The latest release of Google Earth Pro version (additional $400 per year, subscription only) now includes the GIS import module, the movie making module, and the premium printing module, each of which were paid extras before this week. These modules increase the amount of data manipulation that can be done directly inside of Google Earth, although they don't change the data visible in the application. Although the GIS Import module is interesting, it appears that its free inclusion is just and admission that the features in it have been available in free add-on and web based software for months now …

In Boulder, CO this weekend, Carol and I happened upon a store called Art Source International. They specialize in prints and maps, but really in maps. They have about 25,000 in their online listing and will frame and ship, and in some cases provided high-resolution (OK, they're medium resolution, because 1600x1200 stopped being high resolution a few years ago) images of the maps. Ask for George, he knows what he's doing!

Up next on Google Earth, support for WMS in the free version of the viewer, support for a neat UI for playing timeline "movies", and Featured Content. Among the new features for this competitor for your geospatial content exploration and viewing pleasure are a variety of things that make looking at real data more interesting. Most importantly is the accessibility (in the free version of the player) of the ability to use overlays that come from WMS servers. WMS is the standard for sending out pixel-based (as opposed to shape-based) mapping data on the Internet. Although the particulars aren't completely …

The Daily Mail is again reporting that when put to the test, people need to pay close attention to what their satellite navigation systems are telling them instead of following blindly. The report stems from an article in Which? magazine (available to subscribers or free for 30 days from their site) that contains head-to-head tests of 14 different systems.

For Macintosh users trying to match up their photos with their GPS devices, the GPSPhotoLinker software (with a newly released version for the first time in over a year) provides a relatively simple way to do that. New features include Universal Binary support, and support for downloading data directly from a GPS. The basic gist of the program is pretty simple: load up your GPS tracks, set the time-zone of your camera, and then let GPSPhotoLinker put the times with the photos. So, this good one-trick pony now has a second pretty-good trick.

In an amusing convergence of art and geospatial technology, the project Pioneers in the Valley of the Heart's Delight from Artists Using Science and Technology as pioneers of the computing hitchhiking across the US as life-sized cutouts using GPS tracking to show their locations on a Google Map mash-up.

As reported in Newswise, students and faculty working together at Cornell University have broken the pseudo-random number codes used to obscure data in the experimental version of the Galileo satellite that is currently orbiting the earth. As part of the current testing, the satellite that is orbiting the earth is using a system of pseudo-random numbers to obscure the data being sent down from the satellite. After requesting the codes and being denied access, the researchers at Cornell decided that a little computing power would do the trick, and set out to break the code. Slated to begin operation in …

According to this article from the Green Bay Press Gazette, an employee of the Farm Service Agency of the Department of Agriculture used a GPS, GIS software, and the help of a local farmer in Wisconsin, to propose marriage to his (now) fiance. The plan worked. Editor: Sadly, this article is no longer available online or in archive.org

Motionbased announced availability of the Macintosh Agent for the web site today. It is a beta and it works with the Forerunner 205/305, the Edge 205/305, and the Forerunner 301. Motionbased is a owned by Garmin, so perhaps they announced this today to show they still cared.

Garmin has announced in a press release that they will not be releasing their Macintosh-compatible GPS software until the end of the year (that would be Training Center) and that time they would announce the plans for when they would have complete Macintosh support, which they had indicated they would have by the end of the year. A good time for a plug for ClueTrust, our parent, creator of LoadMyTracks for downloading and uploading data with Garmin, Magellan, Lowrance, and Timex receivers when using a Macintosh.

A cool use of Adobe Flash technology showed up on BoatingSF.com (not surprisingly, a site about boating in San Francisco). The Current Ship Positions page (mislabeled, since it's actually time-lapse and not "current" as it indicates) provides a nice overhead view, complete with roll-over ship information. Thanks to Very Spatial for the pointer. So, now you're wondering how its done? I know I was. A nice technical details page provides the beginning information about the AIS (Automatic Identification System), which provides ships with pre-collision-detection and identification information. The receivers output NMEA-standard sentences (just like those you get in …

Google, as part of a recent set of announcements about their geospatial products, has announced that Google Maps can now speak KML for overlaying data and that they will be providing commercial support for the APIs as part of their product portfolio. First, and foremost, you can now use KML files to overlay your Google Maps. Check out the developer documentation for details, but basically you can put a KML file out on your server and it will be rendered as part of the Google Maps page that you provide. Next, the API has been extended to provide geocoding, whittling …

Metacarta today announced at the Where 2.0 conference that they have made available through Metacarta Labs a set of APIs that provide approximation of location from blocks of text. The APIs are pretty straightforward and interesting. If you just want to play around, check out Trinity and try typing in some search keywords that will then be search on and then will be represented on the map to the right. Applications are mostly in keyword location or search result location, so it could be used as a mapping element in a web site news feed or for location of …

We'll be posting a bunch more information about the Where 2.0 conference soon, but as a teaser, here's a really cool project that was just demonstrated at the conference, a non-Google mashup of maps and Project Gutenberg hosted classic literature called GutenKarte. If you look at just one cool web site today, go to Gutenkarte and check out any classic, but especially ones like Around the World in 80 Days. The AJAX-based map is based on OpenLayers that is available under the BSD license (that's real free, not gnu-speak for free) and will talk to any OGC compliant map …

Right as Carol and I were readying for a flight yesterday, Google made two announcements just ahead of Where 2.0, a new version of Google Earth (4.0—beta, of course) and the availability of Sketchup for the Mac. The latest Google Earth is quite a bit slicker than the 3.x version, and for Macintosh users, it hosts a series of nice new additions including: Intel native performance Ability to sign-up for the Plus (and possibly Pro versions) It appears that some of the GPS features have been activated (although my USB cable is bent, so I won't …

Although things have been a little slow on the web site for the past few weeks (development, end of the school year for "the professor", etc.), both Derek and I are out doing interesting things this week, so you can look forward to reports from Where 2.0 (where Gaige and Carol will be for the next few days) and India (where Derek will be for the next few days). Stay tuned!

ClueTrust (owner of this site and creator of LoadMyTracks) is proud to announce that the latest version (031) supports sending data to Garmin and Magellan (Thales) GPS devices. If you're a Macintosh user and looking for a way to get information into and out of your Macintosh from Garmin, Magellan, Lowrance, or Timex devices, you should check it out. Exportable file types are GPX and KML (for use with Google Earth).

Ed Parsons (CTO of Ordnance Survey in the UK) has the first of a series of articles on his personal site entitled "Building Ordnance Survey 2.0" that goes into his ideas about serving up OS data as more of a service model instead of a data sales (licensing) model. It could get interesting if the organization follows-through on his ideas, especially the idea of a try-before-you-buy model.

Although there has been a lot of press and discussion about Google Maps and the various follow-ons (such as Microsoft's Windows Live Local) and predecessors (such as Yahoo! Maps), the Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article showing recent uses of maps by museums to enhance the web experience of patrons. In particular, the article talks about Folk Songs for the Five Points from The Tenement Museum in New York City (a "soundmap" with five different soundtracks and a clickable map showing what is where), and Curating The City, put on by the Los Angeles Conservancy to show off architectural …

MySociety.org has an article, with examples, about travel-time maps and their uses. The page is the result of work funded by the UK Department of Transport and shows a number of final maps created for showing travel times. Of the more interesting tidbits is the comment that some of the maps consumed up to 10 hours of computer time to create, which makes them something you won't be doing as part of a Google mash-up anytime soon. However, the maps shown are very interesting and potentially useful for travelers who are trying to decide whether to use rail or …