Recently, Google maps crashed for me while I was trying to print directions for a business trip. Luckily, there are several mapping services online, so I just headed over to maps.live.com and was pleasantly surprised with the ease of the user-interface and the less cluttered printout. I honestly think that Microsoft's mapping product is better. Microsoft also added a 3D dimension to their mapping which let's you see actual 3D renderings of cities. It takes a fast computer and an equally fast internet connection, but holy cow is this cool. I also noticed a new view called "bird's eye" which gives a view similar to looking at a 45 degree angle down on a city.
This is not the cool thing, though. What is really amazing is their new worldwide telescope. This program is like google earth or microsoft virtual earth except this is for the entire universe! It combines hundreds of thousands of photos from various telescopes and lets you navigate the universe. You can even go back in time and into the future! The head up display let's you go right to various places such as planets, solar systems, nebulae, etc. Tech blogger and former Microsoft employee, Robert Scoble admitted that it made him cry when Microsoft first showed it to him.
In full disclosure, I can't get it to work right on my computer. I've read about the vast majority who use it and say it is absolutely spectacular. It is a quick download and all the data streams off various servers. I'd love to do this on a huge screen.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment