Newsletter Archive
March 2009
iSynth Brings Photosynth Experience to the iPhone
In early March, Apple Inc. released iSynth, the unofficial Photosynth iPhone application. Developed by an independent developer, Greg Pascale, iSynth enables iPhone customers to search, browse and explore synths directly on their phones. People can view the synths by tapping arrows on the screen to move to a different photo in normal mode or drag their fingers in the direction they want to rotate in orbit mode. The application is available to download at the iTunes Store now.more information
Emirates Unveils E-Zone in Business Class Lounge
On March 10, Emirates unveiled a unique dedicated entertainment corner called e-zone, located in the Business Class Lounge at Dubai Airport’s Terminal 3. E-zone features exclusive technologies developed in association with Microsoft Gulf at the Dubai Innovation Lab, including gaming from Xbox 360 and the latest Microsoft Surface computers, which include Microsoft Virtual Earth. Destination Guide, an application on Microsoft Surface, is built on the Virtual Earth platform and allows customers to interact with a moving 3-D globe. Exclusive to Emirates, Destination Guide lets customers zoom into any location on earth and view general destination information and location photos.more information
Livetime CoverageChecker Uses Virtual Earth
On March 10, Emirates unveiled a unique dedicated entertainment corner called e-zone, located in the Business Class Lounge at Dubai Airport’s Terminal 3. E-zone features exclusive technologies developed in association with Microsoft Gulf at the Dubai Innovation Lab, including gaming from Xbox 360 and the latest Microsoft Surface computers, which include Microsoft Virtual Earth. Destination Guide, an application on Microsoft Surface, is built on the Virtual Earth platform and allows customers to interact with a moving 3-D globe. Exclusive to Emirates, Destination Guide lets customers zoom into any location on earth and view general destination information and location photos.more information
Virtual Earth Makes It Easy to Find an Xbox Retailer
Xbox recently launched an Xbox locator that helps consumers easily find their nearest Xbox retailer. The tool, powered by Virtual Earth, is operational in the U.K. and will be rolled out regionally during the next three months.more information
Leicestershire Constabulary Uses Virtual Earth to Improve Public Confidence
Leicestershire Constabulary wanted to use its mapping technology to help deliver a new level of transparency in its policing service to the people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. The iR3 tracking system uses the Microsoft Virtual Earth geospatial mapping environment to access retrospective data for analysis, the results of which can be shown to the public as evidence of effective service. The mapping tool has enabled Leicestershire Constabulary to boost citizen confidence in police, increase police visits to crime spots, cut police force mileage, reduce costs and more.more information
Ada County Uses Virtual Earth to Map Crime
In late March, Ada County, Idaho, launched a crime-mapping application on its county Web site. The developers were able to layer datapoints on law enforcement incidents reported within the jurisdictional boundaries of the Ada County Sheriff’s Office, Boise Police Department and Meridian Police Department over a three-month period. Residents can find information on a wide range of crimes, including homicide cases, burglaries, vandalism and more.more information
Virtual Earth Powers Seattle DOT Travelers’ Web Portal
On March 26, the Seattle Department of Transportation launched its Traveler’s Information Web site, which includes an interactive map built on the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform. The map includes roadside camera images, updated incident and planned event information, and mass transit resources such as Metro Transit.more information
Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Launch Virtual Earth Locators
In late March, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, both owned by Yum! Brands, launched new mapping locators using the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform. The Pizza Hut locator allows customers to filter searches by delivery, carryout and dine in. The results provide an Order Now link that enables customers to make an online order for delivery or in-store pick up. The Taco Bell locator generates up to five results per search within the radius of the postal code the customer provides. The results indicate whether the Taco Bell restaurant has a drive through or a dining area as well as point-to-point driving directions to get to the location.more information
Falk Online Adopts Virtual Earth to Offer High-Quality Services for People on the Move
Falk Online uses Virtual Earth in combination with its own maps and through its own Falk Map API to offer high- quality services for people on the move, such as route planning and town and city maps. Later in 2009 Falk will also integrate Microsoft’s Bird’s Eye and satellite imagery to its online portal.For more information, please visit http://www.gofalk.com or http://www.falk.de
Live Search Maps Makes the CNet Webware 100 Nomination List
On March 31, CNet announced its nominees for its Webware 100 nomination list. Live Search Maps is one of the nominees in the location-based services category. Other Microsoft products and services that made the list include Live Search, Live Search 411 and Live Search Farecast.more informationvoting
Virtual Earth and SQL Server Event in London
On April 16, Virtual Earth will hold an event in London, split into two sessions, covering the end-to-end story of spatial data in Virtual Earth and Microsoft SQL Server. Johannes Kebeck, technology specialist, Microsoft Virtual Earth, will look at the sources of data and how you can manage different types of data, and Simon Sabin, independent consultant, SQL Know How and SQL Server MVP, will look at the internals of SQL Server.more information on the afternoon session more information on the evening session
April 2009 Microsoft Virtual Earth Webcasts
On April 16, Microsoft Virtual Earth partner Steve Milroy of OnTerra Systems LLC will show how Virtual Earth is being deployed in fleet and asset management solutions to reduce costs and increase fleet utilization, in a session titled “Manage Fleets Cost-Effectively with Virtual Earth.†In addition, on April 23, Virtual Earth Evangelist Chris Pendleton will dive into the next release of the Virtual Earth platform, focusing on upcoming features for the AJAX control and the recently released Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control.more informationview previous webcasts or sign up to attend a future webcast
Recent Updates — Microsoft Virtual Earth and Live Search Maps
Microsoft Releases Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control CTP at MIX09
On March 18, Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president at Microsoft Corp., announced the new release of Microsoft Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control CTP during his opening keynote address at MIX09. Virtual Earth Silverlight Map Control was made available to developers the following Friday, March 20. The map control provides a smoother transition between zoom levels and when panning the maps, while significantly improving the load time required to render maps.more information
ESRI Expands Microsoft Virtual Earth in ArcGIS
On March 26, the Environmental Systems Research Institute announced the expansion integrating the entire Microsoft Virtual Earth platform in all the ESRI ArcGIS products. All ArcGIS users will have access to high-quality base map layers with rich aerial and hybrid views for enhanced analysis, interpretation and visualization of the geographic data.more information
March 2009 Microsoft Virtual Earth Imagery Release
On March 27, the Microsoft Virtual Earth team announced the March 2009 imagery release, which totaled to 21 TB of data. The release included orthos imagery in cities in multiple countries, such as Brazil, Canada, China, France, India, Mexico, Russia, Turkey and the United States.For a full list of the cities and countries where new imagery is available, please visit Virtual Earth Imagery Release, March 2009
About Us
About Virtual Earth
The Virtual Earth platform is the next-generation mapping and location service from Microsoft. Virtual Earth enables business and government customers to enhance customer and constituent connections, gain deep business insight, and track and manage mobile assets. The platform provides exciting innovations in satellite and aerial imagery, including Bird’s Eye* and 3-D imagery, customizable features and map styles, and usability, as well as enhanced local search.more information
About Live Search Maps
Virtual Earth powers Live Search Maps, an online local search and mapping Web site from Microsoft. Live Search Maps represents an exciting component of the Microsoft Live Search vision, which gives consumers a deeply immersive local experience in which they can easily find, discover, plan and share relevant location information that is important to them on the Web. To learn more about the service, go to Live Search Maps Fact Sheet or visit http://maps.live.com
About Multimap
Multimap is an innovative provider of mapping and location-based services. The company delivers online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geospatial (“Where’s my nearest?â€) searches to a wide variety of companies and organizations. The public Web site, http://www.multimap.com, provides a range of free, fast navigation and planning tools and rich and relevant local information. Key features include street-level maps of major destinations; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; Bird’s Eye imagery; local points of interest; and services such as hotel, restaurant and entertainment booking. The site attracts more than 10 million unique users per month. Multimap operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft.
* Bird’s Eye view and 3-D view are available in many major cities worldwide. In addition, traffic updates are available in many major U.S. cities. For 3-D view you must have Virtual Earth 3D beta installed on your computer. For traffic information availability, visit http://maps.live.com; on the action bar, click on Traffic.
Featured Solution:
Seattle: My Neighborhood
The City of Seattle uses Virtual Earth to show neighborhood residents dozens of types of nearby amenities, including public art, libraries, farmers’ markets—even protected Heritage Trees.
