side (weather already happened) have a grey bottom. Segments on the right (which show show weather forecasts) have a green bottom.
As your mouse moves over each segment, you will see the date and time of the information, shown in light blue. Click the segment to display the weather you're hovering over.
With some options, there is a play button shown next to the timeline. Clicking it will step through the information one segment at a time. This can be very useful to see how rainfall or cloud is moving across your area. Click the pause button to stop the animation.
Layers that can't be animated show a play button with a red line through it.
The locations box now allows you to store up to 8 places, for quick navigation to those points on the map.
The pressure layer now shows text and lines called isobars. Each isobar connects points that have the same atmospheric pressure.
Require imperial measurements?, then they are available in preferences. Welsh is in the pipeline but not available currently.
National Parks (Leisure areas) have now got there own unique weather warnings, specifically to highlight Blizzards, Heavy snow, Storm force winds,Gales, Severe chill effect, Persistent extensive hill fog, Thunderstorms and Heavy persistent rain.
UK Live Maps users get back Live Maps! (not Multimap)
"But a couple of unfortunate bugs caused the redirect to not go as planned! One issue was that the MultiMap site was supposed to have prominent links back to Live Maps so that visitors could easily get back if they wanted. Also, web surfers who specifically entered maps.live.com in their browser should not have been redirected at all; only the links from the MSN homepage and other places should have been redirecting to Multimap. But the redirection bug caused all requests for Maps.live.com to redirect to Multimap and was compounded by the fact that there was no link to get back to Live maps. Ugh. it was an ugly situation indeed" http://virtualearth.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!2BBC66E99FDCDB98!14442.entry
Video VE 6.1 using 3D VE Plugin showing BirdsEye View with IE8 (not IE7 emulated) .
UK Users visting Live Maps - get Multimap and are getting annoyed!
update2 - Found some more 'New' Features... Export to KML, GPX or GeoRSS
* Lots of back end improvements (seems much snappier, right off the bat) * Safari and IE8 compatibility ( Mapperz tested and works) * Map Control update to version 6.1 (for developers * Export your Collection to your Nav/GPS device (nice!) * Improved "version 2" cities (Las Vegas, Dallas, Denver, Phoenix , more tocome) * 3D modeling with 3DVIA (much improved) * Labels for Bird's Eye imagery (looks good in London) * 1-Click Directions improvements * MapCruncher Integration (add layers of information from within Live Maps) * "GeoWeb" tagging and collections enhancements * Neighborhood Subscribe via GeoRSS * Tour Enhancements including Hi-Def Movies * Directions and Traffic Enhancements * Improved KML display including Google MyMaps links
update1 'A quick VE 6.1 mashup' Birdeye View now has labels and roads as an option. try it here
New Virtual Earth API Release - Virtual Earth 6.1
"You thought our photo-texturing was good before? Check it out now Yes, those are trees!"
Microsoft have launched a new version of the Virtual Earth API. The release has a host of new features and takes advantage of some of the capabilities on Live Search Maps.
Here is the list of new features:
Immersive Imagery Virtual Earth is an industry leader in providing precise views of the world through bird’s eye1 view and panning, and improved 3D model accuracy and resolution, among other features. Precise imagery creates immersive end-user experiences that bring location-based information to life. More Detailed 3D Experiences: With this latest release, the map detail for Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; Dallas, TX; and Denver, CO features improvements in 3D model accuracy and resolution detail to reveal more buildings, small terrain features, building textures, and trees that enhance overall realism. This enhanced 3D map detail will soon roll out to the more than 250 cities where 3D models are currently available.
Image enhancements Tailored 3D Tours. Media producers can customize video output of 3D fly though tours in six resolutions, in 15 or 30 frames per second, and can add photos and hide or display pushpin icons. Bird’s Eye View in 3D. Users can easily toggle bird’s eye view on and off for a seamless end-user experience. Bird’s Eye Hybrid View. Customers can now select a new map style called Bird’s Eye Hybrid that adds street names to the bird’s eye maps to provide end users better visual context and orientation.
Enhanced Location Functionality
This latest release of Virtual Earth provides organizations with a host of new features that deliver directions—in more languages—to get users where they’re going faster. With enhanced tools that provide greater flexibility and control over the development of location solutions, organizations can continue to update and enhance their online experience to help them remain competitive and provide satisfying end-user experiences.
New Walking Directions. When traveling on foot, users in North America and the European Union can now find the most direct route to walk to their destination, ignoring one-way streets, medians, and other detours that pertain to motor vehicles.
New Traffic-based Routing. Want to take the frontage road and avoid the highway at rush hour? Users can now choose alternate routes based on current traffic flows to get where they’re going faster.
New Reverse Geocoding. Users in the U.S. can now find the closest street address based only on latitude and longitude coordinates from a GPS or other geospatial device.
Improved Localized Directions. Organizations can now provide users with localized driving or walking directions in 15 languages, including English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Italian, among others.
New Locales. The Virtual Earth dashboard, or navcontrol, is localized to support languages including English for U.S.-based speakers, Japanese, Italian, Spanish for U.S.-based speakers, as well as French for both France and Canada-based speakers.
Enhanced Infrastructure he Virtual Earth platform is designed for the enterprise user, from features to support. This 6.1 release enhances the platform infrastructure with new cross-browser support to reach more users. The Interactive SDK is available now to demonstrate the latest features and functionality.
Safari Support. The new map control includes improved support for Apple Safari 2 and new support for Safari 3, enabling Mac users to enjoy many of the features of Virtual Earth that are available on Internet Explorer®.
Improved Printing Support. Printing support for maps is enhanced to print the driving route in relation to the map. Printing support is also expanded for cross-browser support of Internet Explorer 6 and 7, Firefox 2 for PC, and Safari 2 and 3 for Mac only.
Updated Interactive SDK. Customers can now access the new Virtual Earth Interactive SDK for online viewing or via download, to demonstrate the new functionality of the Virtual Earth map control.
In addition to the new features they have fixed over 100 "bugs!"
