Hasta La Gadget!

In its attempt to map the world up close and personal, Google has been pedaling its Trike all around the world, taking Street View to places it has never been before. It recently added images of these previously reachable places to Street View in Google Maps.

Introduced in 2009, the Trike is a modified bicycle outfitted with Street View equipment that someone literally needs to pedal around, up, and down paths and sidewalks. With the Trike, Google is able to collect imagery from places its Google car can’t go, such as Champs-Elysées in Paris and Times Square in New York City.

If you’re jealous of the images from the gardens at the San Diego Art Institute and other locations that were previously off limits to the Google Street View cams, don’t be. Goggle offers a solution on its blog: If you are the owner of a private property and would to make your location available for users to explore in Street View, you can invite the world to explore your property through its partner program. So you’ll be able to get your own little garden on the map.

Check out a video of the Trike in action after the jump.

This article was written on April 30, 2008 by CyberNet.

Google just made it a little easier for people to get from point A to point B with the help of Street View. Of course we know what Street View is by now, and we know that using Google Maps, users can get directions from a starting point to an ending point. Now Google has combined those two features and in the directions that you receive, you’ll see a camera which you can click on. Clicking on the camera will give you a preview of the turns you’ll be making before you actually get on the road using Street View.

If you’re like me, this will be really helpful because I tend to be someone who prefers to look for landmarks instead of street names while driving. Instead of saying “turn left on Green Street,” I tend to look for a landmark like “turn left by the KFC” or “turn right by the BP gas station.” Clicking the cameras that Google provides will show you what landmarks are at the corners where you’ll be turning. You’ll also be able to see some of the road signs when you’re on major highways and interstates which could make finding your exit a little easier.

When you pull up your directions, just look for the cameras and by clicking on them, the Street View image will appear. At this point not all cities have this option so if by chance your city is one that doesn’t, cameras won’t be shown.

As the Google LatLong blog points out, you can follow the arrows to explore the route that you’ll be taking so that you can see what road conditions are like and even see what speed limits are.

It’s nice to see Google integrate two of their features together like this because it’s not that often that they do.

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Last year Nokia made something of a telematics coup, partnering with just about every major European manufacturer and doing everything it could to get its Terminal Mode in-car smartphone integration into more autos. Mercedes was one of those partners and now we’re getting a glimpse of the result in the new C-Class. Merc has made some minor exterior updates to the car (not necessarily for the better, in our opinion), but on the inside comes an updated Mercedes COMAND infotainment system that, for the first time, offers full internet access. Using Terminal Mode the car interacts with a smartphone to provide the data, allowing dashboard surfing (while stationary) and the transmission of Google Maps points and directions right to the vehicle. There’s also Bluetooth for streaming your tunes through the car’s sound system and a USB port in the armrest to keep things charged while you decimate that slab. PR is below if you’re looking for more details, or you can just wait for our impressions when we get to Detroit in a few weeks.

Continue reading Mercedes Terminal Mode partnership comes to fruition with internet-connected 2012 C-Class

Mercedes Terminal Mode partnership comes to fruition with internet-connected 2012 C-Class originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 21:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s never been afraid to “blow it out” with Google Maps, most famously with its inclusion of Navigation, which knocked the legs out from under a lot of the GPS device and navigation app market. Google Maps 5.0 for Android might seem similarly earth shattering, but it marks a significant change to the basic technology of Google Maps. Most importantly, Google is now using vector graphics for its maps, which are scalable and much lighter weight than the traditional stitched together images used in most Google Maps incarnations. The vectors also enable something else a whole lot sexier: a two finger swipe can “tilt” the map and now you’ve got a 3D view of the landscape. It’s not quite as flashy as Google Earth, but it looks a whole lot more useful. The other thing these low-bandwidth vector maps enables is offline caching of maps, specifically your most frequently visited locations, and entire trips that have been routed in Navigation, including potential reroutes. Anybody with an Android 1.6 or higher device can download 5.0 right now for free, but the 3D and offline features are 2.0+ only.

Continue reading Google Maps 5.0 hits Android, includes new 3D map view and offline Navigation

Google Maps 5.0 hits Android, includes new 3D map view and offline Navigation originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 13:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google has just unveiled their new, refreshed Maps 5.0 app for Android, launching soon. What’s new about it? Well, it renders buildings in 3D, loads faster, works offline and will automatically rotate the map according to the phone’s compass. More »