Worldwide Telescope (WWT) now in Bing Maps

Worldwide Telescope (WWT) now in Bing Maps [Preview mode]

The Sky at night (and day) in Bing Maps Explore

With the new Bing Maps Worldwide Telescope (WWT) App you can explore the constellations and other known space objects just like you would navigate through a regular Bing Maps.
To access this use the "Map Apps" and choose Worldwide Telescope


Drag the Telescope image to a location on the map you want to view (this sets the view up as "looking up" from that point from the Earth)


Exploring Planets is made easy from the data catalogue on the left hand side in the legend panel and click the very small "fly to" links. Zooming is very fast but not quite light speed.

View the Sky in Bing Maps
http://www.bing.com/maps/explore
Select >Maps Apps >Worldwide Telescope

For much more details and vast about of pulling tons of collections from the Worldwide Telescope Community including Constellations, Solar System, All-Sky Surveys, Spitzer Studies, Chandra Studies, Hubble Studies, Astrophotography, Radio Studies, NOAO Studies, Gemini Studies, Messier Catalog, Planets/Moons, Earth (Bing!), Panoramas, and Tours.
Then go to:
http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/maps/archive/2010/03/10/new-bing-maps-application-worldwide-telescope.aspx

Microsoft 'Static' Birds Eye View [Staging Preview]

Microsoft 'Static' Birds Eye View [Staging Preview]

Virtual Earth April 2009 update:

"This release is a mere 9+ TB of data; however, it covers over 1 million square kilometers of Earth"

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtualearth/archive/2009/04/28/virtual-earth-imagery-release-april-2009.aspx


The Microsoft Virtual Earth Web Service SDK now allows you to access images in a static way

The are advantages to this including:

• Creating seamless 'stitched' images

• Generation for mobile devices (non-javascript or flash based)

• Inserting into documents

Getting Static Birds eye Images Using Microsoft's Virtual Earth Web Service

try it here
http://cp.cloudapp.net/GetBirdsEyeImage.aspx


courtesy of Chris Pendleton

Also available for road, aerial, hybrid tiles for use in desktop and mobile access.
see
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtualearth/archive/2009/04/23/rendering-static-virtual-earth-bird-s-eye-images.aspx
for more information

CloudMade - A Preview the Future of Mapping

CloudMade - A Preview the Future of Mapping

update:


Have faster maps - if you use Open Street Map - Please donate to help get whizzy fast servers.
http://donate.openstreetmap.org/

• Funding Target: £ 10,000
• Raised: £15,579 (155.79%) - Well Done!
• Google donates £5,000 (source: twitter)
  

(invest your money here rather than a UK bank - your get a better return)

And there are thanks from the Open Street Map Team
"UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who has donated. Any additional contributions raised will be used to fund additional hardware on other under resourced OpenStreetMap servers."


Sneek Peek - Cycling directions with option to export to JSON or GPX format

"On the evening of the 12th February, CloudMade invite you to preview the future of mapping application development. Our developer launch event will feature a keynote talk from CloudMade Founder Steve Coast, who will share his pioneering vision of mapping."

The evening will also feature presentations from a selection of CloudMade partners who will demonstrate never seen before web and mobile applications built using CloudMade's web services. You'll have the opportunity to talk one on one to the CloudMade team and to our partner developers to find out exactly how CloudMade can help you build better applications.

The London launch event will be held at the Holborn Bars, 138-142 Holborn, The City, London, EC1N 2NQ (view on map). There will be a drinks reception and networking from 6 - 6.30pm followed by presentations and the launch event. The event will conclude around 8.30pm, with some time for additional networking.

"CloudMade's web services are going to change the way your users experience geo apps. We've been working on a set of Tools and APIs to give you access to verified OpenStreetMap data on the platform you choose in the formats you want."

Two developer events in San Francisco and London will introduce you to CloudMade's unique services. If you're a developer building web, mobile or desktop mapping applications, these are the events for you.

Sneek peek video showing the neat map editor 'Edit Map Styles'



CloudMade StyleEditor ScreenCast from CloudMade on Vimeo.

New Improved Microsoft Live Maps Soon

Update 16/10/2007
This is now live to all
New Post
http://mapperz.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-live-maps-goes-live.html

Nearly New Microsoft Live Maps


Image Source LiveSlide
They have listened to users feedback and have released a few 'sneek' peek improvements.

Live Maps Preview

Whats changed?

1. The second confusing search box is gone.
2. The map control moves to the upper left corner
3. more too be announced ... (support for KML geothought thinks so?)
   

Major improvements in traffic and driving directions includes

• directions with either the start or the finished directions compressed.

• another directions improvement is a traffic re-director based on real-time traffic data.

• one click directions if you are inviting others to an event,supports multiple starting points

• 1-click directions will show directions from the North, South, East, and West

3D Improvements

• incorporating Birds Eye photography pictures directly into the 3D map

• a new way to create 3D collections that "flyover" of collection points

More new features and improvements pending - reportedly due in couple weeks.

More screen shots and details at LiveSlide.net

Also Version 6 of the Virtual Earth Map Control is soon to be released, good news for developers of Custom Live Maps.

Mapperz

Mapperz requests Testers for UK Geocoding

Since the hot topic. UK Addresses -Geocoded via Google Maps API
and then our hopes dashed. Mapperz has done some research and development into Geocoding UK Addresses for Free.

(A bold claim, as due to 'contractual reasons' it cannot be done in the UK, as the USA & Canada can with the Google Maps API)

Official source
Unofficial source

Well it is here:



What we are after are people willing to test the accuarcy of this service. It is not 100% accurate (more 93%) but for free it is worth it.
email mapperz@gmail.com [Subject: UK Geocoder Tester Request]
Invites will be sent out: Starting with 10 (5 reserved), 15 then 25 users.
Needed are developers, coders, de-buggers, and normal web users.

Please say why you would like to test it.

This is using resources already available on the web. Just previewing and getting permisson to request information across domains and check this does not break any terms.

Anyone interested in the code please contact mapperz@gmail.com [Subject: Code Request Please]