Google Street View Explores the Seven Summits

Not everyone has the resources or stamina to hike any of our planet’s Seven Summits—the highest mountains on each of Earth’s seven continents—so Google is bringing that experience to the Internet. When famous landmarks and beautiful national parks aren’t enough, the search giant’s Street View technology is making it possible for any old Aunt Sue to explore places like Aconcagua in South America and Everest Base Camp in Asia.

Google managed to capture four of the Seven Summits through the use of lightweight tripods and an unnamed digital camera with a fisheye lens. If you’ve been bitten by the adventure bug but you’re stuck in an office, or you just want to escape for a minute, traveling to some of Earth’s most impressive natural wonders is a nice way to get away.

In addition to announcing the new Street View locations, Google also put up a behind-the-scenes look at how the company made the project happen. “We’re honored to share this amazing imagery with you on Google Maps and show the world what life is like from the its highest peaks!” said Sara Pelosi, People Programs Manager at Google.

If you’re a would-be adventurer or just genuinely curious about what the view is like from Killimanjaro, you can take a peek from your computer, or even your Android or iPhone device.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Google Street View and Maps coming to Wii U in January 2013

During today's Nintendo Direct presentation, Iwata-san had plenty of game footage to show to Japan-based fans, but he also casually mentioned that Google-powered maps and street vistas would arrive on the Wii U at the end of January 2013. As demonstrated by the man himself, you'll be able to swing the GamePad around to get the best view of anywhere that's been documented by Google -- including underwater. Navigation looks similar to the previously-seen Wii U Panorama View (which Nintendo confirmed would arrive Spring 2013) and although Street View isn't motion video, there's admittedly more to see from Google's cartography. You'll be able to navigate down roads, and use the vanilla map view and street view on both the big-screen and the GamePad. If you're liking what you hear, you'd better be quick: the app will launch free for two months, after which users will have to pay an as-yet-unmentioned price for access.

[Source: Engadget]

Google Street View is back on the iPhone, but it's not pretty

Last night, Google made good on its promise to make Street View available on iOS devices, but it's not pretty.

Google may or may not be working on its own iOS maps app, as Chairman Eric Schmidt says Apple device users shouldn't expect a Google Maps app anytime soon. In the meantime, Google's engineers did the next best thing -- they added Street View to the Web version of Google Maps.

To view Street View, just go to maps.google.com in mobile Safari or Google Chrome for iOS. You can't just tap on any location to view Street View. Instead, you may have to tap on a business or transit stop, or start at a known point and then "move" in Street View to the location you wish to view.

Unfortunately, there are some real issues with the temporary workaround. A number of users worldwide have reported gaps in the data where there was full coverage before, and Apple 2.0's Philip Elmer-DeWitt complained of frequent crashes.

It's not the perfect solution we all wanted, but at least Street View is back.

[Source: Engadget]