Google Maps is mighty useful, but not everybody’s a fan — including Apple, who seem to be ditching it. But OpenStreetMap isn’t the nicest-looking thing, and let’s not discuss Bing. This new OpenStreetMap skin, however, is hands down the best-looking digital map I’ve ever seen.
Who cares about street names and numbers when you can have a whole city map made out with the brands of shops and chains everywhere? Meet me at Louis Vuitton and Bvlgari in 10? [Citymaps]
There are plenty of cool GPS data projects in existence, but this is one of the most beautiful I’ve seen: three whole years of location data, taken from an iPhone.
The new version of iPhoto doesn’t seem to use Google Maps for the map features in Journals and Slideshows. It’s a small departure, sure, but it signals a much bigger play. Because the thing is, Apple doesn’t really need Google Maps anymore. And it’s only a matter of time until it severs those ties completely.
Google Street View, long established as a source for photos of unaware naked people, is being sued by a man in France because one of its camera-mounted cars snapped a photo of him pissing into a courtyard on his property and, as any of us surely would, uploaded it to the internet.
You know what I love about Craigslist? Well, other than the fact that I’ve scored cheap electronics, furniture and free stuff. And also other than how simple its layout is and how hilarious some of the stories on it are. And also the previous grey areas of the site. And also the random gigs I’ve landed during university. So other than all that amazing stuff, I love how I never have to input my location. Craigslist just figures it out for me! This is the map they use to do it.
Scientists have mapped the entire energy use of New York City, building by building. The interactive map, created by Bianca Howard, a PhD student in mechanical engineering at Columbia University, uses publicly available data to work out which buildings are using the most energy and how they are using it.
A French court has ruled that Google is guilty of abusing the dominance of Google Maps, and so has ordered it to pay a fine and damages to a French mapping company.
One drawback from Google Earth has always been that if you pull the view back far enough, the terrain begins to look like a scene from Minecraft. Well, no longer! With the version 6.2 update, Google Earth looks even more like the real thing.
Earth never ceases to amaze me. Look at this sandstorm taking over the east Atlantic from the coast of Africa on January 19, 2012. At more than a million square kilometres, it could engulf the entire northeastern United States.
