kml

New Google Earth for Android, iOS adds custom maps

Released today, the newest version of Google Earth for Android and iOS adds a long-awaited feature that should make the mobile mapping experience more like that on the desktop: KML file support.

KML, or Keynote Markup Language, is a file format used to display geographic data in the Google Earth browser. The format can be used by anyone to create and distribute custom map overlays on the Web.

With the new addition, you can now, from your Android device, iPad, or iPhone, click on any Google Earth file from around the Web to display custom elements like place marks, image … Read more

Visit Disney World in your underwear without getting arrested

Too cheap to take your kids on a vacation to Orlando to see Disney World? Now you can just load up Google Earth instead.

This morning, users of the software mapping tool will find a brand new layer that features an experience Bruce Polderman, Google Earth's product manager, says "pushed the user experience of both 3D models and KML to new heights." The layer has the entire theme park modeled in 3D, right down to some of the tiniest details like trees, food carts, and even park maps the size of a stop sign.

Not everything in … Read more

Google mapping spec now an industry standard

Members of an industry group called the Open Geospatial Consortium have approved Google's KML technology as an open standard for describing some geographic data.

KML is used to manage the display of geospatial information in Google Earth, the company's software for flying over the surface of a virtual globe. With its 3D coordinate-based system, people can create models of city buildings, draw a line showing where they hiked, or overlay their own custom place names on a generic map.

Google already shared its KML format openly, and others had used it in software products, but Google now hopes … Read more

Underexposed blog: Links of the day

Rob Bearden of JBoss, Red Hat, and OpenSpan joins Benchmark Capital - Bearden was OpenSpan COO; before that, COO at open-source app server company JBoss, where "he helped architect and execute the company's business model, managed its worldwide operations, and played a key role in its acquisition by Red Hat Software." Take advantage of multiple CPU cores during file compression - Linux.com - "The mgzip tools that can take advantage of multiple CPU cores during file compression, while pbzip2 uses multiple cores for both compression and decompression." Interesting--I don't know how embarrassingly parallel … Read more