maps

The newest version of Google Maps Street View will have a much more complete view of this planet. Or at least the parts the company's driven to or hiked to or swam through so far. Street View panoramas, specifically, are all about to look a whole lot better for everyone - and that's not even the best part. The best part is - nobody has to go back out and take all of those photos again. Google's fixing everything with computer algorithms!

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While we’re probably still dozens of years away from actually getting lost in our travels between planets in our neighborhood, that doesn’t mean we can’t start pretending already. Google Maps was originally created as a way to navigate our own terra firm but has long expanded to ocean depths, volcanoes, and, now, outer space. Google has just added not a few round objects from our solar system, both planets, moons, and one former planet, so you can live out your space-faring fantasies while companies scamper to make that a thing.

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This week the folks at Apple have revealed their next big mapping adventure with Indoor Maps of malls. This update will be for Apple Maps and will have maps of a bunch of malls right off the bat. The first round of mall maps will arrive in Boston, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Jose, Tokyo, and Washington, DC. This next update will also be launched with indoor maps of Airports.

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Absolutely yes, your smartphone can be tracked - the question we should be asking is: what can we do about it? Today we're going to run down several easy ways in which we can see our phone being tracked, first of all. Then we're going to shut down this tracking in a few easy steps. It's really not too big of a hassle, just a trade-off - location tracking lets us map where we're going, but in exchange, our phone has to know where we are.

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Google has announced a new Google Earth Timeplapse feature, created in partnership with Time, that presents satellite imagery from 32 years of the Earth's surface in animations to show in detail how our planet is changing. Google Earth has added an additional four years of maps to what was available before, and now makes use of higher-resolution images that offer greater surface details, as well as animations with consistent color and quality.

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Google is no stranger to controversial products. The Google Glass was criticized for being a privacy nightmare made real and Google's self-driving cars still continue to be a topic for lawmakers and regulators. As far as web services are concerned, however, it was perhaps Map Maker that garnered the most flak last year, leading to its suspension and very slow return. Well, no more, as Google finally decreed that Map Maker will be no more starting next year. Most functionality will, instead be transferred to Google Maps itself.

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The most recent models of cars these days are equipped with all kinds of sensors, and yet traffic services still mostly rely on just one source of data: GPS probe data. HERE, the map making service formerly owned by Nokia and now owned by a consortium of three German car makers, is aiming to change that with four new services of its own. Falling under the collective HERE Open Location Platform, the services will pool data gathered from the sensors of different cars. And these cars won’t even have to come from the same brand.

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Maps apps, especially Google’s, has become a household name in modern day traveling, be it within cities or between countries. But sometimes, you need more than just a clear indication of where you are or where you’re heading. You also need to know what direction you’re facing to make heads or tails of the map directions in the first place. While Google Maps already had that feature before, using an inconspicuous arrow, it is refining that using a shining blue beam instead.

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Pokevision was the first big map and radar for finding Pokemon in the game Pokemon GO. Then Niantic and Nintendo ordered them to shut down - but the name remains. Today we're running down the most updated list of alternatives to the original Pokevision - not so much because we recommend people use them - in fact we don't. Instead, this is a list of Pokevision alternatives made to show legit players that there are tools out there that could be considered Pokemon GO cheats. This isn't a tip line.

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Since it first hit the scene, Uber has relied on Google Maps to get its drivers to folks who need a ride, but that may not be the case forever. A new report from unnamed sources speaking to The Financial Times say that Uber is planning to drop a cool $500 million on mapping the world as part of an initiative to focus on long-term growth. With mapping cars already on the road in the US and Mexico, Uber rolling out its self-made maps could be a reality sooner rather than later, too.

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This week the folks at HERE Maps have changed the name of their most prominent app, HERE Maps, into HERE WeGo. This new app is centered on "working out the best way to get to where [people] want to go." This is for people who want to navigate their own city as much as it is for people that are visiting a city they've never been to before. With HERE WeGo, users are invited to type in their destination and are very quickly delivered a variety of routes and means of travel.

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Microsoft has announced that the latest update to the Windows 10 Maps app has landed. The update is available now for all Windows 10 customers. Updates to the guided navigation feature have been made with turn-by-turn instructions optimized for glanceability including tweaks for landscape mode orientation. Changes were made to make using windows Maps on the phone with one hand easier by moving the navigation to the bottom of the screen.

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