GPS Archives

January 31, 2012

Geocaching with Google Earth

We took our daughters (ages 5 and 8) on their first geocaching adventure this weekend and it was great! We used the very popular Geocaching.com website, which had quite a few Google Earth tools to make our adventure easier to plan.

In particular, they have a Geocache Google Earth Viewer that you can download and use. It's essentially a network link that shows all of their geocache locations in Google Earth -- over 1.6 million of them!

geocache.jpg

It was quite handy to fly around in Google Earth, find local caches, then click to see if they were worth checking out. We eventually stumbled upon a local "challenge" (10 locations to find, including this one) and had a good time.

While the icons are clickable, I would like to see them have a bit more info. In particular, the "last found" date would be helpful, so you could quickly see if a cache was likely to still be in place.

They also integrate Google Earth by allowing you to create "routes" that are generated by uploading KML files.

For all of you geocachers out there, what is your favorite way to search for new caches to find?


Posted by mickmel at 8:03 AM | Comments (5)

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January 23, 2012

Many improvements to Breadcrumbs

We first told you about Breadcrumbs in late 2010. They're a GPS track management site that offers a lot of great features through a nice interface. They've just gone through a major redesign and are now an even more compelling option to consider using.

breadcrumbs.jpg

In addition to the redesign, there are a handful of other great things that Breadcrumbs has done since we last mentioned them:

50,000 Tracks: Over 50,000 tracks are now in their database, including quite a few from GEB readers.

Integration with mobile apps: Breadcrumbs now can integrate with mobile apps on Garmin devices, Android, iPhone, Nokia and others.

WordPress plugin: They now have an official WordPress plugin to easily embed your tracks onto your WordPress-powered site.

Other new features: The redesign includes a handful of other features that you can read about on their blog.

All in all, it's quite a nice update. If you gather GPS tracks from anything (exercise, travel, etc), what product do you prefer to use to store and view them?


Posted by mickmel at 8:10 AM | Comments (0)

December 8, 2011

View your Google Latitude history in Google Earth

If you use Google Latitude, you've likely tried to view your travels in Google Earth. However, when you go into Latitude to export it, you'll find that it only can do a single day at a time. Fortunately, Don Barker of GIS-Elektrika has posted a very simple workaround.

latitude.jpg

When exporting to KML, the URL that it generates contains a "startTime" and "endTime". By manually adjusting those numbers, you can get a whole range of dates in a single file! Don advises that you just enter some lower random numbers to make it happen, but the Ask Metafilter post that started this idea has some additional tips.

Do you use Google Latitude? I have it enabled on my phone, but tend to use Foursquare more often. Still, the potential of Latitude is quite amazing, and it'll be interesting to see what Google does with it in the future.

Great tip, Don!


Posted by mickmel at 6:14 AM | Comments (1)

June 17, 2011

Use Junctions to view your social content on a map

Over the years we've seen a few services that help to put your social activities into Google Earth, but none that have done a very effective job of it. That's where Junctions (jnctns.com) comes in, with a very innovative iPhone app that can help build maps of your social actions.

The service automatically builds "exMaps" (experience maps), which are 3D interactive maps of your social activity. Real-world interactions are noted in exMaps as crossable intersections called "junctions". Users can dynamically browse all content based on location, time and/or people.

jnctns.jpg

For now, the system requires that you use their iPhone app, but that will be changing in the future. Soon you'll be able to add tweets to it with the #exMap hashtag, and they have other plans in mind as well. Personally, I'd love to be able to just feed it my full Twitter and FourSquare accounts and let it just parse the data from them. It seems like this is the direction they're heading, so it'll be fun to watch them progress.

To try it for yourself you can visit their website, which includes a sample exMap that you can play with, and you can download their free iPhone app here.

For more, check out the video below:


Posted by mickmel at 7:47 AM | Comments (1)

March 7, 2011

Share your ski trips with Google Earth

Growing up in Michigan, I skiied a lot in the winter, but I don't get out nearly as often now that I'm down in Georgia. For those of you more fortunate, Google put out a reminder that there are a lot of great ways to capture your adventures on the slopes to play back later in Google Earth.

The easiest way is to simply record your track. If you use an Android phone, the "My Tracks" app works great. For iPhone, "MotionX-GPS is a good place to start.

As an example, Google posted this video that shows a bunch of them skiing in Lake Tahoe a few weeks ago. It's cool to see all of them zipping around on the slopes like that!

Frank did something quite similar back in 2006, posting his tracks from ski trips to Alta and Snowbird.

Of course, winter fun isn't just limited to recording your ski trips. You can actually browse a few resorts in Street View, thanks to the "Street View snowmobile" that Google put together a few years ago.

If you want to do a bit of virtual skiing, you can try out Ski Earth that we told you about last September.

Lastly, we have a very cool visualization of the Cross Country Skiing World Championships that we recently held in Oslo, Norway. GEB reader 'Jan' let us know about a great video that uses the Google Earth Plugin and actually has animated skiers!

Because it uses quite a bit of Javascript to build the animations, it's not available as a downloadable file. Still, it's a very cool visualization.

Going skiing soon? Record your track, and share it with us in the comments area below.


Posted by mickmel at 7:19 AM | Comments (6)

More entries for this category:

  1. Visualize your GPS tracks with Breadcrumbs - November 3, 2010
  2. Geospatial Revolution: Episode One Released - September 27, 2010
  3. Boat race replays in Google Earth - August 18, 2010
  4. Read Ayn Rand - August 16, 2010
  5. Biking across Poland - July 29, 2010
  6. Using the track feature in Google Earth 5.2 - June 25, 2010
  7. Google Earth 5.2 Released - June 14, 2010
  8. Links: Burj Dubai, Historical Imagery Updates, Updated EveryTrail App - January 5, 2010
  9. Links: Seero for sale, i-gotU GPS logger review, Best of Building Maker expands - November 3, 2009
  10. Links: Load KMZ files on handheld Garmin devices, video of NASA rocket crashing into the moon - October 9, 2009
  11. News - Sky makes it to Android, Greece Halts Street View - May 13, 2009
  12. Current Positions of 10,000+ Ships World-wide in Google Earth - May 8, 2009
  13. Visualizing GPS Tracks for Trips with GE Plugin - April 13, 2009
  14. Heli-Ski Tour in Google Earth - March 12, 2009
  15. Google Earth 5 Tour Roundup - February 26, 2009
  16. Rowing Around the World with Google Earth - February 11, 2009
  17. EveryTrail Supports New Tours for Google Earth 5 - February 3, 2009
  18. Google Earth 5 Released - 3D Ocean and More! - February 2, 2009
  19. Urban Tick - Research Results in Google Earth - January 8, 2009
  20. Upgrade to EveryTrail GPS Trails Layer in Google Earth - December 17, 2008
  21. Links: GE Plugin Update, KML Contest Update, Panoramio Contest, Teaching with GE, Santa Video - December 5, 2008
  22. The Boat Story Continues - Boatyard, Name, Moving - September 21, 2008
  23. Update on Using GPS for Tracking in Google Earth - September 19, 2008
  24. More Add-ons for Google Earth Flight Simulator - July 28, 2008
  25. Links: Walking, Havana, Eclipse, Oil, Follow the Boat - July 23, 2008
  26. Clipper Yacht Race in Google Earth - June 1, 2008
  27. Links: New StreetView Stuff, WorldWide Telescope, Yahoo WOE, Dishpointer, GPSAnimator - May 13, 2008
  28. Google Earth for Pilots - April 29, 2008
  29. New Contour Lines in Google Maps - April 3, 2008
  30. Deer Blogs His Own GPS Position in Google Earth - March 17, 2008
  31. Wikiloc - GPS Tracks Site - February 11, 2008
  32. Real-Time Google Earth GPS Tracking - via Bus - February 2, 2008
  33. Guys Fly Balloon to 30 km Altitude - See it in Google Earth - January 25, 2008
  34. Top 10 New Google Earth Features 2007 - December 31, 2007
  35. Top 25 Stories of Google Earth 2007 - December 27, 2007
  36. Links: Santa Tracker, Santa Mapper Poem, VE Followup, GPS Spider - December 26, 2007
  37. Links: Maps Terrain in GE, GPS Trip Planning, Geo Lessons, and more - December 11, 2007
  38. Links: Google at the Pump, Sigdoarjo Mud Flow, Boxing Champs, California Fire Costs, New Trees - November 9, 2007
  39. Trip Status, Links: PhotoOverlay tool, CIA World Factbook, Another BMNG - October 29, 2007
  40. Links: Chinese Cop Catches Crook, Malibu Fire, EveryTrail Update, CIA WorldFactbook, Hungary Weather - October 22, 2007
  41. 2007 Wirefly X PRIZE Cup - October 8, 2007
  42. News Roundup: UFO Sightings, Free UK GE workshops, Godwit migrations, Boating videos - September 21, 2007
  43. Back to School - Educational Uses with Google Earth - September 11, 2007
  44. News Roundup: Peru Earthquake, Virtual Earth Update, Stefan's Alps Hike - August 16, 2007
  45. Sailing with Google Earth for Navigation - August 6, 2007
  46. India Maps - Local Knowledge Power - July 24, 2007
  47. TakItWithMe - Handy GPS Tool - July 17, 2007
  48. News Roundup: GE 4.1 Stuff, Plotting a Trail, Business Reviews, More Second Earth - June 20, 2007
  49. Google Earth Helping Amazon Indians - June 19, 2007
  50. Photo Finding in Google Earth - Just for Fun - June 15, 2007
  51. News Roundup - France Censors, Flickr, Seabeds, Live tracking - June 4, 2007
  52. Watch Weekend Boating Live in Google Earth - May 18, 2007
  53. Google Earth Umbrella - May 16, 2007
  54. News Roundup - Nokia N95, gCensus US, Greensburg Radar Animation - May 14, 2007
  55. Having Fun with Google Earth and SpaceNavigator - May 10, 2007
  56. News Roundup 2 - Science Visualization, Netherlands GIS, Flu Map, Nokia SportsTracker - May 6, 2007
  57. News Roundup: My Maps/YouTube, Nokia N95, Census, Arc2Earth, Show-n-Tell - April 13, 2007
  58. New Google Earth Layers for April: Darfur, Trimble, and more - April 9, 2007
  59. 677 US Marine Charts for Google Earth on 1 CD - March 31, 2007
  60. News Roundup - Version stats, KML Editors, GooPs, Hey What's That? - March 15, 2007
  61. FedEx Pilots "Smart" Tracking with Google Earth - February 23, 2007
  62. More Details on New Layers/Updates - February 18, 2007
  63. News Roundup - FreeGeoTools, Sprol, Subsurface, conferences, Magnalox - February 12, 2007
  64. News Roundup - KML indexing, GPS tools, SketchUp PhotoMatch Tutorial, GE Blogs - January 13, 2007
  65. Using GPS in Real-time with Google Earth - January 2, 2007
  66. Explosion of GPS mapping tools and web sites - December 7, 2006
  67. Route du Rhum - Live Sailing Race in Google Earth - November 1, 2006
  68. Google Earth Googlers in Moab Mountain Bike Race - October 5, 2006
  69. More Innovative Time Animation Examples for Google Earth - September 19, 2006
  70. GPSVisualizer Supports New Google Earth 4 Time Support - September 15, 2006
  71. My Backpacking Trip and the Lost Couple Found After Three Days - July 24, 2006
  72. Trackstick - Small USB-stick GPS with Google Earth Support - July 18, 2006
  73. Unicycling for College Money - Track Max in Google Earth - May 28, 2006
  74. Accomodation Planning for Norway in Google Earth - May 17, 2006
  75. Juicy Geography Lesson on GPS - May 3, 2006
  76. Where's Tim? Tracking Tim in Google Earth - May 1, 2006
  77. Go Flying - Flight Tracklogs for Google Earth - April 30, 2006
  78. GPS-Tour.info - A Resource of GPS Tracks for Google Earth - April 21, 2006
  79. Honda Releases Traffic System in Japan for Google Earth - April 4, 2006
  80. Ski Snowbird - April 2, 2006
  81. Sking Alta Shown in Google Earth - March 28, 2006
  82. European Speed Cameras in Google Earth - March 21, 2006
  83. Touch and Gos - February 22, 2006
  84. Emotion Map in Google Earth - February 21, 2006
  85. Panoramio - Photos of the World - January 31, 2006
  86. Enhancement to GPSVisualizer for Google Earth - January 23, 2006
  87. 3D Planes for Flight Tracking in Google Earth - January 19, 2006
  88. Transatlantic Sailing Adventure Using Google Earth - January 18, 2006
  89. Off Road Races in Dakar and Baja - January 9, 2006
  90. Google Earth for Cars - January 7, 2006
  91. Santa's Route in Google Earth - December 21, 2005
  92. 40 Highest Buildings in Rotterdam for Google Earth - December 5, 2005
  93. Near Real-time Flight Tracking in Google Earth - December 2, 2005
  94. Transat Jacques Vabre 2005 Race in Google Earth - November 16, 2005
  95. GPSVisualizer Supports Google Earth - November 15, 2005
  96. And They're Off! - November 13, 2005
  97. Volvo Ocean Race in Google Earth - November 11, 2005
  98. Another Sailor Documents Trips Using Google Earth - November 9, 2005
  99. Geocaching.com Uses Random Approximate Coordinates in Google Earth - November 1, 2005
  100. GPS/Photo Tracks - RoboGEO v2.1 Supports Google Earth - October 31, 2005
  101. Geocaching.com Officially Supports Google Earth - October 22, 2005
  102. Magnalox - GPS Story Telling for Google Earth - October 19, 2005
  103. Huge Resource of 3D Glider Tracks for Google Earth - October 12, 2005
  104. Documenting a Recent Flying Trip - October 9, 2005
  105. Garmin Buys MotionBased - October 4, 2005
  106. Middle Earth Found in Google Earth - September 28, 2005
  107. Watching Sports with Google Earth - September 27, 2005
  108. Garmin Supports Google Earth - September 26, 2005
  109. Owners of Geocaching.com Stifle Innovation - September 24, 2005
  110. Sailing the Seven Seas - September 10, 2005
  111. Geocaching Google Earth - August 15, 2005
  112. Arizona Hiking Trip - August 10, 2005
  113. Flying - Keeping a Flight Log - August 5, 2005
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