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Session videos from Google I/O 2010 now available

If you were unable to attend the Google I/O conference this year, Google has now posted videos from virtually all of the sessions and speeches during the event. In particular, they’ve just released all of the session videos for the Geo-related items. Here they are:
Stepping up: Porting v2 JavaScript Maps API applications to v3
Daniels Lee


Where you at? Connecting your users with the places around them
Marcelo Camelo, Chris Lambert, Dave Wang (Booyah)

Moving beyond markers: Advanced Maps API customization
Jez Fletcher, David Day

Fireside chat with the Geo team
Thor Mitchell, Peter Birch, Matt Holden, Ben Appleton, Bart Locanthi, Thatcher Ulrich

Mapping in 3D: Tips and tricks for Google Earth API and KML
Josh Livni, Mano Marks

Map once, map anywhere: Developing geospatial applications for both desktop and mobile
Mano Marks

Unleash your map data: Cloud computing for geospatial applications
Tom Manshreck

The SketchUp 3D API: Working with 3D geospatial data
Matt Lowrie

How Maps API v3 came to be: Tips, tricks, and lessons learned in developing a cross platform desktop and mobile API
Susannah Raub, Marc Ridey

If you’re looking for more, you can find all of the videos on this page.

Google Earth for more Android users

A few months ago, Google released Google Earth for the Nexus One. Now that Android version 2.1 is reaching the Motorola DROID phone, so is Google Earth. In fact, Google Earth will be arriving on most of the high-end Android devices as soon as they reach version 2.1. If your phone is on 2.1, you can download Google Earth for free by going to m.google.com/earth from your mobile browser, or by searching for “Google Earth” in the Android Market.
The only phones that won’t be able to run Google Earth are those that lack hardware floating-point acceleration, such as the myTouch 3G and the DROID ERIS. Most others can handle it once they get the 2.1 update.
Here is video of Google Earth running on the Nexus One, which is essentially the same version that is now running on the DROID;


Of course, you can always get the Google Earth Blog app on virtually any Android device to keep up with our latest posts, videos and tweets. Just search for “Google Earth Blog” in the Android Market to find us.

GEB app now available on Android

Earlier this year, we showed you the iPhone app that we had created. We’re pleased to announce that our Android app is now available too!
The app is very similar to the iPhone app — it shows you our recent entries, videos and Tweets. Once again, we thank MotherApp for making it possible.
If you have an Android-powered phone (Droid, Nexus One, etc), you can find the app from the Android Market on your phone. Give it a shot and let us know what you think!

Where 2.0 2010 coming in March; Discount for GEB Readers

For the past few years (2009, 2008, 2007, 2006), Frank has attended the Where 2.0 conference. I had the pleasure of attending with him in 2007 and we had a great time. Now that he’s busy sailing around beautiful places like Bonaire, I’ll be taking his place this year.
Where 2.0 happening March 30-April 1, 2010 at the San Jose Marriott in San Jose, California. Where 2.0 brings together the people, projects, and issues building the new technological foundations and creating value in the location industry. Developers, technologists, CTOs, researchers, geographers, academics, business developers, and entrepreneurs come together to debate what’s viable now, and what’s lurking just below the radar. Register before February 9 and save $300. Take an additional 25% off when using discount code: whr10ge
I recently had a chance to speak with Brady Forrest, Program Chair for Where 2.0, to talk about some of what we can expect at this years event.
You can find the full list of speakers on this page, but here are a few that he felt were worth pointing out:
• Dennis Crowley from FourSquare, Josh Williams from Gowalla and Jeremy Stoppelman from Yelp will all be there. Many people expect location-based services to explode in 2010, and these three companies are leading the way. Increasingly interesting game mechanics are expected to be developed this year, as turning these services into a more game-like experience will help to draw in more casual users.
• Speaking of Twitter, Elad Gil, Raffi Krikorian and Othman Laraki will be there. Of note is Ryan Sarver, formerly of Skyhook Wireless, who will be speaking on the “Increasing Usefulness of Location Data Geostreams”.
• John Hanke of Google will be there. In the past, Google has been known to release some major developments at Where 2.0, such as the release of StreetView in 2007. No word on any big announcements, but it’s always a possibility.
• Blaise Agüera y Arcas, the “Architect of Bing Maps” and the creator of Photosynth will be there to discuss user-generated and crowdsourced maps.
• Sean Askay, who created the very impressive “Map the Fallen” KML will be discussing his work on that project.
There are literally dozens of other speakers and events, and it should be a great week. If you plan on attending, leave a comment or send me an email and we can try to meet up. Hope to see you there!

Google Earth on the iPad

By now, most of you have heard all about Apple’s new iPad, their tablet computer. If you haven’t yet, check out Apple’s iPad page for some information, photos and videos. For us, the big question has been how well it’ll handle Google Maps and Google Earth. Before we can answer that, though, we need to look at the hardware.

Google Maps on the iPad

Unlike the latest iPhones, not all of the iPads have GPS built-in. They all include the digital compass and accelerometer, but only the 3G versions come with a GPS. It’s assumed that Apple figured a GPS would be less useful if you didn’t have a 3G connection, which I suppose is fair. However, I could use my Cradlepoint with it when I’m out and about, and others could use devices like the Verizon MiFi. Ultimately though, keeping the price at $499 for the basic model was a great decision, and removing GPS from the low end models certainly helped with that.
Speed-wise, everyone that has tested one says that it’s noticeably faster than the iPhone 3GS. Because it runs “almost all” of the iPhone apps, we can assume that the Google Earth app will run on here, and run well. Google Earth 2.0 for the iPhone is excellent, and it should translate well to iPad.
The next question is whether or not Google will update Google Earth specifically for the iPad. While most iPhone apps will run without a problem, they need to be scaled up to fill the screen, resulting in a chunkier image. If they were to rewrite the app specifically for the iPad, they could make it look much sharper. A year ago, I would have been quite sure they’d do it. Now, with Google’s push toward Android, it’s hard to say. Will Google put in the effort to update Google Earth for the iPad, or will more of their focus shift to Android? If we find out anything one way or another, we’ll be sure to let you know.
There had been speculation that Apple will be replacing Google Maps on the iPhone (and thus on the iPad) with their own system after the purchase of Placebase, but that’s not the case — at least not yet. Google Maps and StreetView look excellent on the iPad, but ultimately seem to be almost identical to the iPhone versions. Check out the video below for a quick look at it:

Without a doubt, Google Maps on the iPad looks to be a great experience. Here’s another short video of Google Maps on there, with Apple’s Phil Schiller demoing it. The speed and smoothness of the application is quite remarkable:

If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on one in the near future, fire up Google Earth and let us know what you think of it.
[UPDATE, June 2010 — Google Earth has been officially released on the iPad.]