Darren Straight’s Blog

This months installment of the monthly imagery publish into Windows Live Maps / Virtual Earth includes an amazing 11.5 terabytes of new data making it the largest update ever to Virtual Earth. Birds Eye imagery in Europe got a major boost including the completion of London.  High resolution aerial imagery from many of the Virtual Earth’s partners worldwide rounds out the update. Here is a list of the new and updated areas:

3D Buildings

Manhattan, Queens, NY, Yonkers, NY, Cheektowaga, NY, Niagara, NY, Levis-St Romuald, Canada, Ottawa, Canada, Northampton, Great Britain, Austin, TX, Cincinnati, OH, Indianapolis, IN, Speedway, IN, Aurora, IL, Joliet, IL, Naperville, IL, Cape Coral, FL, Tampa, FL, Savannah, GA, Hollywood, CA, La Jolla, CA, La Mesa, CA, Miramar, CA, Oceanside, CA

Birds Eye Coverage From Blom

UK areas…

• London, Chelmsford, Weston Super Mare

Germany areas…

• Ertstadt, Heidelberg, Kerpen, Worms

Italy areas…

• Altamura, Andria, Barletta Trani, Caserta, Cuneo, Manfredonia, Potenza, San_Servero, Avellino, Cava Tirreni, La Spezia, Cerignola, Ragusa, San Remo, Trapani

France areas…

• Niort, Cholet, Valence

Finland areas…

• Joensuu, Kuopio, Lahti, Tampere, Kotka, Pori, Oulu, Turku

Netherlands areas…

• Almere, Arnhem, Deventer, Emmen, Hardenberg, Hilversum, Smallingerland, Alkmaar, Amersfoort, Apeldoorn, Dordrecht, Ede, Eindhoven, Hoogeveen, Hoorn, Almelo, Leyl, Oost-Vlieland, Sittard, Assen, Bergen op Zoom, Gouda, Leeuwarden, Roosendaal

Spain areas…

• Avilla, Burgos, Gijon, Lugo, Ourense, Salmanca, Segovia, Vigo, Ponferrada, Zamora, PALE, Cuidad, Pontevedra, Santander, Girona, Torrelavega, Valladolid, Castellon de la Plana, Elda, Fuengirola, Granada, Mijas, Murcia, Velez

Norway areas…

• Skien, Fredrikstad

Switzerland area…

• St.Gall

Denmark areas…

• Kolding , Esbjerg, Fredso, Aalborg

Belgium areas…

• Aalst, Brugge, Charleroi, Gent, Hasselt, Kortrijk, Liege, Leuven, Mechelen, Mons, Oostende, Saint Niklaas, Tournai, Verviers

Hi-res Aerial from 3Di (using the UltraCam camera)

US areas…

• Savannah_GA, Toronto, SaintPaul_MN, Queens,Tampa, Yonkers, Bronx, Cape Coral, FL,  St. Petersburg Beach, Minneapolis

UK areas…

• Cardiff, NorthHampton, Gloucester, Bristol, Plymouth, Eastbourne, Wolverhampton, Swindon

Hi-res Aerial from GlobeXplorer/DigitalGlobe

• KansasCity/Metro-MO, Greenville-SC, South Collier County FL, Richmond-VA, Norfolk-VA, Chicago-IL,  Phoenix-AZ, Casa Grande-AZ, Tampa-St Petersburg, Sarasota-FL, South East Florida, Charlotte-NC, Massachusetts, New York City, Reno-Lake Tahoe, Monterey South Coast-CA, Madison-WI, Green Bay-Appleton-WI, Milwaukee-WI, Long Island-NY, Orange Co. California, Pittsburgh, Charleston

GeoEye 1m Satellite Aerial Worldwide

• US Virgin Islands , Taos , Fredericton, Charlottetown, Edwards Air Force Base , Regina , St. Johns , Victoria , Mt. Ranier , Whistler , Hot Springs NP , Acadia NP , Minsk , Prague , Lisbon , Bucharest , Sofiya , Odesa , Cairo , Madrid , Barcelona , Stockholm , Budapest , Athens , Montevideo , Victoria Falls , Mexico City , Mecca , CanberraAU , HZ_7 Kenya (Nairobi) , Iguaza Falls , A small bit of the Amazon Rain Forest , Cockbur Harbor , HarbourIsland , Gorda Cay , High Rocks , FreeTown , St Eustatius , Ayers_Rock , AngkorWat , Cancun_Carmen , Cozumel , George Town , Kingston , Nassau , Lautoka , St Barthelemy , Point a Pitre

All of Germany from Intergraph (InterMapServer)

• 1m coverage with a few 0.5m covered areas

France 0.5 meter orthos from InterAtlas

• Lyon, Orleans, Aix-Marseille

Here’s some Birds Eye View Links of London:

Towers of London From the South
House of Parliament + Big Ben From the West
London Eye From the West
St Pauls Cathedral From the South
Microsoft’s New London Offices From the North (For those of you that didn’t know already: Microsoft has taken 5,000 sq m on the 1st to 5th floors of Land Securities 100 Victoria Street (Cardinal Place) and 3,500 sq m at the adjacent 80 Victoria Street on confidential terms. )

Have you always wanted to visit New York City, but never had the chance to make it happen? Have you lived in the city for years, but still struggle to find your way around?

Microsoft Live Search Maps will today begin offering three-dimensional, photo-realistic views of New York City buildings and landscapes, with perspectives that few people apart from Superman have ever seen. The free online service, New York City in 3D, will provide a unique look at many of New York’s iconic locations, along with local listings, ratings and reviews and driving directions to help people easily find, discover, plan and share relevant location information that is important to them on the Web.

The 3D imagery of New York City will debut along with similar aerial perspectives of several other Canadian, U.K. and U.S. cities, with many more cities worldwide expected to be available by the end of summer. The Live Search Maps 3-D New York cityscape provides the following: 

• Landmarks, locations. Aerial views of Times Square, Central Park, Wall Street, Rockefeller Plaza and dozens of other famous spots
• Business listings. Yellow Pages listings, location and contact information, consumer ratings and reviews for New York City businesses
• Maps and driving directions. Real-time traffic incident and driving directions incorporated into maps
• Custom Collections. Custom maps and lists of places that people can create for their own use or to share with others

In addition, Microsoft will launch 3-D cityscapes of the following:

• Austin, Texas
• Cape Coral, Fla.
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Indianapolis, Ind., including the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
• Northampton, England
• Ottawa
• Savannah, Ga.
• Tampa, Fla.

All this to be found at Windows Live Search Maps: http://maps.live.com

New maps will appear throughout today the 29th of May so keep an eye out.

Well it looks like the previous rumours of Google Maps Street View are coming true, Google today announced at the Where 2.0 conference, that they have added a new feature called “Street View” in certain locations on Google Maps. As well as this, starting today, Google is also adding developer-created gadgets called “Mapplets” to Google Maps.

You can check out the Golden Gate Bridge using Google Maps Street View here.

Using Street View

		Blue outlines show roads where street view is available.
		This icon shows where you are on the map. The green arrow points in the direction you’re looking. You can drag the icon to navigate to a different location. You can also just click on a blue outlined road to go there.
		Drag the street view to look around 360°. Use the arrow buttons to navigate down the street. You can also use the arrow keys on the keyboard.

Live Earth Founder and Producer Kevin Wall joined with Tatsu Kitagawa, the principal of Live Earth Japan office, at a press conference today to announce the artist lineup and ticketing information for Live Earth Japan. Wall announced that Japan is the only country hosting two events as part of the 24-hour, 7-continent Live Earth concert series to combat global warming. Makuhari Messe in Tokyo will host a daylong official Live Earth concert. A special broadcast event will be held at the To-ji Buddhist Temple in Kyoto later in the day.

Live Earth will begin in Sydney, Australia on July 7, 2007 and continue across all 7 continents with official concerts in Tokyo, Japan; Shanghai, China; Johannesburg, South Africa; London, United Kingdom; Hamburg, Germany; Istanbul, Turkey; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before concluding in New York, United States.

Live Earth Tokyo will feature the following acts live on stage:
AI
Ai Otsuka
Ayaka
Cocco
Genki Rockets
Kumi Koda
Rihanna
Linkin Park
Rize
And others to be announced at a later date.

The special Kyoto broadcast event will feature the following acts live on stage:
Michael Nyman
Rip Slyme
Yellow Magic Orchestra
And others to be announced at a later date.

Tickets for Live Earth Tokyo at Makuhari Messe go on sale June 9. Additional information is available at TELEDOME, a 24-hour telephone information service that provides information on the event and how to purchase tickets - 0180-993-717. Live Earth Tokyo tickets are JY10,000 and can be purchased in the following ways:

* PIA - order via mobile at 0570-02-9535
* Lawson - order via mobile 0570-084-637 (*L code is not required)
* CN Playguide – 0570-08-9922
* Ticket Navi - order via www.ticket-navi.ne.jp and pickup at any convenience store (Lawson, FamilyMart, 7-11, Sunkus, etc.)
* eplus - order via eee.eplus.co.jp

Ticket prices for the special music event in Kyoto is: SS/JPY15, 000, S/JPY9, 000, A (standing) /JPY7, 000. Kyoto tickets are available exclusively via eplus internet access – eee.eplus.co.jp. The information service of the Kyoto event is: 0570-06-9985 (from 30th May).

There are no official figures yet, but it has been revealed in an interesting interview with Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, that they have sold a little over a million Zunes, which is pretty cool considering it’s not even the end of June, which Microsoft had set as their original target for selling a million players.

Question: Can you talk a little bit about the Zune overall? Will we see next-generation Zunes coming out, particularly flash-based players?

Bach: We’re still about nine months into having Zune in the marketplace. We’re very pleased with the progress. We’ve sold a little over a million Zunes. In the category we’re in, the hard-disk-based category, we’ve got about 10 percent market share. It’s a good start. It’s not an overwhelming start. I’m not going to pretend it’s some gigantic move.

As we look to the future, you’re certainly going to see us continue to invest in that category. We don’t enter things like that lightly.

There will be new things down the path (in the fall). We just came out with a special edition pink Zune and a watermelon-colored Zune, which are the personal favorites with my kids.

Just read over at Zdnet that Google has very recently registered several variations of the domain name “googlestreetview.com” so they could possible be announcing or even launching some kind of Google Maps Street View by the end of the month. Possible at Where 2.0. This functionality is likely in addition to the 3D buildings they are expected to announce at the same conference.

The domain names registerd by Google are as follows:

GOOGLE-MAPS-STREET-VIEW.COM
GOOGLE-MAPS-STREET-VIEW.NET
GOOGLE-MAPS-STREET-VIEW.ORG
GOOGLEMAPSSTREETVIEW.ORG
GOOGLESTREETVIEW.COM
GOOGLESTREETVIEW.NET
GOOGLESTREETVIEW.ORG

And though there’s no more information available on this as of yet, it could possible help Google catch up with Microsoft’s Windows Live Street Side Preview. So let’s hope that if there is something to be of this Google Street Side View that Microsoft start releasing some more imagery for Windows Live Street Side Preview. It’s really great bust hasen’t been updated for some time, even though lots of people have seen the Windows Live Local Facet “Mobile360″ Van on the road, so we know images are being taken of various city’s.

I’ve just been told that the Carling website is giving away twenty weekend tickets including camping every month from now until August for Carling Weekend: Reading & Leeds Festivals 2007. And all you’ve got to do is register, log-in and click a link to enter!

Carling is going to be listing the lucky winners each and every month so if you don’t make it the first time, keep trying!

Check out the competicion page here:

http://www.carling.com/music/festival/carlingweekendtickets

Grammy Award-winning band Linkin Park will headline the Tokyo leg of the 24-hour, 7-continent Live Earth concert series on July 7, 2007, organizers announced today. The full artist lineup and ticketing information for Live Earth Tokyo, which is being staged at Makuhari Messe, will be announced on May 29.

Released last week, Linkin Park’s latest album, Minutes to Midnight is currently number one on the Billboard 200 with the biggest sales debut of 2007. Minutes to Midnight follows the band’s 2003 album Meteora, which also topped the Billboard charts and sold over 11 million copies worldwide. Linkin Park debuted in 2000 with Hybrid Theory, an album that sold 24 million copies worldwide and catapulted the band to international stardom.

Linkin Park has been leading the charge against climate change with MUSIC FOR RELIEF, the foundation the band established in 2005 to aid the victims of the tsunami in South Asia. The organization now aims to mobilize the music community and music fans to help with various causes around the world, primarily disaster response and a proactive campaign to weaken and decelerate future natural disasters by raising awareness about the environmental consequences of climate change and our responsibility to reduce greenhouse gasses and develop alternate, renewable forms of energy.

“Climate crisis awareness could be one of the defining issues of our generation, and we’re proud to play this show in support of that effort,” said Mike Shinoda, Linkin Park band member.

Linkin Park joins other headliners such as Madonna, Bon Jovi, The Police, Sheryl Crow, Kelly Clarkson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West, Melissa Etheridge, Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, John Mayer, Faith Hill, Black Eyed Peas, Foo Fighters, Fall Out Boy, Duran Duran, and many more, in playing Live Earth.

Got to love this iPod Amnesty Bin spotted by fimoculous at the Microsoft Zune headquarters. Makes you wonder whether or not anyone will actually throw there’s away!

I’m guessing not, but still it’s marketing with humour, though what would be even cooler is if we saw the bin slowly fill up with ipods over the next few days/weeks, or even better how about an ipod for Zune exchange stall!

Live Earth Founder Kevin Wall, DaimlerChrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche, and singer Katie Melua joined with smart’s Global Marketing and Sales Head Anders Jensen at a press conference in Stuttgart today to announce details of Live Earth’s partnership with smart, the world’s only automaker serving as an Official Partner of Live Earth. The announcement also included the artist line-up and ticketing information for Live Earth Hamburg, which will be staged at the HSH Nordbank Arena.

Two-time Olympic gold medalist figure skater Katarina Witt also attended the press conference, where it was announced that she would be speaking from the stage at Live Earth Hamburg.

The 24-hour Live Earth concert series will begin in Sydney, Australia on July 7, 2007 and continue across all 7 continents with events in Tokyo, Japan; Shanghai, China; Johannesburg, South Africa; London, United Kingdom; Hamburg, Germany; Istanbul, Turkey; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before concluding in New York, United States.

Live Earth Hamburg will feature the following acts live on stage:

CHRIS CORNELL
JAN DELAY
JULI
KATIE MELUA
LOTTO KING KARL
MANÁ
MICHAEL MITTERMEIER
REAMONN
ROGER CICERO
SASHA
SILBERMOND
SNOOP DOGG

Tickets go on sale on Thursday, May 24, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. CEST. Tickets can be purchased through Eventim at: http://www.eventim.de/eve/liveearth or by phone at 01805 / 570 000 (0,14 EUR/Min). General Admission ticket prices are € 55., € 50. and € 45., which include all fees and public transportation.