earth

Google's neato 3D city view arrives on iOS today

Months ahead of when Apple plans to bring its own photorealistic 3D maps to iOS, Google has beaten the company to the punch.

Google today is updating its Google Earth app on Apple's platform to include the same 3D imagery it showed off in early June. That same feature rolled out to users on Google's Android in late June.

iOS users are getting those same 14 regions, including Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston and others. As Google adds more 3D cities to its database, both those platforms will get them at same time.

So just … Read more

Landsat at 40: Images from the longest-running eye in the sky

The first Landsat satellite went into orbit 40 years ago today, and during the past four decades, a series of seven different "birds" have trained a watchful eye on Earth from just about the most wicked vantage point around.

The program's youngest eye in the sky, Landsat 7, has been flying since 1999 and will be joined next year by the next-generation Landsat Data Continuity Mission satellite, or LDCM. The LDCM features up-to-date thermal infrared sensors and land-imaging equipment that will make it a full-blown orbiting observatory.… Read more

Earth goes 3D

Think of Google Earth as a sort of souped-up version of Google Maps, but with more of a focus on life-like renderings of locations, rather than typical roadmaps. With google Earth, you can virtually fly to pretty much anywhere on the planet, zooming in and out of cities and streets to your heart's desire.

While Google Earth lets you manually navigate to an area of interest (via zoom and swipe), the more precise method is to use the search bar. Here, you can type in a full address, just a city name, business name, or even a keyword (like &… Read more

Swoop around the globe like a superhero

Think of Google Earth as a sort of souped-up version of Google Maps, but with more of a focus on lifelike renderings of locations, rather than typical road maps. With Google Earth, you can virtually fly to pretty much anywhere on the planet, zooming in and out of cities and streets to your heart's desire.

While Google Earth lets you manually navigate to an area of interest (via zoom and swipe), the more precise method is to use the search bar. Here, you can type in a full address, just a city name, business name, or even a keyword (… Read more

Google's 3D city imagery hits Android, headed to iOS 'soon'

Remember Google's snazzy demo of 3D views of various cities at a rather impromptu press conference earlier this month?

You can now play with that feature yourself. Google quietly released a new version of its Google Earth program for Android today that adds 3D maps of 14 regions, just about all of which are in the U.S.:

Boston Boulder Charlotte Lawrence Los Angeles Long Beach Portland Rome San Antonio Santa Cruz San Diego San Francisco Bay Area Tampa Tucson

In a post announcing the feature, Google says it will add more cities "in the coming months" … Read more

Leap second: June 30 to be longer than other days

Oh good, I can get one second more sleep the night of June 30. In an effort to keep our extremely accurate atomic clocks in line with the more arbitrary nature of the way the world wobbles, we're getting a leap second this weekend.

Sure, it's not as dramatic as what happens during a leap year, but it's still exciting for clock aficionados, science geeks, and time lords. The leap second will be added to Coordinated Universal Time at the end of the day on June 30.… Read more

Google VP maps out new Google Earth 3D tech

Although there were no announcements about any upcoming versions of Google Maps for iOS, Google did show off some impressive 3D technology to make Google Earth feel more like you're touring over cities in a low-flying plane. In fact, the company is using a fleet of planes to "collect 45 degree imagery, flying with the four cardinal compass points at 45 degrees combined with straight down," according to Google VP of Engineering Brian McClendon.

You can listen to my four minute interview with McClendon by clicking below.

Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast Subscribe now: iTunes (audio) | … Read more

Earth's atmosphere lights up with airglow in time-lapse video

A little known fact about the Earth is that its atmosphere generates its own light. Lines and clouds in hues of yellow, green, blue, and red reach 60 miles above the surface of the planet.

This light is created in what's known as a chemiluminescent process and is called "airglow" or "night glow," according to videographer and scientist Alex Rivest. "The colors are not reflected light, and not pollution, but rather are light generated from the components in the atmosphere itself," he wrote in a blog post.

Rivest has just released a new … Read more

Stein of Science: Liquid nitrogen-grade booze container

Meet Funranium Labs founder Phil Broughton.

He's a radiation safety specialist at the University of California at Berkeley. He was once a cryogenics technician for the Amundsen-Scott South Pole scientific research station. He's really into coffee and beer and finding the best way to deliver those products into his system, and he has boldly offered himself up as a guinea pig for science by personally testing and developing products for discerning geek customers.

Let's start with the Stein of Science. Each stein is crafted from a bench top liquid nitrogen dewar flask. That means it will keep your beer frosty cold for quite a long time. That also means it's not cheap. A 655-milliliter Stein of Science costs $230. Your fellow lab rats will be insanely jealous when you show up to the next party with one of these bad boys.… Read more