The project was created in HTML5, and it’s a result of the efforts between Google partnerships with the US Geological Survey (USGS), NASA, and Time Magazine. The satellite images collected over the years are from Landsat, which is the longest-running satellite program ever when it comes to snapping photos of the Earth, with over two million images taken so far.

Of course, not every image was used. Google actually had to sift through those couple millions of images to find the best ones (909 TB of data to be exact). After that, they created a huge image of the Earth (one for each year), which rings in at 1.78 TB per image. With 28 years, that’s a total of 49.84 TB of imagery in this project.

Google was kind enough to offer up some animated GIFs ready to view right away of various hot spots on Earth, including Dubai, Las Vegas, and the Columbia glacier retreat. And yes, Timelapse will allow you to visit your hometown to see what it looked like from the sky back in 1984. It’s certainly surprising to see how much the Earth has changed over the last 28 years.

This integration of Google Earth exploration abilities has spawned a YouTube collective of videos being submitted this week as well. If you have a peek at the demonstration video below, you’ll see Leap Motion’s take on Google Earth with their basic device. This demonstration takes a look at San Francisco, Paris, New York City, and the Grand Canyon in short clips.

This update to Google Earth also adds several new features to the environment, including Map-Making, Viewshed, and a set of Google Earth Pro boosts as well. The downloadable version of Google Earth is the one being used here today – this demonstration shows the app on a desktop computer, while mobile apps are also up for your smartphone or tablet.

Google Earth Pro is a system where you’ll need to pay a license fee and gain added features not available to normal users. Leap Motion integration has been added this week to the free and Pro versions of the software. Have a peek at the Leap Motion timeline below to see what else the 3D motion control device has been up to lately!

Users can now get high-resolution views of Seattle, with Google showing off an image of the Space Needle painted orange in its announcement. The new 45-degree imagery has been applied to 60 cities, 40 of which are located in the US. International locations with 45-degree imagery include Switzerland and Luxembourg. Users can get high-resolution 45-degree angle views of Thun Castle, for example, making you feel more like you’re checking out the structure itself rather than just its rooftop.

Google has a breakdown of cities and countries with new images separated into each category (aerial, 45-degree imagery, and satellite). Highlights among the 45-degree imagery locations include Baltimore, Iowa City, Queensbury, Portland, Toledo, and Kalamazoo. In the high-resolution aerial updates category, you’ll find Gettysburg, Cedar Rapids, Jacksonville, Charlotte, St. Louis, Fresno, and Idaho Falls, among others.

Last but not least are the satellite image updates, which cover such variety of countries, including the US, Canada, Mexico, France, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and Korea, as well as Antarctica. You can check out the full listing by hitting the link below. You can view the new imagery using your desktop browser or your favorite mobile device.

[via Google Maps]

Out of the five new features added to Google Drive, perhaps the best one is the support for Google Earth files. Users can now open .KML and .KMZ files directly in Drive. Once opened, the files can be previewed and interacted with. Google Earth files can be downloaded from a variety of websites and users, such as real-time earthquake files from the USGS.

The next feature is the ability to search by person, allowing users to find a file based on the person who shared it. In case you’re really having trouble remembering the who-when-what, the new feature auto-completes names as users type. The information is displayed in the drop-down menu that Google users are no doubt familiar with by now. In addition, search also includes results in Trash.

The last two Google Drive features allow users to create new folders while they are organizing files, speeding up the process and removing unnecessary steps. Users can drag and drop folders if they’re using Chrome browser. As for Gmail, users can now search emails by size (size:8mb, for example), as well as messages over a year old (older_than:1y).

[via Google]

The tour guide feature works as, well, a tour guide. You can go on a virtual tour through various locations, getting suggestions for local places that you might be interested in. A flyover will take you over historical landmarks, famous places, and other points of interest. Tidbits of information about items and locations are provided via Wikipedia.

The second feature, 3D imagery, has been enjoyed by Android and iOS users for a while now. With this feature, desktop users can now see detailed three-dimensional flyovers of many of the world’s biggest cities, including Rome, Munich, Mannheim, Portland, Seattle, Austin, Long Beach, Denver, and more. Says the announcement, “The experience of flying through these areas and seeing the buildings, terrain and even the trees rendered in 3D is now consistent across both mobile and desktop devices – making all of your virtual travels more realistic than ever.”

Using these features on your laptop or desktop is much nicer than using a mobile. In particular, the 3D city imagery, when viewed on a large monitor or HDTV, are pretty phenomenal, with crisp details and definition. You can get the new features by updating your current installation, or by downloading Google Earth 7 from the Google Earth website.

[via Google]

In other news, one of Apple’s studies claims that people buy Android phones largely out of a feeling of loyalty to their carrier, and it seems that the iPhone maker licensed out patents to Microsoft while Samsung declined to bite. Fisker has made a new statement about the Karma that spontaneously caught fire in California this past weekend, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 was given a release date in the UK. RIM is looking to get rid of NewBay as it seeks fast cash while BlackBerry 10 development continues, and Samsung has announced that a new black Galaxy S III is coming soon.

Sad news for Nintendo fans living in Europe today, as Nintendo pushed the Wii U’s release date back to December. We had a couple pieces of news about Motorola today, some of it good, some of it not so much. The Motorola PHOTON Q 4G LTE is releasing on August 19, but Motorola Mobility announced today that it will be laying off 20% of its workforce. Electronic Arts is eyeing Windows Phone 8, and Amazon is looking to capitalize on the back to school frenzy by putting its tablets on clearance.

Researchers at the University of Warwick have come up with a way of making fat-free chocolate that apparently tastes like the real deal (yes, really), and President Barack Obama shared some words of encouragement with the NASA Curiosity team earlier this morning. He even promised continued support for what NASA is doing, and that is definitely a good thing. Speaking of space, it seems that the Google Earth satellites have discovered something very interesting: additional Egyptian pyramids. The ARM-based IdeaPad Yoga has been revealed as Lenovo’s Windows RT tablet, and it would seem that the LG Optimus Vu is arriving in the United States before the end of September.

The Neo Geo is getting another shot at life with the Neo Geo X Gold, the Steam Community is about to undergo a makeover, and App.net hit its crowd-funding goal with just two days left to go. That does it for the day’s news, but be sure to check out this freshly-posted review of the Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 by Chris Burns. Enjoy the rest of the evening, everyone!

Google has added high-resolution images for 25 cities and around 72 regions. That includes the Olympic Village towards the east of London, plus a spectacular view of Bryce Canyon in Utah. Not only that, but the company has added new 45 degree angles for 28 cities. The update adds 21 cities in the United States, plus 7 additional countries across the world.

New cities include Munich, Chicago, and Springfield Illinois, with users able to zoom in on various landmarks at a 45 degree angle. Google highlights the Frauenkirche in Munich, and the famous Trump Tower in Chicago. A full list of cities and regions that have received updates is available on Google’s website.

The company says that the new updates have rolled out to Google Maps and Google Earth, and more cities and countries will be added in the future for both high resolution images and 45 degree angles. Google can also notify users of any new updates via email thanks to its Follow Your World app.

Viewing regions may seem a bit limited at the moment, but more cities are expected to be added down the line. Google product manager Peter Birch told CNET that for this year alone, the company would be “targeting getting coverage for 300 million people.”

In addition to the new 3D view, the iOS update also features a new tour guide, allowing users to explore different places and learn more about specific locations or important landmarks. You can check out the short video below if you haven’t caught a glimpse of the 3D imagery yet.

The new 3D features will be available to use on the most recent devices, including the iPhone the second- and third-generation iPads as well as the iPhone 4S. All the other features can be used by those with older models as long as their devices are running iOS 4.2 or later versions.

[via CNET]

This hands-on – or eyes-on rather is just a glimpse of what you’ll be working with in the near future once you grab the update to the app you’ve already more than likely got running on your devices right this minute. This 3D mapping adventure comes at essentially the same time as Apple has announced their own 3D mapping project to be tied in with Apple Maps on the future versions of iOS for the iPhone and iPad. That said, this Google Earth action will also, once again, be available for iOS more than likely sooner than the Apple equivalent.

The folks you see above are both Googlers, speaking during the Lives Stream of the Google I/O events you may have caught from a different perspective earlier today!

Have a peek at the hands-on video above and peek at the couple photos above and below as well, and grab the update for your Google Earth app from the Google Play app store now! Also be sure to continue following us all week for all the most fabulous Google I/O 2012 action!

This new mapping enhancement will be hitting Google Earth sooner than later, this getting the Google Maps world prepared to explore the earth in a dimension only available to us via a real live airplane in the past. The process Google has gone through to create this vision for the future actually did (and continues to) use airplanes flying back and forth across your city in a pattern that’s carefully calculated and placed against models of the city they’ve photographed. This system creates what you see here:

This process brings you entire 3D cities from a 45-degree set of ariel photographs. You’ll soon be able to explore the world in this way across entire metropolitan areas with an app called Tour Guide as well as (and also inside) Google Earth. As Google continues to push each of their Maps programs together, we’ll get closer and closer to a 100% reproduced to-scale image of the earth so we’ll no longer have to leave the house to see the planet. Sound good?

The Public Laboratory has developed an open-source balloon mapping toolkit that works with a cheap digital point-and-shoot camera. That balloon mapping toolkit costs about $100 including the balloon, helium, line, soda bottle, and other parts needed in the build. The laboratory also offers a special web-based tool called MapKnitter that allows the user to align the photos into geo-referenced images.

Once those photos are aligned, the data can be used by Google Earth and other digital mapping tools. Google notes that many of the images that the Public Laboratory had in its archive have now been ported into Google Earth’s historical imagery database. This sounds like an interesting way to get better coverage of your home or neighborhood.

Considering these can clearly be seen from orbit the formations are raising some eyebrows with geeks trying to figure out what exactly they are for. Are these some sort of alignment or targeting grids for space weapons or what? In one of the photos, you can clearly see a grid of structures with three of them either destroyed or partially standing as if they were for target practice.

The strangest one is the intersecting grids lines; the structure covers 18 miles of space. The other pattern that looks like some sort of targeting grid is set up with concentric rings of what appear to be structures with straight spokes radiating out from the center. There are aircraft placed in the center of this circle. I have no idea what it is, but it reminds me of how the military would test the blast radius of some sort of bomb to see what the damage is like further out from the point of impact. What do you think? Is this a military testing ground or the Chinese equivalent of crop circles?

[via Gizmodo]

Could you remember the days when searching for a global destination required actual research? Searching through pictures and maps that hopefully matched up with the exact location? We have all been spoiled to death with what Google Earth has to offer. Google’s mockup of satellite images stranded together can take a foreigner back to their home town, the elderly to places they never had a chance to see, or simply motivate us to take that vacation. Of all Google has brought to the table, Google Earth started a revolution like no other. In many places, the 3D renderings of buildings and structures give us an aspect ratio we previously would have needed to board an aircraft for.

Have you been to the Moon or Mars? Didn’t think so. The high resolution images of both we’re included in both new electronic globes by 2009. Google Street View debuted earlier in May 2007 in Google Maps, yet was included in the next version of Google Earth soon after. Even more amazing is a feature that allows users to essentially travel back in time to review past images logged from their satellites. This historical imagery will only grow through time to allow future generations to actually see the world we lived in today.

The Earth’s current documented population is 6.7 billion. If the every individual in the world downloaded Google Earth a single time, 15% of the population would have this software on their computers. It advanced superbly in 7 years – but what is to come? As technology advances in the years to come, we may one day see ourselves in realtime – who knows. On Google Street View within Google Earth I’m standing at my old residence mowing my lawn – where were you? Leave comments below!

[via Google]

They tout that the update makes Earth look better than ever. Improvements include a new action bar up at the top of the screen that enables easier access to search, the option to “fly to your location” and layers such as Places, Panoramio photos, Wikipedia, and 3D buildings.

They’ve also added support for fully textured 3D buildings, so that fly-arounds of 3D modeled landmarks will look much more realistic. The above picture shows a view of the 3D Colosseum in Rome, Italy. What’s also happening in that interface is that photos from Panoramio can pop-up in front of the 3D fly-around and you get options to choose which layers you want to browse on that screen.

The updated Google Earth is available for free download at the Android Market. It is compatible with Android 2.1 and above for smartphone devices, and compatible with Android 3.0 Honeycomb and above for tablet devices.’

[via Android Community]

A projector mounted high above the two skydivers shined an image of islands on the floor and as the maps were zoomed, it gave the impression that the duo were falling to Earth from the sky. The two divers were suspended by harnesses from the ceiling.

To make things even more realistic the team used fans to blow the duo’s clothing and hair to simulate motion. They even sprayed the duo with a fire extinguisher to make it seem that they were falling through a cloud. The whole thing was pretty cool, check out the video below for yourself.

Video demo after the cut

Interestingly, while it would’ve been straightforward for Google to simply use a single tree type, they’ve actually created digital models of several dozen species to use. The trees – which can be hidden with a menu click – will continue to populate the maps progressively as Google’s Earth team roll them out.

Street View, meanwhile, uses the mouse scroll wheel or keyboard arrow keys to navigate, unlike previous versions of the integration. As ever, Google Earth 6 is a free download for PC, Mac or Linux.

What’s New in Google Earth 6:

Street View:

3D Trees:

Historical Imagery:

From Around the Web

Time Warner CEO Says Apple TV Pricing Will Jeopardize Sales: Jeff Bewkes threw in his two cents regarding the pricing for the content found on Apple’s Apple TV. He said his piece at the Royal Television Conference in London, and he said that Apple’s pricing for low-cost rentals threaten sales of TV shows to branded networks. Bewkes pointed out that “new entrants” like Apple need to put up a “superior TV experience,” while doing their part to stimulate the market, and improving the overall economics. [via Apple Insider]

R3 Media Network

SlashGear

Motorola Stingray Tablet Coming in 2011
Google’s Liquid Galaxy Goes Open Source
Beijing Apple Store Closes Due to Scalpers
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Android Community

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SlashPhone

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Google’s idea of open sourcing an entire project is pretty extensive. They’re even including the Ubuntu sysadmin scripts for the mechanical design for the custom frames. And, to make it easier for support across the board, Google’s released a brand new version of Google Earth that supports Liquid Galaxy. So, if you’re someone who likes to build things on their own, you can use Google’s Quick Start page to get started on the endeavor. You can even buy the parts needed separately, at your leisure.

Or, if you don’t have the time or know-how to get something like this off the ground, you could always just drop your hard-earned money on a whole set-up. Google’s giving people the option of buying the whole rig from their supplier, End Point, who will happily build you your own version, and even set it up for you. The price though, is about $72,000 to $80,000, and you’ll have to pay more for maintenance.

[via TechCrunch]

According to the records, the FBI spent over $600,000 on Google Earth while the DEA has spent $67,000 on the application. DEA records show that Google Earth is being used along with the agencies High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program that targets specific geographic regions where drugs are more prevalent.

The FBI is completely mum on its use of Google Earth. Consumer Watchdog wants to know if Google Earth is being used in racial profiling. I don’t quite get how old satellite images used on Google Earth can help catch drug traffickers unless the DEA is using the software to look for areas where drugs are grown in the US.