Enriched Google online experience now available in every new BMW

Google is working with the automotive industry to bring Google innovations and services into cars, and to give our users access to relevant information while driving. BMW has always been a pioneer in this area, and well known for its Internet-connected cars and ConnectedDriveproduct.

Today, we’re happy to announce that in a joint effort with BMW, we have renewed the package of Google services that come with BMW’s ConnectedDrive service. As part of this major update, if you’re a ConnectedDrive customer in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the U.K., you’ll have access to several exciting Google services you’ve never before experienced in a car.

BMW is introducing these services in every new car equipped with a professional navigation system as of September 2010.


So what’s new?

Firstly, we’re introducing search suggestions for Google Local Search.

We know that input mechanisms in your vehicle are sometimes limited and time-consuming. To enter a search query, you often need to know exactly what you’re looking for.

To address this challenge, cars with our new service package will provide suggested results after you enter the first few characters - similar to what you’re used to on Google’s desktop web search. Suggestions are based on your location and will surely speed up your search. Once you’ve tried this in your car, you’ll never want to leave home any other way!


With only a couple of characters, you’ll be guided to the information you want that has been fully integrated in your navigation experience. How about finding the nearest hotel with only a few keystrokes and a bit of ”jog-wheeling”?


Secondly, we’re beefing up the usefulness of your results via a “pictures at your destination” service that gives you much richer details about the location you’ve entered into the system.

For each search result, Google Local Search already provides helpful information such as a place’s address, phone number, ratings, reviews, various business attributes, etc.

But we get that you might want even more, and are now enabling you to have an advance look at the destination you’re going. “Pictures at your destination” is a new service that combines images of your destination from various online sources. Where available, you’ll see satellite imagery, user generated photos from the Panoramio community, or even Street View imagery that gives you a sense of what you can visually expect when you get to your destination.

Have a look:








Thirdly and as always, we’re continuing to make improvements to our Local Search offering. Google Local Search is already available in many cars worldwide and has become a very useful complimentary service to static-only point of interest (POI) searches from DVDs or hard drives. By taking advantage of the rich information and fresh data this technological integration allows, we hope searching for places in your car makes it faster, easier and more exciting for you to get where you’re going.

Enjoy your connected drive, and stay tuned for more great car services from the Google automotive team and our partners!

Enriched Google online experience now available in every new BMW

Google is working with the automotive industry to bring Google innovations and services into cars, and to give our users access to relevant information while driving. BMW has always been a pioneer in this area, and well known for its Internet-connected cars and ConnectedDriveproduct.

Today, we’re happy to announce that in a joint effort with BMW, we have renewed the package of Google services that come with BMW’s ConnectedDrive service. As part of this major update, if you’re a ConnectedDrive customer in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the U.K., you’ll have access to several exciting Google services you’ve never before experienced in a car.

BMW is introducing these services in every new car equipped with a professional navigation system as of September 2010.


So what’s new?

Firstly, we’re introducing search suggestions for Google Local Search.

We know that input mechanisms in your vehicle are sometimes limited and time-consuming. To enter a search query, you often need to know exactly what you’re looking for.

To address this challenge, cars with our new service package will provide suggested results after you enter the first few characters - similar to what you’re used to on Google’s desktop web search. Suggestions are based on your location and will surely speed up your search. Once you’ve tried this in your car, you’ll never want to leave home any other way!


With only a couple of characters, you’ll be guided to the information you want that has been fully integrated in your navigation experience. How about finding the nearest hotel with only a few keystrokes and a bit of ”jog-wheeling”?


Secondly, we’re beefing up the usefulness of your results via a “pictures at your destination” service that gives you much richer details about the location you’ve entered into the system.

For each search result, Google Local Search already provides helpful information such as a place’s address, phone number, ratings, reviews, various business attributes, etc.

But we get that you might want even more, and are now enabling you to have an advance look at the destination you’re going. “Pictures at your destination” is a new service that combines images of your destination from various online sources. Where available, you’ll see satellite imagery, user generated photos from the Panoramio community, or even Street View imagery that gives you a sense of what you can visually expect when you get to your destination.

Have a look:








Thirdly and as always, we’re continuing to make improvements to our Local Search offering. Google Local Search is already available in many cars worldwide and has become a very useful complimentary service to static-only point of interest (POI) searches from DVDs or hard drives. By taking advantage of the rich information and fresh data this technological integration allows, we hope searching for places in your car makes it faster, easier and more exciting for you to get where you’re going.

Enjoy your connected drive, and stay tuned for more great car services from the Google automotive team and our partners!

Ocean comes to Google Earth for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

We recently announced the arrival of ocean bathymetry and ocean layer content to Google Earth for Android. Today, with the latest release of Google Earth 3.1 for iOS, we’re proud to announce that you can now explore underwater landscapes and terrain on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Dive below the ocean’s surface to explore underwater canyons, or travel to the ocean’s deepest point, the Mariana Trench. Once underwater, simply swipe the screen with two fingers to “look around.” You can always reset your view by clicking on the north arrow on the iPad, or on the compass on the iPhone and iPod.

As with the desktop and other mobile versions of Google Earth, we’ve also added the “Ocean” layer, which features hundreds of photos and videos from more than 100 contributors curated by the Sylvia Earle Alliance.


This version also includes native support for the new Retina display, which means that if you have an iPhone 4 or the new iPod touch, you’ll get to enjoy an even sharper view of the world.

Google Earth 3.2 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch is available now in the App Store, or navigate to http://m.google.com/earth in your mobile browser. You can also download Google Earth by scanning this QR code:

Athens Taxi Prices on Google Maps

Athens Taxi Cost Calculator

This Athens Taxi Price Calculator makes good use of the Google Maps API's Styled Maps option to create a night map for the Greek capital. 

To use the calculator, simply right-click on the map to specify your starting and destination address or use the input fields in the left hand side menu. The route of your journey will then be displayed on the map and the estimated taxi charge is displayed in the map sidebar. 

The costs are calculated according to the most up to date laws (2010) and include a full itemisation of charges you can expect from your taxi trip. The charges also include the 11% VAT introduced for Athens taxi services in July.

US State Etymology on Google Maps

USA States Map

Here's a little Google Map I created today to show the meaning of the names given to each of the states in the USA. The origins of the names of U.S. states have been taken from this Wikipedia entry.

As fun as it is to read the meaning behind the names for the U.S. states the map is really a demo to show how you can use the new Styled Map option in the Google Maps API to remove the name labels from Google Maps. 

Removing the labels with Styled Maps is easy enough. It is just a matter of turning off the visibility of options in the administrative layer. However once I'd removed the names from Google Maps I then had to figure out how to add my own labels. Luckily Marc Ridey has written an excellent Label class for Google Maps V3. 

If you have a look at the example I've created you can see my design isn't very pretty. The next stage is to play with the font weight and font size to create something a little easier on the eye.

Google Earth for iPhone updated with retina display, ocean floor

Google has just updated their iOS app to version 3.1.0 with a few nice enhancements. According to the upgrade screen there are three new features.

1 -- Native support for iPhone4 and Retina display:Google Earth is now incredibly sharp and detailed on the iPhone 4.

2 -- Underwater bathymetry and ocean surface:Similar to the recent update on Android, you can now explore under the ocean floor from your iPhone!

3 -- Ocean content layer: Also similar to Android, you can now view a layer with various stories from the sea.

With this update in place, the iPhone and Android versions of Google Earth are virtually identical. The latest Android update gave it a few features that it was lacking (like the two-finger "look around" mode), and now this update gets iPhone caught back up with the ocean features.

There are still quite a few features missing from both versions (tracks, elevation profiles, native KML support, 3D buildings, etc), but I'm sure we'll slowly see those included in the future as phones continue to become more powerful.

Using Google Latitude to Control Your House

Thermostat Control Based on Location and Weather

Hans Scharler has designed an automatic thermostat for his house that uses Google Latitude, WeatherBug, and ioBridge to control his heating based on his location and the weather.

Using Google Latitude on his Android phone Hans is able to control his thermostat automatically when he leaves his house or when he is coming home. Leaving home is relatively easy. Using Google Latitude his 'Location Aware Home Automation' system can turn off or enter power saving modes when it detects he is away from his house.

When he is returning home the system checks the weather using the Google Weather API and the WeatherBug API, and then checks his home temperature (via ioBridge) to see if the house needs to turn on the air conditioner, the heater, or neither.

If you want to try and replicate this Hans explained how he put this together on his I am Shadowlord blog.

Via: ReadWriteWeb

Commonwealth Games Baton Relay Mapped

Baton Relay Path

The XIX Commonwealth Games is due to start in a little under two weeks in India. The Queen's Baton Relay is now under way on its Indian leg, from the Wagah Border in Punjab to New Delhi.

The Queen’s Baton started its journey on 29th October 2009 from Buckingham Palace in London. It will arrive in New Delhi in time for the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games on Sunday, 3rd October.

Mibazaar has created an animated map of the route of the baton relay that runs through each of the 100 stages of its journey in India. The map automatically connects each stage on the journey and opens an information window for each stage displaying the date and location when the baton arrives.